Smallville Season 11, it"s happening...

[JoeZhang]

Allyn Gibson wrote:

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It's not just a sword. It's a sword that appears to be shooting lightning!

No, really. There's some sort of lightning-like crackle around the sword's tip.

The angle is wrong to really tell but it looks like a club to me rather than a sword.

[Allyn Gibson]

JoeZhang wrote:

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The angle is wrong to really tell but it looks like a club to me rather than a sword.

I've seen a much higher-res version of the image than what was linked to here, and it has a clearly defined hilt.

[Admiral James Kirk]

So Smallville #7 is out! This issue is where we separate the men from the boys! This is the big first meeting between Superman and Lex Luthor! Yes, other stuff happens in this issue. Chloe and Ollie find the mysterious spaceship from a couple of issues back and discover something surprising about it's origins. We see how the radiation has ravaged Hank Henshaw's body and how Mrs. Henshaw blames Superman. All that stuff is good and all but...

Superman and Luthor!

Fire for the bad. I think that DC got a few of their panels mixed up in that scene. We see Superman shattering the windows to Luthor's office and Lex fall to the floor covered in glass and Superman says: "I'm not in the mood, Luthor!" However on the next page Luthor is standing and off panel we see a KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. Then on the next page Luthor tells Supes to call him Lex. Being out of sequence really harms the effect of the scene, which is really a shame because there's so much good stuff there.

It's clear that Supes wants to tear Lex a new one. It's also clear Lex has him by the short and curlies as he's using all these space related crises to frame Superman. Even General Lane is in on it as he shows up with a fleet of heavily armed gunships ready to blow Clark's \S/ clean off.

How did I like the issue? It was good but... the layout fuck up! It hurt this issue so fucking bad. Threw off the pace and took me out of the story.

DC owes Miller an apology. He wrote a damn fine issue and they had to go and fuck it all up! Pisses me off! Everything was going swimmingly up 'til now!

[Admiral_Young]

I have the issue...just need to read it. Love the cover

[Admiral James Kirk]

Yeah, best cover yet.

[Admiral_Young]

Well I see your point about the panel weirdness. It would appear that it is out of sequence, which was unfortunate. That glitch aside, I enjoyed the issue. Hank's wife blaming Superman for his condition is not what I expected, but the seeds are indeed being sown for us to see Cyborg Superman later in the season. I'm curious to see how Miller approaches this without tying it into to Green Lantern at all.

I wonder if they're going to go with a "The Batman" approach with Bruce and the Justice League in this? We're slowly introduced to Bruce Wayne and Batman, he and Clark meet and maybe fight, reach an understanding after discovering a common enemy, then Bruce is gradually brought into the fold? I only state that after the Watchtower on the moon line by Ollie. You can see a lot of influences this season which is great.

Finally...the long awaited confrontation between Lex and Superman. I think this would have been written and shown a little tweaked on screen, but it was no less impactfull and Lex's manipulations are well done indeed. The call me Lex line was unusual. I don't remember seeing a version of Lex that would allow Superman to be so formal around him.

Just a little theory regarding the Tess visions, as well as being a form of his conscience, I'm wondering if they're not there to "block" his knowledge of Clark? We know the mind wiping sequence was done specifically to wipe out that particular memory on the show...but I'm wondering if that isn't why Tess is there. She serves a two fold purpose, to serve as his Jiminy Cricket, and to block those memories of Clark's secret. Once again Tess is protecting Clark

[Admiral James Kirk]

Admiral_Young wrote:

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Well I see your point about the panel weirdness. It would appear that it is out of sequence, which was unfortunate.

If I was Miller I'd be out for blood. That was a glitch that hurt the overall impact of the issue, which on the whole I liked a lot.

Hank's wife blaming Superman for his condition is not what I expected, but the seeds are indeed being sown for us to see Cyborg Superman later in the season. I'm curious to see how Miller approaches this without tying it into to Green Lantern at all.

Part of me wonders if this isn't misdirection on Miller's part. Setting us up to expect Hank to be the Cyborg and then somehow it ends up being his wife. Probably won't happen that way but wouldn't it be a trip? Also I don't see why Green Lantern would need to be brought into this at all. I know that he became a big player over in the GL books but he was a Superman villain first.

I wonder if they're going to go with a "The Batman" approach with Bruce and the Justice League in this? We're slowly introduced to Bruce Wayne and Batman, he and Clark meet and maybe fight, reach an understanding after discovering a common enemy, then Bruce is gradually brought into the fold?

Sounds like the classic Marvel comics team up approach. Meet, fight, reconcile in a battle with the real bad guy. Naturally I'd love to see Clark and Bruce fight. But even more than that... I want to see Bruce and Ollie fight.

I like Green Arrow in general and I love the Smallville version of GA but I've always felt that the Justin Hartley GA is a guy who constantly needs constant knocking down in order to keep his feet on the ground.

Who better than Batman to deliver that knockdown?

I only state that after the Watchtower on the moon line by Ollie. You can see a lot of influences this season which is great.

True but what I really want to know is where the hell that Queen Industries spaceship comes from? It from some black ops subsection of the company that Ollie's been kept in the dark about? A Lexcorp fake? Or is it from the future? That's an interesting little mystery we've got here. I can't wait to see where Miller goes with it.

Finally...the long awaited confrontation between Lex and Superman. I think this would have been written and shown a little tweaked on screen, but it was no less impactfull and Lex's manipulations are well done indeed. The call me Lex line was unusual. I don't remember seeing a version of Lex that would allow Superman to be so formal around him.

I want more of this. The Lex/Superman pissing contests were always my favorite part of John Byrne's run as well as the best part of Superman:TAS and the first season of Lois & Clark. The Smallville confrontations have the potential to be the best of all thanks to the history between the two adversaries.

Just a little theory regarding the Tess visions, as well as being a form of his conscience, I'm wondering if they're not there to "block" his knowledge of Clark? We know the mind wiping sequence was done specifically to wipe out that particular memory on the show...but I'm wondering if that isn't why Tess is there. She serves a two fold purpose, to serve as his Jiminy Cricket, and to block those memories of Clark's secret. Once again Tess is protecting Clark

I've never considered this angle before and I have to say... Me loves it! I hope you're right. This memory block probably isn't going to last forever. I can't wait to see what happens when it's finally been removed and Lex is left to face his long, complicated past life with Superman.

[Procutus]

I'm a bit behind you too guys on this. As AY knows, I just picked up the first six issues from Comixology, but have had time to read only the first one - I actually kinda like the fact I can read it online, so I can do it from either my laptop or my wife's PC, which has a much bigger screen.

That said, I liked what I did read, and I'm eager for the rest. I had to try real hard though when I saw Clark in the suit to go 'Oh, that's just Doucheman playing at being Supes."



Chloe can offer me coffee any morning of the week!



Anyway, I'll get caught up here hopefully this week. I don't want to rush it, I want to enjoy each and every issue.

[Admiral_Young]

Clark's actually been less douchy under Miller's penship than say if one of the lesser talented writers from the series was handling him. Miller has a good grasp of his characterization while still staying true to that Smallville-ness. I thought I would hate it...but it works nicely in comic form.

[Allyn Gibson]

This is interesting. The Smallville comic book cover seen in the final episode is going to be on the cover to the second printing of Season 11 #1:

SMALLVILLE SEASON 11 #1 SECOND PRINTING TO FEATURE COVER ART BY GARY FRANK FROM THE SMALLVILLE TV SERIES

DC Entertainment is pleased to announce that the SMALLVILLE SEASON 11 #1 Second Printing will feature unpublished cover art by Gary Frank that was previously seen on the SMALLVILLE TV series!

[Admiral_Young]

That was Gary Frank art work? Didn't seem like it to me at the time.

[Enterprise is Great]

Dean Cain was to play Vandal Savage in 'Smallville'

"At one point, we almost had a Vandal Savage episode - it was the one that we had with Dean Cain - and literally at the last minute, features said, 'We have a feature in development'," writer Bryan Q Miller told Comic Book Resources.

"It was years ago when I think New Line had something cooking, so we had to change it to a generic character named Curtis Knox and it was inferred that he was probably Vandal Savage."

Miller should bring Knox back for the comic and make him Vandal Savage for real this time.

[Donald Draper]

That makes sense. It was clearly Vandal Savage even without the name. In fact he was closer to the comic book version than some of Smallville's adaptations of characters who had their names!

The change worked very well. It makes sense that Savage would use different names and identities over the years.

I wonder what the New Line film was?

[Chris3123]

Huh. I always just assumed it was creative license on their part to rename Savage (though I could never think of why they would). Interesting that there was actually a reason.

Donald Draper wrote:

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In fact he was closer to the comic book version than some of Smallville's adaptations of characters who had their names!

Now you've gone and reminded me of the bastardization they called "Mikhail Mxyzptlk". Thanks a bunch.

[Admiral James Kirk]

So I just read Smallville #8 and all I can say is... wow! Best issue EVER! The Superman Vs. Sam Lane battle royale was a fast, funny and breathtaking action sequence. I loved that Miller was able to get Lois into the fight and establish definitively that Sam Lane does not know Superman's secret identity.

It looks like Sam Lane was having an ethical crisis during the fight. He's not Thunderbolt Ross or Captain Nemo out to carve himself some Hulk/Dick meat. He's got a job to do but that doesn't mean he feels good about. It seems he's at odds with both Luthor and his superiors about the Superman situation. I get the impression that he respects Supes' power and that respect was increased by a factor of ten when Superman saves Lois from Sam's own folly.

Superman during the battle was calm, self-assured and quite funny. His quips during the fight very much reminded me of the way Siegel & Shuster's Golden Age Superman used to joke during a brawl.

The Luthor/Tess angle became faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar more interesting this issue. The memory toxin Tess dosed him with comes from the Smallville mythos tying in with the Summerholt and Belle Reve eps. It also seems to imply that Tess isn't a hallucination of Lex and that she may very well have used the virus to upload her personality into his head. Very Return of the Joker.

Thanks Brian! Can't wait 'til next Friday!