“Let’s Go to Ivo Tower, You Say”
What They Say:
Clark, Lois, and Jimmy cover a glitzy gala hosted by tech-billionaire Dr. Ivo, but while Clark and Lois wonder if this counts as a date, Ivo unleashes his newest invention: a creation that can bring down Superman.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
One of the things I had hoped for with the show once it got things going a bit was that it would slow down a bit. And it does it with this episode, though not without throwing a spanner in the works at the end that definitely feels too soon. The show has been moving at a fast pace when it comes to the characters and how many things happen, which is to be expected to a degree with a twenty-two-minute show, but it’s also felt a bit rushed an unable to take time to breathe. We get more of those moments to breathe this time around and to seed why Lois would start to fall for Clark even though he’s absolutely nothing like her usual type and isn’t someone that she would even typically want to work with since he’s very measured and by the rules compared to how she operates.
This episode gives the two of them and third-wheel Jimmy Olsen a chance at an actual assignment as Perry “Don’t Call Me Chief” White sends them to a gala hosted by Dr. Ivo and his Amazotech company. Cat Grant would normally go but she’s not able to and has supplied them with questions to use. Of course, a gala of the wealthy and powerful is an opportunity that Lois can’t miss out on and she tosses the cards and goes with the hard-hitting questions. Which results in nobody talking to her. Lois is a great writer at this point but she needs to learn how to get into these things and disarm people with other questions first. You can’t just ask someone why they’re corrupt because it usually doesn’t work. And that leads to a lot of frustration for her but also for Clark because he’s being forced into an interviewing style that is very much not him.
They all kind of luck out in that a story falls hard into their lap though as Dr. Ivo is displaying a new piece of technology that he has which he calls a Parasite suit. It’s a fun play on an existing villain character and essentially makes it an armor suit, but one that while it does provide him with a lot of power that he can gain through the fight with Superman, it also takes a toll on him and by the end of the fight he’s a twisted husk of a man. That’ll seed more issues in the future. Ivo’s interesting to watch because you see that he can’t understand other people at all or their motivations for doing good and the right thing and that distrust, coupled with the uncertainty still as to who Superman is, has him creating this thing and going on quite the tear with it. That it corrupts him quickly isn’t a surprise and that he’s easily able to nearly killed several regular people, even among his own social/economic class, just shows that he doesn’t view other people as really. And that becomes even clearer in the discussion Superman has with him later, which is interesting to watch.
In Summary:
Dr. Ivo has been in a lot of adaptations of the comic character and I’m always game for a new one. There’s a lot to like with this iteration in making it relevant to here and now and it seeds some future stuff pretty well. I also like the subplot that has Jimmy and Lois looking for clues about Superman in recent years of articles about strange events in order to try and discover more about him. It’s good journalism and initiative to be sure and they’re creative enough to explore odd routes. I don’t like that Lois seemingly puts it all together at the very end because part of the fun is in watching the two have a relationship without Superman and with her and Superman being its own thing. I do suspect that it doesn’t fly quite as well these days as I can easily see and understand the gaslighting arguments about it, so I won’t be surprised if they drop it in favor of exploring other dynamics for it. That’s part of how a property evolves over time and I can always go back and enjoy the numerous ways it’s been done and engage with this version as well. I still wish it was closer to the end of this first season than just before the halfway mark, however.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Max
