Warning: SPOILERS for the My Adventures with Superman episode “Fullmetal Scientist” are ahead!
My Adventures with Superman Season 2 is finally airing on the 2024 TV schedule, and last week’s two-episode premiere was packed with some major developments, from Lex Luthor forming an alliance with Amanda Waller to the Jor-El AI program being erased. Today’s episode, “Fullmetal Scientist,” continued to shake things up for Jack Quaid’s version Clark Kent, arguably most notably by introducing one of the character’s key allies from the comics. However, coming out this latest chapter of My Adventured with Superman (which can also be streamed with a Max subscription), I find myself more concerned about the new power Clark suddenly has, as well as Luthor’s latest move.
Steel Has Entered The Picture
“Fullmetal Alchemist” primarily focused on the danger posed by the Metallos. It turns out the Amerfusion power cores in these robots intended to protect the citizens of Metropolis made them deeply unstable, and when more than one Metallo is active, their cores would meld together and eventually explode. Making matters worse, the Amerfusion core running the Amertek plant in Metropolis was 300 times bigger than the cores in the Metallos, meaning if it became unstable, the whole city could be destroyed.
Amertek scientists John Henry Irons, a.k.a. the superhero Steel in the comics, and Silas Stone discovered this flaw and informed CEO Thomas Weston about this flaw, but hungry for success, he ordered them to fix the problem by the following morning. John and Silas secretly recorded the conversation, but everyone they tried to talk to had been paid off by Weston, and then they were fired. The Amertek CEO then hired Livewire to intimidate Silas into deleting his and John obtained by setting his apartment on fire and threatening his nine-year old son (who DC Comics fans know as Victor Stone, a.k.a. Cyborg).
But as is usually the case, the bad guy didn’t emerge victorious. Yes, Livewire did destroy John’s copy of the evidence, but when Weston turned the Amertek plant’s core to full power, John donned the Steel mech suit he designed prior to the Metallos to aid Superman in smashing the robots to pieces and shut down the core. Just like their comic book counterparts and depictions in other media, My Adventures with Superman’s Superman and Steel make an effective crimefighting duo, and hopefully this isn’t the last time we’ll see John Henry Irons suit up on the show. Unfortunately, the episode ended on a negative note for John, which we’ll talk about later.
Superman Discovers A New Power
At the beginning of “Fullmetal Scientist,” Superman flew in to rescue Silas Stone from his burning apartment. The Kryptonian superhero flew over to shield Silas with his body when the fire was about to engulf him, but strangely, an energy aura then emerged around the two of them until they were safely away from the apartment. Later on in the episode, Clark was able to purposefully channel this power to contain the giant Amerfusion core right before it exploded.
Powers like flight, super strength, supers speed, invulnerability, heat vision, X-ray vision and cold breath have been part of Superman’s arsenal for decades, but thus energy aura is something new. Although it’s nice Clark has an addition ability he can use to protect the innocent, I can’t help but be suspicious about its emergence. Is this simply My Adventures with Superman giving our main protagonist a power-up with no strings attached, or could this energy aura somehow be the work of an outside party and will backfire on him later this season? We should keep a close eye on this.
Lex Luthor Has Taken Over Amertek
Needless to say that Thomas Weston’s reputation is ruined by the end of “Fullmetal Scientist,” and it initially looks like John Henry Irons, whom Clark Kent commended for his actions in a Daily Planet article, was going to resume his work at Amertek. Then Lex Luthor crashed the party by absorbing Amertek and all its IP, including the Steel mech suit, into Lexcorp and firing John. Before the credits roll, Luthor is shown alongside Amanda Waller admiring their newly-acquired army of Metallos.
Superman had a hard enough time fighting the Metallos with Steel’s help in this episode, so just imagine what they could be capable of when Luthor starts tinkering with them. Nothing good will come of it, that’s for sure. To take things a step further, what if Luthor finds a way to merge the Metallo tech and Kryptonite into creating a more traditional version of Metallo for My Adventures with Superman. In other words, if John Corben is introduced, brace yourselves for his brain to be put into a robot body that’s powered by a Kryptonite “heart.”
The stakes continue to rise higher in My Adventures with Superman, and there’s still plenty to look forward to as Season 2 progresses, including the arrival of Supergirl. While we wait for the next show’s arrival on Adult Swim, look further ahead into the future by studying the slate of upcoming DC TV shows and upcoming DC movies.