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Lois Lane’s Adventures with Superman, Parenthood and the Future
Welcome to the Couch Club, our recurring column devoted to all things #DCTV! This week, Joshua Lapin-Bertone confronts the future with the cast of My Adventures with Superman.
Superman is faster than a speeding bullet, but he can’t outrun the future. Whether we’re ready or not, it’s always coming.
In many ways,My Adventures with Supermanhas always been about youth. With a couple notable exceptions, most Superman movies and shows have depicted Lois and Clark as older, more mature and more settled in their lives and careers. My Adventures with Superman flips the script by making both Clark and Jimmy 22 years old and Lois 23, which allows the animated series to tell stories through a different lens.
A big theme of the series is growing up, and the thing about growing up is that you eventually have to face your future. Season three appears to be largely about that, with each of our main characters confronting (or avoiding) what lies ahead in their own unique way.
Brainiac nearly conquering Earth has caused Clark to panic and over plan. As we’ve seen so far, he’s mapped out his entire future with Lois, right down to picking out the right school district for his hypothetical children.
Jimmy and Lois are both running from the future in their own way. Jimmy has feelings for Kara and she has feelings for him, but for his own reasons, he’s not ready to take the next step. He tells Lois and Clark that Kara needs to see more of the world—and date more of the world’s eligible singles—before deciding on him. But this excuse feels labored, and I can’t help but wonder if it’s just Jimmy’s fear sabotaging his chances at happiness.
If Jimmy is nervous about his future, then Lois is absolutely petrified. When Clark starts planning out their entire life together, Lois panics. This is the same intrepid reporter who helped stop multiple alien invasions.
My theory is that some of this is stemming from her complicated relationship with her father. Yes, Sam Lane and Lois are doing better, but their relationship still needs mending. From Lois’s point of view, if her own family is broken, how could she even think of starting her own? Is she cursed to repeat the mistakes of her parents? Plus, let’s not forget that she’s only 23. The thought of settling down at that age can be scary.
While Clark, Jimmy and Lois all have their minds on the future, it’s Kara alone who’s embracing the present. She’s soaking up everything she can about Earth culture and perpetually living in the moment. It’s truly refreshing and something that would benefit her cousin and friends.
It also leads to one of the best moments in the season, which finds Kara and Lois in a full-blown musical number during a trip to the mall. Kara is ready to embrace what’s coming, while Lois sings about her anxieties.
“I can’t risk any change,” she belts. “There’s just too much to lose. Maybe give me more time, and then later I’ll choose.” (Yes, seeing characters burst into song for the first time ever on this series is surprising. It’s also brilliant. Did I mention how much I love this show?)
This is all why the arrival of Superboy is such a pivotal turning point this season. Superboy shows up in the fourth episode claiming to be Jon Kent, Lois and Clark’s son who has traveled from the future. As the episode progresses, we learn that his parents are dead in Jon’s time, and he’s traveled back to prevent this apocalyptic future from occurring.
If you’re a longtime DC Universe fan, this storyline might remind you of when Nora West-Allen traveled to the past to meet her parents inThe Flash’sfifth season. Yes, there are some similarities, but the execution is different, and so are the implications for Lois and Clark. When Nora met her parents, Barry and Iris had been together for a few years and had just begun their life as a married couple.
In contrast, Lois and Clark haven’t been together nearly as long, and they’re still finding their footing as a couple. The arrival of a teenage son is not something either of them are prepared for. Jon’s existence forces Clark and Lois to face their future, and the questions it raises about their relationship.
Lois has spent the entire season trying to avoid precisely that. Now Jon’s arrival has presented an inevitable future where they marry and have a child. To her credit, Lois eventually comes around and embraces Jon, but the idea of being thrust into motherhood was a shock to her, especially with a child who is less than a decade younger than her.
It’s funny, because so much of this season has been about the characters fighting against their futures, and in many ways that theme continues with Jon. Superboy is trying to prevent a dark future where humanity is under siege and his parents are dead. It’s a bit more high stakes than Jimmy running from Kara or Lois’s fear of commitment, but in essence, it’s confronting the same thing.
And that thing shouldn’t be about fighting your future. It should be fighting FOR your future. Jon’s arrival puts it all in perspective for Clark, who looks at his future son and remembers why he does what he does.
“This is what Superman fights for—a better tomorrow,” he says.
We can’t stop tomorrow from coming, but we can make sure it’s a great one.
My Adventures with Supermanairs Saturdays at midnight on Adult Swimbefore streaming the following day on HBO Max.
Joshua Lapin-Bertone writes about TV, movies and comics for DC.com, is a regular contributor to the Couch Club and writes our monthly Batman column, “Gotham Gazette.” Follow him on Bluesky at @joshualapinbertone and on X at @TBUJosh.
NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Joshua Lapin-Bertone and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.
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