My Girl is about both Superman’s and Luthor’s growing involvement with trendy fashion guru Lana Lang, Clark Kent’s high school suitor, and early on in the narrative the application of the titular possession alternates between the two. There is a squeamishness to watching so much duplicity and dramatic irony, and for once Luthor cannot be fully blamed for the emotional hurt that circulates.
For what is remarkable about My Girl is not simply the plot twists that go off like firecrackers, but also the humanizing of Luthor. For once, his consternation springs not from his abstract war with Superman over propriety of the kingdom of Metropolis, but out of his genuine love for Lana, and from her and Superman's undermining of his feelings for her. Soon after the Man of Steel rescues her from two female thieves, Luthor declares with sincerity his gratefulness to Superman for the rescue, and when Mercy, ever the silent bird of prey with animalistic intent to keep sharp eyes on all of her master’s romantic conquests, approaches him with smug satisfaction over the revelation that Lana is disloyal to him, Luthor bitterly casts her out of his own fortress of solitude.
After Luthor graciously expresses his thanks to Superman, Lana is found with the Kryptonian on two occasions, the second of which clarifies beyond reproach her attachment to him. Yes, Luthor is to be reprimanded for his illegal arms dealings, but it is impossible not to feel the hurtful inflections in Clancy Brown’s carefully intonated voice as he tells Mercy that he has seen enough.
Each of Lana’s encounters with Superman takes place in a romanticized environment, the first in a penthouse apartment furnished with a stylized mini-bar and similar modernist accoutrements, and the second in an elevated park, which connotes the volume and three-dimensionality of Metropolis, and which, in that Luthor and Mercy spy on the couple from afar, also suggests the exposure that accompanies such brightly lit, decorated high-rises.
The sense of status and glamour that pervades the episode is also reflected in the storyboarding and animation. In addition to the lavishly decorated locales, the approach to sequence directing also includes a sense of glitz and pizzazz. As Superman apprehends the two mercenaries, what stands out is the flat, pictorial luminescence of Metropolis’ glowing spires, and the only depth cue is the disparity in motion as Superman darts up the side of a building, elevator shaft in hand. This direct framing that is flat but geometrically composed has an air of vogue design, and it is the same sense of modernism that Lana exudes in her fashion show, during which dangerous deals are surreptitiously being made.
Though the climax factors in heavy dollops of suspense, the superlative joys of My Girl are in watching character interactions. After Lana is rescued, at which point Luthor no longer matters to the story, the dominating character contrast is between the small-town girl who has risen to fame and stardom and the superman who remains at heart an easygoing farm-boy. Lana suggests that Clark’s match will be as gentle and soft-spoken as he, only for Lois to interject with her raucous order-barking and forceful physical gesturing. How the producers have fallen in love with foreshadowing.
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