To say I am a fan of Superman is an understatement. Obsessed, might be a better way to describe how much I love these characters. I’m also a huge fan of anime. So, when the news broke about the new My Adventures With Superman airing on Adult Swim / MAX I was more than a little curious to see how it was going to turn out.
The answer: FANTASTIC!
Developed by Jake Wyatt, My Adventures With Superman is an interesting re-telling of the Superman mythos. We get glimpses of a young Clark Kent (voiced by Kari Wahlgren) in Smallville, but the meat of the story is centered around a twenty-something Kent (Jack Quaid) as he and his best friend Jimmy olsen (Ishmel Sahid) join the Daily Planet as interns lead by the ferocious Lois Lane (Alice Lee ), who is hungry, but a LONG way off from becoming the intrepid reporter fans know and love.
While the necessary tropes are all there: The travel pod crashing into Smallville, Perry White being a no-nonsense hardass, the undeniable attraction between Lois and Clark, they’re presented in such a way, that a story that’s been retold countless times over the last 85 years feels fresh and new. One of the aspects I found most interesting is that Clark cannot communicate with the hologram of Jor-El. The hologram speaks Kryptonese while Clark speaks American English. So the long-winded expositions of where Kal-El came from and what happened to his world, are a thing of the past. Instead, Clark will rely on the interpretation of images to learn his origin story – and with this type of animation, what beautiful images they are!
But learning about where he came from is just one small piece of the grander puzzle that is Clark Kent, who is at a crossroads. He’s got a new job in the big city, two hundred miles away from his parent’s farmhouse. He wants to be normal, and do normal things with his best friend Jimmy. But, there’s also a side to him who knows he can’t and while he’s just starting to discover what Superman is, it is important to understand that Superman is not who he is.
Clark is who Clark is – and that is a big goofy gummy bear who melts whenever Lois walks into the room. What Superman is, is great, but the depth of this story is going to come from the relationships between these characters – who after only two episodes are already pretty well-rounded.
Christie Tseng did an incredible job designing these characters. Clark isn’t some beefcake fresh off the farm. He’s, as Wyatt told Indiwire’s Rafael Motamayor, a KPOP inspired dreamboat, and I love it!
Plus, his Sailor Moon inspired transformation to Superman had me smiling from ear to ear.
It’s like this series was made for me and one of the reasons I think it feels so different is that all of the directors on the series, and most of the creative team, are women. This is going to be a Superman like we’ve never seen before, but one we desperately need.
I also want to mention the score. Composed by Dominic Lewis & Daniel Futcher, it’s absolutely brilliant.
My Adventures with Superman debuted with two back-to-back episodes on 7 July at midnight on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. Going forward, one new episode will air every Thursday. Encores of new episodes will air Fridays at 7:00 p.m. ET/PT on Adult Swim and Saturdays at midnight on Toonami. New episodes will also stream Fridays on Max.
More My Adventures with Superman soon so…
Stay Tuned!
Life In Cartoon Motion 