I want to hate the Stranger because he’s trying to kill Superman, but after learning more about him and his past, it’s hard to do anything but understand.
We’ve been assuming that the Stranger was a Luther. His AI called him Captain Luther, and it makes perfect sense that a Luther would be after Superman (Tyler Hoechlin).
It seemed a little odd that a Lois Lane (Elizabeth Tulloch) would be married to him. But other Earths can be very different.
“Man of Steel” was dedicated to revealing who the stranger was. John Henry Irons (Wolé Parks), a former member of the military and dead on their earth.
We already knew he was married to Lois, but we didn’t know they had a kid together. We watched as the Superman on his Earth killed Lois as she was reporting right in the middle of it all, as he and their daughter watched.
It’s no wonder he set out to kill Superman.
I loved the parallels of him and his daughter getting ready to kill Superman to him on this Earth doing the same. This episode really gave John a soul. He’s just trying to avenge his wife.
In the end, he’s left in a cell crying as he remembers telling his daughter he promises he’d be right back. Clearly, he wasn’t able to keep that promise.
It also turns out that the suit he was working on was from Luthercorp. They weren’t able to switch it to him before he found his Earth’s Superman.
It’s a nice twist on the Superman universe. It’s not a Luther coming after him, but the man is using Luthercorp technology.
John really did his homework. He had all the tools that would kill Superman. He came really close to succeeding. He had the kryptonite light to quell his powers and that hammer that looked quite like the one Thor uses in the Marvel movies.
If it wasn’t for Jordan (Alex Garfin) hearing his dad in distress, Superman might be no more.
Jordan’s struggles with his powers have gotten worse. Alex is doing an incredible job displaying that struggle on screen. He doesn’t even speak that much in “Man of Steel.” It’s mostly him putting on taking off his noise blockers to try to focus on the sounds around him. The bulk of the acting is with facial expressions and movement.
It wasn’t a horrible idea to focus on Sarah (Inde Navarrette) to hear something. Having her picture to focus on truly helped his hearing breakthrough. Unfortunately, it only made his relationship with his brother even more tenuous when he confronted Johnathan (Jordan Elsass) about moving in on his “not girlfriend.”
And despite Jonathan still being mad at his brother, they were able to come together when their father needed them. Nothing like stealing your mom’s car when you don’t have a license or know how to drive to bring brothers back together.
It was a lot of fun watching them race off to save their dad while Jordan honed his enhanced hearing abilities. Focusing on people you care about is clearly the best tool.
Then, they ran over John! I had no idea what the game plan was, but that proved to be simple and effective. The plan was probably to get there and then think on their feet as they did.
Then Jonathan dragged the hammer and smashed the lights. Are we sure Jonathan has no special abilities? That hammer couldn’t have been easy to pick up, and one of his hands is broken. I would have loved a Thor reference. Jordan came through with his hearing abilities, but Jonathan saved the day with Thor’s hammer! The writers may not have referenced it, but I’m sticking to this version of events.
And now, Lois and Clark Kent are telling their boys everything. Probably good, so when they have to save their dad again, they will at least know what they are getting themselves into.
Meanwhile, Lana (Emmanuelle Chriqui) was starting her new job. Her first task was to choose four executives that would be given a chance to show their leadership like she was given. Only, that’s not what they are for. They are guinea pigs for Morgan Edge’s (Adam Rayner) experiment to give people powers.
Lana clearly had a gut feeling that was what those people were for. So she neglected to recommend her friend for the job. Unfortunately, Edge picked her anyways.
Is he testing her loyalties? Trying to see if Lana has clued in to what they’re doing? This undercover storyline is proving to be exciting. It didn’t even take up that much screen time in the episode. I’m so happy the writers have given Lana a role in taking Edge down.
“Man of Steel” is the most intense episode yet. I’m sure David Ramsey had something to do with that. I’m glad that even after Arrow, he’s able to leave his touch on other Arrowverse shows.
Do you think Jonathan has powers too? Tweet me @MandyTTCarr or comment below.
