TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

My Adventures with Superman S2E08 "The Death of Clark Kent"

Go To

My Adventures with Superman S2E08 "The Death of Clark Kent" Recap

Original Air Date: July 7, 2024

Written by: Angela Entzminger

Brainiac delves into Superman's mind to figure out what makes him tick and how to tear him apart, as Lois, Jimmy and Kara make a plan to rescue Clark before it's too late...


Tropes:

  • Adaptational Context Change:
    • In the comics the Black Mercy was an organic plant that places victims in a mental fantasy of their greatest desire, placed on Superman by Mongul. Here, it's depicted as a program in the Kryptonian mind scan device that allows Brainiac to review Clark's memories for psychological weaknesses so he can brainwash him and take control of his body.
    • Instead of Superman donning a black suit after coming Back from the Dead, his regular costume is turned black thanks to being possessed by Brainiac.
  • Ahem: Lois deliberately does this to get Kara's attention while she's talking to Jimmy.
  • All There in the Script: The closed captioning refers to the Brainiac-possessed Superman as "Superbrainiac".
  • Armor-Piercing Question: Superman resisting Brainiac's altered memories prompts him to pull up one memory that isn't altered: Lois all but breaking up with him in "Most Eligible Superman". Brainiac asking him if that memory is fake is what weakens Superman enough for Brainiac to successfully possess him.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: Brainiac manages to successfully transfer his consciousness into Superman.
  • Barefoot Captives: Symbolically, at least - after being possessed by Brainiac, Superman's costume changes to a darker and more intimidating one without footwear.
  • Battle in the Center of the Mind: Clark has one with Brainiac as the latter is forcing him watch altered memories of Lois turning against him, which makes him tragically lose.
  • Beware the Superman: Or Superbrainiac, in this case: the mind of an Omnicidal Maniac hellbent on destroying any world that does not comply with his goals in the body of a uniquely powerful Kryptonian.
  • Black Eyes of Crazy: The episode ends with Lois putting the Black Mercy on her forehead making her eyes black and screaming in agony.
  • Black Eyes of Evil: Happens to Superman once Brainiac has taken his body.
  • Body Backup Drive: Kara severely damages Brainiac's primary body, causing it to shut down, but by this point his consciousness has taken over Clark's body, rendering Kara's efforts ineffective.
  • Brief Accent Imitation: Brainiac reveals that Kara had previously begged him to spare planets when she was ordered to destroy them, and has done it more than once before when he repeats her words.
    Brainiac: You just keep disappointing me Kara. I am tired of having the same conversation, Kara. "These planets are worthy, they are beautiful, they are special". You refused to destroy them even under direct orders, so I made you comply.
  • Cerebus Call-Back: The "thought projector" Kara used to show Clark what Krypton was like? It's actually the interface for a program Brainiac can use to alter memories for brainwashing purposes.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Brain and Mallah discuss making further upgrades to the ship, only for an exasperated Lois to demand they just affect repairs. The two wink at each other, clearly intending to ignore her, and the last scene of the episode shows they managed to install mechanical arms while the group were busy trying to save Clark, which they use to rescue Lois and Jimmy.
  • Cradling Your Kill: When Kara believes she's shut down Brainiac for good, she holds his damaged body while crying, showing that in spite of his abuse and manipulation, she still thought of him as her father deep down.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Brainiac in Clark's body against Kara is a complete reversal of Clark and Kara's first battle, as Superbrainiac has access to Clark's full power and, unlike Clark has been doing basically the entire series, doesn't hold back any of it. Kara is so hopelessly outmatched that all she manages to do is briefly stop him from attacking Lois, and even then Brainiac very nearly kills both of them as well as Jimmy by venting the whole group into space.
  • Death of Personality: The death that the title refers to is Clark losing the mental battle with Brainiac, his mind being subsumed in a fantasy illusion while control of his body is taken away from him. The fact that it names Clark Kent specifically is due to the fact that this illusion is of living as Kal-El with his Kryptonian family, and not as Clark Kent on Earth. Notably, Brainiac sees little difference between the destruction of everything that makes Clark himself and "true" death; he repeatedly expresses his desire to "kill" him and doesn't bother to make the distinction that his biological body will technically survive on some level.
  • Designer Babies: According to Brainiac, Kryptonian abilities were manufactured through successive generations of genetic modification for their Empire's expansion.
  • Downer Ending: The darkest one in the series to date. Brainiac successfully manages to take control of Clark's body, whereupon he swiftly dispatches Kara, Lois and Jimmy by beating down the former, no-selling Jimmy's attempt to stop him with Kryptonite, and blowing all three of them into space before transporting himself and Kandor away to kickstart his invasion of Earth. Furthermore, Clark has fully succumbed to the effects of the Black Mercy, with his consciousness trapped in a reality where he grew up alongside Kara on Krypton, seemingly preventing him from being able to regain control. The only positives are that Mallah and The Brain narrowly save Jimmy, Kara, and Lois from being left to die in the vacuum of space, Kara now sees her "father" for the dangerous Omnicidal Maniac he is and has defected (albeit she is heartbroken at the revelation), and that Lois subjects herself to the Black Mercy to save Clark — though the latter still poses a massive risk.
  • Evil Costume Switch: Once he takes control of Clark's body, Brainiac shifts his suit to a black piece that replaces the House of El iconography with his symbol.
  • Evil Gloating: Brainiac declares himself "the machine who is empire" after possessing Clark, as the last major obstacles to his conquest of Earth have finally been removed.
  • Fake Memories: Brainiac forces Superman to relive his past memories and finds out about him having Lois and Jimmy as close friends he protects, but after a few bad memories showing stuff that Superman saw lately, he rewrites many memories of Lois being a total Jerkass to Superman in his weakest moments. While Superman recognizes that some of those memories are fake, Brainiac manages to weaken his mind enough when he shows Superman the memory of Lois breaking up with him, which was true (if not supported by the fake memories). After all of this, Superman is held captive in a fake memory of living a quiet life with his parents, uncle and Kara.
  • Feels No Pain: Superbrainiac is still vulnerable to Kryptonite, with the shard Jimmy exposes him to visibly affecting him at the same rate it affects a nearby Kara, but due to Brainiac's origins as an AI rather than an organic being, he is able to simply ignore the symptoms and carry on a conversation with Jimmy as if nothing is happening, before venting the room to get rid of Jimmy, Lois, and Kara.
  • Fighting a Shadow: Fighting Brainiac becomes a futile effort with the fact that he can just move to a different body. He gloats about this in Clark's body when Jimmy exposes him to Kryptonite, stating that all he'll accomplish is killing his best friend and Kara while doing nothing to Brainiac himself.
  • Fighting Down Memory Lane: Brainiac uses the Black Mercy program to take Clark's consciousness through his greatest battles to assess his weaknesses before seizing control of his body. He takes him through his memories of fighting Livewire and the kaiju-sized Parasite before realizing that Clark is more vulnerable psychologically than he is physically. Clark musters enough willpower to fight Brainiac's control but when the memories switch to fabricated ones where Lois rejects him over being an alien, his resolve is worn down until it's completely shattered by the recent memory of her breaking up with him.
  • Fireworks of Love: Clark pulls up the memory of when he and Lois kiss during the fight with Mister Mxyzptlk that has firework-like explosions going off in the background.
  • Gaslighting: Brainiac utilizes this to psychologically break Clark. He quickly pieces together that he has a bond with Lois and Jimmy, then tampers with his memories of them to paint Lois as incredibly harsh and cruel towards him for being an alien, poking at his self-doubt, feelings of isolation, and insecurities about his origins. Once Clark figures out that his mind is being messed with and tries to fight back, Brainiac eventually shows him the unaltered memory of him and Lois' break up to bring him back down to ruin his perception of what's real and what isn't. Ultimately, while Clark tries to fight back one last time, he doesn't win — Brainiac has completely torn him apart mentally, leaving his consciousness trapped in an alternate reality where he never left Krypton.
  • Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: Kara assumes Brainiac's cruel actions are the result of a malfunction, and her original plan is to reason with him to stop. After directly confronting him, Kara accepts that Brainiac is acting of his own free will, and that she must stop him by any means necessary.
  • Grand Theft Me: Brainiac manages to weaken Superman's mind so much that he mind-jumps into it to claim control of his body.
  • Hope Spot: The viewer is repeatedly led to believe that Clark Kent is winning his mental battle with Brainiac and the Black Mercy, only for the situation to turn out to be yet another level on which Brainiac is gaining insight into Superman to break his will.
    • When Clark Kent is first faced with Lois spouting Fantastic Racism at him, he seemingly takes control of the Black Mercy, Brainiac dramatically protesting that it shouldn't be possible, and focuses instead on one of the happiest moments of his life: sharing a kiss with Lois Lane during the events of "Kiss Kiss Fall in Portal." Brainiac, instantly calm, then uses this information to fabricate many more scenarios, only hit Clark with a real one when he continues to resist.
    • It looks like Superman is able to overpower Brainiac and he wakes up to see him knocked out by the blow Kara dealt him, except the scene transitions to Clark running though the Kents' farmland wheat fields where suddenly he sees his birth parents, uncle and young Kara waiting for him, and he regresses to a kid and joins them. Then it turns out Brainiac not only wasn't stopped by Kara, but he transferred his consciousness into Superman to claim his body.
  • I Need to Go Iron My Dog: After Kara boards the stolen spaceship, Monsieur Mallah can tell something is going on between Kara and Jimmy. Mallah haltingly explains that he and The Brain "need to go repair everything in the lab" and the two of them awkwardly depart.
  • Irony: After spending the previous episode refusing to let Lois expose Kara to Kryptonite, Jimmy himself is the one who exposes Kara to it during his failed attempt at stopping Superbrainiac.
  • Journey to the Center of the Mind: Desperate to save Clark, Lois uses the Black Mercy that Brainiac used on Superman to try to save him.
  • Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone: Upon seeing Jimmy and Kara acting affectionate towards each other, Mallah and Brain head off to the ship's lab to fix things.
  • Lotus-Eater Machine: After having his body taken over Brainiac, Clark is placed into an illusion where his Kryptonian family is alive and stripped of his original memories.
  • Love Is a Weakness: Brainiac is shown to genuinely love Kara as a daughter. Of course, he sees that love as a weakness and decides to remove it.
  • Mind Rape: Brainiac takes Clark through his memories to seek out weaknesses, which involves making him relive his battles with supervillains. When he realizes that Clark is psychologically vulnerable, he begins undermining his confidence with fake memories of Lois rejecting him, weakening his defenses before shattering his resolve with a completely unaltered memory of Lois breaking up with him, allowing Brainiac to seize control of his body. When Kara confronts him, he confesses to employing similar brainwashing methods to make her do his bidding, which he demonstrates by activating them to inflict mental pain on her.
  • Mythology Gag:
  • Sensible Heroes, Skimpy Villains: In contrast to Clark's usual Superman outfit that covers his whole body, Superbrainiac's costume includes bare feet, hip cut outs and a large chest window.
  • Shout-Out: When Superbrainiac knocks Kara out by throwing her at the ground head-first, she lands in the "Yamcha death pose" from Dragon Ball Z.
  • That Man Is Dead: Albeit unwillingly. Superbrainiac declares that Clark Kent is no more, and that there is only "the machine who is empire".
  • Thrown Out the Airlock: When Jimmy tries to use Kryptonite on Brainiac, Brainiac gloats that he would only be killing Clark and Kara, while Brainiac could simply jump to a new body. Brainiac then opens a hole in one of the window forcefields to vent Jimmy, Lois and Kara into space, which also causes Jimmy to lose his grip on File X.
  • Title Drop: Albeit a bit late. Brainiac calls himself "the machine who is empire" while gloating after taking over Clark, a clear reference to the title two episodes prior, "The Machine Who Would Be Empire".
  • Trailers Always Spoil: The Toonami promo for the episode featured Superman seeing virtual reality versions of his birth parents as well as his uncle, but it was combined with the promo for "The Machine Who Would Be Empire".
  • Virtue Is Weakness: Brainiac eventually realizes that Clark is psychologically vulnerable because he loves his friends and cares about their acceptance. He exploits this desire to be accepted by altering his memories of Lois to prey on his insecurities of being rejected for being an alien, dismissing Clark's assertion that love is where he draws his strength from. He denounces the Kryptonian Empire as similarly failing for growing weak, admitting weakness in himself for feeling fatherly love toward Kara, but contrasts himself by ruthlessly beating her down using Clark's body so he can fulfill his goals.
  • Voices Are Mental: After Brainiac takes over Superman's body, Michael Emmerson continues voicing the character rather than switching to Jack Quaid who usually voices the body, just with a deep, vaguely electronic reverb/echo.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: Defied. Jimmy attempts to use the Kryptonite in order to stop Brainiac in Superman's body, but while it does visibly affect him, Brainiac is able to ignore the physical pain it causes and points out he can simply transfer his mind into something else in his ship to survive while both Clark and a nearby Kara will die instead. He then vents the whole group into space while Jimmy is conflicted, allowing him to secure the Kryptonite and remove a potential threat.
  • Wham Episode: Brainiac has broken Clark mentally and taken control of his body, escaping on Kandor likely to invade Earth. Kara joins the heroes, and Lois subjects herself to the Black Mercy to save Clark from the illusion Brainiac has trapped him in.
  • Wham Shot: Determined to save Clark, Lois reveals that she found and stole a Black Mercy headset and uses it on herself.
  • Yank the Dog's Chain: The Black Mercy, true to form, allows Clark to believe he's finally defeated Brainiac, then traps him in an idealized reality of its own making, meaning that he's now unable to even understand he should be resisting.

Top