Superman & Lois, the very final show of the Arrowverse, is coming to an end — but before that, the superhero drama is delivering its best season yet by adapting a hugely famous Superman story: The Death of Superman. What’s more, the CW show is not just delivering the best adaptation of that comic arc, but improving on the source material.
The Death of Superman is a monumental ’90s comic book event that dared kill one of the most iconic superheroes of all time. As successful and influential as that comic was, it is a rather simple story without much nuance. A big monster shows up out of nowhere, dies while killing Superman, and eventually, Superman is brought back to life. Doomsday is not a great villain; he’s just big and strong, which is a problem that has plagued subsequent adaptations. Either they are stand-alone movies that don’t have a good sense of how many strong opponents Superman has faced before (the two animated adaptations from 2018 and 2007), or they treat Doomsday as an early Superman story (like how Zack Snyder made Doomsday just the second villain that Superman faced, ever).
In Superman & Lois, however, the character has been through three seasons and already faced increasingly stronger villains by the time Doomsday arrives. When Doomsday appears and defeats Superman, it comes across like it does in the comic: an actual formidable force the likes of which Superman thinks he’s faced before, but hasn’t, and he pays the ultimate price for it. Most importantly, this Doomsday is not just a mindless beast that shows up out of nowhere. Instead, it’s Bizarro Superman, whose dead body was resurrected using Superman’s blood and then experimented upon until his body mutated into the monster we know. We got to know Bizarro throughout season 2 and explored his backstory and his relationship with Lois and his kids. Even as Doomsday, the monster is clearly sentient, and to some degree, intelligent. He recognizes Superman and his family. When they fight at the end of season 3, the audience understands why Doomsday would want to kill Superman beyond it being mandated by this being an adaptation of an established storyline. And when Doomsday does what he’s here to do and kills Superman, it is not just a shock, but a real tragedy.
The fact that the show was renewed for a fourth and final season that would deal with the death of Superman — with all promotion and marketing materials focusing on the world without the Man of Steel, and that Tyler Hoechlin alluded to only appearing in flashbacks this season — helped the illusion that Superman might actually stay dead this time around while his sons would take up his mantle. Even if it was only a couple of episodes, the strong focus on how the Kent family and their friends grieved and started to move on sold the idea that the death had a big and lasting impact. For the first time since 1993, there was reason to be surprised at Superman’s eventual return to life.
Even when Superman does come back to life, it isn’t a clean moment of triumph. This is what makes Superman & Lois’ take the best version of the story. Where every other version — even the original comic — has Clark come back to life after a little while without his powers, only to gain them back shortly thereafter without a change to the status quo, Superman & Lois makes it clear there are lasting consequences. All the better to remind us of the human behind the superhero crest.
Rather than a Kryptonian machine just regenerating Superman, his resurrection comes after Lois’ father, Sam Lan,e sacrifices himself, injecting his body with a serum made out of Superman’s blood (which also created Doomsday) so that his heart could be transplanted to replace the one Clark lost to Doomsday. It is Kryptonian tech that makes it work and brings the Man of Steel back to life, but it is a human organ from a human donor that resurrects Clark Kent. And even though he quickly regained his powers like he does in every version, the show portrays Clark’s heart surgery with the same gravitas and nuance it gave Lois’ breast cancer storyline last season — showing how the euphoria of being alive also comes with heavy limitations and a constant reminder that you’ll never be the same again. Clark’s powers are increasingly weaker, like his super hearing not working most of the time.
Making matters worse — at least, worse for a superhuman who hasn’t endured a single one of the human body’s many imperfections — alcohol is affecting the Man of Steel for the first time, and he’s even growing gray hair. In other words, Superman is aging. In episode 6, Clark admits to Lois that he never considered the chance that he might actually grow old and become mortal, and now the thought is frightening. Superman has grown old or even died in comics before, of course. But there is something particularly poignant and, most of all, human about Superman & Lois — which has made a point before that Clark has barely aged since high school while his wife and kids grow up and grow old around him — teasing that Lois and Clark will grow older together, rather than Superman outliving his loved ones.
It’s the culmination of the ethos of Superman & Lois, a show that — despite the title — always cared more about Clark Kent than Superman, just like the character himself would. To quite literally have the Man of Steel sacrifice everything to save humankind and then become one of them, even in just some regards, like getting gray hair and a weaker liver, is to ground the character in the universe of the show, but also in the larger Superman mythos. After all, Superman has always been more man than super, more human than Kryptonian, and his death and resurrection in Superman & Lois is putting that idea in the foreground of what could be its best season.
From its very opening scene, Superman & Lois has always put the human side of Superman front and center, to great results. But in adapting the death and resurrection of Superman, the show is reaching its full potential, capturing the essence of the character as inherently human despite his alien origin. With a Superman movie reboot coming next year, this season of Superman & Lois feels like both a promise of a future where Superman is no longer angry and bleak, and also a new standard for portrayals of the character and his stories.
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