History TearJerker / MyAdventuresWithSuperman

!Per Wiki policy, Administrivia/SpoilersOff applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. [[{{Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned}} You Have Been Warned]].

!!Per Wiki policy, Administrivia/SpoilersOff applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. [[{{Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned}} You Have Been Warned.]]

----

--> '''Jor-El''': Kal-El, my son. ''Live''.

* The very first scene of the series, where Clark discovers his super speed, strength, and flight, starts out fairly light-hearted and wholesome--until Clark, midway through TheJoyOfFirstFlight, realizes that normal humans can't do the things he's doing. The flashback ends on Clark asking himself who he really is, a question that takes fifteen more years for him to get any semblance of an answer to.

* Jimmy being left behind continues as Clark and Lois are so hung up on their own drama that they completely forget about their planned camping trip to find Bigfoot that Jimmy had been so excited about, and Steve Lombard's well-meaning but insensitive advice only furthers Jimmy's fears that his friends are growing apart from him despite his initial insistence that it's only temporary. After his calls go unanswered, Jimmy finally decides he's had enough and goes on the trip alone, leading directly to him getting kidnapped. It gets even worse when one considers that while Lois is a recent addition to the friend group, he's been best friends with Clark since their freshman year of college--which, given the show's timeline, is roughly five years.

* Mallah and Brain's backstory. Disobeying the government's orders to develop weapons in favor of helpful inventions, they were attacked by Task Force X in retaliation. They only escaped by faking their own deaths, but Brain's body was mortally wounded and what remained of him had to be placed in a robotic shell to survive. Jimmy discovers that they're remaking the black hole that caused Brain's current condition, but it's not out of revenge or villainy--it's to create a wormhole to a dimension where they don't have to live in fear of being hunted down by Task Force X.

*** Said trap has Mist pretend to have escaped Task Force X in order to prey on Superman's ChronicHeroSyndrome, claiming he wants to rescue the rest of Intergang from the General's clutches and in turn baiting Superman into rushing right into an ambush. But when Superman has been successfully subdued, Mist doesn't look triumphant, smug, or dead serious like the rest of Task Force X--[[MyGodWhatHaveIDone instead, he looks genuinely distraught over his betrayal]].

* Lois's whole internship with Vicki Vale becomes this when she learns that she plans to write a hit piece on Superman decrying him as a menace to society and that far from the professional journalist she idolized her as, Vicki is in actuality a cynical, opportunistic careerist only interested in writing salacious stories she thinks will sell, regardless of whether they're true or not. This is especially true when it's revealed that contrary to what Perry thought at the beginning, Vicki never planned to leave the Gotham Gazette and was just using the Daily Planet as a means of promoting herself. The entire thing is a tragic case of "[[BrokenPedestal Never meet your heroes]]".
* Similar to Jimmy's capture at the end of "You Will Believe a Man Can Lie", Clark's capture results in a different end credits sequence. No Jimmy, no upbeat music, and unlike last time, no line of photos--the credits simply play out. The show's DarkestHour has begun.

** It's especially noteworthy that Clark doesn't start crying for his own sake--not over the TraumaCongaLine he's been through for the past few days, the General's torture, ''or'' the revelation that he might be a weapon designed for evil--he cries for what the ''General'', who's currently ''torturing'' him with the intent to ''kill'' him afterwards, has been through.

-->'''Jor-El:''' My son...

!!Per Wiki policy, Administrivia/SpoilersOff applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. [[{{Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned}} You Have Been Warned.]]

* This episode reveals why Clark didn't reveal his identity to Lois and Jimmy--not out of fear that they could be harmed, or that they'd grow to fear him, but because [[IJustWantToBeNormal he just wanted to be normal]]. He didn't want to be seen as an alien, or a godlike being, but as the same old Clark they've known from the beginning. Anyone who's struggled to fit in knows exactly how he feels.

* Throughout the episode, Lois is shown to be deeply conflicted over the alternate Evil Supermen Mxyzptlk showed her, as while she knows her Clark is a good person who only wants to help, she can't help but wonder if he could truly become the threat others fear him to be if pushed hard enough. This leads her to suggest to Clark that he take a break from being Superman and [[InnocentlyInsensitive try to be "normal" for a while]]...which comes out the ''completely'' wrong way and hurts him further, and Lois doesn't get to apologize before Clark is taken by Task Force X.

* The simulation of Zero Day. It's NightmareFuel first and foremost, but also completely tragic. These are soldiers the General and Waller have come to consider close friends, and they're slaughtered in minutes. It's later revealed that the General and Waller were the ''only'' survivors, and it's ''only'' ForWantOfANail (the invading force being cut off from the two by an explosion implied to be Krypton's destruction).
** The simulation opens with the General, revealed by Waller to be Lois's father Sam, calling his wife. It's clear as day how Sam, at this point a new father (Lois being about one year old at the time of Zero Day), loves his family, and said love is the only reason both he and Waller aren't immediately killed in the first few seconds of Zero Day (Sam having ditched his unit to make the call and Waller trying to find him before he gets in trouble)... but the audience knows that in 22 years' time, his happy family will deteriorate as his wife dies and his daughter grows to hate him for his constant secret-keeping.

* The episode starts with a flashback to Clark's childhood when he first learned about his alien origins. After seeing his spaceship and failing to communicate with Jor-El's hologram, Clark is [[AdoptionAngst clearly troubled by the reality that he's not really Jon and Martha's son]]. While his MuggleFosterParents are [[GoodParents quick to assure him that he'll always be their son]] no matter where he originally came from, they still don't know what to say when Clark asks if he's not human. Clark eventually gets over the initial shock of being adopted, but learning he might not even be human ''at all'' isn't something he moves past as easily.

** Superman's main villain for Season 1 are U.S. Military Black-Ops and unlike most series they have a good reason to distrust and attack him. Their on the same side, but refuse to believe he's an ally, making things harder for everyone but their their enemies.

* After the orb with the file containing evidence of [[BewareTheSuperman evil alternate Supermen]] falls out of Lois' bag by accident, Clark picks it up and finally sees what's on it. In the previous episode he already had to deal with the idea that he might be a living weapon sent to cause destruction on Earth, and seeing a video of an alternate version of himself terrorizing people only seems to confirm his worst fears about what his true nature might be. Lois tries to convince him that this alternate Superman isn't him, but Clark is at a complete loss for words and on the verge of tears. [[FromBadToWorse And then the orb opens up to reveal the shard of Kryptonite hidden inside...]]

--> Jor-El: "My son..."

* The episode starts with a flashback to Clark's childhood when he first learned about his alien origins. After seeing his spaceship and failing to communicate with Jor-El's hologram, Clark is [[AdoptionAngst clearly troubled by the reality that he's not really Jon and Martha's son]]. While his MuggleFosterParents are [[GoodParents quick to assure him that he'll always be their son]] no matter where he originally came from, they still don't know what to say when Clark expresses his insecurities about being an alien. Clark eventually gets over the initial shock of being adopted, but learning he might not even be ''human'' isn't something he moves past as easily.

* After Martha warmly greets Lois at the Kents' farm and compliments her article on Superman saving Metropolis, she privately thanks Lois for being there for Clark; according to her, ever since Clark got his powers, he's distanced himself from others out of his fear that he might hurt someone. The scene pans over some framed photos of Clark on the wall; while one childhood photo shows him with a girl[[note]](who may or may not be Lana Lang, his childhood friend and FirstLove from the comics)[[/note]] and they're both smiling and happy, another shows him standing apart from the rest of his baseball team while they celebrate a win, while two more show him celebrating his twelfth birthday and winning a chess trophy all by himself with no one else in frame. It seems very likely that Clark didn't have any friends for quite a while until he met Jimmy in college.

* While the show's {{Animesque}} art style and unabashed embracement of the wholesomeness of Superman's good nature and idealism make it ''seem'' to be a fairly lighthearted take on the character at first, there is a persistent and recurring undercurrent of [[SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids cynical realism]] that's brought to the forefront increasingly as the show goes along. Numerous characters, both good and villainous, and even those relatively uninvolved like civilian bystanders, show distrust for the idea that somebody as powerful as Superman would be as good as he appears to be, believing it's far more likely that he has some "angle" or hidden agenda behind his actions, unwilling to just accept that somebody would be that selfless and helpful because they ''could''. Superman's actions and NiceGuy attitude fit right into the Silver Age of comic books, but ultimately, the show delivers the Aesop that [[HardTruthAesop such a figure existed in comic books because many people wanted to aspire to a better ideal than the reality around them]]. Having somebody like that interacting with a modernized and cynical world means that Clark's greatest enemy in the series isn't some super powerful enemy he can fight, but rather [[BewareTheSuperman the ever-present fear and uneasiness that people have towards a being with his immense powers]] and how impossible they find it to just accept that somebody as good as him actually exists.

* After Martha warmly greets Lois at the Kents' farm and compliments her article on Superman saving Metropolis, she privately thanks her for being there for Clark; according to her, ever since Clark got his powers, he's distanced himself from others out of his fear that he might hurt someone. The scene pans over some framed photos of Clark on the wall; while one childhood photo shows him with a girl[[note]](who may or may not be Lana Lang, his childhood friend and FirstLove from the comics)[[/note]] and they're both smiling and happy, another shows him standing apart from the rest of his baseball team while they celebrate a win, while two more show him celebrating his twelfth birthday and winning a chess trophy all by himself with no one else in frame. It seems very likely that Clark didn't have any friends for quite a while until he met Jimmy in college.

* The very first scene of the series, where Clark discovers his super speed, strength, and flight, starts out fairly wholesome--until Clark, midway through TheJoyOfFirstFlight, realizes that normal humans can't do the things he's doing. The flashback ends on Clark asking himself who he really is, a question that takes fifteen more years for him to get any semblance of an answer to.

* Jimmy and Lois using the former's Flamebird account to appeal to Metropolis to help defeat Parasite and save Superman. Despite the previous episode showcasing the city's cynical outlook on Superman, most everyone still takes part, proving that Superman may have given everyone hope after all.