James Gunn’s Superman, starring David Corenswet, is finally in theaters, and it’s a big hit at the box office, earning back most of its $225 million production budget in its first weekend. The jubilation and excitement of the movie may have fans coming home wanting to dive into every Superman adaptation they can get their hands on, but none will scratch the itch quite like Adult Swim’s animated series My Adventures with Superman.
My Adventures with Superman is a coming-of-age action-romance series that reimagines the early days of Clark Kent (Star Trek: Lower Decks’ and The Boys’ Jack Quaid), Lois Lane (Alice Lee), and Jimmy Olsen (Ishmel Sahid) as 20-something interns at the Daily Planet. The show follows Clark as he embraces his role as Superman while uncovering the mystery of his alien origins, which hint at a destructive Kryptonian legacy rather than a peaceful one.
As Clark navigates his dual identity, he and Lois fall in love, though she’s initially obsessed with uncovering the superhero he’s secretly become. Meanwhile, Jimmy provides comic relief and heart as the trio investigates growing metahuman activity in Metropolis. There’s a villain of the week each episode, in a structure similar to Bruce Timm’s Superman: The Animated Series and The CW’s Smallville, each tying into a larger conspiracy, which sees Amanda Waller (Debra Wilson) leading a showy government agency filled with villains who are all wary of Superman’s power.
My Adventures With Superman isn’t trying to deconstruct The Super Man as a god, or evaluate his place in the world under the current geopolitical structure. Amanda Waller and her cronies treat him like a freak, and they’re justifiably scared of him because he’s superpowered, but it’s not the same unrelatable treatment he frequently gets in his Zack Snyder and Bruce Timm iterations. Zack Snyder treats Superman as an allegory for Jesus throughout his stint in the DCU, which gets in the way of showcasing how Superman usually interacts with the public. Versions of Superman like the one in James Gunn’s 2025 movie are hands-on, saving individual people and squirrels alike from catastrophe. People love him, and he sweats the small stuff that’s never shown in Zack Snyder’s universe. But My Adventures With Superman explores a more human Kal-El.
In Timm’s animated series Justice League Unlimited, Superman is a leader first and foremost. The U.S. government fears his elite team of superpowered friends after it’s discovered that the Justice Lords, a tyrannical alternate-universe version of the Justice League, killed America’s president, Lex Luthor, and imposed authoritarian rule over their Earth. After the Justice League defeated them, the U.S. government, back in the League’s home universe, became fearful that the same thing could happen to them, especially when their iteration of Luthor runs for president. Waller was appointed to lead Project Cadmus, a black-ops organization tasked with creating weapons, clones, and other contingency plans to neutralize superpowered beings, particularly Justice League members, if necessary.
My Adventures with Superman has similar story beats, but it’s a much more lighthearted, hopeful, and relatable show at the forefront. It’s an action-romance comedy that centers on Superman’s relationship with Lois Lane, while exploring his fear that his Kryptonian origins may be rooted in destruction rather than a mission of peace. People are still scared of his power in this show, and Waller still enlists a government-funded group of cronies to attack him. But that isn’t the focus of the story. So many other Superman adaptations focus on his relationship to power, but My Adventures with Superman highlights a Man of Steel who’s vulnerable in his relationship with Lois, and vulnerable within himself and his public perception. He’s an unsure man, unlike the unshaken leader from Justice League Unlimited, or his isolated, mildly depressed Snyder counterpart.
Image: Warner Media
The Man of Steel in My Adventures with Superman is more like the one in James Gunn’s movie — he’s a big softie. Like his live-action counterpart, this Superman would take the time to save a squirrel. He’s a big loverboy, and his complicated relationship with Lois is the crux of the story. The fear that his Kryptonian parents’ goal for shipping him to Earth isn’t as altruistic as he once assumed is the central plot of the series, just like it is in the recent film.
Far too often in movies and TV, Superman is too stoic, even when he’s struggling internally. He reaches moments of overt emotion in both Zack Snyder and Bruce Timm’s universes, but it takes compounding issues (like the story circumstances putting Martha Kent in danger or Luthor in the Oval Office) to eventually break his composure. Whereas in Adventures with Superman, a simple misunderstanding between him and Lois is enough to knock him off his game.
In a landscape crowded with portrayals of Superman as a fearless leader or a distant god. In evil-Superman stories, like the Injustice: Gods Among Us comic, video game, and movie franchise, he’s a fallen hero. It’s rare to find a version of the character that embraces his earnest Boy Scout charm. That’s why James Gunn’s movie feels like a breath of fresh air — and why My Adventures with Superman is the perfect show to keep that sense of renewed optimism alive.
My Adventures with Superman is available on Adult Swim’s website and can be streamed on HBO Max.
