Review: My Adventures With Superman S3 E8 'Vae Victis'

My Adventures With Superman, Season 3, Episode 9, titled 'Vae Victis' came out last weekend and was an incredible penultimate episode leading us into what surely will be a tremendous finale next week. From top to bottom, for me, this has been the best season of the show. It has been the blend of fun, whimsy, emotional growth, and character development that we have seen in the prior seasons. But this season has had more drama, more danger, and more action than the prior. Somehow all of those elements have been perfectly mixed.

Last episode, an unstoppable, ever evolving, Eradicator defeated our heroes and took off into the time stream. A powerless Clark went to the Fortress with Bizarro to try to regain his powers. Things look grim.

And so comes 'Vae Victis' which means "Woe to the Vanquished". What  heavy title.

It clearly can be the title for Lois, Lara, Jonathan, Jimmy, Kara, and even Lex. They have been beaten badly by the Eradicator. They are about to face him again, knowing it wants to conquer them. They all have to handle their own insecurities to be prepared. Those insecurities have been building over the season. It is good to see some of them put behind our heroes as they are about to fight for their lives.

But it really has weight with the Superman half of this book. Superman has been cast into a virtual reality by his Fortress guards (led by a 'docile' Brainiac) and told to repeat Krypton's conquering past as a way to prove he deserves his power. Will Superman vanquish? And why did Brainiac give him this task? We find out in the end in an incredible revelation.

We end on two cliffhangers! Bring on the finale of this wonderful season. On to this episode. 

Clark awakens in the Fortress surrounded by the Kryptonian robots and the main one morphs into a Brainiac model, not the evil one Clark met in Kandor but the old Krypton Brainiac, uncorrupted. 

But this model still espouses some of the evil Brainiac's conquering ways. It can return powers to Clark but only if our hero proves he is a conquerer.

Can there be a good Brainiac? 

Clark states outright that hurting people doesn't make you strong. This is a Superman who never wants to fight and always wants to help. We have seen that sentiment throughout this season. And we will hear it a lot in this episode. It is the foundation of this character and I love it.

But Brainiac won't hear it. Instead he sends Clark into a sort of VR experience, putting him into the dark past of Krypton when Kryptonians were barbarians. But this is a true experience, die in this vision and you will truly die.

And then a peek into Krypton's history. Alien invaders landed on Krypton. The Kryptonian barbarians fought them, conquered them, and then used the aliens to learn how to fly, how to turn their sun into Rao, how to become even stronger and conquer worlds. Who are these invaders? Hmmm ...

Again, Clark says he doesn't want to hurt anyone, even these invaders. It is almost a mantra.

For comic fans, this pose has to be a riff of the recent Warworld Saga Superman story's finale.

Meanwhile our heroes are still nursing wounds both physical and emotional.

Kara is still comatose.

Lara is still indecisive.

And Jonathan is angry, not willing to help the army, and gets upset when Lois calls him out for prompting the creation of the Eradicator.

Both of the kids are dealing with a lot but they do come from a horrible future. And this Lois continues to worry what the future holds for her. If these kids aren't in good mental shape, perhaps it is because she is a terrible mother.

We toggle back and forth from Earth to Clark in Krypton's past.

Clark sees the aliens crash land on Krypton. He engages with several of them and barely survives. He gets separated with the aliens commander and the two continue to melee. 

What is interesting is that in the throes of combat, Clark evidences red lightning like effects and seems to become more angry and brutal. But before he crosses some line like killing the alien, he is able to shake off that effect and become himself. 

With Jonathan gone, Lois talks to the frightened Lara. Lara isn't sure if she can help any more. She's distraught.

There is Lois to give her daughter advice. Lara has to stand up and have a say. She needs to grow up.

In a sweet moment that must help Lois, she hears how the other version of her, Lara's mother' also gave wise words. Perhaps our Lois will be a great mother.

Thankfully we don't get a replay of Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Kara is alive. And Jimmy thankfully confesses his love for her, saying he will never leave her.

Huzzah for both things!

The alien and Clark continue to skirmish but Clark continues to manifest the red energy strength. And yet he continues to shrug it off.

Here, just as he is about to skewer the alien with the sword, the true Clark manifests and turns the sword into a splint for the alien's broken arm. 

We are definitely being shown again and again that Clark isn't going to easily start killing and conquering. We haven't seen any woe for these vanquished yet.

Lois had told Kara it was up to her to talk Jonathan down.

On the moon, Jonathan talks about how he always feels so worthless when compared to his perfect father. 

If anyone could know what it is like to live in Superman's shadow, it's Kara. But she instead says it isn't that Clark is perfect ... it is that he never gives up. And that is what Jonathan needs to do. Never give up. 

I am just thrilled by the portrayal of Kara this season. Loving and fierce. Nurturing and self-sacrificing. Loyal and strong. Wonderful!

Clark realizes he needs to get the injured alien back to their ship for medical care. 

En route they get attacked by some monstrous animal which hurts the alien even more.

Again, we see the red energy manifest as we see Clark toss around this beast. You can see how that power can be acquired in protecting people, not hurting them. Hmmm ...

On Earth, Lex has noticed a time anomaly heading to the site of Zero Day, the Kryptonian invasion from Season One. Amanda Waller has been preparing 'Operation Doomsday' (an ominous name for comic fans regarding Superman's death) amassing military, weapons, and even the tech-based villains from prior seasons.

Waller wants Slade Wilson to direct the Kryptonian kids but our heroes finally stand up to the Wall. Kara will lead them. 'Is there a problem??' 

Fantastic! Love the defiance in their looks. And love that Supergirl is now the leader of the heroes.

We get a nice montage of our heroes training. A Steel-like character forging weapons. The tech from season one pulled out of the moth balls. 

There is going to be a fight.

In the evening, Lex tries to sneak off but Jimmy has had his eyes on Luthor.

I love how Jimmy confronts him.

All of this is Lex's fault. Jimmy knows Lex is scared but it is time for Lex to stand up. Or become a villain.

Lex stays. And judging by how much we see him handling the control headset for the earlier Eradicator, I get the sense he is going to have a key part in the finale.

Clark makes it back to the crashed ship. The aliens assume he is there to battle and start to fight.

Clark sees woman and children. These aliens aren't invaders. They're refugees.

Still they attack. Clark refuses to respond in kind. And then Brainiac invades the simulation. Why shouldn't Clark kill these beings that were killed by Kryptonians so many years ago?

But before things get bloody, the alien leader awakens and de-escalates the whole thing. Clark has done what he always done. Helped people. Made friends.

Meanwhile, on Earth, the time anomaly erupts and a very evolved version of the Eradicator we last saw emerges.

Wonder what he has been doing to get into this final form of his.

But before he can get a sentence out, Jonathan bisects the guy with the sword just like Trunks to Frieza in Dragon Ball. 

Unfortunately, this is an unstoppable, ever-evolving being. Both sides heal. One becomes the svelte, evolved form. The other, a more brutish looking form. 

This is not going to end well. 

That is a cliffhanger.

Seriously, I talked about the Dragon Ball level of destruction in the Cyborg Superman and Eradicator fight episodes. So why not a direct homage!

But then we finally get to the real meaning behind Vae Victis.

These aliens are Coluans. They were vanquished by the old Kryptonians, forced to serve the Kryptonians. That truth that the weak must serve is what led to Krypton's expansion.

But Clark knows that path led to destruction.

The Kryptonians are not nice people, taking from the Coluans their knowledge and enslaving them. That isn't Superman. 

But then another reveal and one an old-time comic fan like me should have figured out.\

That alien that Clark 'saved' was twisted by the old Kryptonians into Brainiac. 

Brainiac can't believe there was some world where the Kryptonians could be friends. He can't believe he has served for 10,000 years, sacrificed himself for the Kryptonians. And in a twist, he seems angry that Clark didn't do the same. It looks like he and the other drones are going to kill Clark.

But then the Bizarro clone, that has been held in stasis by the Kryptonian robots, becomes enraged at the attack on Clark and rips them apart.

Might be a stretch but can't see a fist coming through an S-shield shape without thinking of this Doomsday shot. And given the name of the operation, the evolving villain, and the battles, maybe I am not just seeing things.

Anyways, we are primed for the finale and I am here for it!

What will happen next? How can Clark get his powers back? What is going to happen to Bizarro?

And what about the Eradicator? Will we see some evolution to Doomsday?

This season has been amazing and this episode was a great penultimate chapter!