It must be summertime in Metropolis as well, as both of this week’s Adventures of Superman episodes see the crew leave Metropolis for sunnier – sometimes quite literally so – locales.
1. Does Clark hate being Superman?
There’s a scene early on in “Czar of the Underworld” where Perry White chews out Clark for not dropping everything and reporting the story he’s witnessing. While that’s an understandable position for White to take, he fails to see why Clark may not want to jump on the phone so quickly after witnessing a murder. Of course, Clark doesn’t seem too shaken up about that, but still; it seems like working for Perry White must be a rough gig.
But it has to be what he would rather be doing, because he clearly has no interest in being Superman. There are so many instances in both of these episodes where Clark’s apathy for his alter ego is palpable. I mean that in both the physical and the intellectual sense; he just doesn’t want to be Superman, does he?
If he wanted to be Superman, wouldn’t he use his powers? One of the most classic Superman powers is his hearing, which he can use to detect change in heartbeat, or small, nearly imperceptible changes in speech, essentially making him a walking lie detector. That’s also a special effects-less super power, yet he never uses it at all. So everyone in the world lies to Clark’s face, and he’s none the wiser for it.
If he wanted to be Superman, and stand for truth, justice, and the American way, would be cool practically saying “I’m cool if this mob boss gets killed?” Because that’s essentially what he does here; he puts a gangster where he – as Clark – is supposed to be murdered. “Better him than Kent” is what he says. Holy shit, that’s dark Superman.
2. Foreshadowing The Crow
“Czar of the Underworld” is not just the name of the episode, but of the film inside the episode based on a series of Daily Planet articles Clark wrote. Clark and Inspector Henderson, Clark’s bestie at the MCPD, travel to California for the making of the film, and while they are there, the star is shot dead because the blanks in the gun that shoots him in a scene are replaced with real bullets.
Now, for all you kids out there, this is essentially a very simplified version of what killed Brandon Lee, son of Bruce Lee, and star of The Crow. Accidents on film sets happen all the time, but this was particularly avoidable. It was a little jarring to see this portrayed on screen, even if it is exactly the sort of thing the show would do.
3. Clark is desperate to tell Henderson he’s Superman
Every indication is given that Clark really wants the inspector to know he’s Superman. He mistakenly says that the carbon monoxide poison was “meant for me,” and then corrects himself to say Kent, and at the end of the episode, when Henderson says that he wishes Kent could have seen this, Superman says “he did, in a way.”
Wait, what?
Also, Henderson has Clark all fooled. Clark thinks they’re besties, but he eats Clark’s dinner, and begs a cop – who turns out to be the killer – to buy him a beer. Henderson just wants a free meal. Clark wants a connection.
4. Perry White is insufferable
In “Ghost Wolf,” White gets a phone call that the company the Daily Planet bought to chop down trees and make wood pulp for the paper is losing employees left and right. So, instead of going there himself to investigate, he sends three reporters (?) to handle it. Clark, Lois, and Jimmy head up to the forest, where they deal with rumors of a werewolf and some other weird shenanigans. But imagine being hired as a reporter, and the next thing you know a wolf is in your fucking quarters because your boss doesn’t want to hire a private investigator.
5. For fuck’s sake, Superman
So, the end of “Ghost Wolf” involves a forest fire but, more than that, it involves some really fuzzy science. Instead of using his super breath, or flying so fast and carrying water to the fire, Superman’s plan for stopping the forest fire is to get a spool of telephone cable, strip it, and carry it up into the clouds, so he can drawn lightning to it (?) and make it rain. This plan, despite being incredibly foolish, would’ve taken at least an hour, between grabbing the wire, stripping it, etc. For a man who can, from the words of the voice over of the opening credits, change the course of mighty rivers, doesn’t this seem to be a real waste of time.
Parts of the forest have certainly burned down because he wants to be clever and do a trick with some wire. Just be Superman! Why does Clark hate that so much?
