Comic Musing: 'SMALLVILLE Season 11'

Is it a bird?  Is it a plane?

Is it some sort of title-seeking missile?

To say that I was a fan of Smallville when it was still a TV show is, I suppose, half-right.  Much like the rest of the world, I ignored it for the majority of its run; however, thanks to Comics Alliance and their sterling work reviewing each episode of the final (10th) season, I got interested in seeing what it was they found so confusing.  Picking up the BR set of season 10 on its first week of release, I devoted an entire weekend to watching it from start to finish - and oh, I got my answers, and then some.  Navel-gazing introspection, naff music cues and mawkish sentimentality was being made to share the screen with Hawkman, a transparent rip-off of The Matrix (in the year 2011?), and Darkseid - Lord of Apolokips, most foul of the New Gods, one of Jack Kirby's most enduring villains - redesigned as a malignant cloud of smoke.  And that's before we consider this as a retelling of the origins of Superman, which meant that it spent 10 years with a superpowered Clark Kent running around Metropolis not actually being a superhero.  It was, is and may always be the ultimate example of car-crash TV.

And yet, it had viewers.  A shade over a million per episode, in fact, even into the later seasons.  So I suppose it wasn't much of a surprise for DC Comics to greenlight a new ongoing series picking up where the show left off - if even half as many people who watched the show could be persuaded to buy the comics, they'd be the best-selling Superman books since, well, since the absolute WORST Superman books ever.  Makes sense from a business perspective.

From a storytelling perspective?  Hmmm...

Wait - who's that guy?  Nobody in Smallville wore a cape!

The big question ahead of the series' launch, at least among discerning comics fans, was simply...'what's the hook here?'  If Smallville was meant to be the story of how everyday bulletproof super-strong farmboy from space Clark Kent grew to become the World's Greatest Superhero, then surely the follow-up would be, well...every existing Superman comic ever?  So what, if anything, could an 'in-canon' sequel series deliver to make itself stand out, barring the appearance of unique-to-Smallville characters like Chloe Sullivan-Queen or plots like Lex Luthor's last episode amnesia? (yeah, they wiped Lex' memory in the finale...because he had known Clark's secret identity for 3 years...because of bad writing)

As it happened, the answer to that came not from the series itself, but from DC's linewide 'New 52' reboot and its habitual buggering-up of absolutely everything that wasn't Batman or Green Lantern. (not that I'm bitter - Green Lantern was the only series I was following) Thanks to that, both of DC's core Superman titles - Superman and Action Comics - went through serious changes, and much of the character's recent history was thrown out, leaving us with an Action Comics series where Superman is in his 'Year One' phase, wearing jeans and a t-shirt and bullying white-collar types (the only explanation I have for that is 'because Grant Morrison said so'), while Superman...well, nobody really knew what was going on there, including George Pérez, who was writing the damn thing, at least until he quit and went public with his frustration over DC's editorial confusion.  So, thanks to completely unrelated factors, when Smallville Season 11 launched it had the market on 'true' Superman books all to itself.  Funny how the world works, huh?

To further capitalise on the expanded TV audience, DC chose to publish Smallville 'digital-first', with half-size issues being released every two weeks for download on iPhones and iPads and other things with little i's in front of them, before each 2 issues were packaged together and released as full-size printed comics through normal retailers.  While I do agree with this idea - I wouldn't expect most of the show's audience to be caught dead in a comic store - I have only collected the series in print form because I'm kind of a luddite, I guess.  So any reference I make to issue numbers from here on out are based on the print issues' scheme. (i.e. print issue #1 = digital issues #1 AND #2, and so on)

Officially my favourite sound-effect ever.

TUN NUN NUN NUN NUN.

Upon reading the first few pages of issue #1, two things are made very clear.  One, that writer Brian Q. Miller is clearly going to be continuing with the dynamics and themes of the TV series rather than abandoning it in favour of something more like the 'classic' Superman status quo - hence no Jimmy Olsen or Perry White, but plenty of Oliver 'Green Arrow' Queen and Chloe.  And two, that artist Pere Pérez is pretty much killing it.  His work is very 'clean', with lots of open space and no needless detail (but not lacking detail where it is needed), as well as a great sense of kinetic dynamism for action sequences, and exaggerated facial expressions that get across the feeling behind characters' words without turning things into a cartoon.  Admittedly, his eye for actor likenesses amongst the main cast is hit and miss; Pérez' Lex is almost eerily similar to Michael Rosenbaum, and his Sam Lane is a perfect Michael Ironside, but his Clark and Lois never really look like Tom Welling or Erica Durance, something which I'm sure will crush the feelings of many TV fans.  Personally, the less I have to be reminded of Welling and his unique brand of non-acting acting, the better.

Looking more deeply, however, reveals a very important change with the central character.  Before the halfway point of the issue, Clark has saved a squad of Russian Cosmonauts after a freak meteor storm punches holes in their space station, in a sequence that feels pleasingly real, and also pleasingly quick, emphasizing the sheer scope of Clark's powers.  He does this without needing the approval of his ghost computer dad (don't ask), and without spending a few pages agonising over the repercussions of direct action - he just goes, and saves.  Even better is the moment when one of the grateful Cosmonauts asks for an autograph for his son, and Clark responds without irony, "Your son already has a hero to look up to, Cosmonaut - his father."  That's not the Clark Kent of Smalville I hear.  That's Superman.  Undeniable, perfect Superman.

The rest of the issue is largely dedicated to setting up the ongoing plots for future issues, as is the case with most TV 'pilots'.  Lex Luthor may have amnesia but he still clearly doesn't care much for Superman, and is being haunted somehow by Tess Mercer, his half-sister whom he murdered in the finale (and who poisoned him with a neurotoxin that caused his memory loss).  Oliver and Chloe are still planning to leave Metropolis but clearly don't want to, and are jumping on basically any excuse they can find to delay their departure.  And that meteor storm I mentioned before?  A rogue spaceship of unknown origin made planetfall during it, too.  These events are established quickly and without needless clutter; Miller deliver enough info to make it clear this is a 'universe' already established, but never threatens to beat you over the head with a decade's worth of TV back-story.  He also successfully nails the light-hearted banter of the show, full of wit and silly Stan Lee alliteration - no surprise there, as Miller was actually part of the writing team for the show's latter years and delivered some of the more consistent episodes.

You'd think Ollie would be a bit more careful about

'talking shop' with Clark when he's in his civvies, though...

This first episode, titled 'Guardian', carries the book over the next 3 issues, with a simple but strong A-story revolving around Hank Henshaw (a name which will be familiar if you sat through that YouTube vid I linked to earlier) meeting his unfortunate fate and going quite understandably insane as a result.  Meanwhile, the B-story expands to bring Superman into conflict with the US military (represented by Lois' dad), and reveals the lengths to which Lex is willing to go to mess with the Man of Steel - he basically sacrifices a billion-dollar satellite and space shuttle just to 'paint' Superman with a radiation tracker that ensures LexCorp can always keep track of Superman wherever he goes.  This particular plot detail is one of the more obvious admissions that we're dealing with a comic that has to slot into the established canon of something else; the Smallville finale, for reasons I can't begin to fathom, included book-end scenes establishing that even 6 (7?) years after the events of the show, Lois and Clark still haven't re-arranged their aborted wedding - hence the comic will no doubt have to tie itself in knots to explain that particularly insane development.  It's unfortunate, but for now it's a minor quibble.

On the whole, 'Guardian' is a triumph, setting up enough engaging plot threads to keep the series busy for years without making anything too complicated or busy, and remembering what worked about the TV show (the characters, mostly) yet still remembering to evolve beyond its limitations as need be.  If I could change one thing, it would be Superman's climactic smackdown with Henshaw's cyborg form; it's over a little too fast, and Pérez' design for Henshaw is a rare misstep, abandoning the 'Super-Terminator' look of old for something that seems to have come from that I, Robot movie with Will Smith in it.  But even with that caveat there's more than enough here for anyone to enjoy, irrespective of their knowledge on or feelings for the show.

Then, in the second arc, Miller dealt the wild card.  He did the one thing which the show would never, ever dare to do.

He brought the Batman to Smallville.

Argh, so many mixed feelings...

Batman...Batman is a character I've grown very sour for over the last few years.  There's a few reasons for that, not the least of which is Christopher Nolan's 'Dark Knight' trilogy informing so many peoples' view of the character that his brand of deeply tiresome 'gritty realism' becomes the only possible way that Batman can be presented (because heaven forbid we have a Batman story that's actually fun or something...).  But the main problem is how his increasingly-large fanbase has treated him over the past decade or so.  Y'know, Batman used to be fairly 'normal', physically, with his main gimmick (and usefulness in teams like the Justice League) stemming from his incredible problem-solving intelligence and indefatigable determination.  But nowadays, in the age of the Cult of The Goddamn Batman, that's not enough, oh no.  Now we have a Batman who is the world's greatest ninja, who can fight harder than the majority of super-strength heroes, who can shrug off any injury that doesn't kill him, who has a gadget pre-prepared for any eventuality, and who doesn't need to solve problems because he already knows the answers to everything because he's just that good.  And all the while the same people who insist on these rules also praise him - without a hint of irony! - for being 'powerless' and therefore 'realistic'.  To put it crudely, FUCK THESE PEOPLE.

To make things worse, it's bled over into the comics.  A relatively recent Batman issue - part of the 'Night of the Owls' arc - involved a moment where Batman, after being confronted with the ancient skeletons of the Grayson family, immediately deduces that Dick Grayson, one-time Robin, one-time Batman replacement and most-times Nightwing, was selected from birth to become one of the Court of Owls' 'Talon' enforcers.  How does he prove this point?  By wordlessly turning around and punching Nightwing full in the face like a massive arsehole.  Why does he do this?  Because he knew - never mind how - that such chosen children would have a special mark engraved on one of their teeth, and he punched Nightwing at just the right angle, with just the right force, to knock that one specific tooth out of his skull.

...

Sigh.  Never mind the fact that Dick as an adult wouldn't have the same fucking teeth he had when he was a kid, this is just the single most stupid way Batman could make his point, and it was done this way just to amuse the dude-bro douchebag majority who don't care about Batman because of who he is, but simply because he's AWESOMES or somesuch.  Why is he awesome?  Well, because he's violent.  Because he has a big car.  Because while he's technically a vigilante, the police can't or won't even think about going after him.  And because he's much more focused on punching bad guys in the face than he is on saving people or making a positive difference to society or anything else that could be considered 'heroic'.  The Modern Batman is the revenge-fantasy wet dream of every dork who was bullied as a kid, every imbecile who was laughed at for being stupid, every grouchy adult who's fed up with all the noise those pesky teenagers are making, etc.  Just to make this clear, I do not hate Batman as a whole.  I simply hate what the wrong type of 'fans' have twisted him into.

Then there's the fact that I didn't need to see another Batman vs. Superman fight in my life.  Even if The Dark Knight Returns hadn't basically made it so that every subsequent battle between the two would be a shallow copy, I just don't think either character emerges from such a scuffle with any positive upswing.  Superman either comes off as a bully or unnecessarily weak, and Batman - who will always be the aggressor, because he's Batman - invariably looks like a completely unlikable bastard.  Finally, the whole existence of Green Arrow in the Smallville mythos was based on the fact that they weren't allowed to have Batman in the show; hence they took a character with a similar backstory who is also a powerless vigilante and had him serve the same role in Clark's early career that Batman otherwise would.  So what would be the point of bringing in Batman now?

Issue #5 throws us into the Bat-fray pretty quickly, with the Caped Crusader and current sidekick Nightwing (who is actually not Dick Grayson - I'll come back to that) hounding criminals smuggling advanced weapons into Gotham - well, Nightwing does the hounding, Batman just sort of stands on a roof until things go in his direction, the lazy bum.  Meanwhile, Superman stops a crazy hostage scenario in Metropolis and finds the criminals were using teleporter vests with LexCorp control systems.  Luthor denies knowledge of it, smugly but truthfully, and gives enough breadcrumbs for Superman to chase towards Stryker's Island...right the same night when Batman breaks in to interrogate one of the prisoners in relation to his case.  And by 'breaks in', I mean 'hits the building with an EMP, knocks out half the guards then starts wailing on one of the inmates like he's trying to kill him'.  It's quickly apparent that the Batman of Smallville, despite having a very well-presented public persona (Miller writes Bruce Wayne as a polymath with the suave of Roger Moore's Bond), is still very much an unpolished hero.  Naturally, the scuffle attracts Superman, and they fight, which passes over into #6.  It's a fun little scrap but doesn't change my feelings on this thread.  On the plus side, the way that Batman has figured out Superman's vulnerability to red sunlight, based on events over the past couple of in-storyline years (things which TV viewers will recognise from series 9's Major Zod/Kandorians arc), is a nice way to show he's a genius working from sensible clues rather than just pulling conclusions out of his arse.  Eventually, the two calm down, and Superman learns why Batman's acting so irrationally; the trail he's chasing leads to Joe Chill, the man who killed Bruce Wayne's parents.  Realising (correctly) that Batman is too close to the case, Superman essentially forces a partnership between the two and tags along when Batman breaks into the FBI holding facility where Chill is waiting to snitch on some of his old criminal contacts.  Before Bats and Supes can grill Chill on where those advanced weapons are being made, a hitman from Chill's old gang turns up to silence him, and the issue ends with Superman and Batman squaring up to face the assassin and his back-up man - Mr. Freeze.

Above: a ginger that wasn't meant to be a ginger.

So let's talk about Nightwing for a second, because this is weird.  In the pre-release hype for issue #5, Brian Q. Miller said that Batman's sidekick would indeed be a female Nightwing...and that she would be Stephanie Brown, who had a very short career as Robin before becoming Batgirl in the pre-New 52 DC universe, in a series also written by Miller which was very popular.  Since the Smallville comics exist in their own universe and have no bearing on the New 52 titles, Miller could in theory do what he wanted with the Bat-family as it would have no repercussions elsewhere...except no, he couldn't.  By the time the issue was coloured and released, Stephanie had changed into Barbara Gordon, the first and current Batgirl, and had the ginger hair to prove it.  This feels like a pretty late-in-the-game change, given that most of the quippy, light-hearted dialogue uttered by Nightwing in the story (sample: "Telemetry from your suit shows a hairline fracture...kind of everywhere.  How many solid structures did he throw you through, again?") sounds a lot more natural coming from Stephanie than from the (typically) older, more mature Barbara.  This seems like an editorial edict from DC, and...I really don't know why they bothered.  It doesn't weaken the story, it's just kind of a nagging issue for me.

Oh, and as to why she's Nightwing and not Batgirl?  Who the hell knows, she just is.

There's at least one more issue to go for the 'Detective' arc at time of writing, so the story's still a little up in the air, but thus far it's been good.  Not as strong as 'Guardian' - again, didn't need another Batman/Superman fight etc. - but nowhere near as bad as I'd dreaded.  Miller knows how to have a little fun with Batman whilst still sticking to a serious character-driven plot, and the decision to make him both older than most of the principal cast and a dangerously obsessive nutter makes him a very different kettle of fish from Green Arrow.  On the art side, Pére Perez has left us already (boo!), with issue #5 left to Chris Cross (yes, really, that's his name...) and #6 to Jamal Igle.  On the whole, I prefer Cross' work - his faces are that bit more expressive and varied - but Igle is no slouch either, and they both did solid work of which they should be proud.  I should note that the new costume designs for Batman and Nightwing are Cross', and while I really dig Nightwing's suit, his Batman is...odd.  There's a lot of different textures and layers involved, and it winds up looking a bit too busy for its own good.

On the whole, then, I can honestly say that Smallville Season 11 is one of precious few comics I eagerly await the next releases of.  Miller has a natural handle on all the characters and knows what he's doing, the art is reliably great, and the plot has enough plates spinning to be interesting without being confusing or intimidating.  If you have any desire to read a good Superman yarn, this is the best there is right now.