Superman & Lois Lane... The Series

Started by Shogunn2517, October 28, 2019, 11:46:36 PM

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Nyte Dragon

#30
 I waited a couple of days to see if anyone else was going to say anything on this. I know I have read some people's thoughts about the show elsewhere, and they seem to be judging the show on things that may, or may not, have happened outside of the show. That it was why Lois was a 'non-entity' in the show. Blah, Blah Blah  :rolleyes:

Okay, real quick, I want to go on a big of a tangent/rant. Just to preface this, it is not against anyone who has posted here.

[offtopic]Why do people say they want to see more comic-based TV shows, movies, or toons, but then look for reasons to complain about the show? I'm not talking about having an opinion, or defending it. Or having issue if things are changed from the source material. What I mean is, actively looking for reason to knock these shows or movies. Picking apart things like camera angles, nitpicking tiny issues like they make shows horrible. I like nitpicking things in fun. I used to have the 'Nitpickers guide to Star Trek'. It never detracted from my enjoyment of ST. I've read books about behind the scenes of ST, but I'm still a fangirl. I know the stories of the in-fighting and shady handlings of things in comics past (Bill Finger's treatment, the whole 'Who created Spider-Man' controversy, etc.), but I still enjoy comics. So my thing is, why be a fan of something, if all you ever want is to see the negative of things.

Okay rants over.[/offtopic]

Okay. yes, Lois was not a major focus of the first episode. But she wasn't a piece of set dressing, either. She stood up to her father, who is a four-star general. And to her husband, who is freakin' Superman, mind you.

Okay onto the second show. And again, I'm happily pleased with this show.

Spoiler
Just one thing, I'm not going to be going beat by beat like I did about the first show. I'm going to just cover some of my thoughts on it.

Okay I was wrong about Captain Luthor. He's not from the future, but an alternate Earth. We get to see some flashes of this world. He served in a military unit under his world's Gen. Lane, who evil Supes kills. I never considered that idea because I thought all the Earths merged at the end of Crisis. They might have alluded to there still being other Earths and I missed it. But they brought back the black suit for evil Superman too. (As a Goth girl, I have to object to this. Black isn't evil, it's just moody. Goatees are evil, Star Trek has shown us that.)

We get to see Clark take Jordan to the fortress of solitude (FoS, henceforth). Okay, a couple things here, nitpicky things that are silly and don't take away from it. I understand him having Jordan bundle up for the cold, but he's Superman. Why's he wearing a toboggan and all? He's Superman. Next, the FoS is wayyyyy different from how they had it in Supergirl. Couldn't they just used the same set? We get to see Jor-El's AI, and we see the crystal Jordan got from the space ship last episode. I do love that later on Jordan and John are talking and Jordan refers to the AI as 'HoloGramps', that just struck me as funny. (Hologram, HoloGramps :lol:) And we also find out that Jordan apparently can't focus and use his powers at will. Also, Clark and Jor-El can't say 'heat vision', it's 'occular projection'. I didn't know 'super-grammer' was a power. Jordan gets upset at hearing he will never be as powerful as his dad.

Okay, I'm going to have another couple theories. These are about Jordan's powers. Jordan and John are twins, yet only one has shown powers. I think a way this may work is John is the battery and Jordan is the outlet. In the comics, when Superman died, the Eradicator (the Visored Last Son of Krypton) wasn't able to properly store and convert solar energy like Superman. So he used Superman's body to collect and convert solar energy, and he absorbed it to 'run' his own powers. I think this is how the twins might be working. Both times Jordan did any power stunts, he was very close to John. So when I mentioned in my last post, I thought they might split their powers, I may have been close. And I think part of what happened is due to Crisis. Before Crisis, Lois and Clark had one child, and afterwards became twins.

Back to the show. I said it looked like they took some of the 'Clark and Lois' comic too, and they did. Lois digs into why Morgan Edge is buying up property in Smallville. She never left the Daily Planet, only Clark lost his job. We get to see some more of Lana and Tool. (I declare from now on his name is Tool, until such time as he earns a proper name) and another lady that seems to be interested in watching Lois. Lois attends a town meeting that Morgan Edge happens to be attending, and we find out the lady works for the local paper. Lois, being Lois, kicks up a hornet's nest, by tossing uneasy questions out to Edge. She writes an article on the shady goings on for the Planet, but it gets re-written. And she gets massively POed. She ends up quitting the Planet and going to work for the local paper to continue investigating Edge. She also has another good scene with Clark that shows why he needs her so much. She doesn't treat him like a god, or hero, but like a person. She's his grounding rod, the north on his compass so to speak. She's not eye candy, she's the rock that Superman needs to lean on sometimes. And to be that kind of force of personality is alot, and they have been showing that with Lois. When he needs comfort and direction, she's there for him. But she's also there when he needs his course corrected too. 

We get to see Superman and Luthor go at it again. And *GASP* another Super fight where cities WEREN'T leveled. I didn't think such things were possible! (She says sarcastically) The fight was really good, and Luthor loses his ship to distract Superman so he can escape. He also makes contact and tries to convince our Gen. Lane that Superman might not always be good.

And now, onto the twins. They keep swerveballing me. They keep making me think they're going to go into the classic 'bro vs bro' standard, but then they pull back out. John lashes out at Clark and Jordan, because they moved away for Jordan, upending his love life, his athletics, etc. He bonds with Lois, as they are the 'normal' ones that get left behind and have to give up everything. *Sigh* No, not the OMG DRAMAS! But then they do something nice, something refreshing. Jordan ponies up to this fact, and apologizes to his brother. And not only does John accept it, he tells Jordan that they'll figure out how to get his powers working. I love this! I love the fact that they argue, call each other names, get mad, but at the end of the day, they have each other's backs. Please CW, don't change that! Cain and Abel might be an interesting pair of siblings, but not all of them have to hate each other. 

So, yeah. I'm still very happy with this show. I'm glad it's showed off more of Lois to quell the naysayers. And that their not falling into some standards for CW shows (at least not as bad, there still is the OMG DRAMAS moments.
Hate is always foolish and love is always wise.
 ⁓Doctor Who

Tomato

So the status quo on the Multiverse is, things got mixed around (canonically this is why Titans and Doom Patrol are on different earths now), and the walls between universes are a bit tougher to get across (leading to the incorrect belief in the "Arrowverse" shows that it's completely gone) but the Multiverse *is* still around. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-5fw_4RSr8

Stargirl is on the new Earth 2 IIRC, and they just announced Jay Garrick will be showing up over there.

Nyte Dragon

 :doh: I totally forgot that part. But in my defense, I was jazzed on excitement, sugar, and caffeine. (I don't drink soda as a rule, but I had root beer to celebrate watching the new show) It might have shown in my post about the first show.  ;)   
Hate is always foolish and love is always wise.
 ⁓Doctor Who

Tomato

tbf, it's actually a pretty common mistake. People just sort of gloss over that ending bit, and pretty much all the main universe shows have maintained that the Multiverse is gone and have had plotlines centered around that misconception.

Silver Shocker

QuoteI waited a couple of days to see if anyone else was going to say anything on this.

Me too. I'm still quite pleased with the show. I did snark last week that that level of detail and production value wouldn't keep up, but it's still looking good so far. I still love how they contrast the bright red on Superman cape and costume with the more drab colors of basically everything else. The whole show kinda feels like everyone involved was trying to tell the movie guys "this is how you do it."

As for nitpicking and being negative towards the show.

[offtopic]

1. Well, speaking for myself, it can be fun to riff on something, whether you actually enjoyed it or not. In some cases it's far more enjoyable than absorbing the content itself. I hated Tenet, but I sure loved reviewing it.

2. Marvel vs DC might be part of it. My local comic book store has the most ridiculous DCEU vs MCU bias you may very well ever see, and I now actually avoid saying anything that would set him off about it because when he talks about it he's just in his own little world that makes me question his taste when he recommends a comic or somesuch. Oh, the stories I could tell...

3. Also speaking for myself, I'm an Mario and Zelda fan from early childhood, and my nephew was big into Pokemon as a youngling, something we still bond over to this day. So for me being heavily critical in certain respects often comes from a place of love and wanting to see improvement. I don't have that problem with this Superman show, but there is a level of frustration with say, the post-Crisis Arrowverse (darn you Flash! Be better!)

4. There might be a sense of trying to hang with the "cool kids" because it's hip to hate on certain shows. At the local comic book store the people who work there are unabashed DC fans through and through, and when I do talk about them, I try to largely keep in the pocket of stuff we can agree about (I would attempt to do this with IRL friends I had a few years ago as well) and try to avoid setting them up on a ridiculous rant. Or to give another example, I was a Lost and Heroes fan back in the day and it got real hip to hate on those shows, and I'll indulge in a little bit of a jab at the expense of the later seasons for fun but I always remember that there was something there that did keep me tuning in.

[/offtopic]

As for Lois, I did have a smidgen of a concern that she didn't have quite enough to do in the extra long pilot to Superman & Lois. And by "to do" I kinda mean a plot to call her own - this definitely blossomed in the second episode, and indeed the seed for that was planted in the pilot, but I held my tongue on it and I'm glad I did, because they definitely gave her a worthwhile plot in this episode. It's a very Lois-appropriate plot.

Spoiler


QuoteBut they brought back the black suit for evil Superman too. (As a Goth girl, I have to object to this. Black isn't evil, it's just moody. Goatees are evil, Star Trek has shown us that.)

It is a bit of a tradition though, and a way to use a different Superman costume they might not get to use otherwise.

QuoteI understand him having Jordan bundle up for the cold, but he's Superman. Why's he wearing a toboggan and all?

Maybe he just likes dressing like that? He's done it in other things, one of which was BvS when he goes up into the mountains. It also helps make him look less suspicious if anyone happens to be up there for some reason.

QuoteNext, the FoS is wayyyyy different from how they had it in Supergirl. Couldn't they just used the same set? We get to see Jor-El's AI, and we see the crystal Jordan got from the space ship last episode.

Now this one I DO have a serious answer for. I'm going off the assumption that this takes places several years later compared to the rest of the Arrowverse, as I mentioned last week (the kids are noticeably older, after all), so maybe he upgraded the FoS or had to rebuild it after some supervillain altercation that resulted in it looking different? Yeah, that's me making up an explanation, but I do think it's a legit possibility in this world.

You may very well be right about Jordan and John's powers. I saw someone online joke that they're the Wonder Twins, which, yeah, pretty much.

QuoteWe get to see some more of Lana and Tool. (I declare from now on his name is Tool, until such time as he earns a proper name)

I'd been going back and forth on how much of a tool Tool is in this show, but no, he indeed a massive heel.

Quoteanother lady that seems to be interested in watching Lois. Lois attends a town meeting that Morgan Edge happens to be attending, and we find out the lady works for the local paper.

That's Beppo, the character named after the Super-Monkey.  ^_^

QuoteWe get to see Superman and Luthor go at it again. And *GASP* another Super fight where cities WEREN'T leveled. I didn't think such things were possible! (She says sarcastically) The fight was really good, and Luthor loses his ship to distract Superman so he can escape. He also makes contact and tries to convince our Gen. Lane that Superman might not always be good.

Yeah, I'm still rather impressed with the fights and with this version of Luthor. We still don't know much about him, but what we do know is he is a very sound tactical mind, and fortunately the writers aren't making Superman an idiot to stack the deck in his favor unfairly.

Supes even outright said what I said last week - that this stage in his life has been especially stressful.

I agree with the kids. One scene I'll be tempted to write them off, then by the end of the episode I'll be like "Yeah, they're all right."


Yeah, this show's still really quite great.

QuoteSo the status quo on the Multiverse is, things got mixed around (canonically this is why Titans and Doom Patrol are on different earths now)

That does line up very well with the DP show, so it would have been strange if they didn't go that route (and they were going to in the scrapped Titans S1 finale, which would have featured the DP from their own show)

Also I just scanned through that clip and realized that exact group of characters is probably never going to team up again onscreen, and that made me a bit sad.
"Now you know what you're worth? Then go out and get what you're worth, but you gotta be willing to take the hits. And not pointing fingers, saying you're not where you want to be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that, and THAT AIN'T YOU. YOU'RE BETTER THAN THAT!"
~Rocky Balboa

Nyte Dragon

 Right off the bat, I wanna hit into the nitpicking part of my off-topic comments.

[offtopic]I'm all for nitpicking and riffing on stuff, (Big MST3K fan) when it's done in fun. When it's done just solely to be negative, to detract from the enjoyment of something, that's what I don't get. Everyone is allowed to like and dislike what they want. I was raised with a teaching of 'Just because you feel you're right, doesn't always mean the other person is wrong.' (My momma was a wise woman.)

If your passionate about a subject, and there's something you're not happy with, I think it's great to debate it. (The 'Joker' movie, for example. I loved the movie, disturbing as hell, great acting, and even made the make-up creepy. But I hate they made Bruce Wayne a pre-teen/teen in it and Arthur is late 30s/40s. That would mean Batman would basically fighting a retiree. But it's still a great movie.)

If you don't like something, walk away from it, ignore it. Why spend time being negative on something you didn't like in the first place? 'Steel' movie? What 'Steel' movie? That's just an urban legend to scare fans. Notice I never down the Synder-Illogy. (MoS, BvS, JL) I loath, loath most of MoS, but it has moments, glimmers of what it could have been. ('You are my son!', so heart-felt, so good. Little Clark running around with a cape. ) But, some people enjoyed the movies, and that's their right to do so. I focus my vile on Synder and the choices he made. For the most part, I ignore it. Life has enough negatives, especially in this time, so why focus towards more negatives?

Oh, and I agree, Flash needs to get better. But I know that due to the Pandemic they had to cut things short. So last season seemed unfinished. Even now you can see a few things, like they rarely have more then three people in a camera shot (I'm guessing for health reasons). But let's hope things pick up, and Flash embodies great hope. (Blackest Night Reference)[/offtopic]

Now onto the showwww....

Spoiler
The 'Daily Planet take over' story has been done many times in the past. Lex and Edge have done it in the comics. Tess Mercer did it in Smallville. Darkseid, Batman, and even Marvel's Kingpin have owned it. And in alot of those, it was either Lois or Clark that found shenanigans to get the Planet back in the right hands.

And in the 'Clark and Lois' comic, pre-52 Clark and Lois survived Flashpoint/Convergance, and were living on a farm under the last name White. Lois worked at the local newspaper, and wrote books that exposed Intergang under another alias. She even had a super-pager in the comics, just like in the show.

And I have no problems with the black suit.... as long as we don't get THIS:blink:

I like the explanation on the FoS. I can totally see that having happened.

And yeah, Capt. Luthor is good. He's not evil for evil's sake. He's basically seen 'Injustice' Superman wipe out his world. (Which as I type this, I realize we got to watch Jordan play last episode. HOLY SCHNICKY!! They pretty much laid it right there in front of us, and we didn't get it! Well played sirs and ma'ams!) He legitimately thinks he's saving our world.

I'm also glad they do give Clark credit in not being a big ol' dumb hero. Alot of people make the mistake that Superman is all brawn, no brains.

"I'm Sooperman! I make punchy-unchy with the laser eyes! Up, up, and I'm outta here!"

He's not a tactician on the level of J'onn J'onzz or Batman, but he has smarts. He's a world-renowned journalist and he's had years of practice with his powers. 

And speaking of sad, I found out Supergirl is on it's last season. I'm not surprised, as the show has lost it's course over the last season or so, but definitely sad. Supergirl had Nicole Maines as Dreamer, who's the first Transgender hero on TV
Hate is always foolish and love is always wise.
 ⁓Doctor Who

Silver Shocker

#36
As I've said before, I've found the Arrowverse has been doing downhill since Crisis ended. Flash....my main problem with it is 1. I don't like the Mirror Master plot 2. I don't find they use Cisco and Caitlan enough. I think the whole Killer Frost thing ended up being a mistake.

QuoteAnd speaking of sad, I found out Supergirl is on it's last season. I'm not surprised, as the show has lost it's course over the last season or so, but definitely sad. Supergirl had Nicole Maines as Dreamer, who's the first Transgender hero on TV

I think Dreamer is one of the best characters on the show, and one of the better ones in S5. S5 was....eh. I'm ok-ish with it having one more season and hoping for a suitably good finale.

Injustice video game being shown in the pilot....I didn't even think of that. Mortal Kombat (by WB and the same dev team) was shown in later seasons of Arrow (Zari was also shown playing MK....2 I think, in Legends) so I almost didn't think anything of it....except that the idea that Injustice 2 exists in the world of the Arrowverse fries my brain. I'm choosing to believe it's a similar-looking game that is not actually the same.

Oh, before I forget, I have some unfortunate news. In three weeks Supergirl S6 will premiere and take over Superman & Lois' time slot, and S&L will go on a hiatus until May 18.  :o
"Now you know what you're worth? Then go out and get what you're worth, but you gotta be willing to take the hits. And not pointing fingers, saying you're not where you want to be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that, and THAT AIN'T YOU. YOU'RE BETTER THAN THAT!"
~Rocky Balboa

Tomato

#37
I think there's been a noticeable dip yes, but I think that's only natural given that SO MUCH was put into crisis and its lead up. Flash in particular suffered in general, with the first half season just kinda feeling like it was marking time, relying on crisis for the few character bits we got. Add in the fact that we now have to drag out the Mirror Master stuff looong past its intended length (it was clearly just meant to cover half a season, now it needs to last until the midway point of this season) plus covid times derailing production... I don't expect things to really improve this year, at least not for awhile.

As for Superman... A lot of the criticism on it stems from a writer calling out some issues in the writers room, but how much of that is legitimate and how much is she got fired and is upset... Who knows.

I will say though... This is the first series in the entire Berlanti staple of shows not to have certain major representations right out of the gate (such as black characters that aren't antagonists), and... That's worrisome tbh. Like, on the one hand, I get it... The core cast is a family, and you can't really have adopted kids given the angle they go with. But there's supporting characters they could easily insert (Pete Ross, Clark's childhood best friend, could be brought in as a politician in Edge's orbit, serving a role like Lana's husband, but less antagonistic) or cast different (the editor from Smallville's paper). Saying "well what can they do, Superman and Lois were already both white" is a failure of imagination.

I should note though, I do enjoy the show. Frankly, I think that issue is an easy fix (they just need to add more supporting cast members, something most shows do anyway as they go on). It's far, FAR harder to nail Superman, and imho they've done that. The show isn't fundamentally flawed, it's just in need of some patching.

Silver Shocker

I view the gradual decline of the Arrowverse in general as a kind of "death by a thousand cuts". There's a few issues, some of which I've talked about before. The Wells gag getting dragged out to hell and then shopped to multiple other shows didn't help.

QuoteFlash in particular suffered in general, with the first half season just kinda feeling like it was marking time, relying on crisis for the few character bits we got. Add in the fact that we now have to drag out the Mirror Master stuff looong past its intended length (it was clearly just meant to cover half a season, now it needs to last until the midway point of this season) plus covid times derailing production... I don't expect things to really improve this year, at least not for awhile.

If nothing else, they've said we'll get more Cisco and Caitlan later, and more Thawne and Godspeed, so hopefully at some point things will pick up a bit.

QuoteAs for Superman... A lot of the criticism on it stems from a writer calling out some issues in the writers room, but how much of that is legitimate and how much is she got fired and is upset... Who knows.

I really was out of the loop on that. I didn't know about any of that. Had to run a quick google search to get an idea.
"Now you know what you're worth? Then go out and get what you're worth, but you gotta be willing to take the hits. And not pointing fingers, saying you're not where you want to be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that, and THAT AIN'T YOU. YOU'RE BETTER THAN THAT!"
~Rocky Balboa

Tomato

I only know about it because KKhohoho posted about it in the discord, but it really just hammered in some concerns I had from the start as well. Admittedly, the other big one (arguably the one said writer was most passionate about in her rebuke) was strong female representation, which... I don't think is really accurate. Elizabeth Tulloch, who plays Lois, has been fairly believable as a hard bitten reporter not afraid to do her job in the face of powerful opposition. I think it also helps that she's clearly a fan of the character. Sure, episode 1 was a bit weaker (and I was admittedly concerned she was gonna be sidelined as "the mom", but in hindsight even that set up her character arc fighting Morgan Edge.

And yeah, Lana and her daughter both seem to just kind of accept abusive behaviors(either from the firefighter dad who we are admittedly seeing more layers to, or the jock boyfriend who's kind of a jerk), but making every female character a "girl boss" would be a mistake, and that's clearly part of the daughter's own character arc.

Silver Shocker

#40
Episode 3 was....episode 3....
It's still good, but some aspects of the show are getting spotlighted over others, and for now I'm ok with that. The production values are still very much holding up, and that makes me happy.

Spoiler

No Captain Luthor whatsoever in this episode. This week the threat comes from superpowered individuals working for Morgan Edge.
The way the show has a nonchalent approach to metas for hired and/or experimental metas feels like it knows the audience watching this knows how this whole business works by now, which is cool.

Superman....well, on the one hand, that fight scene was amazing! And once again, Superman isn't an idiot when he goes into action, using his freezing breath at the perfect time for a tactical advantage. Also they're calling it heat vision again, yay.

On the other hand, Clark making a lot of dubious decisions in this episode had me checking the writers for all three of these episodes to see if someone else wrote this (different writers each episode) because that's something I do these days. Clark had to have known some of the stuff he said and did wouldn't go over well with the kids.

On the other other hand (Oh no, three hands!), Jordan's infamous line "EVERYTHING YOU DO IS A MISTAKE" from the promos DOES make more sense in context, even if it's still an awful thing to say (Dude, it's Superman)

This show makes me go "Poor Clark" every few minutes. Guy's trying so hard to be a good husband and father. To paraphrase the theme song to Scrubs, even Superman's no Superman.

Also at this rate Clark and Lois are going to have a drinking problem with how often they break out the wine.

Biggest diss to Superman though...Jordon dropping Injustice for the X-Box Killer Instinct. Cold blooded.

Speaking of family drama....there's also Lana's family.

One of the things about this show is criticizing the teenage angst in the show feels extremely....inappropriate? Because two of the kids (Jordan and Sarah) are being saddled with some very serious mental health problems, and so it's not wrong, but it is extremely awkward. The diner scene had me asking why Jordan and Jon didn't try to get the heck out of dodge.

"Sophie bullies all the kids in her class." Assuming I heard that line correctly, Sophie actually has a personality in this show? Because it's hard to tell with how little screentime she has. She's like Anthony from Cobra Kai or Chris from Homeland, the sibling who has basically nothing to do in the show.


Also this episode had a Snyder cut ad airing during the commercials, and the irony of that is pretty darn funny.
"Now you know what you're worth? Then go out and get what you're worth, but you gotta be willing to take the hits. And not pointing fingers, saying you're not where you want to be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that, and THAT AIN'T YOU. YOU'RE BETTER THAN THAT!"
~Rocky Balboa

Shogunn2517

You know, I gotta say the one thing that's been really impressing about this show is Superman himself.  Not just his powers or the look(which I'm glad they fixed the costume and is probably the best super suit I've seen on the character), but the one thing that sets Superman apart from practically every other hero is the epic and grand and epic feats of heroism. Like the kind of thing that only we'd see Superman do. Catching airplanes out of the sky. using a block of ice he froze to put out a catastrophic fire.  That's the thing that makes Superman to me. And we've practically see these on every episode. Yeah, I like the intrigue so far, with them not just throwing one or two plot twist at us but now a third. All of that outside of the main family plot.

Also gotta say I'm pleased with the cast. Maybe it was just me, but I could have swore that Jordan and Jonathan were ACTUAL brothers in real life. Comparing their looks to me and my twin brother and how different we look through my eyes, that's how I saw them. I been pleased with Hochlin's casting going back on SG. Tulloch is... fine(I guess). And I know someone said something before but I think Lana Lang was perfectly cast with Emmanuelle Chriqui. If not properly characterized. Which also leads to the issues I'm having.

First of all, yeah, they seem to completely ignoring everything from the Arrowverse. Yeah, I think they threw us off with the first episode's ending reveal, but as mentioned, Sam Lane and Morgan Edge being recast.  Which is fine. But I would expect continuity to mean something after Crisis. I just hope they keep one of the real gems from the prior continuity: Jon Cryer. (pleasepleasepleasePLEASEkeephim)

Lastly one of my bigger problems with the series so first, even though they're somewhat skating around it a bit at times...

WE HAD TEN YEARS OF A SUPERMAN SHOW IN SMALLVILLE! WHY IN GOD'S NAME DO WE HAVE TO HAVE ANOTHER!!?

Silver Shocker

QuoteAnd I know someone said something before but I think Lana Lang was perfectly cast with Emmanuelle Chriqui.

If you meant me on here, I said it took some getting used to. By my which I mean I'm used to Lana being either Kristen Kreuk (she was a series regular for most of Smallville's ten season run) or a woman with long red hair, as in the cartoons and comics. Not to say she's bad in this, just that it was different. Like getting used to a character having a different voice in a game or animated project.

QuoteSam Lane and Morgan Edge being recast.  Which is fine. But I would expect continuity to mean something after Crisis.

I do not consider recasting of characters to inherently be a continuity error. It can break the immersion, but it doesn't technically violate it on a story level. Except for the times where a series does acknowledge it of course. Lest we forget, there was a time when Rhodey wasn't played by Don Cheadle and Banner wasn't played by Mark Ruffalo. And Sara Lance wasn't played by Caty Lotz for that matter.

If that wasn't what you meant, sorry. Because I was a bit confused on that.

QuoteI just hope they keep one of the real gems from the prior continuity: Jon Cryer. (pleasepleasepleasePLEASEkeephim)

I'm with you on that, but with a caveat: as much as I loved Jon Cryer as Lex, IMO they really diluted the currency with him on Supergirl S5. Now, the sins of some other show are not the sins of Superman & Lois, and perhaps most importantly, we haven't gotten to see Cryer's Luthor vs Superman in the Superman show. That would presumably be the cool thing.

There is also the aging thing to take into consideration though. Supergirl covered their tracks by saying that Lex aged faster due to extensive Krytonite poisonings, since Cryer was so close in age to the actress playing Lillian Luthor, so if they did a flashback showing earlier encounters between Lex and Supes (something I seem to recall I suggested earlier in this thread or an earlier one) they've have to decide whether to de-age Cryer, recast him, or simply leave it as is.

QuoteWE HAD TEN YEARS OF A SUPERMAN SHOW IN SMALLVILLE! WHY IN GOD'S NAME DO WE HAVE TO HAVE ANOTHER!!?

For story and character reasons?  :P Also, if you want to get technical, the last season or two of Smallville WAS set in Metropolis, so it wasn't actually ten seasons of Smallville set in Smallville (plus you know, it's Lois' nickname for Clark)
"Now you know what you're worth? Then go out and get what you're worth, but you gotta be willing to take the hits. And not pointing fingers, saying you're not where you want to be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that, and THAT AIN'T YOU. YOU'RE BETTER THAN THAT!"
~Rocky Balboa

Shogunn2517

Little off topic but I just realize where I've seen the actor that plays Morgan Edge from. Tyrant. Fascinating series if you've never seen it.

Shogunn2517

https://screenrant.com/superman-lois-arrow-supergirl-villain-problem-other-heroes/?utm_source=SR-FB-P&utm_medium=Social-Distribution&utm_campaign=SR-FB-P

Thought this was an pretty relevant caution for this series though I don't think they will and they shouldn't have this problem. But it was a frustration I had with Arrow and DEFINITELY with Supergirl.

Tomato

See, a lot of the gripes in that article are about Superman using... Superman villains. Like yeah, they appeared in Supergirl first, but the crisis leaves enough of a window where they can reimagine and retcon old villains into the new show.

As for arrow... Eh. Like, having their own takes on other villains didn't really bother me, Deathstroke worked out well and Damian was hardly a character beforehand. Really, the one that bothered me was Ra's, only because it wasn't their own take or just how oliver interacted with this character... It was straight up the story between Ra's and bruce with oliver's name scratched in.

Silver Shocker

#46
I also think that's a flawed article.

For starters, it's only a villain "problem" if you consider it a problem. There's a context behind all of it.

I just had episode 4 on while I was writing this, and it had a creepy-as-hell Superman villain onscreen as I wrote this sentence, who was basically a mix of Cryer's Lex and Toyman. I think we're good.

Plus, you know, this is a "Superhero show" the way Watchmen was a superhero movie. The superhero element is a secondary element to this show. I wasn't even sure Supes was going to have his costume on this week.

-Arrow was heavily Batman inspired (I loved it, but I pegged it as a Batman Begins ripoff about 15 minutes into the pilot) so Ra's makes sense, plus they need a explanation for where these characters are getting their skills = League of Assassin's, plus Neil Adams joked S2 was the "Neal Adams show", + Roy was part of the Titans, so having Titans stuff in it isn't unreasonable, plus Slade, like Doom, has eclipsed the original IP he came from. Arrow was also, for a time, focusing on non-powered villains while Flash went all in on the metahumans. You also had China White, Cupid, Merlyn - all Arrow villains, particularly from the Diggle run, which is what Arrow was also heavily based on. And I do think it's fair to bring up the ones that aren't season-long threats since Silver Banshee wasn't.

-Noone in the mainstream cared about GA before Arrow (several people, including myself, thought it was going to be a bomb) so having some well established villains people already like would give it a boost, and Slade wasn't just teased in the pilot, he was teased in the trailer.

-The article mentioned Silver Banshee. Silver Banshee was repurposed as a Supergirl villain in the comics, and she was a villain in a Supergirl-centric episode of JLU. That's kinda like complaining that Kingpin is in Daredevil. Plus Supergirl was heavily focusing on a lot of female villains because it was the first female-led CW/Arrowverse superhero show. They even opted to use Indigo instead of Brainiac initially. Reign was created as a Supergirl centric villain.

If you were to ask me what the "villain problem" was with the Arrowverse, my answer would be "the villains in the latter seasons are a bit lacking."

Anyway, this week on Superman and Lois.....the Morgan Edge plot confuses and baffles me, Lois didn't read the memo, Sophie still technically exists, and General Lane is a d*ck. That is all.

Though one thing...

Spoiler
What was up with that one kid at school? I got a bit distracted during the episode, so I might have to rewatch that stuff, but I didn't really follow that at all.

Next week, Clark gets nostalgic during a Harvest Festival and thinks about his mother MAAAAAARTHAAA. Should be good stuff.
"Now you know what you're worth? Then go out and get what you're worth, but you gotta be willing to take the hits. And not pointing fingers, saying you're not where you want to be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that, and THAT AIN'T YOU. YOU'RE BETTER THAN THAT!"
~Rocky Balboa

Tomato

Real quick, I didn't mind league of assassins stuff, what they did with Talia (make her a mentor) was fine. But ra's making oliver his replacement was just Bruce's story, and it was annoying. Beyond that, they're dc villains, them showing up elsewhere has never been a thing.

Silver Shocker

Rewatching select scenes of my recording of last week's episode so I could follow it better and take in the stuff I missed (The Arrowverse wiki also helps me understand what was going on):

Smallville high football player: "Here comes the star of Madden 21!"

Ok, so this takes place in 2021. According to the Arrowverse wiki, in the new Post-Crisis timeline, Clark and Lois married in 2000, and Jon and Jordon were born in 2007. Mind you, Supergirl and Flash ended their seasons on direct cliffhangers, so the timeline's a bit wonky.

As people on the Black Lightning subreddit pointed out (Jefferson went to get an item from STAR Labs offscreen), Black Lightning had time pass due to not ending its season on a cliffhanger, meaning the show's timeline is not entirely synched up.

Mind you, the line's still wrong, since Madden video games come out in December and carry the the following year in its title, so either they screwed up, or this show takes place in 2020.

In other Arrowverse news, the finale to Flash's Mirror Master arc was ridiculous, and a lot of fans of the Flash tv show were not impressed (and I'll admit I wasn't too impressed either).

Also Dreamer from Supergirl will be integrated into the DC comics universe in June. Neat.
"Now you know what you're worth? Then go out and get what you're worth, but you gotta be willing to take the hits. And not pointing fingers, saying you're not where you want to be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that, and THAT AIN'T YOU. YOU'RE BETTER THAN THAT!"
~Rocky Balboa

Silver Shocker

#49
I have some more Arrowverse stuff to gush about:

QuoteI just hope they keep one of the real gems from the prior continuity: Jon Cryer. (pleasepleasepleasePLEASEkeephim)

Quoteas much as I loved Jon Cryer as Lex, IMO they really diluted the currency with him on Supergirl S5.

I don't know about Cryer in Superman and Lois, but the trailer for the return of Supergirl came out and Lex is causing all sorts of trouble in it. Looks like he and the show itself are about to get its groove back.

Speaking of which....

Batwoman:

Spoiler
The most recent episode brought back Kate Kane, who will be recast with Wallace Day from Krypton (a casting I and other people online are very pleased with). This pleases me greatly because Batwoman has really slipped in S2 as a direct result of having to write out the main character.

This makes me giddy as a schoolgirl as well because it means the once-promised (Kate Kane) Batwoman/Supergirl team up and her teaming up with the other characters could be back on the table.

Also they're about to do Black Mask, and after a pitch perfect Victor Zaszz appeared this season, I'm optimistic.

ALSO speaking of Arrowverse shows getting their groove back:

Flash:

Thank alrighty RAO the show is good again. And the biggest irony of all is one of the first legit good episodes in Flash in I don't know how long might be the first ever episode to not actually have Tom Cavanaugh in it.

Also, me at the end of the episode:

Spoiler
*Hard comedic cut to Cisco seeing Caitlin and Frost now separated as two people, and Cisco freaking the heck out.*
ME [within a split second of seeing this] YES THEY DID IT!!!

Also Flash featured a hilariously bad looking CGI villain at the end of the episode. The days of us all gushing over King Shark and Gorilla Grodd feel like a lifetime ago. This dude looked like he should be hanging out with the Scorpion King. Solomon Grundy from Stargirl probably looked better than whoever the heck that was supposed to be.
"Now you know what you're worth? Then go out and get what you're worth, but you gotta be willing to take the hits. And not pointing fingers, saying you're not where you want to be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that, and THAT AIN'T YOU. YOU'RE BETTER THAN THAT!"
~Rocky Balboa

Silver Shocker

#50
So Superman and Lois came back last week.

Here's some things:

Here's an interesting article I read about the show.

A Supergirl Easter Egg in the form of a photograph showing Kara, Clark and Lois didn't make it into the show.

"It got cut out for time, but when Lois quits [The Daily Planet] and she's walking down the hall towards the elevator and she grabs some things from her desk, one of the things she's holding is a picture with her, Kara and Clark,"

"Helbing told TV Line, saying there was no "intentional reason" why the nod was deleted. "There's been this weird set of circumstances where, because of production or timing or COVID, everything in the show that was related to the Arrowverse has gotten pulled out. It's just another one of those things."

"[The pandemic] just halted everything," Helbing said, explaining why the Arrowverse has forgone any and all traditional crossovers this season. "And the further away we got from the Crisis of it all, the more it felt like we were opening a can of worms every time we had to explain the connection. We'll see how this all pans out for next season. We don't know what's going to change [in Vancouver] or not. We're going to figure out what makes sense for our shows and for the others. We'll see what we can do and what we can't do, and then we'll make our decisions based on that."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This week on Superman and Lois:

Spoiler
Captain Luthor is actually John Henry Irons, aka Steel.

He has a daughter that's based on Nastasta Irons, who helped him build his power suit in a environment that looks like a steel mill, he uses the alias John Henry Irons, and he builds a high-tech hammer to fight Superman with.

I like this a lot. More of this please.

In an interview with his actor Wole Parks, he reveled they planned from the start for Captain Luthor to have a "redemption arc" and they decided a bit later "what if we made him John Henry Irons?". So it wasn't planned from the start.

This I actually kinda like. In episode 3 or 4, Luthor is d*cking around in an RV, and getting upset and smashing his future Skeets-like computer device. I disliked this as it made Luthor seem cool and collected, and it's a pet peeve of mine when character smash their equipment (though Luthor did that in an episode of JLU as well) but at the beginning of this episode he completely repairs the computer and the computer voice calls him out on smashing her.

This works more for me for Irons as he's always been more of a working man underdog. I like how this has shaken out.


In other news, it's just been announced that Flash will start S8 with a 5-episode mini-event featuring team-ups with other DC Arrowverse heroes. They're in talks to have Black Lightning be one of them.

Sounds like just the shot in the arm The Flash needs.
"Now you know what you're worth? Then go out and get what you're worth, but you gotta be willing to take the hits. And not pointing fingers, saying you're not where you want to be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that, and THAT AIN'T YOU. YOU'RE BETTER THAN THAT!"
~Rocky Balboa