This time, let’s take a look into the not-too-distant past to see a Superman vs Bigots moment in the most recent live-action Superman show, which is also sadly only the second show in which Lois is a title character.

“A Brief Reminiscence In-Between Cataclysmic Events”

Superman and Lois, Season 1, Episode 11

Original Air Date: 22 June, 2021

SUMMARY

The episode begins by telling us some of the later parts of the origin of Superman. We skip the early stuff about the planet exploding and the rocket and all that, to start with Clark as a teenager or so. We watch him make his way to the Fortress of Solitude, train with the hologram of his biological father, come to Metropolis and begin his career as a superhero, then finally get his job at the Daily Planet where he meets and works with Lois Lane.

Unlike in many iterations of the franchise, the Lois we have here is not overly impressed with the superheroic antics of the the amazing stranger to her city. After being given an update about the “mystery man” saving a sinking boat, she dismisses it.

Clark: “Seems like a pretty big story.”

Lois: “Yeah, which every reporter here is tripping over themselves to cover. Boys and their heroes.”

Clark: “Aren’t heroes a good thing?”

Lois: “Yeah, of course, and I know that we need this guy. It’s just that ever since he showed up he’s been dominating the conversation. Metropolis has so many problems that aren’t just rescue operations. They’re systemic.”

Lois shows Clark what she has been investigating recently: a string of fires with Nazi symbols spray-painted at the scenes. Someone has been burning down minority-owned businesses in Metropolis and the witnesses claim it was a man in a metal mask and wearing a trenchcoat. Clark had not heard about any of this. Lois notes she’s been covering the story for months, but it has been confined to back pages with the city’s mysterious superhero hogging the big headlines. Clark joins Lois in the investigation and our titular couple bond over a montage of doing investigative journalism…

But their budding romance is interrupted when Clark comes into work one day and finds that Lois has gone off on her own to confronts a suspect, Henry Miller, who it turns out is the absolutely guy who has been doing all that hate-crime arson. And Miller absolutely does not respond well to Lois looking into him.

Fortunately, he takes some time to give a little speech before attempting to kill Lois, which means that, for the first time in this particular Superman universe, Lois Lane is attacked by a supervillain and the costumed protagonist has show up to help.

Clark steps in front of Miller’s flamethrower blast to protect her, then while he is protecting the other civilians on the street, Lois steps up to knock out the metal-masked racist with her taser. Looks like teamwork works.

With the villain down, Lois and Clark-In-Costume speak for the first time. She asks what he’s called and he says “I’m sure you’ll come up with something.” and thus she officially names him Superman. Presumably she noticed the great big S he’s had on his costume this whole time.

That’s it for Henry Miller (in this episode, at least). The story moves on with Lois and Clark’s relationship progressing, they fall in love, he comes out to her as Superman, they get married, Lois gets pregnant, they have twins. When we catch up to the present day, we rejoin the ongoing plot of the season about Clark’s Kryptonian half-brother lashing out at him and other soap opera stuff with little to do about bigotry. Feel free to go check that out on your own, but it isn’t what I’m here for today.

SUPERMAN VS. BIGOTS

What I’m here for today:

As I’m sure you can tell by the way I abandon my plot summary half-way through, the Henry Miller stuff is not the bulk of the episode, but it is pretty significant. In this version of the Superman story, this is the first supervillain that Lois and Clark foil together, and ostensibly the first one this Superman has fought at all. This version of Superman did not immediately start his career by punching gangsters and bank robbers. He spent his early days doing rescue job, saving people in car wrecks or from burning buildings, that sort of thing. I like that.

It may seem counter-intuitive given I’ve written dozens of these articles at this point, but I’m actually not that big a fan of superheroes a lot of the time. Particularly the “crimefighting” aspect of the genre. I’m all for colourful characters who use their unique abilities in socially conscious ways, but once they start going into vigilantism I start getting more questions.

Superhero stories usually treat masked vigilante as the ultimate figure of good. And because we follow their lives, we know that they are generally the good guys trying to do the right thing. But I can never forget that masked vigilantism is also a tradition that includes the Klan. In his eyes, Henry Miller here is a masked vigilante with as much validity as any Batman or Daredevil. He says to Lois: “These people have stolen my neighbourhood and you’re trying to spin it like I’m the bad guy? I’m the damn hero!” His ideals are those of a neo-Nazi, but he’s operating in the same way superheroes do, dealing out the “justice” that he thinks society is failing to deal.

Clark Kent is usually depicted as a masked vigilante. Admittedly not in the literal sense, since he’s not wearing a mask, but he has his secret identity that protects him from the consequences of fighting crime and he goes out there and busts the heads of criminals. We the audience know that he’s fighting the right people (especially when it’s bigoted killers or capitalists intent on making the world worse) so we get to love the fights, but I always appreciate when they put a little extra effort in to distance Superman from the less noble masked vigilantes of the world. This version of the origin makes it clear that Superman is not in this business because he wants to harm people, like Henry Miller is. Superman is here because he wants to help people. There’s a big difference.

I can’t wrap up without noting that this version of Henry Miller is a re-imagining of the supervillain the Atom-Man, who first appeared as a villain on the radio show during World War Two. In that story, the Atom-Man was an actual Nazi, not a neo-Nazi, and there he had super powers. He would go on to be re-imagined in various media, most importantly playing an important role in my beloved Superman Smashes The Klan, which I think influenced his visual here. Henry Miller does return to Superman and Lois, in the Atom Man identity if I recall correctly, so I could revisit it down the line. but with this episode as a standalone thing, I like the way he was used.

STRAY THOUGHTS

• I don’t think it’s the popular opinion these days, but it bugs me that the S on Superman’s costume is supposed to be not an S but some Kryptonian symbol. That thing is a goddamn S. It stands for Superman. I’m all in favour of Superman being named by Lois, as has become tradition. That works for me, but I would just have him not put the S on until after she does that. However goofy people find it that he has an S for Superman on his chest, I find it more goofy that he has an S for Not Superman on there.
• Speaking of the costume, yes, this one is based on the costume in the Fleischer cartoons. It looks pretty good, but is only used in flashbacks on the show.
• Ron Troupe appears in the episode as the Planet’s reporter who is getting all the Superman stories while Lois is not interested. I love Ron in the comics, so I’m always glad when he gets an appearance in other media, but I do wish they were a little more consistent with his role in to the cast. I prefer him as being younger than Lois and Clark, instead of older as he is here. The ideal Ron Troupe to me is a contemporary of Jimmy Olsen, playing a straight-man to Olsen’s wackiness.
• The episode includes Clark changing to and from his Superman outfit in a phone booth, playing it straight in a way that has actually happened far less often than comedic riffs on the concept.