The CWverse took on a big risk withSuperman & Lois. Not only were they adapting two of DC comics’ most well known and revered characters, but they were doing so alongside Clark Kent and Lois Lane’s cinematic counterparts inZack Snyder’s series of DC films, played byHenry CavillandAmy Adamsrespectively. How can a show dedicated to the Last Son of Krypton and his beloved brash reporter stand on its own, especially on a television budget? Wouldn’t it pale in comparison to the films? What can make this show different from previous live action iterations, likeChristopher Reeve’sSupermanfilms, or even the CW’s previous Superman showSmallvillestarringTom Welling?
Impressively,Superman & Loismanages to succeed in answering all these questions by reinventing the Superman mythos through the concept of the multiverse. While Lois (Elizabeth Tulloch) and Clark (Tyler Hoechlin) were given twin sons, Jordan and Jonathan Kent, as a result of the Arrowverse crossover eventCrisis on Infinite Earths, the show also introduced audiences to a new character in Tal-Rho (Adam Rayner), Superman’s older half-brother. Though advancing the Kryptonian race while supplanting the human race is not a unique motivation for Superman villains, Tal-Rho’s familial relation to Kal-El adds an inventive twist to Adam Rayner’s villain.
In Season 1 ofSuperman & Lois, Rayner’s character is first introduced as Morgan Edge, a character who does have roots in DC comics lore as a shady billionaire who buys out the Daily Planet where Lois and Clark work together as journalists. In the show, Edge plays a similar role, which leads Lois — a Pulitzer Award winning journalist — to quit and move to Smallville with her husband and sons. Edge inevitably follows the Kents to Smallville with his own nefarious plans for the town and, ultimately, Superman. Lois eventually uncovers Edge’s plans to excavate a mine full of X-Kryptonite, a mineral that can give humans Kryptonian superpowers.
As Lois continues to investigate Edge and as Superman faces off with some of Edge’s newly superpowered allies, they discover that Morgan Edge is not Morgan Edge at all, and that his plans don’t just involve Smallville but the entire world. In one of the show’s most mind-blowing twists, Morgan Edge confronts Kal-El and calls him “brother.” His birth name is Tal-Rho, a Kryptonian whose origin story parallels that of Superman’s but in a more twisted way. The son of Zeta-Rho and Lara Lor-Van — Superman’s mother — Tal-Rho was sent to earth years prior to Kal-El’s arrival. Rather than land in Smallville, Kansas to loving adoptive parents, he landed elsewhere, to hunters that feared him and later turned him in to government agents who experimented on him. Once he escaped, Tal-Rho discovered his true purpose — to resurrect Krypton on Earth by using a device called the Eradicator and, with the help of X-Kryptonite, to bring back the consciousness of Kryptonians in the bodies of superpowered humans.
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This twist turned what may have been just another generic, evil billionaire into one of the most compelling DC villains on screen. We’ve already had many iterations of Lex Luthor, fromGene HackmantoJesse Eisenberg. EvenBen Affleck’s Bruce Wayne inBatman v. Supermanplayed the role of a billionaire standing up for humanity against the Last Son of Krypton.Superman & Loismanages to subvert our expectations about Morgan Edge. Tal-Rho could have also been another General Zod analog, but the fact that he shares familial bonds with Kal-El proves to be a more interesting twist on a Kryptonian supremacist — rather than simply fighting for all of Krypton, Tal-Rho is also fighting for his only other living family member. With a show so deeply rooted in the theme of family,Superman & Loisremains true to its theme by involving the season’s big bad in its family drama alongside action and spectacle.
The greatness of Tal-Rho as a villain is specifically due to Adam Rayner’s portrayal of Superman’s half-brother. Speaking withDC comics, Rayner reveals how he “definitely didn’t know when [he] signed on to do the job” about the twist behind Tal-Rho parading around as Morgan Edge. Rayner continues, “It was a total surprise when I found out about the Tal-Rho storyline, and obviously I was intrigued and pleased because it sounded like the character would be more interesting and the idea of being Superman’s brother is just in itself extremely attractive. It didn’t affect how I played Morgan Edge too much because how he presented remained the same—he was who he was outwardly as a human. So, finding out about that transformation and that reveal didn’t actually change my thoughts on playing Morgan Edge all that much.”
The fact that Rayner didn’t know about the twist and yet pulled it off so well is a testament to what he brought to the character of Morgan Edge/Tal-Rho. He communicates empathy in his yearning for Kal-El to realize his point of view — of finally reuniting with their mother Lara and of becoming a true Kryptonian family. And neither Tal-Rho nor Kal-El ever dwell on their “half-brother” status; instead, they merely call each other “brother.” Their brotherhood is a great parallel to the Kent twins, who have their own brotherly rivalry as Jordan has manifested powers while Jonathan has not.
Perhaps there’s something to Rayner as a British actor, too, that makes his villainy a little more appealing to American television viewers. Take, for instance,Tom Hiddleston’s Loki who shares a similar brotherly rivalry withChris Hemsworth’s Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While Tal-Rho is the forgotten son of Krypton, Loki is the forgotten son of the Frost Giants, from whom Odin (Anthony Hopkins) adopted him. Their tragic childhoods are what ultimately lead both Loki and Tal-Rho on their path as villains. Still, Thor’s hope for good in Loki is perhaps analogous to Superman’s hope for Tal-Rho. While he was defeated by the end of Season 1 ofSuperman & Lois, Tal-Rho recently appeared in Episode 2 of Season 2, “The Ties That Bind,” in which he is kept in a Kryptonite prison. When pressed about believing if there’s still good in Tal-Rho, Superman answers, “No, but I want to.” It’s writing like this that makesSuperman & Loisso captivating, pitting characters against each other in new and inventive ways. I can’t wait to see where Tal-Rho ends up throughout the second season and perhaps even more. Rayner brings such a nuanced portrayal to a deeply layered character, and I look forward to seeing more of him.
