My Adventures with Superman Season 2 starts off strong, reestablishing the tone and spirit that made Season 1 a success. The series continues to champion its source material without ever feeling indebted to it or behold to fan expectations. Instead, the series continues to find an abundance of heart through its well-meaning characters. This version of Clark Kent/Superman (Jack Quaid) still embodies the purity and goodness that made him stand out in the first season. Now, in its second, we find him as he continues to learn about his history, his kind, and what it means to be a heroic symbol.
Season 1 ended on a note of closure while offering deliberate foreboding for its cast. The big bad of the season, Parasite, was defeated. Lois’s (Alice Lee) father, the General (Joel de la Fuente), realizes that some of his beliefs about Superman are wrong. That the Zero Day he and Amanda Waller suffered wasn’t because of him. The season ends on a note of heroism as Clark seeks to sacrifice himself to protect the world and his loved ones, though he ultimately pulls through despite the kryptonite affecting him. And while the finale ends on a note of levity with our core cast of Clark, Lois, and Jimmy (Ishmel Sahid), darkness looms.
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Said darkness includes introducing this version of Brainiac, who, across the universe, is already planning on Earth’s destruction. My Adventures with Superman Season 2 only wades into this potential darkness at the start, which includes the first two episodes. Instead, for the most part, the series developed by Jake Wyatt and produced by Warner Bros. Animation and Studio Mir picks up right where we left off. From the trio adjusting to their new full-time positions to Lois and Clark learning to balance their romance, there’s an abundance of that charming, coming-of-age energy that made Season 1 so lovable.
The characters, too, continue to be a major highlight, and Quaid, Lee, and Sahid all deliver tremendous performances as their respective characters. The animation is fluid and softlit in its presentation. There’s a level of whimsy to how the animation presents itself, from the anime inspirations to the character designs and delicately lined backgrounds. But it’s soft without ever diluting the danger and threats Clark faces as Superman. Instead, his sunny disposition and the vibrant sky he lives in only becomes more threatened because of it. As My Adventures with Superman Season 2 seems poised to deal with legacies shouldered and made, the necessity of these light skies becomes more poignant.
Because anything that threatens their existence becomes more formidable. The strongest element of the series remains its ability to balance tone. The lightness permeates throughout the series both visually and narratively. But when things get heavy, such as the end of Season 1, that light exterior only amplifies the darkness. This is especially true when it comes to Clark and how he processes how he feels different from those around him. He’s not human and yet a symbol of humanity. Season 2 continues this trend of depicting his conflicting emotions and the villains he faces without any added unnecessary drama. There’s no gritty darkness for the darkness’s sake.
This is what makes it such a singular entity and a must-watch. My Adventures with Superman and Marvel’s X-Men ’97 prove that animated superhero series will always reign supreme. And while they’re tonally different, they both harken back to what makes for the best superhero stories, and that’s the ability to understand and honor the titular hero(s) without limiting the story because of it. There’s a range of storytelling only available through the animation medium, and that’s especially true in superhero stories where we need to see the unbelievable.
My Adventures With Superman Season 2 strikes an immediate, steady balance between setting up future storylines while reintroducing viewers to the core group. It becomes timeless with the continued confident tone that refuses to adhere to any modern inclination of what a superhero series should look and feel like.
My Adventures with Superman Season 2 Episodes 1 and 2 air on Toonami at Midnight on May 25 before becoming available to stream on MAX the next day.
