Superman & Lois did something impossible

Superman and Loisthe very last show of the Arrowverseis coming to an end – but before that, the superhero drama delivers its best season yet by adapting a hugely famous Superman story: The death of Superman. Furthermore, the CW show not only delivers the best adaptation of that comic arc, but also improves on the source material.

The death of Superman is a monumental ’90s comic book event that dared to kill off one of the most iconic superheroes of all time. As successful and influential as that comic was, it’s a fairly simple story without much nuance. A large monster appears out of nowhere, dies killing Superman, and eventually Superman is brought back to life. Doomsday isn’t a big bad guy; he’s just big and strong, which is a problem that has plagued later adaptations. Either they’re 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 how Zack Snyder made Doomsday is just the second villain Superman ever faced).

In Superman and LoisHowever, the character has three seasons under his belt and has already faced increasingly powerful villains by the time Doomsday arrives. When Doomsday shows up and defeats Superman, it comes across as it does in the comic: a truly formidable force like Superman thinks he’s faced before, but he hasn’t, and he pays the ultimate price for it. Most importantly, this Doomsday isn’t just some mindless beast that appears out of nowhere. Instead, it’s Bizarro Superman, whose dead body was resurrected with Superman’s blood and then experimented on until his body mutated into the monster we know. We met Bizarro during season 2 and explored his backstory and his relationship with Lois and his children. Even as Doomsday, the monster is clearly sentient and intelligent to some extent. He recognizes Superman and his family. When they fight at the end of season 3, the audience understands why Doomsday would want to kill Superman, except that this is imposed because this 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, but 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 material focused on the world without the Man of Steel, and which was hinted at by Tyler Hoechlin only appears in flashbacks this season – helped create the illusion that Superman might stay dead this time while his sons took up his mantle. Even though it was only a few episodes, the heavy focus on how the Kent family and their friends grieved and moved on sold the idea that death had a major and lasting impact. For the first time since 1993, there was reason to be amazed at Superman’s eventual return to life.

Even when Superman comes back to life, it’s not a clean moment of triumph. This is what makes Superman and Lois‘ Take the best version of the story. Where every other version – even the original comic – has Clark brought back to life without his powers after a while, only to regain them shortly afterwards without a change in the status quo, Superman and Lois makes it clear that there are lasting consequences. All the better to remind us of the human behind the superhero weapon.

Instead of a Kryptonian machine merely regenerating Superman, his resurrection comes after Lois’ father, Sam Lan,e sacrifices himself and injects his body with a serum made from Superman’s blood (which also created Doomsday) so that his heart could be transplanted replacing Superman. the one that Clark lost to Doomsday. It’s Krypton’s 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 while he quickly regained his powers, as in every version, the show portrays Clark’s heart surgery with the same seriousness and nuance that Lois brought to last season’s breast cancer storyline – showing how the euphoria of life also comes with severe limitations and a constant reminder that you will never be the same again. Clark’s powers are getting weaker and weaker, as if his super hearing isn’t working most of the time.

Making matters worse – at least even worse for a superhuman who hasn’t endured any of the human body’s many imperfections – alcohol hits the Man of Steel for the first time, and he even gets gray hair. In other words, Superman is getting older. In Episode 6, Clark admits to Lois that he never considered the possibility of him actually growing old and becoming mortal, and now the thought is terrifying. Of course, Superman has grown old or even died before in comics. But there is something particularly poignant and, above all, human going on Superman and Lois – which has previously made clear 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 and Loisa show that – despite its title – always cared more about Clark Kent than Superman, just as the character himself would. By having the Man of Steel sacrifice literally everything to save humanity and then become one of them, even in just a few ways, like getting gray hair and a weaker liver, it means you’re anchoring the character in the universe of the show, but also in 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 and Lois puts that idea at the forefront of what could be the best season.

From the very first opening scene, Superman and Lois has always focused on the human side of Superman, with great results. But by adapting Superman’s death and resurrection, the show reaches its full potential, capturing the character’s essence as inherently human despite his alien origins. With a reboot of the Superman movie next year, this season Superman and Lois feels both like a promise of a future where Superman is no longer angry and brooding, as well as a new standard for depictions of the character and his stories.