My Adventures With Superman season three is in full swing on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, once again bringing back one of the most beloved new takes on the Man of Steel. While Clark Kent and Lois Lane are certainly dealing with some issues on their side of Metropolis, Superman’s pal, Jimmy Olsen, is struggling with some very different problems. In believing that he isn’t good enough for Supergirl, aka Clark’s cousin Kara, Jimmy finds himself trying to score some dates. Recently, we here at ComicBook.com chatted with the show’s creators to learn more about how Olsen’s relationship problems come from the comics.
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The latest episode of My Adventures With Superman saw Jimmy joining a “Speed Dating” event in “All’s Fair in Love and W.O.R.M.S.” During this escapade, Jimmy transforms into a werewolf, which is something that actually happened to Olsen in the comics. Needless to say, showrunner Brendan Clogher did his research when it came to Jimmy’s weird and wild transformations in the comics: “When we first pitched the show, I got the ‘Comix App’ and read over one hundred Jimmy Olsen issues, just because I liked them. Unfortunately, it took us three seasons to finally turn Jimmy into a werewolf!” The comics weren’t the only major reference for Jimmy’s misadventures in the romantic world.
Jimmy Olsen’s Anime Origins
Fellow co-creator Jake Wyatt explained how the Jimmy Olsen relationship problems came about in season three and how a major anime helped influence this hilarious series of events: “Two things happened between seasons two and three. One is that I was watching a bunch of Ranma 1/2 and reading it, and the other is that Brendan was on the dating apps and he was just like ‘this is so fraught.’ He was having insane near misses where Tinder was matching him up with people he worked with, and we both thought, ‘ok, we have to do this to Jimmy Olsen.’ So we set up W.O.R.M.S. as they’re all hot mad scientists and they’ll all turn Jimmy into things.”
For those who might not know, Jimmy Olsen’s DC comic career has been a wild one. The first comic to star the Daily Planet photographer was appropriately titled Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, hitting the stands in 1954 and running all the way until the mid 1970s. Not only did Jimmy gain much of his suave reputation in this run, but the comic would also see him routinely transformed into monsters, animals, and everything in between. Unfortunately for Jimmy, while he did find a date in the latest episode of the Adult Swim series, it turned out to be none other than longtime Wonder Woman and DC villain Giganta. Needless to say, the relationship between the unlikely pair failed to launch.
Adult Swim isn’t the only place where Jimmy Olsen’s love life will be explored, however, as James Gunn’s DC Studios is planning to go all-in on the ladies’ man. Gunn has confirmed that Warner Bros is working on a live-action series that will not just bring back Superman’s Skyler Gisondo to the role, but will also act as an introduction to Gorilla Grodd in this new DC Universe. While it remains a mystery how these two very different characters will share the screen for the upcoming series, the pairing has been enough to have plenty of DC fans speculate about the show itself. My Adventures With Superman airs weekly on Saturdays at midnight, airing the next day on HBO Max.
What do you think of Jimmy Olsen’s wild new dating life in My Adventures With Superman? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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