REVIEW: ‘My Adventures With Superman’ Season 3 Episode 8 — “It’s Reigning (Super) Men”

My Adventures with Superman Season 3 Episode 8 continues to the series feat of delivering top-tier action in the last three episodes of any given season. Because what do you mean we end “It’s Reigning (Super) Men” actually worried about Supergirl? There’s so much going on in My Adventures with Superman Season 3 Episode 8 and yet it’s the last, brutal push that truly sells its excellence.

It’s not just that the episode manages to bridge storylines, timelines, and familial conflict while setting the stage for the next two. It’s that it does so with genuine and felt stakes. The series may stay in the family-friendly zone (this is not Invincible), but the fight between Supergirl and the Eradicator is propulsive and visceral thanks to superb sound design and choreography. By the time she lay battered and bruised, we believe she’s taken her final hit. 

Those stakes matter. Because it means we stay, holding our breath, worried for a character whose might, until now, seemed impossible to defeat. Supergirl, rightly, is defined as a warrior. Watching her put her life on the line for her family firmly reminds us of how far she’s come and defeats the concerns Brainiac planted. She is good, and she’s found her better tomorrow. 

My Adventures with Superman Season 3 Episode 8 introduces another super teen.

My Adventures with Superman Season 3 Episode 8 isn’t solely Supergirl’s story. But it’s that ability to showcase her and the smart writing for each pivotal character that adds to the shows overall strength. Yes, Superman is the hero in the title, but the “my” is important too. It’s not just Superman’s story, but the story of all who walk alongside him. And, in this case, that includes not just one future super child, but two.

The start of the episode introduces a new, even more destructive future as Jon (Darren Criss) returns, this time with his sister, Lara (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport), in tow. But this isn’t the playful Jon that Clark (Jack Quaid), Lois (Alice Lee), Jimmy (Ishmel Sahid), and Kara (Kiana Madeira) met back in Episode 4. This is an emotionally and physically scarred one, moody and at odds with Clark before they’ve even spoken, wounded at having to shoulder the protection of the world without someone there to help. 

And, with the appearance of Lara, it’s clear that whatever they did on the day Clark lost his powers in his fight with Hank Henshaw, they irrevocably changed the future. One of the biggest throughlines of Season 3 has been the idea that the future is not set. There’s always a chance to make tomorrow better, to improve upon themselves and be different than they were the day prior. They can change and, because of that, the world around them may follow suit. 

A collision of possible futures is at the heart of “It’s Reigning (Super) Men.”

In “It’s Reigning (Super) Men,” we see the collide of the negative impact of that change and the positive. We see it in the fact that Superman is, once again, gone, and his children are left to defend a future earth, sent on orders by Lois who, somehow, becomes General Lane. Working against that though is the proof again of hope, with Supergirl there to save the day and rally morale. She changed; she fights for people she loves. So too can those around her. 

Lara and Jon have been sent from the past by Lois to kill Lex Luthor, an idea that present day Lois struggles to stomach. Watching as she and Clark struggle to deal with the fact that they have two future children offers some necessary humor in an episode that ends on such a dire note. A reminder that these are two people in their 20s having to process two teenaged children whose actions are a direct result of things they haven’t done yet. 

But it also makes the fact that they throw themselves into defending them all the sweeter too, a reminder of their innate goodness that doesn’t overplay it’s hand. It’s not that they suddenly find themselves adept at parent. Instead, they’re simply good people who move to protect those who look like they need it. 

Lex Luthor’s latest creation brings apocalyptic scale threat.

And it’s an all hands on deck moment when the Eradicator shows up. My Adventures with Superman Season 3 Episode 8 brings all the characters together for a crucial moment in the timeline. Lara and Jon have been sent back to kill Lex because of what he’s currently developing, a mind controlled Kyrptonian, the Eradicator, who, when unleashed to the timestream, is the catalyst to devastation, wreaking havoc on the future we’ve yet to see in full. 

Lex is also at a pivotal moment. We’ve now seen four different versions of him. There’s present day Lex who is self-serving, constantly pushing someone ahead of him to save his own skin. He’s finally bald, fitting the image of the Luthor he becomes in most timelines. And he’s pushed to the brink, desperate to prove his worth and willing to denounce anyone who stands in his own way. 

But there’s also a future Lex who works to save Jon and the future he helped create. We’ve seen the multiverse Lex who works with Supergirl, Lois, and Jimmy after Superman’s death when he realized the world needed saving. And, of course, there’s the future version of him who captured Jon and currently works in controlling the Eradicators. And it’s that version that seemingly lines up with the one who unleashes his monster to fight Lara. 

Supergirl lets out a warriors cry in My Adventures with Superman Season 3 Episode 8.

The animation proves its threat, too. Both in how it towers over everyone, an impossible threat made worse with Superman benched. The animation finds sinewy methods to demonstrate his might as his body contorts and morphs, growing stronger and smarter as the fight progresses. Everything from the voice acting by Jolie Hoang-Rappaport as she screams during his attack, to the sound effects of broken bones and bruised ribs as one of its blows sends Supergirl flying, is visceral. We feel the attacks. 

It makes for a formidable villain, a rampaging menace with the strength of Superman. Watching the super siblings fight is fun because it highlights how out of their depth they are. Yes, they’re strong. And there’s a scrappiness to their style that brings out their personalities, such as Lara leaping onto the Eradicator when it threatens her parents, scrambling to grab hold of its hair and pulling it to drag it away. But neither of them reach the heights of Kara in her element as Supergirl. 

The fight is immense, bolstered by the score that reaches it’s Toonami peak, ebbing and flowing as the direction slows to watch the impact of each hit. There’s a moment in particular, where she grabs one of the Eradicator’s arm and yanks, where the ripple of animation gives the sensations of bones being pulled out of place without the gore or bloodshed. It’s the same when she uses her heat vision and has her eyes burned by his returning hit, steam coming from her eyes enough to sell the damage. 

It all builds to a beautiful, carnage fueled crescendo as she does what previous future Jon feared. She sacrifices herself to save her family, willing save others as an act of defiance towards as past version of herself who wasn’t’ able to stand as tall. 

Supergirl’s sacrifice isn’t the only cliffhanger as the season sprints to an explosive end. 

My Adventures with Superman Season 3 Episode 8 ends with more questions than answers but it’s not annoying or needlessly dragging a story out. It’s all building to the moment teased in the premiere, where Clark must confront something about his past to explain his future. Lex is taken away by Amanda Waller, Kara’s fate is unknown, Lara and Jon are left in limbo, and Clark is knocked unconscious at the Fortress of Solitude by Bizarro Superman who is seemingly mind-controlled into the act. The characters’ lives are shaken, but the story remains steady. 

It can feel like a lot of praise for a show with 20-minute episodes. But series like this remind us of why we’re drawn to stories about superheroes well into adulthood. And, ideally, it’s not just because of nostalgia. It’s because the very best efforts know how to bring real emotion to larger-than-life stories, sweeping us away into escapist territory while our feet stay planted on the ground. 

Superhero fatigue is real. But not here. Not in the animated space. My Adventures with Superman Season 3 Episode 8 is fantastic. Bursting with action-packed adventure and grounded by characters who work together to try and understand how to make a better tomorrow, it’s the perfect start to the end of the series best season. 

My Adventures with Superman Season 3 Episode 8 is out now on HBO Max. 

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