Smallville Summer Hiatus Discussion Thread

Nah just overdramatic because of the network their on that's all.

 

you know plenty of people have alot to say about Clark, and alot of it bad, if im DC Comics do I really want people to think that of Clark Kent, which no matter how you spin it, is Superman.

My Superman is Dean Cain and I know he is not the most popular Superman of them all, but he has alot more in common with previous Supermen than Clark. Is Clark really how DC want a new generation of fans to see Superman?

Superman Returns have not helped matters in this respect but at I am surprised DC Comics is not more concerned about this.

The heroes on Smallville, be it Clark or Green Arrow can be heroic when it suits them, but normally after a couple of episodes they have gotten bored and moved on to other things. Part of the problem is the budget the show does not show those everyday heroic things that previous Superman have been seeing doing, focusing more on Clark & Lois or Oliver & Tess.

Its funny ive been watching the Justice League cartoon series recently, and I like the characters more when they are more heroic, and Superman is just Superman you dont see him as Clark, the networks will say getting to know the person behind the suit makes for a better character, but has Smallville done this? is Clark a better character than the Superman in that cartoon?

god helped me I enjoyed that characters of the Fantastic Four much more in there recent cartoon series in the movie, and same could be said for the MTV Spiderman, these cartoon series seem to present the heroes as just that heroes, by being big heroic deeds, but as on the F4 cartoon the human character's are just as good, but not like there live action counterparts as well.

Dare I say it, Superheroes work based as animated characters, or as characters that are just allowed to be without too much realism getting in the way.

 

Well what hurts this version of Clark is that they're overstepping the original mandate of the show. To show how Clark Kent became Superman. There hasn't been a really indepth look into what happened between the time Clark left high school and when he became Superman and joined the staff of the Daily Planet.

Its like they want their Clark but they want their Superman too. I think all the Zod and Doomsday and Justice League stuff should not have happened while he's still "Clark". "Smallville" should have ended 4 season ago at the end of Season 3 or 4 - I'll give them Season 4 since it seemed like Seasons 2 and 3 were essentially the same "year". But at the start of Season 5 it should have been "Smallville:Metropolis" or something for maybe... I dunno one or two seasons were its showing him starting on his path to becoming a world class journalist and learning how to be a true hero, doing his training with Jor-El and traveling the world as a reporter in training or something. Then maybe by Season 7 or 8 you can call it "Smallville: Last Son of Krypton" or something where he starts performing more heroic acts and then end off Season 8 with Lois discovering "Superman" and then maybe Season 8 would be "Metropolis:Superman" or something.

I can see them keeping the Smallville name so that the network and the studio doesn't consider it a different series and thus they get less money when it comes to Syndication. Much like the guys behind Scrubs want to do.

But I think they should add the :Metropolis" to the end of the name and maybe actually start calling him Superman. Or at least show more of the protosuit. Which they finally seem to be doing. And what's so wrong with people just calling him Kal-El? On JLU they did it all the time.

 

which is why DC needs to step in, and decided what is best for there property at this point, theCW wont axe it and im not sure DC Comics want to axe it either, but the show needs to be allowed to either use Superman or create a fully fledged superhero identity for Smallville to use.

after that DC needs to set some roles like:

1) no more losing his powers
2) heavily restrict the use of Kypronite
3) ditch Lana totally

meanwhile if they decide to create a whole new identity, do an alt reality story where Superman shows up, and makes it clear that this Clark is not the normal, and that he is unusal compared to other Supermen, this way the new generation of fans have never meet a true Superman, and wont bitch when they watch a Clark who actually wants to use his powers, and seems capable of adult relationships.

that new series trailer is all well & good, but Clarks new superhero idenity seems very angst driven, note Chloes line "theres nothing human about you anymore" Superman is meant to be the best of humanity, that kind of talk leads more towards Clark giving over to the dark side, than becoming a true superman like superhero.

 

Regarding the comic con trailer;

At least it would have been more exciting then Superman: The Ride

 

why does a rollercoaster need superhero branding anyways?

the best rides should be able to sell themselves, without needing branding from somewhere else, the best ones create there own branding.

 

And then spawn their own movies.

 

if im honest the branding and "story" behind the rides is often lost on me, as im turning though a few Gs and hanging upside down. I dont think ive been on a ride that went into great detail about its "story" not that there isnt time what with all the queuing you do.

 

Exactly. I mean in some ways the "Superman" they are creating is very Silver Age, in which Superman was sort of "above" everyone, so by giving us SuperEMO, they're sort of creating that "I think humanity is weak, so they need a protector, I guess it'll be me." and its more like the Kill Bill explaination. "Superman is the real self, Clark is his commentary on humanity - weak, flawed." So if they ARE going that route, I can sort of live with that, but they really fucked with the whole way the character grew. I have no problem with them reinventing the origin and the path... but it just feels like THIS Clark needs to grow up more to even get close to being a true Superman.

He's barely commanding enough of a presence in the League. I mean he'll act all big and bad, but he's a pussy. GA is the leader, he calls the shots. Which is such a role reversal. GA used to be the rebel of the JLA. The anti-establishment, "fight the man" hero. Not the "Man". DC Green Arrow would be so disappointed in Smallville Green Arrow.

I really really do hope that this season Clark grows a pair and becomes the commanding presence he should be. I mean, this is clearly not the "young Superman - but don't call me Superboy" show, its Superman-Lite. Plus Clark really needs to get on the stick and start acting like a journalist. I mean they missed so many opportunities for him to start honing his journalist chops instead of him pissing away time on the Kent Farm. I mean IF they did want to keep the farm and have him still sort of tied to Smallville, then at least have him working for the Smallville Gazette or something and then periodically TRYING to get into the Daily Planet. I mean in all the previous Post Bryne history, he was the editor of the Smallville Gazette before moving onto the "bigs" of the Planet - which almost seems like a step down from Editor, but whatever. Suppose its like going from a local paper to writing for USA Today.

And IF the whole Seigal family dispute is what's keeping them from making him superman, then just call him Kal-El as his super ID and start showing more of a difference between Kal and Clark.

Only problem is... Clark is so ubiquitous that its almost pointless for him to have dual IDs in this universe. I mean, Lex knows, Tess knows, the JLA knows... who doesn't know who and what he is? They need to either have a mass "forgetfulness" wave or something so that people don't realize that farmboy Clark is the "Blur" or... I dunno... ditch Clark entirely and just call him Kal-El

 

I've been thinking,

When Smallville ends what will we the audience/ moderate fans have to look back on? What will have learned?

Maybe 8 years have left me tired( I remember the night of the season premiere) of the the series.

I guess the only thing pulling me in now is the draw of something Superman related to watch on a weekly basis.

 

it comes to me I dont know Green Arrow true origin, I am pretty sure that the one seen on Smalllville is not his "offical" origin

meanwhile if we are going to call him a rebel, then it would seem the best origin story is the archery champion son of a rich Dad, rebelling against the authority of his Dad by taking part in sports not following a decent education, but finds the family business thrust up on him when his parents are killed. With the person in charge of the company resenting the fact that the sons boss is not his boss for no other reason than he got the company in the will, forces Oliver to become reclusive, before a chance meeting with Robin Hood, inspiring him to use his archery skills (using his dads comapny to create trick arrows, but not having that much to do with it) to help the people of whatever city he normal lives in.

or is that Batman?

 

Well, on a good day at least, I'd still probably rank season 3 as one of the better in TV sci-fi history. Season five isn't too bad either.

It also introduced a lot of people to some of the more nuanced parts of the DCU.

But other than that, not much. I stopped buying the DVDs after season 5 and really don't miss them. And frankly, if I was forced to give something up in my (albeit) small prized collection of sci-fi TV, it'd be Smallville in a heartbeat. But that's only because I've already ditched the nuBSG.

 

Well I find Smallville IS a bit more interesting and sort of works better when you watch it on DVD, for some reason the shorter span between episodes helps sort of keep you in the universe and go "okay that's why that happened' something you can miss when you only see it on tv once a week and then you have a few breaks in between.

I tend to buy the dvds when they're like $19 or less on sale. Takes me a while, but at least its only about as much as a new movie and I get a lot more entertainment value for my $$

 

i like the 80s origin.

Billionaire gets drunk. Falls off yacht. Hunts lizard for a couple months living on deserted island. Finds dope plantation. Beats up hippies. Steals boat. Costume party. Accidental hero. Side kick. loses fortune. Sidekick shoots up on heroin. They all have a hug and take it one day at a time. Ollie kills some one. Goes mad. joins an ashram. knocks up a maid(?) there. Gets over himself. Nothing special. 18 years later comic time, the kid shows up. Ollie gets blown up by a nuclear bomb. His kid takes over. 3 or 4 years our time Kevin Smith brings Ollie back form the dead and blames it on Hal Jordan having a whim while he had god like powers as he was rebuilding the universe in his own image while he was holding the begining of time in his hands. Gets girl side kick with aids. gets married to black canary. She stabs him in the neck on their wedding night. Booh hoo... and that brings us up to about two years ago when the most recent series began.

Andy diggle tweaked the origin recently to have it about Asian heroin cartel slave trading pirates with helicopter gunships chasing him through the jungle island as Ollie is firing back using a bow he made from the tendons of a lizard. Totally high octane.

In Smallville, Ollie talked about being "trapped" on an island with Tess. I don't think that that"origin" has been expanded upon.

 

so maybe I should include an Island, even if it ends up seeming like a Lost rip-off?

 

Right on. I always thought the series should have gone this way: 2 seasons of high school, he's working with Chloe at the school paper.

Then 2 of a local Smallville college, students are all local kids who still live in town and they should treat it just like high school (as with Buffy, college doesn't seem to "work" for shows, or writers can't handle it). Clark and Chloe at this time should be interning with the Smallville local paper and if they want to introduce Lois at this point, she's about a year or two older (I think she is anyway?) and already interning at the Planet. This way they always end up chasing the same stories competing with each other, would never make sense for 1 paper to send both Clark and Lois after 1 story anyway...

At this point Lana should have married and divorced Lex and Clark should be over Lana. For season 5 they move it to Metropolis but they can keep the name. For everything else that went wrong with the show, if they kept the name Smallville while he's working in Metropolis I would not care one bit. If the producers are totally still masterbating over Kreuk, then keep Lana around as Chloe style "still-fond-of-each-other-but-over-it" character.

Ollie, the League, Isis foundation, all that stuff could still pretty much fit in, just give Clark an actual pace to his life and let's watch him go from point a to point b, not one step forward two steps back all the time.

 

EXACTLY. Everytime they have start to mature and get his life on track, they have it blow up in his face and then he's further back from where he started. He went to college, started getting good there, even started getting into sports... then bam.. he's out of college. I mean, its so haphazard, like they want him to be Spider-Man, the hard luck hero. He's NOT Peter Parker. He's Clark Kent. He's cooler than that. He's the guy Spider-Man would look up to, not "Geez Clark you're worse off than I am, my girlfriend was thrown off a bridge by my worst enemy who happened to be my best friend's dad, but you... your girl marries your worst enemy who happened to be your best friend at one point, she leaves him, then she gets infected with kryptonite. Then you royally screw up your life? Geez... and they call you SUPERMAN?"

I mean this show really really has the potential to do some great stuff, but they keep missing it. Its still entertaining, don't get me wrong, but its frustrating. Don't they listen to the fans OR EVEN DC COMICS anymore? I can understand wanting to keep some of the wanky Donner-esque stuff - but c'mon Reeves' Clark was a geek and nerd, but at least he was a competant journalist!

 

Truer words about the current state of Smallville has never been spoken. Great post.

 

Exactly!

Clark will go through his Angst phase like the beginning of season 3 when he was in Metropolis. He's always abandoning something

"I'm leaving Metropolis because I killed my Mom's baby"

"Clark Kent is dead, I'm leaving that life to become Ka'el"

Then by the end of the season premiere

Clark- Well I didn't exactly go about things correctly so i'm putting that in the past, what's for dinner?

Also Tom Welling on set in the black Superman \S/ T-shirt

 

I have a new movie to watch.

"I Me Wed."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0991164/

Starring Erica Durance.

I love quirky romantic comedies, so it's already a bout a thousands times better than Street fighter the legend of Chung Li unseen...

Maid Marion?

Her "Lois" accent is so thick.

I sat through Britney Murphy thinking she could do an English accent the other night, which rivalled Dick Van Dyke for horror value...

So I wondered what mu girl Chloe was up to?

POWERGIRL?

Someone, warm up the atomic batteries on your photoshop.

Young!

You've been sporting that DVD cover as as an avatar for a dogs age and you didn't mention that Alison Mack is playing in the big leagues? Odd isn't it that I would consider dinky cartoons to be more fleshed out and gritty than the live action equivalent, but hells bells she's going to be working with the one and only Mr Crabs!