My Adventures with Superman season 1, episode 10 recap: “Hearts of the Fathers”

The last episode of My Adventures with Superman felt like it was a season finale, wrapping up pretty much everything from the whole season so far. But there’s still one episode to go.

The episode opens with a nightmare sequence of Clark witnessing another invasion that he can’t stop, with Jimmy and Lois getting killed in the invasion. The next day, the nightmare lingers with him.

He asks Jimmy and Lois to help him find The General, thinking that he may be the only person who might have some answers that can help him discover more information about his past. The two of them agree to help, but once they’re alone, Jimmy asks Lois about the footage of evil Superman from alternate Earths.

Lois won’t share the information with Clark, because he’s already worried that he was a weapon sent to take over the world. Seeing those images wouldn’t help.

My Adventures with Superman season 1, episode 10 recap – Classic Thanksgiving episode complications…

This episode also takes place on Thanksgiving. Lois is going to have Thanksgiving with the Kents, and her father will be joining, meeting her new boyfriend for the first time.

(Jimmy will also be there, he spends every other Thanksgiving with The Kents). When Lois’ father arrives at the Kents, it’s revealed that he is The General that has been after Superman this entire season.

Clark recognizes him immediately, but The General doesn’t recognize Clark, leading to some awkward conversations that are worse than the usual boyfriend/father talks that people traditionally have to deal with. When Jimmy arrives, Clark quickly tells him about Lois’ father being The General, but this needs to keep it a secret.

Jimmy, frustrated with this new round of secret keeping, confronts both Lois and Clark to get them to tell each other about the secrets they’re currently hiding. While handing Lois her bag, the ball from the League of Lois Lanes and the footage of evil Superman starts playing.

Lois tries to convince Clark that the footage doesn’t necessarily mean anything about him, but the ball pops open, revealing a shard of kryptonite. Clark collapses in pain, and the shard falls to the ground.

My Adventures with Superman season 1, episode 10 recap – Superman’s weakness is revealed

The kryptonite touching the ground causes Clark’s ship to react, rising into the air and opening a portal that looks like it’s starting a second attempt at an invasion. General Lane, seeing the spaceship, tells the Kents and Lois that an alien invasion is happening, and they all need to get to safety.

Lois learns that her father is the mysterious The General they’ve been talking about this whole time. As Jimmy and Lois try to avoid the invading machines, Jimmy drops the shard of kryptonite causing the robot attacking him to be destroyed.

With the kryptonite as a possible weapon against the invasion, Superman takes the sphere and flies to the spaceship. Once inside he is attacked by the ship’s defense system, but the hologram of Jor-el appears and fights alongside Superman.

Together the two of them make it to the command center of the ship, where Superman thrusts the kryptonite into the ship, causing it to shut down. This also causes the portal to close, destroying the ship that was only halfway through.

While Superman had intended to sacrifice himself in order to stop the invasion, the hologram of Jor-el saves Superman and returns him to Earth. As Superman crashes back to Earth, General Lane gets ready to kill him with the weapon he had received from Amanda Waller in the last episode.

But Lois steps in at the last minute and refuses to get out of the way. She begs her father to recognize that Superman just risked his life to try and save everyone.

General Lane relents, and he calls in the alien invasion as a false alarm. The Kents settle down to finally eat Thanksgiving dinner, where Jimmy offhandedly mentions that he sold Flamebird to the Daily Planet for millions of dollars and is now super rich.

In the final moments of the episode we get to witness the events of the invasion from the other side of the portal. Brainiac is on the other side to witness the closing of the portal and the destruction of the invasion ship.

He goes to a mysterious masked figure to inform him of a new world to conquer, one that seems like it would define the masked figure’s rule. The masked figure ominously states that this new world will eventually kneel before him, teasing the big story arc for the next season.

My Adventures with Superman season 1, episode 10 recap – An incredible portrayal of Superman

When talking about how Marvel is putting out great movies with the MCU, and DC can’t seem to get it together, there always seems to be someone eager to point out that when it comes to animated movies, it’s flipped. DC has regularly put out excellent animated movies and TV shows for many, many years now.

So please understand how much of a compliment it is to describe the first season of this show as one of the best animated DC shows in the past 20 years. From the very first moments of the very first episode, this show knew the kind of story it wanted to tell and has executed its plan wonderfully at every turn.

The show is able to pay tribute to Superman’s long legacy, while still carving out its own special place in that legacy. It feels like a classic Superman show and its own unique creation at the same time.

The show balances small character moments with well-choreographed cinematic action sequences in every episode. It delves deep into Superman lore to reward those longtime fans yet remains accessible to anyone who has only a passing familiarity to the characters.

It’s not afraid to be earnest or funny, or heartfelt when the moments call for it. And perhaps more than anything else, this show GETS Superman.

Superman is a character that some people love to complain about. He’s too powerful.

He’s too much of a Boy Scout. His disguise is silly.

He’s not interesting. He’s too old fashioned.

He doesn’t work in modern day. No self respecting superhero fan actually likes a character as bland as Superman.

These popular complaints have led plenty of people to try and “fix” Superman, by changing key elements of the character. But Superman never needed to be fixed.

The character works when the storytellers know what they’re doing with him, and this show gets who the superhero is supposed to be. The show isn’t just focused on Superman, but on the three main characters, because his relationships with other people are a defining element of who the character is.

The lone survivor of a dead planet is actually neither of those things, because Earth is his home and the people who are closest to him, make him who he is. It’s so easy for a Superman show to push everything “Clark related” aside when it comes time for the Superman part.

But this one never does that. Jimmy and Lois are both dynamic characters who take control of their own narratives throughout the show.

A side plot of Jimmy going on assignment with another reporter for one episode, resonates just as much as anything alien or Task Force X does in the rest of the season. My Adventures with Superman is even willing to address some of the most common complaints about Superman.

The secret identity that is hidden with a pair of glasses works because it isn’t just a pair of glasses. In the show Superman wears his hair different than Clark.

He stands differently, he talks differently. The two sides of the same character present drastically different silhouettes because of the clothing each persona wears.

It’s actually jarring to see Superman for the first time in the show because he looks so much different than Clark. It’s easy to believe that people wouldn’t immediately connect the two.

Yet at the same time, his closest friend in the world, did figure it out all by himself. My Adventures with Superman is a show that proves that Superman as a character, still works today.

The character always worked. He’s a cultural icon for a reason, and there is not only still room in the world for classic Superman stories to be told, but it’s something that even in this oversaturated superhero landscape we’re currently in, we’re still in desperate need of.

What did you think of My Adventures with Superman season 1? Let us know in the comments below!

Stream My Adventures with Superman season 1 on Max.