The Superman & Lois pilot surpasses all expectations

The CW welcomes Superman & Lois into the Arrowverse! This new take on Clark Kent and Lois Lane’s story is surpassing all expectations.

Superman & Lois is everything we could have asked for when it comes to new additions to the Arrowverse. The premiere episode begins in Metropolis but ends in Clark Kent’s hometown of Smallville. Many of us were skeptical about what this new series could add to the Superman mythos. While we’ve heard variations on this tale before, we’ve never heard it quite like this.

Frankly, I was floored with how much I enjoyed the pilot. Tyler Hoechlin (Clark Kent/Superman) and Bitsie Tulloch (Lois Lane) take charge of the screen alongside Jordan Elsass (Jonathan Kent) and Alex Garfin (Jordan Kent), who bring some magic of their own as their kids.

In the first episode, Clark grapples with being the savior of Metropolis while working and raising two teenage boys. It’s not exactly the Superman story we’ve heard in the past. And the new show disrupts the “perfect family” norm you might expect from a series about the wife and kids of the world’s greatest superhero, as one of Superman and Lois’ sons is dealing with a social anxiety disorder.

For a kid who has no idea his dad is Superman, the world can feel like a lonely place, with his father always whizzing off to “do some work.” This is what sets Superman & Lois apart from other takes on the character. What do the people Superman loves do when he’s off doing his job and saving the planet? What effect does it have on them? The series is working hard to humanize this larger-than-life icon.

Something wicked this way comes

The pilot episode opens up with a montage of Clark Kent/Superman’s story, the one we’re all very familiar with. There’s even a nod to Action Comics #1 in there with Superman holding a car over his head!

But no time is wasted as we head right into the meat of the episode as a meltdown threatens to destroy a nuclear power plant. Luckily disasters is averted, but it becomes very clear that someone did this on purpose. Given that it wasn’t the first time something like this had happened in recent days, it’s suspicious to say the least.

In fact, General Lane (Dylan Walsh) shares that they found a message about the incident written in Kryptonian. Upon reading it, Superman notes that whoever left it for him used his birth name, Kal-El. So whoever this person is has their eyes set on Superman. And that doesn’t bode well for a family man, does it?

The Super Family

As all the promos and interviews have already revealed, this series puts a lot of focus on Clark Kent’s family life, and how he has to adjust his superhero duties with the realities of being a husband and a father to two teenage boys.

The series quickly reveals that there are stark differences between the two Kent children. Jordan is the star athlete at school while Jordan struggles a bit with anxiety and fitting in amongst everyone else. To make matters worse, neither kid has any idea who their father really is. Lois wants to let them in on the secret, but Clark begs to differ.

Things at The Daily Planet aren’t going swimmingly either, at least not for Clark, who gets laid off after a man named Morgan Edge (Adam Rayner) buys out the company.

And if a new threat, family problems, and getting fired wasn’t enough, Clark is informed that his mother, Martha (Michele Scarabelli) is really ill. (Side note: Every time I read the name Martha in the context of Superman or Batman, I’m miserably taken back to that moment in Zach Snyder’s Batman v. Superman.)

All roads lead to Smallville

In a sad turn of events, Martha Kent passes away from a stroke, and Lois and Clark bring the boys to Smallville to attend the funeral. It’s a bittersweet feeling for Clark to have his family with him where he grew up.

The pacing of the episode was near-perfect given how much happens in just one hour. In a manner of minutes, Clark has lost his mother and his job, come back to Smallville, and started to deal with the reality of his fragile relationship with his son. It’s a lot, but it’s all done in a way that doesn’t overwhelm us.

While in Smallville, Clark comes across a familiar face in the form of Lana Lang (Emmanuelle Chriqui), and Jordan strikes up a friendship (and perhaps more) with Lana’s daughter Sarah (Inde Navarrette).

But from the moment Clark and Lois greet Lana and her husband Kyle (Erik Valdez), it’s awkward, and we soon find out why. Lana and Kyle reveal that Morgan Edge (yes, the same guy who just bought the Daily Planet) is trying to take over Smallville bit by bit. His current target is the coal mine.

In the midst of a very tense conversation, there’s a loud noise from the barn where Jordan, Jonathan, and Sarah are hanging out. Despite very heavy metal objects nearly crushing both the Kent brothers, neither are hurt in the slightest bit. While the boys may be completely lost as to how this could happen, both Clark and Lois realize that one of the boys has powers like his dad. It would be the only logical explanation as to how no one was hurt, or even worse, dead.

At this point in the episode, I realized I was so interested in the family dynamic that I forgot that this was a superhero show. I think this is going to be the hallmark of the series going forward. It really is just a show about the challenges of family life.

Lois and Clark soon learn that Martha had taken out a second mortgage on her home and used the money to help the neighbors that needed it and even put together a college fund together for her twin grandkids. Unless Lois and Clark take over the mortgage and begin paying it, the bank will seize the house.

The Kent kids learn the truth

With Lois and Clark dealing with the house mess, Jordan is trying to figure out what happened in the barn. Why weren’t they hurt? Why didn’t anything bad happen?

With all these questions, Jordan and Jonathan go snooping around the barn only to come across the pod that Clark first arrived in. When the pod starts lighting up and acting weird, the boys rush to their parents and demand an explanation.

When Clark reveals the truth, there’s a lot of teenage eye-rolling until he picks up their truck and raises it into the air. While most people would be impressed by this, we’re talking about teenagers, so things go a different way. Jordan is hurt that his parents apparently think Jonathan has powers but not him, simply because Jonathan is really good at sports while Jonathan is dealing with anxiety. Apparently it’s a suspicion they’ve harbored for a long time.

Jordan’s anger erupts later in the episode when he goes to a party with Sarah and ends up kissing her only to learn she has a boyfriend. Things get heated when a fight breaks out, and Jonathan tries to intervene.

Jordan puts a stop to things when his anger results in him using his suppressed heat vision, so he’s the super-powered one after all.

A future in Smallville, and a new villain

By the end of the episode, Lois and Clark decide to move to Smallville. It’s a huge decision that means sacrificing on a lot of fronts. But perhaps the quiet life is exactly what this family needs to come together and bond.

And it gives Clark an opportunity to really be there for his kids in a way he hasn’t been doing up to this point. Superman is his job and responsibility, but this Clark is always going to put his family first. And I have to say I LOVE that notion.

The episode ends on a cliffhanger-esque note as Superman learns of yet another nuclear power plant incident. It turns out whoever this new villain is wanted to lure him there and kill him. And they know a whole lot about Superman and Krypton, and is clearly carrying out some vendetta against the Man of Steel.

The identity of this villain is kept a secret until the very final moments of the episode when he returns to his base and is greeted as…Captain Luthor. Given we’re in a post-Crisis world, this could be some alternate version of Lex Luthor. He suggests as much to Superman when he says, “Where I come from, let’s just say the two of us have history. My world was destroyed, but somehow I managed to survive. I eventually arrived here, where I learned you were here, too.”

So are we looking at an anomaly from a different Earth who is going to be hellbent on killing Superman? It looks like it, folks!

Superman & Lois looks like it’s going to be a thrilling adventure. They’re willing to go above and beyond to make this show stand out, and I think we are going to be continually surprised as the season progresses.

Grade: A-

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