By Matt Wright

Hello once again from your friendly neighborhood Unshaven Artist. I’m here to talk today about the CW's drama Smallville. Yes, we know the internet is flooded with the news that the show is ending on it’s tenth season next year. Lets see what they did good and what they did wrong.

When Smallville was announced on the then new WB network in 2001, I was intrigued. I wasn’t to far removed from watching the horridness of 'The New Adventures of Lois and Clark'. I was far enough removed to have seen all the Superman movies on VHS and had laughed at the horrible effects of it’s time. Now I was at the ground level of something that could be great. The fans loved the pilot, and soon after the show started with a nice sized fanbase.

So I watched.

Now, most comic nerds/geeks/aficionado’s know the major beats to Superman’s background:

1: He crashes on earth from an alien planet and is adopted by John and Martha Kent.
2: He slowly learns his powers from a small child till his senior year in high school.
3: Lana Lang is his old flame from Smallville.
4: He’s the football star of high school, and college.
5: He meets Lois Lane on his first day at the Daily Planet.
6: Everybody see’s Clark as a big dork with a heart of gold.

(Side note, go ahead and count in Superman comics how many people have the LL initials or have red hair. Go on, I’ll wait….creepy when you think about it.)


I reminded myself that Hollywood versions of superheros don’t always look like their counterparts, and this rule applies to TV as well as movies. As I watched Smallville, I learned to love what those changes with the characters, so kudos to them for writing them to transcend all boundaries, and connect with the modern world. It took a little over a year before I learned that the producer’s had a standing rule of “no flights, no tights” for the series. Considering this was to be about Superman’s childhood developing years, I could live with that. With the list above, it seems it wouldn't be a problem to reach those major beats for his background, and these things would lend themselves to make a great show.


So what happened? Well here’s the good stuff:

We received the villain of the week scenario for most of the first and second season. Moving sub-plots along with Clark and Lex being friends, not friends, friends again, then eventual enemies. New powers emerged with some episodes and the shenanigans that where involved in mastering those powers. All the while, they teased the best one of all, flight, several times.

And now? The Bad:

Clark is the football star for all of ten minutes in high school. Lana and he date on and off. He meets Lois (Season four) while still in High School due to her being a cousin of one of the made up characters on the show (Chloe Sullivan). Collage life happened for half a season before he suddenly worked at the Daily Planet. He shows no distinction visually between him being Clark (glasses, dorky and a mess) to Superman (confident, good looking and all around awesome guy). 
And what really burns me is that after all this "fast forwarding" through Clark's adolescence, he still can’t fly!!!

That’s right, their heading into the tenth and last season of the show and he still can’t fly. Other people get his powers for ten seconds, stand in the glow of earths yellow sun and then shoot off into the sky with ease. Clark’s been soaking up sunlight for the better part of twenty years and can’t even float? NBA players gets more hang time with slam dunk contests then our 'Superman'!

I’ve talked with my fellow partners at Unshaven Comics as well as friends and co-workers on what they think might have fixed the show, over it's run:

First:
Clark needs to have gone to college. The struggle to balance superheroing and college classes would be a major plot point to connect the show to a prime demographic. If it worked for Peter Parker, it can work for Clark Kent.

Second:
The real last season should have been a semi year one of Clark coming to Metropolis to embrace his destiny. That’s when he truly meets Lois, Jimmy and Perry for the first time.

Third:

Lex Luthor should have never died on the show. That’s not to say they won’t bring him back for the last season, but he should always have been in the background somewhere. Be a voice on a phone or story in a newspaper. Hell, take the 'Power Ranger' route and say that he’s at the peace conference in Switzerland for all I care, just include him in the in-show-universe.

Fourth:
Dear Gods in all heavens, stop calling the damn show Smallville!! He’s been living and working in Metropolis since season six!!

Lastly:
The original producers had the rule “no tights, no flights” for a long time. But they (those original producers) have since left after season seven and we’ve seen men (and women) in tights since then. Everybody knows what the costume looks like, so please have him wear it. Enough of this Blur bull-crap. He’s Superman, and if you haven’t figured that out by the big “S” on his chest by now, you really don’t know what you’re watching.

All in all, you're looking at a show that should have run it's course around 8 seasons. The first four are his high school years. The next three are his college years. Have him say he took summer courses and you can skip a year of his college time would be more believable. The last season could have been his first year in Metropolis, as I mentioned before. Easy, clean, and room for telling good stories. So I say thank you TV gods for putting a kryptonite bullet between the eyes of this show next season.

By Matt Wright

I don’t write often, mostly because my fellow partners in Unshaven Comics chain me to the art desk. But like that wonderful passage “opinions are like assholes, everyone’s got one”, I have an opinion. Mostly on legacy characters in comics as of late. With the return of certain characters in the recent Blackest Night story conclusion, one of my favorites makes a comeback.

I like it when comics are progressive enough to acknowledge that characters are getting older and that younger people need to step up. They take over a mantle and live up to the predecessor, sometimes even surpassing them. That should be the mark of truly great comic character with Legacy. Allowing somebody else to fill the role and seeing if they do it better.
Captain America carries a gun now? So what. Dick Grayson is Batman? Seems like a natural progression. At some point, I hear the wonderful line at all Cons: "That’s not my Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Captain America, Etc...”


You're right, it’s not.

I’m a Firestorm fan from years back. It took me years and a couple cons, but I’ve managed to collect the whole first series, including the five part mini that was part of DC’s Explosion in 1978. (DC’s “Implosion” of that same year, dubbed such by the fans saw several new characters including Firestorm canceled.)

He was then placed in the Justice League as a background player. After a couple years, he gained enough popularity to get a second shot. He returned to his own series for a great long run from 1982 - 1990. He appeared in several team books as a backup character again from then on. During the Identity Crisis storyline, Firestorm is killed and the powers transfer to a new host.

I loved it.

I didn’t like that they “killed” Firestorm, but I did like that they gave a new character a chance to play around with the powers. Jason Rusch is an early 20 something African American. He’s going to college (or trying to) and struggling to get a job. He’s become the Peter Parker of the DCU for awhile. The everyman I related to, Jason on many levels grew and I with him during some of his more “real” troubles. (Job, girlfriend, family issues, etc.) He spoke to me at my demographic as somebody I could relate to.


Ronnie Raymond is the original host of Firestorm and he’s been around since 1978. They wrote him to be a product of his time as a teenager and then later as an adult during the 90’s. He was a popular jock getting by on a C – D average in life. When he “died” as Firestorm, he was in his early 30’s. He’s returned from the dead (in Brightest Day) and now seems to be depicted as same age as Jason. What the HELL?!?!

Jason was learning to use his powers in effective ways to further the development of Firestorm as a character. Ronnie didn’t know what he was doing half the time and he even said so.
Ronnie Raymond is not my Firestorm, Jason Rusch is. But when it comes time for a new character to be Firestorm, I’ll gladly step aside and let them play in the sandlot.


My point with this long back story is not to show my love of the character, but my love of continuity when it comes to legacy. 

Is Bucky now Captain America? Awesome, I can relate to Bucky now because he’s depicted as being mid to late 20’s. He’s insecure on being this icon and making the best of a shitty situation. I love that Bucky is being HIS Captain America and not everybody else’s. Steve Rogers was pushing 40? 50? He was stuck in his ways already as this World War Two vet with WW2 values.

Wally West was a hell of a Flash and in some people’s opinion, better than Barry Allen. But Wally made a mark as the Flash HIS way and for that, the Legacy of the Flash is that much greater.

Dan Garrett, Ted Kord and Jamie Reyes are or have been the Blue Beetle. Jamie is the current “Beetle” and tries to live to the legacy of the previous two. In fact, within his limited series, Jamie made it a point to preserve the legacy of Ted Kord through his actions as the Blue Beetle.

When a different person becomes a character icon, it offers up a breath of fresh air creatively for the writer/artist, as well as for the character itself. We as a comic community need to embrace change. Otherwise we’re all just waiting for that forgotten hero to punch a wall wearing a super ring that crashes the time/space continuum bringing about another secret crisis war.

What are your thoughts on Legacy characters?