Smallville Season 11, it"s happening...

[CorporalClegg]

Yep. I agree...I was surprised how much the artist increased Erica's likeness. Tom's likeness is still lacking IMO. I didn't mind Pere Perez. I believe he worked with Miller during his "Batgirl" run.

Well, I haven't read many comics in my life, so I'm a terrible judge of quality. (Since I don't have much frame of reference.) But I liked Perez's work for the most part too.

It's just the whole likeness thing was a bit off. And the only thing I have to compare it to is the Buffy stuff where the likenesses are spot-on.

Since everybody was a bit "off" I figured it was a royalties thing.

The closest was probably Rosy. But there again, there were certain frames where he looked he was just a Lex cut and pasted out of a random Supes book.

I think the worst was Tess. She didn't look like Cass at all, and when I first got them and was testing the software, I actually thought it was supposed to Lilian.

I actually think the N52 Ollie looks more like Hartley than this one.

But you're right about Clark. This one is off a bit too. It's totally different though, in that, if you made one of those silly Photoshop composites of the two renderings, he'd almost be spot-on to Welling.


Anyways, back to Bats: I can't help but wonder if they plan on leaving Ollie in the BBF role and leaving Bruce as an outsider or there are plans for a bromance.

Also, I don't know much about Nightwing, has Babs ever been him before?

I looked it up on Wiki but didn't see any mention of it. Though, I seem to recall something about story of her going out as Nightwing one night while they were engaged, but that could just be my imagination.

Or are they just following along with what they did with Tess (Mercy/Mrs. Tessmacher) and blending Batgirl and Robin together?

 

[Admiral_Young]

This is the first time that someone other than Dick has been Nightwing (the Batman character, not the Kryptonian inspired Kryptonian myth). Babs has only been Batgirl or Oracle before so this is indeed a first for her.

Tess looks fine in my opinion...she looks as much as Cass as Chloe does Aly so eh...Luthor looks like Rosey. I can hear Rosey delivering every single piece of dialogue that Miller has written for Lex so far lol.

 

[Mike Farley]

As far as the art goes, I'm less concerned with exact likenesses and more concerned with panel to panel, page to page consistency. As long as Clark always looks like the same guy, I'm not worried if that guy looks exactly like Welling.

I liked Pare Perez and I've always liked Chris Cross. Other artists I wouldn't mind doing an arc would be Jamal Igle (who drew a big chunk of SUPERGIRL pre-Nu52) and Mike Norton (drew Green Arrow and Blue Beetle for a while).

And Brian Q. Miller needs to be chained to his desk.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Brian Q. Miller needs to be given "Superman".

 

[Mike Farley]

Agreed. That book has been such a mess since the relaunch.

 

[Procutus]

Finally resolved our phone/Internet issues, so I'll be picking up Issue 13 tonight, and read it over while in Maine. I'm really kinda excited about seeing some version of Batman in a Smallville scenario. And I don't think I'll be disappointed, what reading the above comments.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Pretty soon...the way things are going at DC right now...this will be the only book I'll have left to read

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

I'm sorry I haven't reviewed this issue yet. I'm going to. I've just been busy.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Your insight has been missed on the thread.


K-Site has just revealed that the third arc for season 11 will be called "Haunted" and debut about three months from now. I'm assuming after "Detective" concludes.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Finished reading issue 14, part two of "Detective" and things are getting interesting. No sign of Bruce or Barbara in this issue, although I think perhaps Bruce could be doing a bit of disguise work in this issue. I could be wrong about that, but that was the vibe I was getting. "Smallville" Otis is written wonderfully and shows what Otis could have been in "Superman: The Movie" without the camp and comedic aspect played up. We also get a little bit of insight into why Lex has taken the stance against Superman that he has. He does not trust him.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I almost forgot that issue 15 came out this past Friday...and oh boy we're really moving now in terms of plot development. We are FINALLY introduced to Bruce Wayne who arrives with Barbara Gordon in Metropolis. Bruce is there for a meeting with Luthor. It's not quite clear story wise why Barbara is there (obviously because it is Nightwing) although I suppose we could assume that Babs is Bruce's assistance. She is able to demonstrate an ability to read conversations. I can't help but notice that Miller writes Babs a tiny bit like he wrote Stephanie Brown.

Chris Cross is this issue's guest artist, and I didn't like his work in this one. A little blocky and distorted. I really hope this arc is not going to have rotating guest artists, but that seems to be the case. Oh we get a reference to Veritas, it seems that Lionel attempted to recruit Thomas Wayne into the group but Bruce's father declined the offer. We're also shown Bruno Manheim, the leader of Intergang who is shown in jail reading the Crime Bible whom he states was given to him last season by Godfrey. This is obviously part of the plot being seeded for Miller's upcoming "Crisis". The issue ends with Batman interrogating Manheim in his search for Joe Chill who seems to be an arms dealer or gun runner for Intergang in "Smallville" whom Bruce has tracked to Metropolis, when Superman interrupts him. The two of course then engage in a fight So aside from the art issues, this was once again, fantastic.

 

[Mike Farley]

Chris Cross has been the artist for this entire arc so far.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Has he? My mistake. His work was still off in this issue, I enjoyed the previous two issues art. Not sure what happened.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Chris Cross will make you jump.


Sorry, I just couldn't help myself.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ It's okay. It's pretty much the only thing I think of when I see his name as well, and start humming the song

 

[CorporalClegg]

Well it was enough to remind me to get 15. I really liked it. Might be my favorite one to date. It's definitely the first time the cliff hanger has left me really anxious for the next one.

One thing I forgot to ask last week and am still a bit confused about: is that supposed to be Sawyer with Turpin? (I assume it is.) I don't remember anyone saying the woman's name and I tried to go back and find a still where she had her name bag showing. But I may have missed either.

If it is, then it sure seems like her career is going backwards. When she first appeared in "Insurgence," she was a captain. Then when she came back in the later years she was downgraded to detective. Now she's ridding patrol?

Still, it's nice to see them together. I was a little disappointed when they couldn't fit Teed into "Bulletproof" somehow.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I believe it was supposed to be Sawyer yes.

 

[Admiral_Young]

After a week on hiatus we're back with issue 16, I believe part three or four of "Detective" already. This is just awesome! Chloe is on the monitor with Emil who gives her information regarding the Earth Two Chloe's black box, and it would appear she has not recovered from seeing her alternate self die in front of her at the end of the "Guardian" arc. Ollie attempts to console her and ask if she's okay, Chloe in Chloe style shrugs him off but it is make clear she's still affected by what she saw, and also that she could be hiding something from Ollie.

Meanwhile Superman and Batman continue their fight. We learn about the abilities of Bruce's suit. As I expected it seems to be designed specifically to counter Superman. Bruce reveals Clark's entire backstory pretty much, while Clark figures out who Batman is. We also see a Nolan-esque Batman suit in one of the flashback panels. Finally Batman reveals that the fight is a distraction. He needs Bruno Manhiem and explains that he possesses information regarding the death of his parents. Nightwing encounters Ollie as Green Arrow and the two scuffle, and we end as Superman picks up Bruno and asks if he can borrow him for a few moments.

Oooooh how I love this book.

 

[Mike Farley]

Jamal Igle's art really stepped the book up with #16.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Smallville Season 11 #17 : This continues to just flow awesomeness...one of the most impressive things about Miller's writing style is his pacing. At no time during any of the seventeen issues have I been bored. I click through each page and devour everything on screen. The art continues to improve as well. I think this is Igle's best issue that he has worked on...and the Batwing...oh man.