Life Imitates Art - Smallville

With all the media blitz and anticipation of the JSA appearance in the upcoming Smallville special- Absolute Justice, (now set to air on Feb 5th..boo!) we decided to hone in on some less hyped but equally noteworthy Episode 9 developments of the characters & story arcs that keeps our DVRs set for Fridays on the CW.

Tom Welling has epitomized the role of a young Clark Kent for years and with the recent change in major creative powers of the show, the look and feel of Smallville has less
semblance to a teen version of X-Files and more a contemporary, fresh portrayal of the Superman-mythos.

The timing of this creative shift is perfect with the developments of CGI for TV and modernized arcs/scripts to pull from like James Robinson & Greg Rucka's instant classic- Superman: World of New Krypton.

This new look of Clark has been jokingly poked at across the interweb as Neo-Clark (ala Matrix) or Super-Batman due to the darker, more edgy look.  I prefer to view this in how the new uni embodies an almost militant presentation to align with the Kandorian / New Krypton soldier look used in the Robinson/Rucka maxi-series.


Even less pronounced in the show is how they will flesh out the dichotomous relationship between General Zod and Kal-El that was signaled to at the end of the last episode with Zod ordering all of the Kandorians to kneel before Kal-El.

This has really sparked interest for me as there has really been a swelling effect since Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor) left town in 2007 and with a more well-balanced antagonist, things only look better for the show.

The other fresh, subtle dev that has finally come forward is Allison Mack's (as Chloe) straight transformation into Oracle (Barbara Gordon). Chloe's role from mere hacker to the behind the scenes brains / tactician to the Green Arrow & Kal-El is finally coming around especially with her base of operations being appropriately coined- The Watchtower.

She may not be on wheels nor does she have the bust of Babs, but Chloe definitely has come around, being able to carry as much weight to missions with the likes of Kid Flash, Black Canary or the Wonder Twins.

With the shift of experimenting more with popular story-arcs from the books and of course Geoff Johns directed stories, Smallville is holding it down with authenticity on the small screen.  Now bring on Stargirl, Dr. Fate and Hawkman already!!!