REVIEW: ‘My Adventures with Superman’ Season 2 Episode 6 — “The Machine Who Would Be Empire”

Pulsing with epic scale and deep emotional wounds, My Adventures with Superman Season 2 Episode 6 is the best episode of the second season so far. It’s one of the best episodes of the series, period. Possessing a tremendous scale and scope that further emboldens and deepens this world and its universe, “The Machine Who Would Be Empire” astonishes with intergalactic visuals and profound emotional stakes.

Most of My Adventures with Superman Season 2 Episode 6 is a two-hander between Clark (Jack Quaid) and Kara (Kiana Madeira) as the latter shows him around her ship and regales him of her prior adventures. Despite Clark’s immediate fury at being kidnapped, he slowly tries to understand Kara, appealing to her kindness and curiosity, believing that it will allow him to travel home. Their scenes are endlessly charming, and Kara is tacticle and fussy as she tries to understand Clark, believing that earth has made him soft. When he shows her a memory of him playing catch with his dad to lessen the strength of his throw, she sees it as something sad. She thinks he was being diminished.

The two banter and play, quickly falling into a familial dynamic as Clark teases Kara over her crush on Jimmy (Ishmel Sahid). The sequence where they play catch in space, unrestricted by helmets, is particularly moving. Despite the circumstances, this is Clark getting to fully unleash his full power in a manner that isn’t tethered to a world-saving necessity. Instead, he simply gets to be himself in the company of someone who understands him and the power they wields.

All of the space animations are gorgeous as the artists get to play with the vast, star-freckled landscapes of the galaxy. The color usage stuns, deploying unlikely pallets that make us feel how fully alien it is. The deep reds and purples burn across the screen, working against the typical, soft-lined animation style the series prefers. This helps create the foreboding sense of unease that seeps into My Adventures with Superman Season 2 Episode 6. Because even throughout their bonding, we know that something is amiss.

Kara, we immediately realized, has been lead astray. She believes her kidnapping of Clark to be an altruistic endeavor. Under the tutelage of her mysterious father, she seeks to bring Krypton back. She doesn’t remember a childhood spent there, but she’s been given snapshots of what an idealized version of the planet was. In one of the many references to the Roman Empire, Kara states that Krypton was the apex of the universe, ahead in every aspect of life. Her naivety paints a sad, lonesome figure, one who, as we later learned, has been literally brainwashed by her father.

She tells Clark multiple times throughout the episode about other planets they’ve conquered and brought under the Krypton banner. She believes, however, that the goal has been to allow these planets to thrive and grow with Krypton. But when they arrive at Thanagar, one of the many planets she’s visited, they find a barren wasteland instead of the bustling society she expected. It’s the first major blow of the episode as she and Clark realize what she’s been told isn’t to be believed, even if it’s her memory she now needs to question.

They’re both right to doubt, and the circumstances are much more dire than they could’ve imagined. It’s not just that Thangar is dead. Every planet that Kara has helped conquer has been left a burning graveyard. Clark is brought to see who Kara believes to be her father. Primus, aka Brainiac, is the mastermind behind it. As he reveals to Clark, he was once Krypton’s interface system. Now a walking, sentient robot, he’s looking to take over the universe in the name of Krypton in the way that Clark’s father, Jor-El, never would’ve done.

And Primus has major, devastating plans for Clark. He doesn’t need Clark’s mind, just his body and the destruction it’s capable of. He sees Clark — Superman — as a mere weapon. This preys on Clark’s biggest fears, even if not verbalized. But we’ve watched throughout both seasons as Clark has had to contend with the two sides of himself: his humanity, his human nature, and his will to protect rather than fight. He seeks to save. To be turned into little more than a killing machine, his mind and bodily autonomy torn from him, is nightmarish.

It infuses his battle with other former victims with even greater desperation. He fights against the vestiges of a Green Lantern Corp soldier and Thanagarian, his body exuding a blue, electrical current as he tries to push through the immeasurable hurdles he’s facing. The tonal shift from the start of the episode earns its heartache as we watch as Superman falls, his mind seemingly taken over by Primus as a prized pawn.

All Kara can do is watch; for how tragic Clark’s fate is, it’s just as depressing for her. Kara believed she was to lead alongside her father, whose power isn’t seen as powerful as Clarks. Kara who, after Superman’s capture, regains control of her mind and visits all the planets she’s wrought havoc onto and mourns the memories of their pleading screams. The last image of her floating alone in space in the fetal position devastates, reminiscent of a key, heart-breaking moment of The Witch from Mercury. It’s a moment that encapsulates just how alone and out of her depth Kara is.

The relief at the shocking appearance right at the end of the episode lessens the despair felt. But My Adventures with Superman Season 2 Episode 6 almost leaves on a note devoid of all hope. However, a spark of light remains as we remember that no matter his arguments with friends and loved ones, Clark and now, by extension, Kara isn’t alone.

My Adventures with Superman Season 2 is available now on HBO Max.

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