Last Friday saw the premiere of Smallville: Absolute Justice on the CW. In it, Clark meets with the Justice Society of America (well, Hawkman, Sandman, the Star Spangled Kid, and Star Girl) and viewers got to see the notion of Clark’s team beginning to form their own family.
With all the build up, and the final reveal, the big question for you is, “Did you like it?”
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Stephen Schleicher began his career writing for the Digital Media Online community of sites, including Digital Producer and Creative Mac covering all aspects of the digital content creation industry. He then moved on to consumer technology, and began the Coolness Roundup podcast. A writing fool, Stephen has freelanced for Sci-Fi Channel's Technology Blog, and Gizmodo. Still longing for the good ol' days, Stephen launched Major Spoilers in July 2006, because he is a glutton for punishment. You can follow him on Twitter @MajorSpoilers and tell him your darkest secrets...
16 Comments
It was generally enjoyable. By Smallville standards it was excellent.
I don’t follow the show, and I enjoyed this special episode. I liked the “historic” reel sequences. The old school burn-out heroes angle was interesting, it had some Watchmen flavour in it. I wanted to see more of Sandman, he looked like a interesting character. Beside Hankman wings, the costumes where great. Hawkman was a pain, but his scene where he talked about his wife with Green Arrow was cool. Well ok, the dialogue was corny (it funny how it would have been fine if it was in a comic book page), but it was ok, it din’t really bother me. Lewis character is kind of strange, I don’t know, like she was a mix of a modern reporter and a cartoony reporter.
Lois Lane charcater, not Lewis. (rolling eyes).
That was the first time in years that I actually sat through two hours of network programming. While budget prevents having a lot of actors and special effects on a CW Network show, I did think that the show was well-written even if the series is cramming too much of the “Comic Continuity” into the current plot frame (Return of JSA, beginnings of JLA, Clark with the “S” and cape, Amanda Waller and Checkmate and Suicide Squad and the Kandorians). Those plots alone would take up about 6 comics titles (the last few issues of which would be delayed for some reason or another).
What I liked about the show, despite the offing of Wes Dodds (since SSK and Kent Nelson are Black Lantern candidates in the comics anyway), was the way that the dynamics of the nature of the Justice Society versus the pseudo JLA that Star Girl mentioned. The JSA has always been based since the earliest days as a family first, team second. The JLA through the years has never really hit that “family” feeling since the main members (Clark, Bruce, Diana, Hal, Barry, etc.) never seemed to age and there wasn’t the “mentoring” type of relationships as there were in the JSA.
I did like the efforts to reference the comics continuity; the JSA’ers that only appear in flashbacks are similar to and are shown with the gear and correct costumes in the painting; Ma “Red Tornado” Hunkle being arrested with the rest of the JSA’ers in the “Checkmate” scheme that apparently replaces the McCarthy “Red Scare” as the reason for the JSA to retire; the friction between Hawkman and Green Arrow; Keeping the Carter Hall origin of Hawkman and having him brooding over the loss of Hawkwoman as the reason that he’s Bruce Wayne with wings. (“The flight would have been better if you hadn’t thrown up on me. Sorry, send me your dry-cleaning bill. You send me your dinner bill.”); and Oliver Queen telling Clo that the phone call between him and Black Canary was “purely plutonic”. The use of Icicle I and Icicle II as the villain was also good since Icy is the villain that’s been in more versions of the Injustice Society and other “baddie groups” since the beginning of the JSA. Re-powering Jonn Jonzz was also good.
All in all, I enjoyed it and hoped that the ratings will encourage the folks producing Smallville to have the other members of the “Watchtower” and the JSA show up more frequently and maybe even have Clark stumble around places like Gotham every now and then (even though the damn rights thing means not having Clark meet up with Bruce in this series). Tell Ma Kent to start finding those old red, blue and yellow Kryptonian blankets.
Was JSA about family?
I know that Geoff Johns has made that sort of “mentoring” vibe for the past decade or so, but I thought the original publications had more of a “professional colleagues” sort of feel. Each member would do his/her own deal and then they’d meet at the end as the plot threads slammed back together.
In the original All-Star comics, that was the case. However, once the JSA made a “full time” return with the re-issuance of All-Star Comics (Power Girl’s debut) and the later JSA series that was the feel I got for the team. That increased even more after Infinity, Inc. was cancelled and some of their members became active in the JSA.
Call me when Batman shows up! (Incoherent ramblings.. Drrrck Vengiansss..Zur En Arh
I’m not a regular viewer of Smallville, but if the TV-movie is a reflection of the way this season is going to go, sign me up.
And… that teaser at the end with Zatanna didn’t hurt either.
Not a big fan of Smallville, but this was entertaing plus Stargirl.
I expect very little from Smallville, so I was pleasently surprised to find this was a rather good episode. Loved the “Lois and Clark” cameo for those who caught it. I was far more interested in the introduction of Checkmate then the JSA, I really want to know which version we’ll see (With or without Maxwell Lord? White and Black sides of the board? Metas and normal humans balanced as far as Knights are involded? Rooks?)
A few nitpicks:
As far as I know the Wall called her team Task Force X and it was the criminals that dubbed it Suicide Squad, because of the low survival rate of mission, also no Rick Flag.
The use of Lois was also somewhat awkward, Waller would have never shwon her hand so soon into the game by meeting her either.
I’m not a regular watcher of Smallville, I’ve only seen a few episodes here and there, mainly with the guest heroes and such.
That said, if there more episodes like this, I would be surely on board. I absolutely loved this episode. Give it a bigger budget and this could’ve been a great movie to watch in the theater. Maybe that’s just me, but yeah I loved it.
The musical score was great, I loved it when Clark was pulling off all the coverings of the museum and showing each JSA member in the painting. I thought it was epic.
Hell to me, it showed you could do another DC series should they want to go that route, and the ratings I believe reflected that.
I think it’s funny that your poll pictures feature the cool Dr. Fate for the positive choice and “GQ” Green Arrow for the negative.
Almost like it was planned that way as a subtle message?
I liked how this was kinda like when the JLA and JSA would have their annual cross-overs. Other than the fact that the plot was sorta too “Watchmen”-y and the silly Emo-icle villian, I thought it was a very solid and enjoyable episode (and I don’t normally watch the show).
I didn’t watch, so I don’t know.
Does anyone think this could have been a back-door pilot?
It was interesting and over all I liked it. Some parts we WAAAYYY cheesy but I loved seeing the old school meets new school!!