Episode 4 Review
In the fourth episode of "My Adventures with Superman," "Let's Go to Ivo Tower, You Say" a CEO takes aim at Superman during a big gala press event. Clark and Lois grow even closer as they straddle the line between following Perry's orders and getting the real story. However, Lois makes a stunning discovery of her own.
Lois is still fuming about running into a dead end after getting her coveted interview with Superman last episode when Perry arrives in the newspaper morgue to summon his three interns for their first assignment: go to the investor gala at Ivo Tower and gather quotes and photos for Cat Grant's interest piece on Dr. Anthony Ivo, CEO of AmazoTech and the most eligible bachelor in the city. Amusing this is the "nice" side of Perry White and in that subtle mentor role, tells Lois what she needs to hear.
To Jimmy's delight, Lois agrees to start consulting tabloids to track down Superman. For us the audience, it's a stealthy way to learn more about Clark's past between the childhood flashbacks we saw in the two part premiere and the present. And it becomes an important turning point of the show. Clark sees the Metropolis Star reporting on the 15th anniversary of the "Kansas Flying Boy" and he rips the article out before anyone else sees it. Later on, Lois gathers a loose timeline of articles: Miracles in the Heartland from 10 years ago and Angel saves Professor 14 years ago.
The gala event also presents another layer of antagonists in this show's world. We saw street level crooks. Black ops military. This week gets a bit more white collar. The media: CEO of Galaxy Communications. The politicians, local and federal: Mayor Fleming, her rival, and Senator Sackett. Corporate: Dr. Anthony Ivo. Suffice it to say, you can't turn a corner in Metropolis without running into a baddie. These ones, however, are untouchable at the moment much to Lois's frustration. The main attraction of this episode is Dr. Ivo and almost immediately, the audience gets it. He's the worst. Extra. The young millenial CEO. Past the facade is a desperate man backed into a corner about to lose his own company. And desperate men of this ilk often make terrible decisions for the sake of profit.
This show is about Clark, Lois, and Jimmy in their early 20s interning at the Daily Planet. More so with Lois, this isn't the usual successful award-winning journalist we've come to be used to. In fact, we see Lois flat out fail at interviewing anyone at the party. And she admits to Clark to being a screw up. That she's been an intern for one year already. Luckily Clark is there to keep her head raised high but soon enough is unnerved when Lois outright blames Superman and his lies being the reason she feels so off lately. And in the final moments, stumbles on the story of the century. It seems some seeds were sown for Jimmy as well. Ditched not once but twice by his so-called two best friends while being adulated by complete strangers for his photography acumen. Perhaps we might see a blow up from Jimmy and the trio's friendship is tested as Clark and Lois get closer and closer. And perhaps, the most obvious send up would be his conspiracy theories turning out to be all true. Lois had I think the best line fo the series so far. Sucker punches Alex then, "Sorry, your life seems hard!" Alice Lee killed it with delivering that line!
Hat tip to the showrunners in totally subverting audience expectations about Dr. Ivo. I mean, we were all thinking A.M.A.Z.O. was going to show up and Superman would have to deal with an android with his powers. Nope. Instead a Ivo dons a suit of armor made from Kryptonian tech and inspired by classic Superman villain Parasite. And perhaps in a subtle irony, the prototype has a little problem with causing out of control aggression. Mix that with Ivo and you get a recipe for disaster. It's no surprise the megalomania goes into overdrive and he throws a member of his company's Board of Directors to lure Superman to the party so he can demonstrate the Parasite suit's energy absorption powers. Fortunate for Superman, Ivo didn't account on two meddling interns named Lois and Jimmy nor Superman's ingenuity. Despite this, it seems "the good guys" from the series premiere were still a step ahead of them and clean out Ivo's lab of the stolen tech before the trio can comes back to collect proof of Ivo's guilt.
In terms of trivia, some interesting tidbits were sprinkled around. The Gazzo Crime Family Clark singles out as a connection to Ivo and a whole neighborhood being displaced is indeed from the comics. First seen in Batman: Dark Victory #1 from the late 90s. The bigger name drop is Lois not answering her father's call and the unfortunate confirmation that her mother is already passed and it created a rift. From comic and media history, we've seen that Lois's father Sam Lane is often at odds with Superman. Hmm. The slickest nod to the comics is the final fate of Dr. Ivo in this episode. In the comics, Ivo became terribly disfigured after an encounter with the Justice League, fueling his hatred for the super-heroes. But let's talk about Ivo's assistant Alex for a second here. In interviews, the show runners have mentioned it was suggested they should avoid Lex Luthor this season because he's been done to death in other shows and movies. But Alex... works for the biggest tech company in Metropolis, has red hair, wears purple, scientifically inclined, moody. Alex as in Alexander "Lex" Luthor?! Did Josie Campbell, Jake Wyatt, and Brendan Clogher just try to stealth slip Lex into this show under our noses? And sidebar, Alex's voice actor Max Mittleman has voiced several Superman characters in other projects already: Jimmy Olsen, Parasite, Steve Lombard, and Superman.
"Let's Go to Ivo Tower, You Say" brings our trio closer yet further apart when their first legitimate gig puts them right in the cross hairs of the latest to benefit from the stolen military tech. Instead of going with the usual choice for the businessman supervillain, the show surprises us in a good way with another clever reinterpretation of not one but two classic comic book bad guys. If you didn't think this show was not pulling it's punches, it's clear in the last moments of this week's episode. For that to happen in just the fourth episode of the series?! Who knows what shockers we're still in for...
DCAU Resource's rating: 9.5/10