Adult Swim’s My Adventures with Superman is one of the best superhero shows on TV, putting a fresh spin on the character by fusing his stories with anime tropes. Showrunners Jake Wyatt and Brendan Clogher have gotten especially creative in their reimagining of Superman’s rogue’s gallery, and they’re teasing the release of season 3 this summer with a first look at one of the Man of Steel’s cruelest enemies.
Hank Henshaw (Max Mittelman) was introduced in season 2 as a S.T.A.R. Labs pilot who thinks Superman is an alien menace. His beliefs were pretty much confirmed at the end of the season, when Brainiac (Michael Emerson) brainwashed Superman and attacked Earth. Hank tried to fight back, but was shot down by the Kryptonian AI’s space station.
As indicated by the L on Cyborg Superman’s suit, Hank was presumably severely injured in the attack and revived as a cyborg by his ally Lex Luthor (also voiced by Mittelman). In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Wyatt and Clogher confirmed they’re adapting Reign of the Supermen, the 1993 comic arc where Cyborg Superman originated. That storyline followed The Death of Superman and featured several new versions of Superman trying to fill the void. Those alternate versions included John Irons, aka Steel, who was also introduced in My Adventures with Superman season 2, and Superboy, who will be added to the mix in season 3.
Cyborg Superman was Reign of the Supermen’s archvillain, teaming up with the alien warlord Mongul in a scheme to nuke Metropolis and turn the city into a giant engine. The resurrected Superman stopped him, but not before the villains destroyed Green Lantern Hal Jordan’s hometown. The tragedy led Hal to take a villainous turn in the Zero Hour arc, where he tried to manipulate time to restore what he’d lost.
My Adventures with Superman could be teeing up something similar, given the show’s creators are also working on a spinoff, My Adventures with Green Lantern. That show follows Jessica Cruz, who will have a cameo in My Adventures with Superman season 3. Clogher also seemed to tease that the new series will be inspired by Sailor Moon, which aired alongside Dragon Ball Z during Cartoon Network’s Toonami block in 1998.
“Our take on Superman is very obviously inspired by Dragon Ball Z, among other things; there’s a lot of anime influence. Lantern is inspired by a very different part of the same Toonami block. It’ll be really clear once we start dropping promos what part of the Toonami block inspired our Green Lantern show. We’re not subtle, people.”
Season 3 of My Adventures with Superman premieres on Adult Swim on June 13.
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