- Title: My Adventures with Superman – The Machine Who Would Be Empire
- wiki: link
Leaving events on Earth alone (although we may catch up with those a bit in the next episode), “The Machine Who Would Be Empire follows Kara (Kiana Madeira) and Clark‘s (Jack Quaid) adventures in space where she eventually leads him to her “father” Brainiac (Michael Emerson) who wishes to rebuild the Kryptonian Empire. Through some sort of mind-control Brainiac has been using Kara not to bring planets in peacefully to the empire but to wipe them out completely (including Thanagar which the cousins visit). By the end of the episode Kara understands how she has been duped, but she need some help to save Superman (and the universe) from the AI.
In an episode where we don’t get any of core relationships which really make the series work, the interplay between Kara and Clark fills that gap nicely (including the equivalent of a snowball fight in space). Character relationships continue to be the biggest strength of the series. Villains continue to be its weakness. I’m not impressed with the geometrical Brainiac that looks like any number of various Kryptonian robots or armor we’ve already seen on the show or the basic evil AI motivations. His testing of Kal-El provides the action of the episode but there’s little to his design or machinations to elevate him into a character to get invested in.
