As is the trouble with many seasons, “Will To Power” feels pretty slow in the overall scheme of things. While episodes one and two helped set the table and raise the stakes with Zod, Lobo, and the Brainiac infection of Seg-El, “Will to Power” felt a bit more stagnant in some places. Thankfully, the character work that was done for the most part made it worth it in the end.
Starting of course…with Brainiac. Brainiac is very much a complicated character to bring to the screen, especially in live-action, but since the beginning with Season 1 they made him infinitely compelling and cool. And this episode makes the case that he is one of best live-action representations of a DC Comics (or just plain comics in general) character ever. His ways of manipulating Seg, all the while being so cold and calculating makes you want to have a series just starring him.
Not that Cameron Cuffe didn’t do great as well, he actually had to play many sides of Seg-El in this episode and it worked really well, including the ending where he beat Brainiac himself.
The Zod family drama was also good for the most part. Hearing about how Zod had to deal with Lyta’s death in his timeline, and the fear of losing her in this timeline was very well done. And that hug at the end was perfectly shot and acted. I just hope we get to see the Zod’s in action now because they’ve been very chatty as of late.
Which brings me to Jayna, who is trying to get Dev (who I don’t know how he survived still…) to help her on her quest to “Save Lyta”…which is odd on numerous levels. But I’ll role with it for now. That ending scene with them in the cot though felt really awkward though.
Nyssa got some more layers added to her tonight, and I was grateful for that. And finding one of her old flames (a female flame no less) was a nice touch. But I hope we get more of her story too because she needs to get caught or come clean soon else this is going to sound unbelievable.
Oh, and Lobo is still awesome but Adam is starting to come off as a bit annoying. So hopefully with him and Seg back on Krypton he can focus a bit.
In the end, “Will To Power” was more about character development than plot. And while that’s ok for now, it needs to change next episode for momentum to not be lost.
Todd Black
Todd Black is reader of comics, a watch of TV (a LOT of TV), and a writer of many different mediums. He's written teleplays, fan-fictions, and currently writes a comic book called Guardians (guardians-comic.com). He dreams of working at Nintendo, writing a SHAZAM! TV series, and working on Guardians for a very long time!
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