In Lois & Clark, Superman wasn’t always bulletproof
Every day, Watch This offers staff recommendations inspired by new releases, premieres, or, in this case, an A.V. Club theme week. This week: In honor of Comics Week, we look at comics-to-TV adaptations from beyond the current surplus of superhero shows.
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman, “A Bolt From The Blue” (season two, episode eight; originally aired 11/20/1994)
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures Of Superman isn’t the best Superman revival in recent decades, but it was instrumental in how we view superheroes today—as flawed and imperfect as mere mortals. By making Clark Kent/Superman’s relationship with Lois Lane the central focus—and with it, all the complications of having a secret identity—the creators of Lois & Clark turned a classic superhero story into one about what it means to be human. This was in 1993, long before the current surfeit of superheroes on screens big and small, and it was a bold choice to make a character-driven Clark/Supes/Lois love triangle the center of a story that had traditionally been about saving people tied up on train tracks and deflecting meteors hurtling toward Earth.