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“Man of Steel” takes us down the very tragic road of one Ben Lockwood and how the events around Supergirl and her team destroy his family and life and turn him into Agent Liberty. Equally difficult and fascinating to watch the insight into this character was well told. That doesn’t mean I liked it, but it was definitely well done. Big thanks to Super Cohost The Green Butterfly for joining The Silver Vox this week!
Worst. Luck. Ever.
Ben Lockwood is your average enlightened Professor of History that has an Archie Bunker for a dad who has worked in steel manufacturing for his whole life and is enlightened in different ways. Dad is embittered because the introduction of Kryptonians has brought aliens and their advanced technology to Earth and specifically their Nth metal has transformed steel manufacturing overnight and made Dad and his Lockwood Family Steel business obsolete. Dad’s workers attack the new plant, Ben is there and tries to intervene and gets injured for his trouble by an alien defense mechanism (trademark, J’onn J’onzz). With Supergirl and the “FBI” team of Alex and Co. “going easy” on Dad’s crew, Ben begins to question why the FBI would partner with Supergirl. He begins to turn his teaching in his classroom to why progress can be damaging to those who have built great things in the past and get left behind. He goes to Lena and she is absolutely no help. She’s turning to Nth metal because L-Corp has to stay on top of the latest thing and Ben’s dad is a businessman who can adapt. Quite the dismissive, eh? Dad’s plant fails and that’s that.
Then the Daxamites come and on the Lockwoods’ way out of the house Martian Manhunter battles a Daxamite and burns their home down. Burns it down. Even the metallic bicycle. Which is non flammable. Burns it down. And on his way out he tells them they’re safe now. Quite the dismissive, eh?
Ben goes to James Olsen and Catco. Ben tries to appeal to James to tell the stories of folks like himself who have lost everything due to these kinds of attacks. James deftly dodges and also tells Ben that Lena now owns Catco. And says as Ben walks out the door, “Hi, Ms. Luthor. No, I’m not busy.” Quite the dismissive, eh?
Ben starts a conversation in his classroom about nativism that turns into a xenophobic rant which he is called out on by an alien student. He is subsequently fired and this really starts the downturn of Ben into an outspoken alien hate spokesman. He follows the alien student to a bar where he confronts her and Kara steps in before he can hurt her, calling Kara an “Earth Traitor” along the way. His hate speech gains the attention of Otis Graves and eventually converts the Dean that fired him. And then the WorldKillers terra forming destroys Dad’s steel plant and Dad gets his wish to go down with the ship. After the funeral -attended by Lena- Ben attacks her for working with “them” and that all of this is partially her fault. She warns him about blaming other people for his problems or he might end up just like her brother. “They’re not people!” is his response.
Mercy Graves finds Ben and convinces him that the job she has for him will be quite appealing. She gives him the Agent Liberty suit and he finds the mask in the ashes of the shell of his Dad’s steel mill. Mercy tasks him with killing Sofia and we’re caught up to real time. Mercy and Otis are ready to dispense with former DEO agent Jensen but Lockwood better nature stops them. That and his plan to infiltrate the DEO with Jensen’s help.
Here comes J’onn to save the day!
Supergirl is falling to the earth after getting kryptonite’d by the Agent Liberty team in the last episode. Alex calls J’onn to intercept her before she becomes a forever crater in the Nevada desert. (By the way, is National City in the Pacific Northwest? She was on her way back from DC and he went south to catch her. Hmmmmm, apologies if everyone already knows that but me.) He brings her to the DEO and nothing will help because there is no part of the atmosphere that hasn’t been krytonite’d. They can’t get her off world because…death. There is nothing in the quantifiable universe that Alex can do, per Brainy. So she calls Lena. Oh, well, that’s a different story. Lena has a self contained exo-suit that will keep Kara away from Earth’s atmosphere and we get the image of Supergirl from SDCC with the closed/dark face mask.
Closing Thoughts
If you’re coming across this review one day in the far distant future you might not understand the context of the vitriol that I have for this episode. Often we like our genre television because it has the ability to take our real world issues and use them to teach our modern day audiences about morality or question some of the deeper philosophical questions about our role in the greater universe. Unfortunately for this episode it was aired exactly one day after a hate crime that rocked our country because the victims were in their place of worship and they died only because they were there. Because the evil of someone like Agent Liberty is not simply an allegory. It is very real. So I don’t know that I can view this episode with anything but disdain. I’m all about a villain origin story. If done correctly it can gain empathy for the character and we can somehow identify with aspects of him or her that lead to their downfall. This origin story of Ben Lockwood becoming Agent Liberty continues to suffer from the same issue, absolutely zero nuance. Lockwood is shown as a victim time and time again from the actions of our Super Team and from his perspective all of his troubles are all their fault. *Confessional* This paradigm is a personal burr in my backside to the Nth (get it?) degree. I abhor someone blaming others for their problems. So that doesn’t help this episode either-for me. Anywho, this story actually shows Lockwood is just a tool. A tool of his Dad, a tool of Mercy Graves, a tool of his own circumstances. I would have rather Mercy use his already home grown alien hate and threaten his family so he has to become Agent Liberty rather than this story that seems to lack conviction. Yes he becomes a raging murdering sociopath but only because all of the major events of this entire series have come in concert to seal his doom. I don’t like the construction, I don’t like that he’s portrayed as a child having a temper tantrum while wearing a suit of armor. Yes, the episode was technically almost flawless. While disgusted I also couldn’t turn away. It was gripping and Sam Witwer blew this episode out of the park. My fear and is that the writers can’t get us out of this all-too-real division and hatred storyline with a real and meaningful answer. Let’s hope I’m wrong.
Next time on Supergirl!
Season 4, Episode 4, “Ahimsa”
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I’m SO happy it wasn’t about Clark, there’s beyond enough Superman in “Supergirl” recently.
4…is that officially your lowest rating ever John?
Do you mean KARAoke Justina? 🙂
I love Alex but did it seem like she wasn’t as concerned about Kara in this episode as she has been others? I mean yes she was concerned clearly, but I just mean I’ve seen Chyler’s performance be even more intense when Alex’s sister is hurt so while usually on point I do question the intensity of this particular episode when it comes to Alex expressing emotion for Kara. Maybe it’s just me though. Maybe it had to do with Melissa not being in the scene as yes we see her at points but how much was she in the whole shoot (because we know there’s multiple takes for scenes) and did that effect it – seeing Melissa’s face versus reacting to a stand in? There was emotion there again but to the level in which we see when Melissa is in frame not exactly.
I have to give props to YouTuber Alex Schillington for saying at this point the only reason Lena might not know Kara and Supergirl are the same is because she thinks Alex is hooking up with Supergirl thus the intense desire to help her because the only other person as Maggie said she gets that upset over is Kara and if you don’t think they’re the same already it must mean you think Alex and Supergirl hooking up because Alex’s reaction should tip you off that it’s Kara on top of the fact they look and sound alike! True you could say Alex is just really caring but Lena has seen her with others and she’s not that upset so you either think Kara is Supergirl or Supergirl and Alex are hooking up because why else would Alex show that much emotion (even if I felt it wasn’t her most passionate level to date)? That would lead to some good humor moments also trying to see the sisters work out of that cover, ha; there are some cute things you can do with Lena not knowing but at the end of the day it’s still a ridiculous plot because she spends so much time with both and isn’t a dumb character so how can she not suspect at the least as many ask!
“It doesn’t bother me so much because I’m hoping it leads to more dinner conversations and tolerance.” – yes Justina!!! I am beyond tired of the political buzzwords and catchphrases used recently and the heavy handed execution of some scenes but if it helps improve tolerance for people by making someone feel that was too far then bring it on. I still feel subtle may be be way to go just so people don’t shut it out because certain buzz terms trigger them to tune out or they don’t like feeling stereotyped but if this the only way the writers know how to do the topics currently then okay, let’s talk about them being heavy handed and then maybe veer into the actual topic at hand and discuss it to again hopefully improve the world instead of making it worse with intolerance and snap judgments based on one element of a person.
Well said John re why Agent Liberty still doesn’t feel like the head; as you said in the blog I fear Mercy more than I do him. I wonder if it’s Lex in part stoking things because we know he’s coming now (ugh to more Superman in Supergirl’s show)? I’d be more than fine though if it was just the Graves’ using him because unlike Ben they believe fully in what he’s promoting and they’re using him as a way to get away with things if (when realistically) it comes down.
I feel Alex was in character overall in the flashbacks. James is just bad at most of his jobs; it makes sense for someone who’s not been at the position long, yes he’s been in news but not running it so that part is new, but still I feel he could have been less cold at the end – saying he’s not busy was the worst move of all in that scene.
How they’re going to get in the DEO I don’t know because you’d think they’d change Jensen’s codes and have more guards in areas.
No that wife has seen changes so I think she knows!
I definitely agree with Monty, some want to blame people for doing jobs but then when you offer them that same job at the other’s pay they don’t want to do it so how exactly is it the other worker’s fault you don’t have a job? Okay you can argue the other worker skewed the wages but how is that any different than Ben’s dad putting in a lower bid to get a contract for a job thus taking work from another plant? Also isn’t it as much, if not more, the company’s fault who’s paying those low wages…why aren’t they faulted as much as the worker who’s currently holding the position? As John and Justina said earlier there are some things you can’t control but not every single thing is often always out of your control; the steel workers in this episode for example could have kept reminding Ben’s dad to upgrade or they could have gone and got training for Nth work themselves and joined the neighbor plant or another that’s working in the metal or maybe they get a new career all together if they don’t want to keep being a plant worker. It makes you wonder how they’d treat wood workers who said they put them out of business – would it be different then because it’s them aka “Well steel does make more sense!” or would they realize faulting the Nth workers for progress is hypocritical as they did the same to the carpenters essentially? What was Ben’s dad’s plan for when steel materials ran out because some resources do run out after centuries of use. If it’s just about saying something was done in the US because you want to show off your skills then just label it “Crafted in the USA” under the “Nth metal by L Corp” stamp to say “See the quality out workers can produce”; Nth metal doesn’t devalue steel, if anything it saves it as a fall back material because what if the Thanagarians decide to cut off supplies for some reason…you can fall back to steel so the construction of things can continue – it’s arguably the best of both worlds because again what happens if you use up all of that specific resource? You’re going to have to learn a new material anyways then or is this the type of group who doesn’t care because by then they’ll be dead so they don’t care how it effects others as they got what they wanted in a sense?
Disagree Justina – we don’t need Clark. NO MAKING LENA EVIL!!!
Lena looked good in that funeral outfit!
Thanks for the guest hosting job Justina!