Let me get something out of the way first: I adored the Superman & Lois series finale and how it gave perfect endings for the characters, though I do wish Elizabeth Tulloch’s suggestion for that big Lois Lane scene could have been incorporated. However, in addition to wishing that the showrunners’ original seven-season plan had come to fruition, it would have been nice if Season 4 hadn’t been hit with major budget cuts by The CW. Now I’m even more upset about this after seeing the unused, “full” Steel suit that Superman & Lois star Wolé Parks revealed.
Hailing from another universe and originally determined to kill this universe’s Superman after seeing the destruction the Superman of his reality unleashed, Parks’ John Henry ultimately followed in his comic book counterpart’s footsteps and became one of the Man of Steel’s closest allies. Unfortunately, John Henry never donned a more comics-accurate Steel suit during the show’s run outside of a quick scene in the series finale, but Parks shared on his Instagram that such a suit was indeed constructed for Superman & Lois:
Although John Henry Irons was seen briefly wearing a different Steel suit while flying with his daughter Natalie, Clark, Jonathan and Jordan (with the latter two finally wearing their own costumes) in one of the final scenes in “It Went By So Fast”, this a a practical creation we could have seen on Superman & Lois. Yes, the suit seen at the top of this article did its job across four seasons, for both John Henry and briefly Lex Luthor, but just look at how closely its successor resembles what Steel wears in the comics.
Alas, since Superman & Lois Season 4 had to make due with significantly less money than what the previous three seasons got to work with (which also affected the main cast), it just wasn’t possible to break out this more faithful Steel suit on camera. This series had already done incredibly well with adapting elements of John Henry Irons from the comics and mixed them in with original material, and getting to see this armor in all its glory in episodes would have been the icing on the cake. Oh well, at least we can all agree that this version of Steel was better than the character’s live-action debut in 1997.
We won’t see Wolé Parks’ Steel again, but you can revisit the character’s past exploits by streaming the first three seasons of Superman & Lois using a Max subscription. It also won’t be too long until we’re back to exploring the Man of Steel’s mythos in a live-action setting, as James Gunn’s Superman, which is set in the new DC Universe franchise, opens July 11 on the 2025 movies schedule.
