When last we saw him, Superman was fighting Doomsday, a creature created by Lex Luthor by torturing and twisting Bizarro Superman. Now, we get a whole season to explore what that means. Spoilers follow for Superman & Lois Season 4, Episode 01 and 02, "The End & The Beginning" and "A World Without."

Season 4 Premiere

With the way Season 3 finished, we knew things weren't going to start off fun and bright with the final season of Superman & Lois. After Doomsday--a mutated and warped Bizarro Superman--attacked, Superman led him up and away from Earth, to the moon, so that they could fight without endangering innocent people. The premiere picks up on the second half of that fight and if you know anything about Superman history circa 1992, you already know how this is going to go.

Superman & Lois hasn't shied away from being serious, dealing with subjects like depression and anxiety, abuse, and breast cancer. Even so, these first two episodes are darker than I would've bet on. It's a strong, effective start.

Telling this story

The Death of Superman is a hard thing for a movie to do. It's the kind of thing that needs some runway and momentum to get going, and all of DC comics turned toward that event when it hit the pages over three decades ago. We first need to care about the version of Superman we're watching, so that it hurts when he finally succumbs to Doomsday's onslaught. Next, the story also needs an aftermath to show us how his death affects those around him, from Lois Lane to Metropolis to the entire world. A well-handled resurrection is the final part of that equation.

When we're talking about movies, they just don't have the pace or time to really do a story like that justice. Zack Snyder made an attempt at it in Batman v Superman and Justice League, but those movies just didn't have enough time to make the storyline work. You'd almost have needed a whole movie between BvS and Justice League to make it work, and no one is going to go watch a movie about how Superman isn't in it.

VFX sell the battle

First is the fight against Doomsday. Despite the fact that the show received heavy budget cuts after the sale of the CW to Nexstar in 2022, no one would blame you (or at least I wouldn't) for not noticing. Especially when we consider that this is a secondary broadcast network and not a streamer or major network, the VFX are great.

No one is going to mistake the version of space that Doomsday and Superman are in for real outer space, but both characters look like they belong there. When Doomsday (a pretend man made of computers) hits Tyler Hoechlin (a real guy made of meat), it's believable. It hurts. While the CW has had a pretty spotty record at times with visual effects, they've also had some real triumphs, and the sequences between these two characters are a testament to that. It feels like a proper knock-down-drag-out fight between two titans, and Hoechlin does a great job of bringing Superman's calm determination to life. Even when he's beaten to a pulp, he's not going to give up or let them see any weakness.

Lex Luthor, Thug

But this is, of course, the Death of Superman, and so Superman has to die. And this is where we have to begin to grapple with the consequences of that death. Right now, Lex Luthor has won and the victory is so complete that it feels hopeless. Michael Cudlitz is a different kind of Lex Luthor from any we've ever seen in live-action. He doesn't have the weird nerdy energy of Jesse Eisenberg, the smarmy con-man style of Gene Hackman, or the theatricality of Jon Cryer's take. The less said about the other guy who portrayed him the better.

Instead, he's like this biker gang version of the character. He's still smart, he's still a planner, but he's viciously mean and is single-mindedly focused on destroying Lois Lane. Superman, it seems right now, was primarily an obstacle to that. He had to get the pesky bodyguard out of the way so that he could destroy the woman he blames for ruining his life.

I'm not sure if I like it. Lex Luthor is an arrogant character who believes himself to be the equal to Superman, the one man who can rid the world of what he genuinely sees as an extraterrestrial ticking time-bomb. This version of the character was jailed for something he didn't do. He blames Lois--not the Bruno Mannheim--for his jailtime and sees himself as otherwise innocent, like he's his upstanding citizen that Lois intentionally besmirched. It feels too petty for him. The show even acknowledges that, but it's not enough to say "look at how unlike himself this guy is being" and then have him just continue to be unlike himself. There has to be something more there.

Aftermath

One part that does work for me is how the Kent family handles the loss. Their grief is painful and visceral, and it feels realistic. This is the grief of a family who is used to the rhythm of the worry and relief of having an invincible man for a father. He's constantly in risky situations but rarely truly at risk. Now, all those built-up fears and anxiety, which were never truly released when he returned from previous missions, are released all at once as those fears are made true. All three members of the family Lois (Bitsie Tulloch), Jordan (Alex Garfin), and Jonathan (Michael Bishop) approach their grief in different ways.

Jordan makes dumb decisions about how to use his powers, putting his family in greater peril. Lois rages, trying to find some way to lash out at Lex Luthor despite (and because of) how small he's made her feel in this moment. Jonathan is caught in the middle, unable to take either of those paths, and is quietly alone as a result.

The big question is whether or not the show can make good on the potential laid out by this premiere. I wish we could've had a couple more seasons to work up to this, but this is where we are. The show can't resurrect Superman immediately, or his death means nothing. But if they're going to resurrect him, he has to have enough time back for it to feel meaningful; the show isn't called & Lois.

Just a few years ago David Lynch put us through this in Twin Peaks: The Return, teasing us for something like 15 episodes with the return of the show's hero, Dale Cooper. However, it wasn't until the very end that he returned. It worked there, but it won't work here, and I'm curious to see how the show goes about it and tries to make it feel earned. This is the last season, and they've written a big, big check that they now have to cash.