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My Adventures with Superman

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YMMV tropes for the My Adventures with Superman series

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    A-H 
  • Accidental Aesop:
    • Season 2 gives one about not abandoning technology, tools or weapons as society advances and values shift and change. Because there's every chance those same assets can be used against you if you aren't careful. Had the Kryptonians not forgotten Brainiac was in control of all of their weapons and ships and could have repurposed him to their now more peaceful pursuits, the fear of obsolescence wouldn't have crossed Brainiac's mind and Krypton and its people would still be alive.
    • For that matter, it could be read as a condemnation of discriminatory attitudes towards thinking machines. The Virtual Ghost of Jor-El dismissively speaks of Brainiac as nothing more than a coordination AI, seemingly unaware that Brainiac was directly responsible for his death and the death of his world, but the rest of the show establishes that, monster though he might be, Brainiac is a person. If Krypton had treated him like a person and acted with consideration for his feelings rather than make a peace treaty and cut Brainiac out of it completely, stewing in paranoid terror that he'd be decommissioned, Brainiac might not have become an insane person.
  • Adorkable:
    • The show's version of Clark Kent quickly endeared himself to audiences with his goofy, klutzy demeanor as a Dork Knight and Socially Awkward Hero.
    • The show's version of Lois Lane owes much of her immediate popularity to this. She's a tiny, overly eager Plucky Girl with a tendency to run into danger without fear of the consequences, and she also gets easily flustered around Clark.
    • Kara's naivety and excitability about life on earth due to unfamiliarity helps make her endearing. This is especially more pronounced once she joins the heroes.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • A pretty drastic example in episode 5, where Slade slices through a highway support pillar during a battle with Superman, then takes advantage of Superman's attempts to save the motorists above them to line up a shot with a ranged weapon before being called off. Does this demonstrate "just" willingness to capitalize on an accident and complete the mission, regardless of the cost, or a deliberate ploy to distract an opponent who would prioritize protecting innocent lives? The former is amoral and cold, the latter ruthless and evil, and both are legitimate interpretations of Deathstroke the Terminator, who has been both over the course of his time in various DC media.
    • With the reveal that Jimmy knew Clark had superpowers since their first meeting, it begs the question as to whether this fed Jimmy's belief in conspiracy theories or perhaps even started it—after all, if one alien existed then, from Jimmy's point of view, there are surely more out there. In a bit of Fridge Brilliance, the reveal also brings into question the first blurry photo that Jimmy took of Superman in episode 1, that being if it really was amateur photography skills or Jimmy purposely messed it up so he won't expose his best friend.
    • It's currently unclear if the Monument of Humiliation and Defeat left behind in the ruined remains of Thanagar's capital city was created by Brainiac himself to commemorate their slaughter at his pawn's hands or by the victims to commemorate their demise and merely left conspicuously untouched for the perpetrator's private gratification. (Although from a characterization perspective that verges on a Distinction Without a Difference.)
  • And You Thought It Would Fail: When the series was first announced May of 2021, reaction to it was far from positive, with many questioning the series right from the start. The most talked about was the Race Lift of Lois and Jimmy, two characters who were Caucasian but now Ambiguously Brown (later clarified as Korean American after the show started airing) and African American respectively, causing many to fear the show would try to play them up as of greater importance to Clark Kent. In addition to that, the 2010s weren't exactly an ideal era for Superman in most media, most notably with Man of Steel putting greater emphasis on the darker aspects, or Injustice: Gods Among Us focusing on a Superman who had a Face–Heel Turn and became a dictator, and that the character became a popular basis for a new Corrupted Character Copy in almost every superhero deconstruction like The Boys and its television adaptation. Then there's the Animesque artstyle, which drew many negative comparison to fanart drawn by people on websites like Tumblr. Even people who were looking forward to the show were skeptical of its chances of success, since straight action-adventure cartoons were in decline by the early 2010s, with the vast majority of such shows (including fellow DC series such as Young Justice and Green Lantern: The Animated Series) being cancelled. News on the series was radio silent until the announcement in March 2023 that it would be airing on Adult Swim instead of Cartoon Network. Upon the show's release, it garnered much love and praise for the depiction of its characters, including Superman himself being seen as a genuinely caring and selfless person who balances being relatable and being inspiring (along with his Adorkable personality making him very endearing to many viewers), Lois and Jimmy being seen as so likable that few cared for their races being changed, the show's take on the mythos to give it a unique spin while also keeping true to many key elements to Superman's history, and gaining not just a second but a third season as well as a spin-off, it's safe to say this show managed to soar above those original thoughts of it being dead on arrival.
  • Anvilicious: While "Superman is an immigrant story" is a common viewpoint, this show does not shy away from that aspect in the slightest, from Clark's feelings of isolation on Earth paralleling how immigrants in real life often feel lonely and out of place in their new homes, to Task Force X's relentless antagonism of him which could be seen as a commentary to anti-immigrant policies and xenophobia. Then there's Lex Luthor becoming the face of anti-Superman sentiment in Season 2, with his arguments that Clark "go back to where he came from" and that "Earth is for Earthlings" being as on the nose about the topic as you can get. Despite that, it nevertheless fits with the show's central themes and conflicts.
  • Awesome Music: The 20 second intro music, which features a sweet rock guitar that plays up the uplifting tone and excitement that you're in for. Notably, the episode "My Adventures with Supergirl" features a longer rendition when Kara, now free of Brainiac's control, goes to push Kandor away from Earth, with Superman joining her, and the two manage to push it well past Earth and close to the Sun.
  • Base-Breaking Character:
    • Slade Wilson. For critics of the show, Deathstroke is "ruined" by making him a young Pretty Boy rather than a rugged, older Kavorka Man as he typically is, to the point that many feel they've emasculated the character. For others, it's such a radical reinvention of the character it crosses into being genuinely interesting (especially for DC fans who find Deathstroke classic overused, overhyped, or just uninteresting as a villain or anti-hero), especially with how this version of Slade is given semi-Adaptational Heroism by being a government agent instead of a mercenary assassin, and also given Adaptational Badass treatment by being able to take on Superman while still being just a Badass Normal. A third group also exists, who enjoy the show just fine but dislike the changes made to Deathstroke, feeling that another villain could have worked better for this rather than using Slade.
    • Livewire has gotten some of this as well. While a lot of people, much like the other villains in the show, see her as a boring, uninspired, and flat adaptation of the character due to her reliance on technology and lack of a flashy costume, there is a vocal part of the fanbase that — as of her appearance in "Olsen's Eleven" which show her transition into more of an Anti-Hero — see her as a more entertaining and somewhat deep character than her impulsive Shock Jock villain typical portrayal.
  • Captain Obvious Reveal: It was so highly speculated how Alex might be Lex Luthor, that the Season 2 trailer alone went ahead with showing how he officially introduces himself as such.
  • Catharsis Factor:
    • After having several episodes of Task Force X, Waller, and Lex beating Superman and nearly killing him, all while breaking his spirits and getting away with their crimes at large, it's beyond satisfying when once Brainiac invades, he easily defeats their strongest soldiers while using Superman's body, hijacks their systems and counters their kryptonite countermeasures effortlessly, leaving them shocked and humiliated. Doubly so when all of the crimes Waller committed in her mad crusade against Superman come back to bite her in the ass after she’s exposed on Jimmy’s livestream violating the First Amendment by attempting to arrest him and Lois, resulting in Task Force X being dissolved and Waller herself being labeled as a fugitive and forced into hiding - the exact situation she inflicted on General Lane at the start of the season.
    • Following Brainiac’s possession of Clark’s body, plus the revelations that he controlled Kara to destroy other planets, as well as being responsible for Krypton’s own destruction, seeing Kara tear him in two after a last ditch attempt to kill her and Clark is nothing short of satisfying.
  • Complete Monster:
    • Primus Brainiac is a rogue Kryptonian AI that desires war and expansion. Fearing that the Kryptonians would decommission him after peace talks, Brainiac uses their greatest weapon to wipe them out himself, leaving Superman as one of two survivors. Raising Kara Zor-El/Supergirl as a weapon, Brainiac brainwashes her as the Eradicator, using her to wipe out entire worlds that will not submit to him. Brainiac also digitally transfers the minds of defeated fighters from these worlds as test subjects despite their intense pain. Kidnapping Superman, Brainiac subjects him to horrific mental torture in order to break him and gaslight him into believing no one loves him. Forsaking even the love of his adoptive daughter Supergirl, Brainiac tries to murder her to purge himself of that love, viewing it as a virus. Possessing Superman, Brainiac tries to use his body to force Earth to submit, and when they refuse, intends to destroy them. After being ejected from Superman, Brainiac tries to force Supergirl to kill Superman against her will. The Arch-Enemy of both Superman and Supergirl, Brainiac ultimately scars Supergirl in their final battle and personifies the worst of Kryptonian warmongering and imperialism.
    • Season 1: Parasite, real name Dr. Anthony Ivo, starts out as the corrupt CEO of Amazo Tech, whose friendly demeanor hides vicious sociopathy. Ivo is connected with organized crime and sabotages his competitors, having entire neighborhoods displaced to build the headquarters of his company. When the board is about to fire him because of his recent business failures, Ivo uses Kryptonian tech he got thanks to his criminal connections to create the Parasite suit in order to get back on top. Organizing a huge party in Ivo Tower, he throws a board member out of a window to lure Superman after unveiling his Parasite suit, trapping Superman and the party guests in a high-voltage force field. Parasite's plan is to defeat Superman to prove the strength of his technology, taking sadistic pleasure in beating him before attacking the guests. Joining Task Force X, Parasite helps them capture Superman as revenge for the hero supposedly ruining his life. Parasite eventually absorbs enough energy for his suit to turn into a Kaiju, going on a rampage across Metropolis and endangering thousands of people, ready to destroy the whole city for a shot at killing Superman.
  • Creepy Awesome: Brainiac is an abusive, egotistical monster whose cruelty and cunning knows no bounds and whose cold personality masks an egotistical ambition to become the "Machine who is Empire." He is also beloved by fans for all these traits.
  • Epileptic Trees:
    • Following the premiere of "Let's Go To Ivo Tower, You Say", the potential identity of Ivo's Beleaguered Assistant Alex was immediately subject to speculation, with just about the one consistency being that everyone agrees he's going to be revealed as a Canon Character All Along:
      • The most popular theory is that Alex is the show's version of Lex Luthor (whose full name is Alexander Joseph Luthor). His outfit's purple color scheme (which granted, he shares with his boss), his brown hair appearing red under certain lighting note , his knowledge of alien tech, and the fact the show wasn't afraid to give a Younger and Hipper treatment to Deathstroke are all cited as support for this theory. While the show's creators have stated in the past that they were told to stay away from using Luthor for the first season, their remarks were firmly about him as the Big Bad or a major villain in general, which would still hold true if he was Alex given that he's merely a henchman. "Zero Day, Part 1" provided even more fuel to the "Alex is Lex Luthor" fire, where Alex returns and rants about Superman being a potential danger to Metropolis in a manner eerily reminiscent of Luthor. As revealed in the Season 2 trailer, this would be proven true as Alex would have himself be referred to as Lex Luthor in his actions against Superman.
      • Another prominent theory is that Alex is Alexander Allston, one of the many incarnations of Parasite (who is a Legacy Character in the comics), as he has connections to Ivo (the show's incarnation of Parasite) and helped design the Parasite 1.0. With Ivo seemingly arrested for good by the end of the "Zero Day" two-parter, there is room for Alex to take over as the second Parasite.
      • Some instead think he might be Winslow Schott/Toyman with "Alex(ander)" appended to his name for misdirection purposes, since all of the signs that may point to him being Lex could also point towards him being Schott, and also he wears glasses unlike Lex and like Schott. But then Luthor is a much more key figure than Toyman and thus more likely to be built up, but then conversely the show is still making its way through lower-tier DC villains.
    • After "Zero Day: Part 2" aired, fans immediately began speculating over who Nemesis Omega, the masked individual leading the Kryptonian invasion in the flashback, is. The top contenders so far are Brainiac, Eradicator and Zod.
      • Then "Hearts of the Fathers" aired, and Brainiac himself appears alongside the "Kryptonian Warrior," who says "Let them rebel. It does not matter. In the end, they will kneel." Assuming the Kryptonian Warrior really is General Zod, this begs the question as to whether either of them was Nemesis Omega or what their connection to him ultimately is.
    • "Hearts of the Fathers" shows a picture of a younger Clark with a girl around his age that everyone immediately deduced to possibly be Lana Lang. The fact that she was initially listed in leaked cast lists certainly helped.
    • “More Things in Heaven and Earth" has Hank Henshaw appear as a STAR Labs tech, with his most noticeable feature being a spit curl similar to what most Supermen have. Many suspect this means he'll become Cyborg Superman down the line like his comics counterpart. Him going missing at the end of Season 2 while fighting Brainiac's forces only added to the theories.
    • The enemy that the Kryptonians picked a fight with and were unable to defeat is speculated by many to be Darkseid and Apokolips, given that said enemy was able to eliminate three Kryptonian warriors with a laser beam that was apparently able to zigzag, akin to Darkseid's Omega Beams and the fact he is a major Superman antagonist in the comics and other media.
    • The Race Lift of the white-bread Military Brat Lanes into Korean-Americans have led some to posit a backstory that Lois is descended from a Korean War orphan rescued and adopted by an otherwise childless Lane.
  • Evil Is Cool: Primus Brainiac solidified his status as an awesome villain in the show's second season thanks to a combination of him not being a Non-Action Big Bad, being a great planner and an absolutely brutal manipulator, and having the Cold Ham egotistical personality of a true Robotic Psychopath, guided along by a beloved and deliciously creepy performance courtesy of Michael Emerson.
  • Fandom Rivalry: Fans of Zack Snyder and his version of Superman, already unhappy that an iteration of the character they enjoyed has been discontinued after years of being in limbo on top of the intense negativity in general, often attack the show, due to both attempting to modernize Superman with a number of similar ideasnote  but having vastly different approaches in terms of tone (Darker and Edgier vs Lighter and Softer) and direction (being on entirely different points on the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism). Even fans who like both are sometimes frustrated by how much of the positive buzz around the series seems to inevitably involve throwing shade at the original DCEU's incarnation of the character as much as actually praising what My Adventures with Superman has to offer.
  • Fan Nickname:
    • "Luz Lane" or "Lois Noceda", due to this version of Lois strongly resembling Luz from The Owl House.
    • "Pretty Guardian Superman" or "Sailor Krypton", due to how his personality can remind people of Usagi Tsukino/Sailor Moon and the magical-girl-like Transformation Sequence in the first episode many have taken this nickname to Clark. When production notes revealed that his Transformation Sequence was inspired by Cure Mermaid's from Pretty Cure, Clark also received the nickname "Cure Krypton". "Magical Girl Superman" is another alternative nickname for the show.
    • "Shonenman" has also started gaining traction due to the way the show is set up along with the more anime-esque art style, along with the fact that it airs on Toonami, which has been seen for years as the primary home for many shonen series in the West.
    • "Dantestroke" for Deathstroke's younger redesign, particularly since he's introduced before getting his signature eyepatched and masked look.
    • "Guts" and "Casca" for Superman and Lois, due to their similar designs. Jokes have even been made about how "someone wanted them to give them a better timeline".
    • Mr. Mxyzptlk has been nicknamed "Supreme Kai" due to him looking similar to a Dragon Ball character.
    • Alex has been dubbed "Lexthoro" due to his striking resemblance to Lythero, something Lythero himself has acknowledged. This has lead to jokes about Alex being unable to decide between killing Superman or Goku.
  • Fanon:
    • Due to a few hints throughout his introductory episode, many fans have stuck with the DC Rebirth explanation that all Mxyzptlks are the same one across all media and thus this show's Mxy is just the original gauging the new Supes. This also implies his radical redesign is just him changing his form at will to fit in with this animesque universe.
    • In the lead-up to the show up to the first few episodes, Lois's Ambiguously Brown redesign made fans assume she was Latina, thus the comparisons to Luz Noceda. This was until she showed up in a episode wearing Korean clothes and Word of God clarified that she was supposed to be Asian-American.
      • It got to the point that some fans used to Korean pop culture assumed she didn't look Korean or East Asian "enough" i.e. with lighter skin if that was the intent, on top of the show being animesque to begin with. But then Reality Is Unrealistic, and there are quite a few Koreans who look browner than their media would indicate. Besides, Lois is Korean-American not Korean, so her culture, environment etc. would most likely be different.
      • Another shade to this is that the assumption that Lois was Latina helped add to the buzz about her and the show early on due to the Ms. Fanservice stuff Latinas are associated with in pop culture (Spicy Latina etc.) and projecting that on her in fan art, discussion etc. This kind of dropped off later once it was clarified she was instead Asian, to the point that it's a Fan-Disliked Explanation for some.
  • Friendly Fandoms:
    • The show quickly developed one with The Owl House, despite having only a teaser and a few stills at the time, with many people noting how similar Lois looks to Luz. Some even joke that they're related or the same person. Similarly, Jimmy has been compared visually to Gus and Mr. Mxyzptlk bears a resemblance to both the Collector and Amity. The show's lead art director Jane Bak as well as storyboard artist Hayley Foster working on The Owl House certainly helps. note 
    • Also one with Voltron: Legendary Defender, due to several Voltron staffers working on the show, including one of the lead character designers. Lois' green jacket, hairstyle, and skin color draw comparisons with Lance, while Clark/Superman's design looks similar to that of Shiro, primarily due to the Heroic Build, square jaw, and a few shots appearing to show Clark with a prominent tuft of hair in the middle of his head, similar to Shiro's. In addition, Deathstroke's younger Pretty Boy design has drawn comparisons to Lotor.
    • Another one is with Star Trek: Lower Decks, given Jack Quaid's lead role as Boimler in LD and bringing the same geeky charm to his role as Clark/Superman as he does for Boimler.
    • Superman's Transformation Sequence won over fans of Pretty Cure due to the more Shōjo Demographic approach as well as storyboard notes referencing that they borrowed elements from Cure Mermaid's transformation, specifically for Superman's cape.
    • Due to sharing some staff and Zehra Fazal as a voice actor, there's crossover with She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Bonus points for Clark and Adora both being super-powered beings from different planets with transformation sequences. And Brainiac referring to Earth as a "planet in rebellion" at the end of "Heart of the Fathers" has some reminiscences of Horde Prime.
    • On a minor note, fans of the show and Swifties get along to an extent; mostly because Speak Now (Taylor's Version)note  had been released on the same day as the premiere episode. Consequently, many fans uploaded social media edits of the show set to the album's 16th track, aka Superman.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • The series has Superman assuming for some time that he was sent to Earth to conquer it. While this ultimately isn't the case here, it is in the film Superman (2025).
    • Kara's roaming Metropolis with Jimmy is an amusing showing of the hardened alien warrior enjoying herself despite herself and weakly trying to dismiss Earth's delicious foods and her Ship Tease with Jimmy as "temptations." It's less amusing when later episodes have Brainiac mockingly refer to Kara going through similar experiences on the other worlds she's visited with her claiming they should be left in peace before he erased her memories and sent her in to burn them to the ground.
  • Heartwarming in Hindsight: The blurry photos at the end of "Adventures of a Normal Man (Part 2)" takes on a different meaning when it's revealed that Jimmy had already figured out that Clark was a super-powerful alien by that point.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: The first episode has Jimmy ask Clark why their alarm clocks keep "exploding". In "My Adventures with Mad Science", we find out that Jimmy already knew exactly why.

    I-W 
  • I Knew It!:
    • Ever since his debut in "Adventures of a Normal Man, Part 2", the General was speculated to be Lois's father Sam Lane, primarily due to both characters being Ambiguously Brown (Word of God saying Lois is Korean, and both characters having Asian voice actors). This was only exacerbated by the show's frequent mentions of Lois's father, both the General and Sam Lane having the same military rank, and the show going out of its way to avoid revealing the General's name (only going by his rank in both dialogue and the end credits); while his moniker "The General" came from an entirely different character (Wade Eiling), many speculated that this was a Red Herring or at least a case of Composite Character like how Ivo is the show's incarnation of Parasite. "Zero Day, Part 2" confirms that he is in fact Sam Lane.
    • At the end of "You Will Believe a Man Can Lie", Jimmy Olsen is seen being dragged away by a shadowy figure that looks like a gorilla. Speculation immediately poured in as to who the gorilla is, due to DC having several gorilla characters, funnily enough, with the most prominent theory being that it's Monsieur Mallah in light of the fact that he already appeared as part of the voice cast. The next episode would confirm that it was indeed Mallah.
    • The Season 2 trailer would confirm that Dr. Ivo's assistant, Alex, was indeed the show's incarnation of Lex Luthor, Superman's preeminent archnemesis, something fans have speculated about since his first appearance in "Let's Go to Ivo Tower You Say".
    • Many fans rightfully guessed that the Kryptonian Warrior that accompanies Brainiac at the end of the Season 1 finale is not General Zod, and that their assertion that Earth will "kneel" was merely a Red Herring, based on them being voiced by Kari Wahlgren — though the specifics on who they were believed to actually be varied. Regardless, Season 2 does in fact reveal that they are a brainwashed Kara Zor-El rather than Zod.
  • Improved Second Attempt:
    • Lois trying to break up with Clark in Season 2 was recieved a good deal better than her anger towards him for lying to her about being Superman in Season 1 — some found her to be Unintentionally Unsympathetic in the latter case, as a result of her own propensity to lie, her anger feeling unjustified due to only knowing Clark for a short time, and Jimmy being a lot more understanding of Clark's hesitation to tell the truth in contrast. In Season 2, however, Lois wanting to break up with Clark is more nuanced and fleshed out, as she suffers a slew of hits to her self-worth in rapid succession from hiding Vicki's job offer in Gotham from her friends, her father once again abandoning her to keep her safe despite her practically begging him to stay, and her feelings of inadequacy compared to "superhumans" like Silver St. Cloud, which all compound to make her feel as though she isn't good enough for Clark despite how much she loves him. Furthermore, while her issues with Clark in Season 1 are rather flimsily resolved very quickly with little involvement on her end, her efforts to resolve her conflict with Clark in Season 2 are better-developed and better-paced, as she spends the better half of the season's runtime gaining the determination to follow her heart and be with him while setting off in a stolen spaceship to rescue him following his abduction, culminating in her putting her life at risk by entering the Black Mercy to save Clark after Brainiac hijacks his body.
    • The show's take on a younger, more energetic Lex Luthor has been seen as an improvement over his similarly not-yet-bald and tech-bro-ish Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice counterpart, since this gives off a more down-to-earth impression as he goes on a dark hero's journey From Nobody to Nightmare, slowly revealing ever more unsympathetic sides to himself, rather than starting out as an obnoxious tech-bro who quickly reveals a chaotic, insane personality.
  • It's the Same, Now It Sucks!:
    • Some viewers criticized the multiverse plotline in Season 1's "Kiss Kiss Fall in Portal" due to feeling "multiverse fatigue" after various other recent media like Avengers: Endgame, some not even superhero-oriented like Everything Everywhere All at Once, had gone for the multiverse route for their stories. The multiversal League of Lois Lanes was also compared, favorably or not, to the Spider-Man-themed Spider-Society in the Spider-Verse comics and movies. The criticism becomes ironic when one considers that DC Comics is usually credited for being the Trope Codifier of multiverses in comics, with Earth-1, Earth-2, etc. This may have been a factor in Season 2 only featuring multiverse shenanigans in very limited fashion.
    • The same episode was also criticized for dipping into the well of Evil Superman, which some felt was overdone due to various other recent media like the Injustice video games, the "Knightmare" alternate timeline of the DCEU, the general trend of evil/villainous Superman Expy figures as in Invincible and The Boys, etc. Season 2's exploration of the trope was handled in a better-received way, by having Clark bodyjacked by Brainiac.
  • Just Here for Godzilla: Many viewers have given the show a watch just to see a tomboy version of Lois Lane. Additionally, based on clips circulating the internet, many also see the show just to see her and Clark's Ship Tease moments.
  • Les Yay: Lois' idolization of Vicki Vale often seems a bit more than professional.
  • LGBT+ Periphery Demographic: An interesting one given the show is centred around a heterosexual relationship, but the designs and characterisation of both Lois and Clark are especially popular with queer audiences. Thanks especially to the show intentionally depicting Clark as a Mr. Fanservice while also giving Lois a very well-received redesign that emphasises her cuteness, there's something for anyone who likes men, anyone who likes women, and especially anyone who likes both.
  • Love to Hate:
    • Anthony Ivo is a very different version of Parasite but generally considered a great one by fans. He's a delightfully bombastic scumbag with a terrifying design, and several point out a nasty CEO fits the definition of "parasite" better than a blue-collar worker like Rudy Jones.
    • While fans already found Alex grating as Ivo's smug, implicitly racist assistant, his ascent to straight-up being Lex Luthor quickly rendered this one of the most delightfully awful versions of the character, not even needing to do much evil for many to declare him one of, if not the most despicable version of the character due to the implicit evil of him becoming very explicit, with "Two Lanes Diverged" in particular marking him as both deviously effective and an arrogant, astoundingly bigoted villain.
    • The leader of the rump Kryptonian Empire, Primus Brainiac, after being fully introduced and characterized in "The Machine Who Would Be Empire" is a fantastic combination of a huge, stakes raising threat in a mostly light-hearted show, a well-handled melange of several versions of the character across various DC media, and an effective pairing of dark, understated charisma and eccentricity with bone-deep sadistic evil (including frighteningly semi-realistic abuse of his "daughter") to help establish him as a fascinating character full of personality in his own right rather than a mere obstacle to overcome and a Robotic Psychopath with interesting psychology to explore rather than a straightforward coldly logical machine intelligence.
  • Magnificent Bastard:
    • "The General" Sam Lane made it his life's mission to protect humanity from alien invaders after he witnessed the horrors of Zero Day. Overhauling Kryptonian technology into his own arsenal and creating Task Force X to prepare Earth for potential invasions, Lane wages a personal war against Superman when the hero arrives in Metropolis. In the meantime rounding up a variety of villains using stolen Task Force X weapons, Lane turns the villains into assets and uses them to capture Superman in a trap. Realizing that Superman is a genuinely good person who has earned the care of his own daughter Lois, Lane stops trying to kill the hero and instead becomes a begrudging ally, even saving Superman from Task Force X and damaging the operations of its new leader Amanda Waller. Even when temporarily imprisoned by Waller, Lane is able to keep tabs on everything Task Force X does, and he later evades Waller's goons to go underground and protect his loved ones. Lane returns to Metropolis when Brainiac invades, amassing a new team to repel the alien, help Superman, and even save Waller's life to prove her ruthless rhetoric wrong once and for all.
    • Slade Wilson is a jovial intelligent government agent working for Task Force X. Slade is in charge of all the dirty business of Task Force X, such as capturing the thieves of the stolen Task Force X by pulling off various schemes like: setting up a fake arms deal with Livewire to entrap her, posing as an ambulance worker to take away Intergang and using his skills to capture Heatwave. Slade proves a devious fighter in service to Task Force X, using Hit-and-Run Tactics and his surroundings to even take on Superman and any others who stand in his way. Slade also sets up a trap to kill General Sam Lane (under orders from Amanda Walller) by feeding him false information to lure him out into the open. In the end, Slade ultimately survives the defeat of Amanda Waller and switches sides to Lex Luthor now heralding the rise of Lex as Superman's Arch-Enemy.
    • Livewire, real name Leslie Willis, is a cunning mercenary and thief who is introduced attempting to smuggle alien tech she stole from Task Force X out of Metropolis. After being foiled by Superman and abandoned by her crew, Livewire lays low until she organises a meeting with Slade Wilson to negotiate surrendering the tech. Livewire plants bombs across the city to get the upper hand in the negotiations, engaging Slade in a fight and using the tech to give herself electro powers, before revealing a bomb were distraction for the tech to be distributed to criminals across the city after she is defeated. She is recruited by Task Force X to help them capture Superman, after which she leads other prisoners in an escape from its custody and unleashes Parasite to serve as a distraction. Continuing her mercenary career, Livewire and her girlfriend Heatwave are eventually hired by General Lane to steal alien tech from Amanda Waller. When Jimmy and Lois appear to hire them to help them break into Star Labs, Livewire and Heatwave fake a break-up so the former can use them as a distraction while Heatwave’s gang steals the tech. Livewire initially abandons the duo, however, after being touched by Lois's love for Superman, and returns to help them before assisting in saving Earth from Brainiac.
    • "Kiss Kiss Fall in Portal": Mr. Mxyzptlk is an interdimensional criminal and self-proclaimed "Chaos God". Escaping capture by the League of Lois Lanes but losing his power-amplifying hat, he approaches Clark and claims to be an interdimensional peacekeeper and that Lois has been kidnapped to trick him into helping him break into the League's teleportation-proof vault, where he steals an access key to the League's headquarters. He arranges for the Lanes to attack Superman to distract them so he can steal their ship and travel to the headquarters. Retrieving his hat and regaining his full power, he starts the headquarters' self-destruct sequence and tries to kill the heroes and the Lanes before Superman, Lois and Jimmy work together to use his portals to steal his hat and incapacitate him. Escaping imprisonment with ease, he visits Lois, whom he has come to respect, and tells her about the evil Supermen on other Earths before leaving her to learn about the Kryptonite shard for herself.
  • Moe:
    • This show might be giving us the most adorable Clark Kent ever put to animation, especially when it comes to his flustered interactions with Lois that seem to be straight out of a Shōjo manga or anime. The contrast between his meek, nervous behavior as a civilian and the more confident image he projects as Superman drives it home even further, and unlike earlier incarnations of the character, his personality as Clark isn't just an act he puts on to hide his identity.
    • It's also definitely giving us THE most adorable Lois Lane, ever. While she's much more confident and outgoing than Clark, she still has a shyer side when it comes to dealing with her growing feelings for Clark and she can get easily flustered around him.
    • Taking after her cousin, it didn't take too long for fans to fall in love with the show's version of Kara Zor-El once she took her first bite of mint chocolate ice cream and very quickly establish a cute Ship Tease with Jimmy. The reveal that she's the Kryptonian Warrior did little to diminish this, as it just pushed her into The Woobie territory as a lot of her cute quirks are clearly still there, simply buried under Primus's conditioning. The fact that she's essentially sporting Android 18's outfit and Ochako Uraraka's hairstyle means that the showrunners knew what they were doing to make her more endearing.
  • Moral Event Horizon:
    • Ivo takes his own leap over the line when he throws a board member out the window to attract Superman and then deliberately endangers party-goers during their battle.
    • Deathstroke and Amanda Waller cross it when they advocate taking Superman out when he's in the middle of saving hundreds of people on a collapsing highway, only backing down under orders from the General.
    • Brainiac is cast in a sinister light from the beginning, but he comes across as sincerely Affably Evil at first and a typical alien conqueror; brutal, but nothing out of the ordinary in a superhero story. "The Machine Who Would Be Empire" reveals he's committed genocide upon each planet he conquered, subjected the inhabitants to a Fate Worse than Death, and has been actively altering Kara's memories to make her assist him. Then "My Adventures with Supergirl" reveals that Brainiac was the real culprit behind Krypton's destruction, unwilling to let himself become obsolete when the Kryptonians wanted to abandon their warrior ways.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Jimmy Olsen has been increasingly ignored and disliked by fans in the comics starting in the 2010s, with his role increasingly being diminished or taken over by Lois or Clark's son Jon. This version of Jimmy makes him an equal to Lois and Clark as well as making him a Properly Paranoid conspiracy theorist to help distinguish him from Lois, all of which has brought more positive fan responses to the character. Additionally, while some fans had been a bit annoyed at his habit of cluelessly playing Moment Killer between Clark and Lois, a lot were won back by the reveal at the end of "My Adventures with Mad Science" that he knew all along that Clark was a superhuman but kept quiet about it because Clark was his friend.
  • Rooting for the Empire: Many, many people have expressed absolute adoration for Brainiac's invasion of Earth despite the horrors he's put the heroes through, not because they morally agree with him but because it's extremely entertaining to watch a well-prepared invasion actually occur and to see Brainiac utterly humiliate Task Force X and show humanity's "defenders" exactly where they belong on the scale of villainy.
  • Spiritual Adaptation: Due to its heavy influence from classic anime, especially Dragon Ball, many fans have happily declared it the closest we'll get to a "Great Saiyaman" show. It helps that Mr. Mxyzptlk resembles a Supreme Kai, Kara Zor-El is introduced dressed a lot like Android 18, and Brainiac has drawn comparisons to both Frieza and Cell.
  • Spiritual Successor:
    • Some have called it one for The Spectacular Spider-Man because of both their takes on a superhero. It also helps that the show is getting a Green Lantern show that will take place in the same universe as My Adventures with Superman, which is what The Spectacular Spider-Man was planning on doing with Venom, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, and the Avengers before it got cancelled.
    • After the announcement of My Adventures with Green Lantern there are people calling it the modern DC Animated Universe for being the start of a widely successful new animated Shared Universe.
  • Sweet Dreams Fuel: Some of the most significant praises given to the show concern how it unapologetically embraces portraying Clark and his relationship with Lois as nothing but adorable and wholesome. Combined with a bright and vibrant color palette and an undeniably cute Animesque art style, watching this Superman be a awkward, sweet-natured Gentle Giant while falling in love with a Genki Girl like Lois is nothing short of a cozy experience, especially after some dark and angst-driven portrayals of the title character in recent years.
  • Tainted by the Preview:
    • A few fans aren't big fans of Superman's suit, whether it be bringing back the red trunks, having his belt be red instead of yellow or gold so that it blends in with the red trunks, or the angularity of the sigil on his chest.
    • A number of people have expressed worry that moving the series to [adult swim] will result in the show being filled with crude or gross-out humor similar to the block's other programs or be forced to add pointless violence and gore.note 
    • The reveal image for Jimmy Olsen was severely criticized for Race Lift him without giving him any notable black features due to the art style. In the series, he has a very prominent Afro with undercuts. The teaser image was just at a very bad angle to not show off his hairstyle.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
    • Superman being relatively less powerful than most depictions, akin to the DCAU version particularly in his own show, is a bit divisive with fans disagreeing on whether his depiction as a rookie justifies this. On the flip side, the way he "levels up" anime-style with energy auras and all is seen by some as an interesting new spin, if they don't think it's too off base for Superman.
    • While the show's major villains are generally well-liked, with the General and Amanda Waller lauded as compellingly tragic yet still ruthless characters and the show's incarnations of Brainiac and Lex Luthor being considered among the best yet due to how vile yet entertaining they are (enough for most to overlook their new designs), the minor villains making up Superman's Rogues Gallery are generally a lot less popular. This is because the story generally falls back on making them criminals, mercenaries, and criminal mercenaries misusing stolen alien technology rather than their broader range of motifs, backgrounds, etc. from the source material.
      • This show's depiction of Deathstroke has proven to be slightly controversial. Many people complain that the Pretty Boy look and role as the main field guy for Task Force X just isn't as memorable as the grizzled, eyepatched veteran who was a legendary immoral, homicidal, and remorseless Super-Soldier at all. His later Powered Armor design was slightly better received, although some critics still found it a bit too "movie supervillain" for the character.
      • To a lesser extent, Leslie Willis has also been criticized for being an In Name Only adaptation, lacking the source character's metahumanity, motivation, career background, etc., whose new design, personality, and backstory are much less interesting than her original incarnation's, even after her Super-Power Meltdown. She got significantly better reception in Season 2 due to actually becoming a metahuman and the Hidden Depths that were revealed in "Olsen's Eleven", which transitioned her character into a vague anti-hero, expanded beyond the one-note villain she was before.
      • This is some people's reaction to Intergang in this continuity not having any ties to Apokolips; usually being Superman's introduction to Darkseid. Instead of a vast criminal conspiracy, they're a small team of petty, incompetent, Affably Evil criminals who can barely work their own stolen tech.
      • Anthony Ivo is largely the exception, or at the very least he got it significantly less than the others; while he didn't escape criticism for being yet another tech villain, many people agree his depiction as a social parasite who becomes a literal one through unchecked greed and ego works as an effective Foil for Superman's Humble Hero nature.
    • In a similar vain to the villain outrcy, the Adaptational Villainy of Supergirl, even granting that the trailers already spoiled that she will turn ally, mainly for the baggage this brings to the character being seen as undesirable period, as this is too big of a departure from the comics for some due to her genocidal actions regardless of her being brainwashed, and on top of that being seen as too similar to Dragon Ball (namely enemy turned ally Vegeta, whose genocidal past is basically glossed over later) and Invincible, which has a currently ongoing cartoon adaptation as well.
      • In a similar vein, Krypton being a militaristic conquering empire also draws complaints for being too much like the Viltrumites of Invincible, the Saiyans of Dragon Ball, etc., though the show at least differs by portraying Krypton as more morally gray than outright evil, and Jor-El remaining as much a Big Good as ever.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The Tie-In comics revealed a version of Robert DuBois aka Bloodsport, reimagined as an agent of Checkmate who's an absolute badass, an Always Someone Better rival to Deathstroke, and isn't afraid to lay down his life to destroy threats to Earth if needed. Despite an impressive showcase and being arrested by Waller at the end of the comic, Bloodsport hasn't made the leap to the show yet. Some fans even wish he was the Task Force X agent fighting Superman over Deathstroke. Being an actual Superman villain helps in his favor.
  • Unexpected Character:
    • Nobody expected a version of the Newsboy Legion - or rather, the Newskid Legion - to appear in the first episode as newspaper delivery kids, since they're quite obscure and haven't been in the Superman franchise since the end of Dan Jurgens' iconic run. The (appropriately) Gender Flipped Flip Johnson being the most prominent of them was additionally an unexpected move.
    • Deathstroke's appearance was also unexpected, as he's usually enemies with Nightwing, Teen Titans, or Batman, not the Man of Steel.
    • The Brain and Monsieur Mallah, who are normally villains of the Doom Patrol (and shown in animation as antagonists in Teen Titans (2003) and Young Justice (2010)), also surprised viewers with their appearance. Their Adaptational Heroism also came as a surprise even to people who expected the characters due to having seen the confirmed voice cast.
    • Nobody expected the show to use Heat Wave, who is one of the Flash's Rogues, much less do a Gender Flip so that she is now a loose stand-in for Volcana (created to be a DCAU Superman foe just like Livewire, who does appear) instead of just using Volcana.
    • Not a lot of people expected Vicki Vale to appear, who's known as a supporting character in Batman, and her appearances in adaptations tend to be infrequent.
    • When he was first spotted in the trailer for Season 2, many expected the member of Task Force X who attacks Jimmy and Lois in the season premiere to be the start of the show's version of Metallo, primarily due to his Artificial Limbs with a common theory being that he'd lose more of his body as the season continued. So it came as a bit of a surprise when the credits revealed he's actually a version of Damage with some Adaptational Villainy applied.
    • Silver St. Cloud's appearance was also something nobody really predicted, with her traditionally being a love interest to Bruce Wayne/Batman, not having any strong connections to Superman stories, and rarely even appearing in the majority of Batman media over the decades, given how most Batman movies, cartoons, and shows tend to skip over Batman's socialite love interests like Silver, Julie Madison, or Linda Page and jump straight to having Catwoman or Talia as his main love interests.
    • And lest we forget Dr. Byrna Brilyant and Chandi Gupta, who in the comics are the Wonder Woman foe Blue Snowman and the Justice League Europe member Maya, respectively. This marks the latter's first ever appearance in animation.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Lois comes across as this to some fans, especially during the first season. While Lois hates it when people lie to her and has a good justification through her father lying about how sick her mother was before she died, at the same time, she doesn't have a problem with lying to get what she wants, like how she lied to Clark and Jimmy on their first day and almost got them fired or when she made them impersonate the Scoop Troop for a story. Lois' What the Hell, Hero? treatment of Clark after confirming that he lied about being Superman takes this even further as while it makes sense for Lois to be mad, Clark had good reasons for not wanting to tell her that she simply ignores, and by the time the conflict is resolved, she never apologizes for giving him a hard time. This isn't helped by the show's quick pacing meaning that it doesn't feel like Clark and Lois have known each other long enough for the former to be comfortable offering up such a close secret, regardless of their immediate chemistry; the show expects the audience to just accept it as a given simply because they're Clark Kent and Lois Lane, a famous romantic pairing across all sorts of other media. And while the following episode does try to add more nuance to Lois' perspective, by having Lois clarify that part of the reason she's so pissed at Clark for lying is because it throws everything else he's said into doubt for her, including whether his feelings for her are genuine, when Jimmy reveals that he'd been a Secret Secret-Keeper for years and reasonably says that he never brought it up because it was Clark's business if he ever wanted to tell him, Lois's immediate reaction is to ask why Jimmy never told her.
  • Viewer Gender Confusion: Patti of the Newskid Legion is a girl, but despite her feminine name, her appearance and her, along with the rest of the Newskid Legion sans Flip, being The Voiceless makes it easy to mistake her for a boy. She's confirmed to be a girl when Flip states her mom wants the rest of the Newskid Legion to be nice to her.
  • The Woobie:
    • Clark himself definitely counts, being a timid and awkward but well-meaning Nice Guy who still gets put through the emotional wringer as the show goes on. As a child, he's initially excited when he discovers he has superpowers, only to learn that he's an alien and he's not actually related to his Muggle Foster Parents; this gives him major identity issues and leads him to distance himself from others out of fear of hurting someone with his powers and for being ostracized for his alien nature, and it's implied he didn't have any friends for a while until he met Jimmy in college. Things start looking up for Clark when he decides to use his powers for good as Superman, but it's soon revealed that some people are too cynical to accept that someone with his abilities would just want to help people and believe he must have an ulterior motive behind his heroics. Task Force X are especially suspicious of him even though he has no idea why at first, which culminates in the General kidnapping, torturing and interrogating Clark due to believing he's a weapon sent by alien invaders to cause destruction on Earth, which causes Clark to fall into despair and seriously question his own nature.
    • And Kara would probably trade anything to have Clark's life, her pod having been intercepted by Brainiac and being molded into his weapon of genocide her whole life, regularly being forced to destroy planets she initially infiltrated and made friends with, and only having her memory erased prevented her from having a complete nervous breakdown out of guilt. Add that Brainiac is also a hideous father figure, being a cruel and emotionally unavailable manipulator who physically and mentally berates her on a regularly basis, as well as erasing any positive relationships she's had. Small wonder she has such a complete Villainous BSoD when she discovers the truth.
  • WTH, Costuming Department?: The villains' designs are a recurring point of contention, especially Livewire and Heat Wave, as many feel their outfits are too generic and monochrome compared to their more unique designs in other adaptations. It's notably the one major criticism anyone has of Brainiac, who otherwise received near-universal praise in Season 2.
    • Parasite once again gets this criticism less, with his more visceral Kaiju form especially lauded by fans who enjoy the concept of him becoming more monstrous-looking the stronger he gets, but some still aren't fond of his initial tech-based design. Lex also gets less flack for having a full head of hair and glasses, with most understanding his redesign was the only way the creators could even get Lex in the show to begin with, and many feel him growing into his Bald of Evil over time fits his From Nobody to Nightmare characterization.
    • Aside from Lex, the other major exception among the Rogues Gallery seems to be Atomic Skull of all characters. Despite only being a minor villain in Season 2 and not really having a notable personality to speak of, most consider his redesign to be awesome.

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