SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for "Man of Steel," the latest episode of Superman & Lois.
This week's Superman & Lois blindsided viewers with the surprise twist that its parallel world foe "Captain Luthor" was in fact another major Superman character: John Henry Irons, i.e. Steel. However, it turns out the show's dialogue hinted at that twist a few episodes prior.
Irons' actor Wolé Parks and Superman & Lois writer Jai Jamison revealed in an interview that part of the cover story John gave Lois Lane as "Marcus Bridgewater" teased both his real identity and comic backstory. This, according to Jamison, was Irons' claim of being a Luthor Corp employee. "On his Earth, John Henry did work for Luthor. That's the background of his science knowledge; he was assigned to Luthor Corp. when everything went down, and then he reenlisted in the army to fight against those folks," Jamison explained. "So it was kind of that reference to the work at Luthor Corp, but not being Luthor."
Parks, who was familiar with Irons' engineer background, also feared that this description would tip viewers off too easily. "So I was worried, like in my head, I'm like, 'Oh my God, when I say that I'm an engineer and I worked for Lex Corp., now it's gonna be out of the bag!' So in my mind, I was trying to play it like a wink kind of thing," he stated. "Because in my mind, I was like, 'If I play it off in a fun way, I guess, then maybe the audience will look past it.'"
"But yeah, I agree," he continued. "That's a big thing, because that is John Henry Irons. He wasn't lying. You know, the idea is that we think that he's creating this persona for Lois, but he really isn't. He really is telling her actually the truth."
While first introduced on Superman & Lois as an armored warrior with a vendetta against Superman, Irons' backstory has had more attention in recent episodes. After fighting the Man of Steel, he attempted to get closer to Lois and even lead her to the ex-kryptonite that Morgan Edge was secretly harvesting underneath Smallville. This connection, however, is revealed to be more personal, as he was Lois Lane's husband on a parallel Earth and tragically watched Superman murder her on-camera. This prompted Irons to create the armored suit alongside their daughter using Luthor Corp tech, resulting in the suit's A.I. mistaking him for a Luthor.
Superman & Lois stars Tyler Hoechlin, Elizabeth Tulloch, Dylan Walsh, Alex Garfin, Jordan Elsass, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Inde Navarrette and Wolé Parks. New episodes air Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
Source: CBR
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