The following contains spoilers for Superman & Lois Season 3, Episode 2, "Uncontrollable Forces," which debuted Tuesday, March 21 on The CW. This article contains brief mention of suicide.
Season 3 of Superman & Lois is an emotional one for Tyler Hoechlin's Clark and Elizabeth Tulloch's Lois. While she's not pregnant, Lois has been diagnosed with breast cancer. It's left the Kents shell-shocked, but Kal-El has made it clear, they'll get through everything as a family.
The timing couldn't be worse, given Onomatopoeia is in Metropolis, raising all kinds of hell. Episode 2, "Uncontrollable Forces," seeds further clues, taking the Man of Steel to Bruno Mannheim's residence in the Suicide Slum. However, while there isn't a physical fight, Bruno deals Superman a mental blow by chiding him on a major error in his superhero crusade.
Superman & Lois' Kal-El Ignored Certain Communities
Superman wants to know what experiments Bruno is running with villains like Atom-Man. The villain is adamant he won't be intimidated, and that whatever he's doing, he's doing for his people. Bruno confesses that when hard times hit, corrupt politicians left his area to die, with impoverished people taking their own lives, hence the name "Suicide Slum."
However, Bruno takes a massive dig at how the Man of Steel often ignored their plight in modern times. He reiterates how his home is not as flashy as Metropolis, nodding to themes of institutionalized and systematic racism seen in Black Lightning. To that point, when Superman says he does save lives, Bruno admits he's still not making real change -- not on the ground, once more speaking to minorities and people of color.
This nods to the Golden Age Superman in the 1930s who fought sleazy politicians, hate groups, gangsters and such, rather than aliens and supervillains who came in the Silver Age decades later. As much as Superman would like to argue, he shoots a long, pensive stare. He can tell Bruno is making sense with his assertions. While it's not intentional, the optics suggest that the god and white savior everyone praises doesn't consider the decay of the Suicide Slums noteworthy -- something that speaks to Clark's lack of journalism there, as well.
Superman & Lois' Bruno Mannheim Is an Inverse Lex Luthor
Being cast aside, seeing suffering as a kid, and knowing his people suffered for years, Bruno has built his Intergang empire, and is now protecting his dominion, warning Clark to never intrude again. It's intriguing seeing Clark -- who's usually welcomed by most of Earth -- now treated as an alien. But from Bruno's perspective, foreigners don't add value -- something DC addressed in the movies when Black Adam chided the Justice Society for ignoring places like Kahndaq.
Bruno takes a further shot at the likes of Morgan Edge, and more specifically, Michael Cudlitz's Lex Luthor. He hates how Lex used entitlement and white privilege to care for his community and the elites, rather than everyone, so Bruno wants to do something different from that brand of capitalism. This seems to tie into his and Onomatopoeia's secret lab, teasing maybe he's creating super-soldiers or meta-humans of his own to protect regions that heroes, businesses and the government ignore.
It's a sociopolitical shot at the corporate world, drawing sympathy because Bruno isn't seeking a throne like Lex, or power or control. It may result in Bruno not just waging war on Superman, but Lex. He does seem to think he's a hero who needs an army, shifting Intergang from dealing high-tech, Apokoliptian weapons and following the Crime Bible from the books, to a movement for social equality. It's more relatable, subverts expectations and leaves Superman caught in the middle, trying to figure out how to ultimately get Bruno in line, while creating tangible change and inspiring others in neglected zones.
Superman & Lois airs Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m. on The CW.