It's shaping up to be a Supergirl summer, between the DCU's latest live-action Super-fest and a Supergirl-centric season of showrunner Jake Wyatt's My Adventures with Superman. It's a welcome element of Season 3, allowing a strong focus on Kara Zor-El's fish-out-of-water Kryptonian without losing considerable time with our titular hero, a win-win for fans of the franchise.
DC's history of film and TV adaptations has had incredible highs (the original Superman, Tim Burton's Batman films, Man of Steel, The Batman, and the Swamp Thing series, to name a few). It also boasts surprising lows, like Catwoman and Green Lantern. Its history of animated adaptations, however, is remarkable for its decades-long, top-shelf quality. Batman: The Animated Series, The Death of Superman, Batman: Hush, and Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox were positively stellar.
My Adventures with Superman proved yet another excellent animated tour of the Superman universe, and its third season is no exception. It's an action-packed, often moving, funny meditation on relationships and what it means to be a hero that yet again gets the core of Supes right.
He's allowed to be both inspiring and powerful, key components in a delicate balance that are important components of the character's identity.
A Super Season Anchored by Stellar Character Interpretations
As both the Last Son of Krypton and intrepid reporter Clark Kent, Jack Quaid yet again gives an excellent performance. My Adventures with Superman has always centered itself around Superman's hopeful core and the notion that what makes a hero isn't strength or powers, and this season finds new ways to explore that terrain.
We see numerous characters wrestle with complicated situations this season in ways that are engaging, and it’s all well-balanced with fun moments and tense battles alike. Quaid captures all these moments well.
Alice Lee also excels as a determined Lois Lane, given excellent material in Season 3. She regularly has to be a source of strength and resource for unexpected characters, each needing her guidance when she feels least equipped to give it.
It's a great dynamic, particularly when Darren Criss' Superboy arrives, that grounds many important scenes. Max Mittelman is additionally fantastic as both Lex Luthor and as the increasingly dangerous Cyborg Superman. Like many superb villains, he's written in a dynamic way that allows him to evolve as the series progresses.
Kiana Madeira is also solid as Kara Zor-El/Supergirl, still with much to learn about life on Earth, relationships, and what a dog is, sharing a strong relationship with Ishmel Sahid's Jimmy Olsen. As a non-powered individual, Olsen navigates a complex emotional landscape while wrestling with his feelings of inadequacy as a mutual crush of Supergirl's.
A Strong Season, Though It Struggles With Balance
One of the greatest strengths of My Adventures with Superman is its ability to balance emotional material centering on the characters' relationship with creative, potentially dangerous situations.
Season 3 does that quite well. It starts simply enough, cementing relational issues between Jimmy and Kara, when a quickly evolving array of problems begins to surface. There are a variety of interesting challenges and nemeses building toward something I can’t spoil, but which creates ample material for drama and menace.
The short and breezy nature of the series' episodes is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it makes for a fun watch (there's rarely a lag), and the episodes get to cycle through wildly different challenges for the heroes.
On the other hand, while it's fantastic overall that the series so regularly handles relational and emotional issues (those themes are no strangers to Superman), the balance is often lost due to that short runtime.
Consequently, there are times when something interesting gets short shrift relative to the other things happening in an episode or a character arc. For one example, Superboy has an interesting interaction with a subterranean community of dinosaurs, but the episode dramatically shortens the occasion to move the plot along.
There are regular scenes that could be amplified with longer development, in part because this series does so much well that more of it would be welcome (despite the fact that we live in a world where projects are often stretched thin in bloated runtimes).
All that aside, My Adventures with Superman Season 3 is a successful outing for the Man of Tomorrow. There are some interesting and distinct threats that feel exciting and avoid repetition. Both Superman and other characters get to shine in combat, and we're also allowed to see Clark Kent be the one who saves the day in a moment of crisis. That rings true of a character who embodies hope, and Jack Quaid handles all these elements of Superman/Clark Kent with skill. It struggles with balance at times, but it's never boring and always distinctly Superman.
Final Rating: 8/10
My Adventures with Superman Season 3 premieres Saturday, June 13 at midnight ET/PT on Adult Swim, following the next day on HBO Max.
