Adult Swim’s heavily anime-inspired My Adventures with Superman is a Saturday Morning Cartoon disguised, like its glasses-wearing hero, as a bumbling, wholesome adult. At its core, the show’s romantic will-they won’t-they tension between Lois and Clark sets it apart only slightly, giving new life to characters that have been rebooted, retread, and reheated so many times that fresh heat felt impossible. Their blossoming romance is interrupted often in classic Superman fashion by giant robots, techy villains, and newspaper assignments that give the show a villain of the week format. Millennials that grew up with Cartoon Network’s Young Justice and Green Lantern animated series will spot their influence here in the worst ways; Adventures is more interested in expanding its world to wacky, admittedly fun corners of DC mythology than it is telling a story for what is supposedly the Adult Swim channel’s audience.
True that underutilized fan favourites like Jimmy Olsen, Parasite, and a certain vowel-averse imp will have DC fans squealing, but since these ideas are just remixes of decades-old Superman lore, our eyes must light on the breadcrumbs of original ideas left, like Superman’s self-discovery and Lois’ rise to the reporter we know she can be. Perhaps this is what originality we are reduced to in a world where people defend childish storytelling as “wholesome” and revel in cheap references to other media as “fan service”. With its cheer-worthy visual storytelling, warm heart and character animation that’s like a playground imagination come to life, it’s only too bad that Adventures can’t put its many fascinating ideas into a more intelligent and mature format.
All episodes of MY ADVENTURES WITH SUPERMAN Season 1 are available to stream in the UK courtesy of Channel 4
