It’s a great time for Superman fans, with the Man of Steel soaring into movies, TV, animation and comics. To help us stay on top of it, writer Tim Beedle shares what's grabbed his attention and why in this monthly Super-Family column.
 

I’ve written in the past about how the hardest thing about being a Superman fan may be knowing he doesn’t actually exist in our world. But this season of Superman & Lois has made me consider whether it’s better than a possible alternative: Is it better to have never had a Superman to begin with, or to have had one and lost him?

For anyone who isn’t watching, the fourth and final season of The CW’s series is giving its spin on the “Death of Superman” storyline. (Also, if you’re not watching, you really should be. It may not get the buzz that other superhero shows get, but Superman & Lois has been some of DC’s very best live action TV since it debuted in 2021.) In the three episodes that have aired as of my writing this, we’ve seen Superman struck down by Doomsday and the fallout that’s caused within his family, as well as the Smallville community as a whole. The end of episode three seems to suggest that Superman’s return will arrive sooner than later, but even if that proves true, we’ve seen how devastating the sudden and unanticipated loss of the world’s beloved protector has been.

Lois, Jonathan and Jordan Kent reacted with the expected denial at first, believing Clark’s Kryptonian biology will save him. However, when a desperate attempt by Jordan to revive his father failed, the three realized that they can’t keep denying the reality of Clark’s death. General Lane, as well as John Henry and Natalie Irons arguably have been in denial a bit as well, choosing to instead focus on how to deal with the continuing threat of Doomsday (who’s still alive and out there) rather than their grief. In fairness, this probably is a necessary thing considering Lane’s role at the Department of Defense and the fact that John and Nat are some of the only other superheroes officially operating on this Earth, but one would hope they’d eventually allow themselves to feel what they need to feel.

That’s because if you don’t, bad things tend to happen, which brings us to the other key player this season. I’ve never seen a version of Lex Luthor quite like the one Michael Cudlitz is bringing to the screen. Cudlitz’s Luthor is angry. Enraged. Seemingly always on the brink of eruption. He’s still a wealthy industrialist with one of the world’s biggest corporations at his beck and call, but he’s sure not making it a priority right now. He seems to be single-mindedly focused on one thing: revenge for the years he spent in prison due to the collective actions of both Superman and Lois Lane.

Luthor claims he was innocent of the crimes he was accused of, and so far, the show has left open the possibility that he may be right. But I don’t know, friends. This is Luthor we’re talking about. Forgive me for not trusting him.

What does seem to be the truth is that his arrest and imprisonment drove his daughter away from him, and Luthor’s not taking the loss well. Not to get all psychoanalyst here, but it feels like if he’d allow himself to feel and grieve that loss, the anger over it would eventually subside. He may never be much of a fan of Superman or Lois Lane, but I can’t imagine he’d still feel the need to dedicate his life to destroying theirs.

Perhaps the biggest irony so far this season is that Lex Luthor has effectively won. He got his revenge. Superman is dead, Lois is emotionally devastated and everyone who knows them is hurting. His plan succeeded, and yet he doesn’t seem to be done. Rather than, objective now accomplished, allowing time to process all his feelings over his loss, Luthor now seems determined to turn the remainder of Superman’s family against each other…but to what end? Even his assistant Amanda seems confused about what his endgame is. None of this is going to bring his daughter back to him—if anything, it’s likely driving her even further away—and if he gets everything he wants, if Superman never comes back and his family destroys each other, Luthor’s still eventually going to have to deal with the fact that his daughter is gone. All he’s doing is putting that pain off for a while.

In the meantime, he’s doing a lot of damage to everyone who knows Superman and the world at large. Hell, he may even be doing some real damage to LuthorCorp as well. All because he can’t deal with loss.

Look, I realize loss is hard. As a culture, we’ve been trained not to think about it. Even Superman & Lois, for all the intelligence, sensitivity and truth with which they’ve approached it so far is going to bring Superman back—the storyline is technically about the death and return of Superman, after all. We don’t like acknowledging that a part of being human is losing people close to us. But at the same time, I think most of us understand the reality of it. Most of us, as hard as it is, come to accept it. In fact, it’s one of the biggest things that unites all of us.

I don’t know if having and losing Superman is worse than never having him at all, but seeing the Kents grieve his loss just makes me appreciate the fact that my family is still here even more. I know that won’t always be the case, but when that day arrives, it’s reassuring to know that yet again, we can look to Superman and his family for examples of the right way to handle it.
 

Superman & Lois airs Mondays at 8 p.m. (7 p.m. CT) on The CW.

Tim Beedle covers movies, TV and comics for DC.com, writes our monthly Superman column, "Super Here For...", and is a regular contributor to the Couch Club, our recurring television column. Follow him on Twitter at @Tim_Beedle and Bluesky at @TimBeedle.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Tim Beedle and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.