My Adventures with Superman 3×06 and 3×07 Review: “Party Animals” and “The Ex Games”

My Adventures with Superman season 3 episode 6, titled ‘Party Animals’, and episode 7, titled ‘The Ex Games’, focused quite a bit on Clark Kent trying to adapt to his life after losing his Superman powers.

With Superman having lost his powers during the battle with Henshaw in episode 5, I was quite surprised to see ‘Party Animals’ open after a one-month-long time jump. I’m not a fan of stories doing time skips because it feels like an excuse by the writers to not address the immediate aftermath of major decisions. Frankly, I would have preferred to have seen Clark coping with the loss of his powers for at least a day or two before jumping ahead a month.

To be fair, ‘Party Animals’ did explore Clark’s emotional state, but then again, it wasn’t as impactful as it could have been sans time jump. Like, why didn’t I see Ma and Pa Kent’s reaction? But oh well.

Episode 6 had the crew attend the 10th Annual Metropolis Humanitarian Gala hosted by Silver St. Cloud. The core group, including Supergirl and Superman, were nominated. And while Lois was excited about being nominated in the same category as Vicki Vale, Clark felt uneasy about being nominated as Superman, leaving Kara to be the only one to accept said award onstage.

I liked the humor that came from Lois and Vicki throwing shade at each other about their professional lives. The read Vicki gave Lois about how Lois needed to be co-nominated (with Clark) to even enter the category that Vale was in made me laugh. I also liked Lois pretending to not care about having won the award (at the end of the episode) in front of Vicki.

As for Lois’s relationship with Clark, it made sense that she was experiencing trouble getting Clark to open up to her after what happened during his battle with Henshaw. They were still together, of course, but Lois wanted Clark to share more of his thoughts with her. And while I could see where Lois was coming from, Clark not wanting to have a deep conversation about losing his powers because he was still processing the loss also made sense. Such a dynamic helped make both young characters feel real.

Talking about Kara and Jimmy’s relationship, ‘Party Animals’ had Jimmy invite Princess Marina Maru as his date to the award ceremony. Yes, the date was part of Jimmy’s deal with W.O.R.M.S, but that didn’t stop Kara from feeling jealous. And while I would have rolled my eyes at Jimmy having yet another date and the writers dragging things out between Kara and Jimmy, it’s very clear that all of Jimmy’s dates via W.O.R.M.S. were supposed to cause trouble. And with the date’s name being Marina Maru, I was interested in seeing how Dr. Poison would fit in episode 6.

It’s revealed that Marina planned to release toxic gas that would transform humans into talking animals. From what I could understand, in Marina’s mind, a great way to avoid human diseases was simply by turning humans into animals. It’s an incredibly flawed plan, but hey, it did give us Lois turning into a cat and Jimmy transforming into a tortoise. Of course, Kara and Clark remained unaffected by Marina’s gas.

As for why Kara didn’t act fast enough to stop Marina at the award ceremony and why Kara didn’t hear Clark being freaking shot (which I will get to in a bit), hmmm, I guess I will have to chalk that up to Kara being distracted by the romantic attention Jimmy was receiving from Marina. It could also be chalked up to the writers forcing certain plot developments to raise the stakes. Whatever the case, at least it made for some good comedic moments.

Clark doing his best to protect the Newskid Legion and Lois from one of Marina’s armed guards made for an intense scene. Seeing a vulnerable Clark get hurt hits different than seeing him tossed around as Superman. Even though he had lost his powers, Clark was still going to put his life on the line to protect those around him.

We did get a quick moment of Clark being beckoned to the Fortress of Solitude. From what I could gather, the Fortress of Solitude will have the tech required to quickly recharge Clark’s depleted Kryptonian body with the sun’s energy. We all know he’s going to regain his Superman powers by the end of this season.

The ordeal with Marina encouraged Clark to open himself up to Lois, who has continued to tell him that she fell in love with Clark as a whole, not just his Superman persona. Jimmy also apologized for the way he had treated Kara and basically came clean about actually loving her.

However, before the two couples could talk more about their feelings for each other, the crew got teleported away by a mysterious portal.

‘The Ex Games’ revealed that the mysterious portal was Mxyzptlk’s doing. Clark and his friends were expected to participate in a tournament. They would represent Mxyzptlk’s team against his soon-to-be-divorced wife, Ms. Gsptlsnz’s team. And yeah, the participants had no choice in the matter because refusing to play would mean never getting to see their universes again.

The fanservice of having Clark wear a speedo during the entire tournament… damn!

The writers behind My Adventures with Superman know what they are doing by focusing on domestic Clark Kent and using him for such fanservicy moments.

The opposing team comprised of Superhero Jimmy, General Lois Lane, Scion Kara, and Goodguy Luthor. Those characters were from a universe where Superman/Clark Kent had died, pushing Jimmy to get into a supertech suit and for Lois to climb the military ladder. Superman/Clark’s death had also led to Luthor seeing the error of his ways and working toward protecting his world.

While Jimmy interacting with Superhero Jimmy didn’t lead to any deep revelations, Kara was reminded of her struggle of not turning into Scion Kara. Lois also didn’t want to become like General Lois Lane, as that would mean Clark had died.

The games were okay, with the crew mostly running and solving puzzles to collect keys from Mxyzptlk and Ms. Gsptlsnz. However, the narrative got a bit interesting during the final trial where the players had to pick a possible future for themselves and not let the trial go cold. The loss of agency that Clark, Lois, and Kara had felt over what might happen next, understandably, took a toll on them. Perhaps there was no running from the future?

I liked how Jimmy’s willingness to change and do better, especially in his relationship with Kara, is what allowed Kara and the others to realize they still held power over who they wanted to become. Every day that Kara decided to be a better version of herself was a victory. Clark was more than just Superman. Lois was more than all the alternate versions she had seen of herself. Humans were creatures of change (good or bad), and that allowed them to mold their futures. It was a nice lesson for the audience, even though it was addressed quite quickly, in my opinion, to get the crew back on track to face Mxyzptlk and Ms. Gsptlsnz.

Clark being the one to realize something was up with Mxyzptlk and Ms. Gsptlsnz having them participate in a tournament to finalize their divorce showcased that, regardless of his superpowers, Clark was an investigative reporter.

Even though Mxyzptlk tried to bribe the crew with a promise of helping them make things better in their respective universes, Clark was also the heart of the group who encouraged everybody to stand for the right thing. Again, while Kryptonian superpowers were essential to operating as Superman, Clark’s strong morals were the most important thing behind the iconic hero. And those persisted even after the loss of his powers.

After Mxyzptlk and Ms. Gsptlsnz ran out of time to complete the trials to unlock a universe-altering anvil due to Clark’s resolve and quick thinking, the players returned to their dimensions. However, things weren’t going to settle down for the main crew. Episode 7 concluded with Jon Kent returning to the “present” along with a mysterious young woman.

The writers really need to allow Clark, Kara, Lois, and Jimmy a moment of rest. But then again, with only three more episodes to go, I’m very excited to see how Clark will regain his powers and what other troubles Jon’s appearance will herald for our team.

Did you watch My Adventures with Superman season 3 episodes 6 and 7? What did you think of them?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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