One of my favorite shows on TV currently is My Adventures with Superman. I’m biased, as I care very much about the DC Universe and its many characters and all the permutations of the characters in every type of storytelling medium they can. This series, which debuted in 2023 on Adult Swim, chose a different avenue to tell a story of the first superhero, Superman, through an anime-inspired RomCom lens. A lot of the early talk of this show was focused on the initial promotion of Clark Kent doing a henshin change (transformation) into his Superman costume, inspired by magical girl shojo anime. It only happens once, but this sentiment, along with a surprising reverence for ’90s triangle era Superman comics, along with a lot of underrated DC characters, helps set a new tone for the Man of Tomorrow that aligns well with the Gunn/Safran DC Studios era take on the character and the universe.
Last season focused on Clark’s cousin, Supergirl (Kiana Madeira), and the threat of Brainiac (Michael Emerson), after overcoming that, our main trio of Clark (Jack Quaid), Lois (Alice Lee), and Jimmy (Ishmel Sahid) became a core four (shoutout Scream 5 & 6) with Kara being added as a main member of the cast. With Clark and Lois being pretty established now as a couple, a lot of romantic tension is now moved to Kara and Jimmy, and for what it’s worth, it’s pretty fantastic. With Kara’s foreignness to Earth and being around people in general after so long, her fish-out-of-water works well in contrast with Jimmy’s big, over-the-top character that just ends up in the most absurd situations. This season, more so than the previous two, really delved into stuff from old Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen comics.
Some of the best jokes are reinterpreting his adventures into screwball situations, while Superman and Kara deal with the heavier parts of the plot, giving each episode a great balance in tone in its writing and animation. The show is generally very funny and has been, but this season, everything is working so fluidly. They know these characters now and the story they want to tell. The dramatic parts center a lot around Lois and Clark’s relationship future and just how ready Lois is to get more serious than they already are. A physical representation of this conflict is Superboy (Darren Criss) appearing before them.
For Superboy fans, you’ll see a nice amalgamation of most of the modern versions of the concept from the original Reign of the Supermen 90’s version through the New 52 version and the Jon Kent version. There are some time-travel shenanigans that have some Future Trunks influence, yet work well with how they use Hank Henshaw (Max Mittelman), who becomes Cyborg Superman, to bring something new to the whole Death and Return of Superman story without doing Doomsday for the umpteenth time. The stakes and action are bigger and more dire with the consequences, which I feel merging classic Superman elements with the period of Dragon Ball of the Trunks/Android/Cell sagas together kept me deeply focused and highly entertained.
In a summer leading up to a big tentpole movie for Kara Zor-El/Supergirl, she isn’t short-shifted. She struggles to fit into the world and being a Superhero after everything. Her confusion with how Earth works, everything with Jimmy, and whether she can live up to her cousin’s example is handled well. I like that it’s fairly different than other interpretations. She’s way more alien here, more Star Trek-like character than she’s usually portrayed as and will be portrayed as in the movie.
My Adventures with Superman, season 3, is my favorite season of the show. I know a lot about the DC universe in its many interpretations, and seeing this show and feeling surprised by how they work with these characters in such a new way is refreshing. I love how the show zigs where I expect it to zag. All the voice actors continue to do excellent work, and the season-long stories do well to work at refreshing and reframing the character for newer audiences, especially ones who grew up with different influences than US Superhero comics. I can’t wait to see what this show does next, and I hope it gets to continue as long as they have stories.
Rating: A
Level of Enthusiasm: 100%
