I know, I know, it's Batman's day today but I don't give a shit. I have
Smallville #11 review and review it I will!
This issue opens with the stunning image of Superman being punched through three buildings. He and Henshaw slug it out with Superman trying to talk Hank out of fighting. Henshaw is incredibly irrational telling Superman: "If you can't save everybody then why even bother?"
Superman's reply is a nice piece of insight into his character: "You think that doesn't keep me up at night?"
Personally
I've always wondered and it's nice to have that acknowledged in a Superman story.
There's another line of dialogue between Supes and Hank that really stands out but not in a good way.
Why?
Because it's really out of the blue.
"Whatever they've done to you. You aren't in control of your actions."
I don't understand what Brian Q. Was trying to convey there. At first I tried to hand wave it away as Superman saying the shock of what's happened to him is making him behave irrationally. But that's not how it reads to me...
It reads to me like Superman believes that Henshaw is being controlled,
forced to behave like this by an outside agency.
At least that's how it reads to
me. I suppose it was just a badly written line. Hey even Brian Q. Miller has his off days.
In the end it's clear that Superman isn't the least bit threatened by Henshaw's aggression and pwns him easily. Soon Henshaw is as harmless as a kitten and back in the caring arms of Emil Hamilton and STAR Labs.
However this leads to a characterization oddity where Terri Henshaw is suddenly quite cordial with Superman. At the very least you'd think she'd be cold with him after frothing in the mouth the last couple of issues but nope. She seems cool with him now.
Again out of the blue...
Then Supes talks to Hank and Hank's like: "I'm sorry. I thought I was doing the right thing then I lost myself."
Well at least he apologized nicely...
So far I've been a big fan of the first 10 issues of
Smallville but the storyline it feels like the
Guardian storyline is really starting to fizzle out. The (temporary) resolution to Hank's story felt really pat and disjointed. I'm not sure if it was just bad dialogue choices on Miller's part or if we're supposed to be every bit as confused as Hank is but aside from the action the first half of
Smallville #11 didn't work as well as it should have.
The second half
did work as good as it should have because it involved Chloe, Oliver and our strange visitor from another Earth.
Yep. That was a clue on my part. I'm not going to recap what happened because you need to read it for yourself. Let me just say...
The plot thickens... 
In the original comics he got to be pretty irrational as well. Superman wasn't with a hundred miles of Hank's accident in the DCU but Hank blamed Superman for his condition and for driving him from the Earth even though Henshaw left voluntarily. Let's face it, bombing Coast City off the Earth wasn't the sign of a well adjusted mind. 
