[5] "While Tommy joins a local baseball team and uses self-deprecating remarks to make friends (referring to his family as 'wontons' to his white peers), Roberta struggles to fit in".

[4] The family is targeted by the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan—the Klan burns a cross on their lawn and attempts to firebomb their house.

[5] Tommy and Roberta then find themselves increasingly threatened while new friends such as Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane and Inspector Henderson try to help them and they are then similarly targeted.

[3][6][8] In the radio serial, "Superman exposed Ku Klux Klan codewords, rituals, and its bigotry—all based on intel collected by activist Stetson Kennedy—before a national audience.

Pierce Lydon of Newsarama praised Gene Luen Yang for exploring the "subtle and insidious ways that prejudice shows up in our everyday life".

[13] Sheraz Farooqi, for Newsweek, wrote, "a poignant moment in the story comes when a member of the Klan is cheerful of Superman's powers, taking it as a sign of white supremacy.

Even the character design feels thoughtful, as antagonists are drawn without many of the classic markers of villainy, making it clear that physical appearance has nothing to do with risks people pose.

The AV Club highlighted Gurihiru's "very animated, kid-friendly art style"[5] and The New York Times stated "the vibrant visual world is controlled and inviting.

[15] Entertainment Weekly highlighted that "Gurihiru's art pays tribute to the 40s fashion that listeners of the original radio broadcast would have been wearing, while also creating a timeless aesthetic".

[18] The trade paperback edition of Superman Smashes The Klan made the Top 20 Direct Market Graphic Novels charts for Q2 2020: #5 in units sold and #10 in dollars invoiced.