Smallville Season 11, it"s happening...

Well the purpose of this Crisis will obviously be somewhat different. While original Crisis was about housekeeping I think this one will be about housebuilding. The "house" in this case being the Justice League. Yes, they existed in a prototypical form on the show but they weren't really the league. On the show they were more of a group of loosely affiliated heroes who occasionally teamed up. This season they formalize it. Hence the introduction of Batman and Wonder Woman, I think later on we're going to get Green Lantern and I'm 99.9% certain that we're going to get Barry Allen as well. Yep,Smallville: Season 11 is the season of the Justice League and the Crisis exists to facilitate their formation. Mark my word!

 

^^ Because Bryan Q. Miller has been keeping the series tradition of loosely adapting the comic book story lines. This version of the Crisis on Infinite Earths isn't going to be for the same reason as the actual one was. There will be no reboot here. This though will be the first major event of the Smallville continuity, and as I've predicted from the start of the season, the event that brings together the Justice League proper.

Ninja'd by AJK.

 

Is there no new issue this week? I just looked at today's new comics on Comixology, and there was no SVS11.

 

fair enough, thanks to both of you.

 

There is not. I threw quite the shit fit about that!

 

Yeah, Miller was unsure of the reason for the delay today. Still no reason given. We're back on schedule starting next week though. This was disappointing though.

 

I didn't get a chance to pick any issues up this week like I had hoped, but the extra expenses didn't actually come up, so I might be able to get them soon.

 

Sounds good to me!

 

Well, I finally managed to finish the 'Argo' storyline a couple of days ago. All in all, I enjoyed it greatly. At least this encounter between Clark/Supes and Doomsday was a bit more epic than what we got in the finale of Season 8.

One of the things I haven't really commented on is the artwork on this book, which is truly superb in some instances (the close-up of Kara on Page 4 of Issue 52 is a good example, even though she's not drawn to really look like Laura Vandervoort). I also really liked the final page of the story. A perfect image, really.

But the most touching moment by far was Clark encounter young Bart. I guess there's no question now about his future origin.

Good stuff. Bring on Wonder Woman!

 

Heigh-ho and welcome to another exciting installment of Smallville: Season 11! This week's episode is issue #54, Hollow Part 1 or as I like to think of it, The Tess Mercer Story.

This story is naturally a follow up to Haunted which saw Tess Mercer's consciousness removed from the mind of her brother Lex Luthor and placed into a holographic state within the Watchtower.

It's appropriate enough that the story opens with Tess and Emil Hamilton. Appropriate because Emil is our resident science guy and gadget man and helped put Tess in this state to begin with. Even more appropriate because Tess and Emil had the beginnings of a relationship when Smallville ended so he has a little more invested in Tess' state than just scientific curiosity and humanistic leanings.

The one thing I think we get from the opening scene is that Tess is having some trouble adjusting to her situation. Maybe not on the surface. The woman is an expert at putting on a stiff upper lip but...

The fact that she lied to Emil Hamilton about her dreams is telling. That her dreams focus heavily on her brother Lex is also telling. It is after all his fault her body lies dead and rotting in the ground while the rest of her is composed entirely of light and powered by an Intel processor.

Tess compensates for her inhumanity by immersing herself in work. We get a nice glimpse of Black Canary and Speedy fighting crime in Seattle. Not sure what bearing it will have on the overall arc-if any-but it shows us that stuff is going down all over the globe and not just in Metropolis and Gotham. I suppose it's meant to convey her place of importance in the proto-JLA. Either that or it's a backdoors pilot for a Birds of Prey arc.

In a nice bit of foreshadowing Emil mentions not wanting her to go the way of Hank Henshaw. We can tell from that statement alone that he still has a part to play in Season 11 and it isn't going to be a pretty one.

Tess' part may not end well for her as well.

We come back to Lex Luthor and Otis Berg. Otis is naturally as loyal as a puppy and Lex repays this loyalty by beating him like a dog. Not really. Just verbally and emotionally. The one important thing that happens in this scene is that Lex learns of the alternate Chloe's spaceship, We don't know where they're going to go with that knowledge or what Lex will do with it. But we do know one thing...

Lex Luthor is on the scene and this Crisis will not take place without his involvement!

The only other thing of importance to happen in this scene is a sneak preview into the Olympus storyline. I'm not sure exactly what's going to happen but I do know that according to a Daily Planet headline somebody is going to attack a senator. Diana perhaps or the FotW? Who knows? I am looking forward to that story next week.

We come back to Tess in the Watchtower and get some sort of out of context glimpse into Superman's part of Olympus. Again no idea what happens but Tess seems to have it all in hand so I'll trust her to do her job.

What else happens? Well Tess is keeping a virtual eye on Lex and Otis. Lex comes out of his building but Tess locks Otis inside. Several former employees start bitchslapping the fuck out of Lex while Otis and Tess watch the whole thing. The attack seems to be getting out of hand as the chapter ends and Tess seems visibly distressed and...

That's it. Are there questions that need answering? Yeah. A big ass one. Did Tess set Lex up? She did separate Lex and Otis and the attack started as soon as they were split apart. But if Tess did set Lex up...

Why was she so upset that those guys were killing Lex? Family loyalty? She's always cared more for the Luthor men than they've ever cared for her. Lex is the only family-other than her brother Lucas-that she had left on the Earth. She may have thought she wanted him killed in revenge for her murder but when push came to shove...

Her love may be greater than her hatred. Or...

She may have wanted to have him beaten but not killed. Shit happens though and things are getting out of hand and...

I dunno. Guess I'll find out Friday when Hollow Part II comes out!

See you then!

 

You're beating me now every week. No fair!

Quick update though. As AJK just posted the first part of "Hollow" came out today. Part Two will be out on Friday, then "Olympus" will follow next week.

 

Dammit! I just tried to get the first 12 issues, but Comixology kept giving me an error message.

 

Finished reading both parts of "Hollow" and I won't add too much to AJK's excellent overview of the first part...except that the Senator could be someone whom is very close to Clark, and whom we haven't seen in a while, since the series concluded, and explain why Superman is in Washington. I have a feeling that Diana will be working through some Themiscryian Embassy. It was also nice to see Dianah and Mia. Q showing us that Watchtower does indeed have agents operating across the globe. Really though the core part of the story is Tess's struggles with adjusting to her new life as a digital construct/avatar.

The second part focuses on Lex...Timm'Verse fans will recognize Angela Chen as the reporter on scene. So again Q is giving us little treats and Easter Eggs along the way. Lex has discovered the Earth 2 ship that Chloe and Ollie discovered way back in "Guardian" and wants to acquire it. So once again things are moving along quite nicely.

 

I don't have much to add for Hollow Part II. It's continuing the story threads begun with Part I. It seems that Tess is indeed attempting to take revenge on Lex. Lex muddies the waters a bit as to whether or not she was trying to have him killed in Part I though personally I think he was fronting for his shrink.

Anyone else loving Otis Berg?

"Otisburg? OTIS-burg!"

 

Also I was trying to think if Q was hinting at anything with "Tamara" but can't think of anything off the top of my head. The only Tamara that I'm familiar with is Tam Fox from "Batman Beyond".

Otis Berg is a fine homage to the Donner'Verse. Again Q keeping the series connections to that continuity very nicely. Also noticed this is like the sixth artist or something to join the book. Very nice job indeed.

 

I guess a book that's on a weekly schedule requires an assload of artists to keep up.

BTW I hope Miller gives us a Luthor family reunion. I want to see what Lucas Luthor is up to! Not only that but I want to see Tess get her hands on some Julian Luthor DNA and bring Grant Gabriel back!

I want to see a Luthor family feud the likes of which we've never seen before!

Lionel can stay dead though. He lives on through Lex now.

 

Lucas's current location is unknown and has been since his appearance in season two. Given the memory problems Lex has been suffering thanks to Tess...I wonder if he even remembers Lucas, especially since Lex had him placed "safely away under his protection". He'd have to remember that in the first place.

 

That's why I think it would be Lutessa who would organize this little family reunion. I could imagine her rallying Lucas, Julian and even Connor and pitting them against Lex. Not in a Lionel way though... In a naive but spiteful Tess kind of way.

 

Julian is deceased...so is "Grant" I believe. Unless there are more clones out there. I'm kind of hoping Tess overcomes her spitefulness...this is part of her having trouble adjusting to her new life, I know, but still...now that she's had one experience at being a hero...she needs to let go of her "Luthorness" and enjoy the new "life" that has been granted her. She has no real need for revenge. Hopefully through time...she can see that.

 

Dude, you're telling me things I already know, re: Lucas & Julian.

I've little doubt there are tons of Julian Luthor embryos in cold storage just waiting to grow into a thorn in Lex's side.

Tess wouldn't be Tess if she wasn't a at least a little bitter. It just so happens that Tess' mercy generally outweighs her spite. That's what makes her more of a hero than your average Luthor.