Superman & LoisThe final show of the Arrowverseis coming to an end – but before that, the superhero drama delivers its best season yet by adapting an extremely famous Superman story: The Death of Superman. Additionally, the CW show not only delivers the best adaptation of this comic book arc, but also improves on the source material.
The Death of Superman is a monumental comic book event from the 90s that dared to kill one of the most famous superheroes of all time. As successful and influential as this comic was, it’s a fairly simple story without much nuance. A large monster appears out of nowhere, dies while killing Superman, and eventually Superman is brought back to life. Doomsday isn’t a major villain; He’s just big and strong, a problem that plagued later adaptations. Either they are standalone films that don’t have a good sense of how many strong opponents Superman has faced before (the two animated adaptations from 2018 and 2007), or they treat “Doomsday” as an early Superman story (like Zack Snyder did did). Doomsday is only the second villain that Superman has ever faced.
In Superman & LoisHowever, the character had already completed three seasons and was already facing increasingly powerful villains when “Doomsday” came out. When Doomsday shows up and defeats Superman, it’s just like in the comics: a truly formidable force, the likes of which Superman thinks he’s met before but hasn’t, and he pays the ultimate price for it. Most importantly, this end of the world isn’t just a mindless beast that appears out of nowhere. Instead, it’s Bizarro Superman, whose dead body was reanimated with Superman’s blood and then experimented on until his body mutated into the monster we know. We met Bizarro in the second season and explored his backstory and his relationship with Lois and his children. Even as Doomsday, the monster is clearly sentient and intelligent to a certain extent. He recognizes Superman and his family. As they fight at the end of season three, the audience understands why Doomsday wants to kill Superman, without it being mandated due to the fact that it is an adaptation of an established storyline. And when Doomsday does what he’s here to do and kills Superman, it’s not just a shock, it’s a real tragedy.
The fact that the show was renewed for a fourth and final season that would deal with the death of Superman – with all promotional and marketing materials focused on the world without the Man of Steel and alluded to by Tyler Hoechlin only appears in flashbacks this season – supported the illusion that Superman could actually stay dead this time, while his sons would succeed him. Even though it was only a few episodes, the strong focus on how the Kent family and their friends grieved and began to move on convinced the idea that the death had a large and lasting impact. For the first time since 1993, there was reason to be surprised at Superman’s eventual return to life.
Even when Superman comes back to life, it’s not a clear moment of triumph. That’s what makes Superman & Lois‘ Take the best version of the story. Where in every other version – even the original comic – Clark comes back to life after a while without his powers, only to regain them shortly afterwards with no change to the status quo, Superman & Lois makes it clear that there are lasting consequences. All the better to remember the person behind the superhero crest.
Instead of a Kryptonian machine simply regenerating Superman, his resurrection comes after Lois’ father, Sam Lan, sacrifices himself and injects his body with a serum made from Superman’s blood (which also created Doomsday) so that his heart can be transplanted as a replacement , which Clark lost to Doomsday. It’s Kryptonian technology that makes it work and brings the Man of Steel back to life, but it’s a human organ from a human donor that brings Clark Kent back to life. And although, as in every version, he quickly regained his strength, the series portrays Clark’s heart surgery with the same seriousness and nuance that it brought to Lois’ breast cancer story last season – and shows that the euphoria of life can come with severe limitations comes with a constant reminder that you will never be the same again. Clark’s powers continue to weaken, so much so that his super-hearing doesn’t work most of the time.
To make matters worse – at least worse for a superhuman who has not tolerated a single one of the human body’s many imperfections – alcohol begins to affect the Man of Steel for the first time, and he even begins to grow gray hair. In other words: Superman ages. In episode 6, Clark admits to Lois that he never considered the possibility of actually growing old and mortal, and now the thought is frightening. Of course, Superman has grown old or even died in comics before. But there is something particularly poignant and, above all, human Superman & Lois – which has previously pointed out that Clark has barely aged since high school, while his wife and children grow up and grow old around him – and teases that Lois and Clark will grow older together, rather than Superman outliving his loved ones .
It is the culmination of the ethos of Superman & Loisa series that – despite the title – always cared more about Clark Kent than Superman, just like the character himself. Having the Man of Steel literally sacrifice everything to save humanity and then one of them to become, even in some ways, such as gray hair and a weaker liver, is to anchor the character in the series’ universe, but also within it the larger Superman mythos. After all, Superman has always been more human than super, more human than Kryptonian, and his death and resurrection in Superman & Lois puts that idea at the forefront of what could be his best season.
From the opening scene Superman & Lois has always focused on the human side of Superman and achieved great results. But by adapting the death and resurrection of Superman, the series reaches its full potential and captures the essence of the character, who is inherently human despite his alien origins. With a reboot of the Superman movie coming next year, this season Superman & Lois feels like both a promise of a future in which Superman is no longer angry and bleak, and a new standard for portraying the character and his stories.
