Smallville Season 11 "Continuity" Chapter 10 (10/31/14)

[skully]

A tidy up issue.

Loved the superfriends all together in the FoS for the trial of the Monitors, Supe's speech, Martha's emotion and pride as Perry & Shelby returned from a walk, and the gold superhero statue to replace Watchtower.

And Robin has entered the story at the 11th hour.

So I guess all that needs to be wrapped up is Chloe's pregnancy? What else will be in the final 2 issues.

What'd you think?

[Starsaber]

I didn't realize that the last issue wrapped up the fight, so the start of this one seemed pretty abrupt to me.

I did like Dick Grayson showing up and the start of wrapping things up. I think we're probably going to see them turning on the lights at the new Watchtower in one of the remaining issues in addition to Chloe giving birth.

[fourmyle]

Hated this issue.

The Blue/Green Lantern/Barbara thing apparently is just how he's going to leave it. And it stinks. The plot hole is still there - the ring didn't ask permission, it just took her. If at some point it did ask permission, you'd think it would have been mentioned, since that was such a huge plot point of the first Lantern arc. That was the only discernible outcome of that first story. But the main problem is, just as in the original story with Superman getting the ring, it's all way too easy and glib and casual. Superman had his whole destiny suddenly hijacked and changed and derailed by the sudden appearance of the ring - and didn't seem to care at all. This is nothing like the Clark we've known for 10+ years, who agonizes over his destiny constantly. And now we see Barbara get hijacked out of her entire life by the ring choosing her, and she doesn't miss a beat, and there's not a single panel featuring her questioning it or even treating it like there's a decision to be made. Unless there's something to the character that we haven't been shown, I have to think she'd certainly have deliberated it, and would probably have refused it, and on the same grounds that Superman ought to have refused it in the first story - she's already got a hero gig. But as I say, she just up and leaves like it's nothing, and does so without a second thought.

Then Miller uses this as a means of leaving the 'iconic' Batman/Robin pairing. Except we don't want that, and the story didn't need it. Barbara as Nightwing was perfect as Batman's partner. Funnily enough, the whole scenario reminds me of what Smallville did with Lois. They introduced a pseudo-Lois who fulfilled all the functions of Lois and shared many of her characters, but was way BETTER than Lois. Chloe. Then to conform to the canon they unnecessarily introduced a 'real' Lois and (eventually) pushed Chloe aside, even though her pairing with Clark had been better than Lois's eventual pairing with Clark. So it's fascinating to see Miller accidentally repeat a mistake of the show's, just with Batman rather than Superman.

I also found the Martha scene weird. Frankly Clark's whole secret identity is unusually problematic in the Smallville world, because he went around looking and acting just like Superman, as Clark, for years and years, until fairly recently. Perry White knows Clark well. They've met a bunch of times and spent time together. He's seen Clark look and sound the exact same way Superman does. He met Clark in the context of thinking Clark had superpowers - just like Superman's turned out to be. Yet this great newshound doesn't put it together. So there's difficulty suspending disbelief with some of this stuff. But it was always going to be a problem once they ditched the Blur and went with the iconic version. A brave move would have been to have him come out and reveal who he really is. I mean why not? We're well beyond Infamous now. Superman's already out in the news and known. He's accepted. Why not come out and say who he really is? Who's he got to protect? Lois is pretty well-protected (best friends are superheroes, dad's a general, plus she's tough) and Martha is a senator and power player. He has no normal weak civilians in his life. Why hide?

[costas22]

It felt like they skipped the final part of the battle between the JLA and the Monitors. At the end of last week's issue the Monitors hadn't been defeated yet and this week's chapter begun with the trial.

Anyway, now they're in wrap up mode. And with Batman and Barbara's arc out of the way, hopefully the last 2 chapters will be all about the traditional Smallville characters.

[bigvillir001]

great issue 10/10 cant wait for more

[Kdude22]

Rant about Babs and Perry, feel free to skip it lol this was an awesome issue though, loved most of it.


I have to agree with a lot of what fourmyle said. I agree that Babs as Nightwing, as weird as it seemed at first, turned out to be great. The dynamic between her and Bats was great, and I feel like her and Lois became best friends along the way. And while BQM had alluded to Grayson being around before, I don't like how her life was upended by a blue ring and then a replacement side kick right after like nothing. But I didn't entirely care when it happened with Lois/Chloe back in season 4, that was kind of a slower paced take over, and even then, Chloe and Clark still remained best friends the ENTIRE time, which is great, good for them.

And then, I've ALWAYS had an issue with a lot of ppl having grown up with Clark sans glasses and not recognizing him as superman just a few months after he decided to wear the glasses and the sper suit. I normally put this focus on the General, because everybody else Clark grew up around knows about his powers now (like Fourmyle was saying about him not having any regular ppl in his life anymore, short of those he works with anyways). But Perry is another good person to throw into this. BOTH Perry and the General saw Clark in season 10 without glasses and then they can't see him as Superman just a few months later?? Not to mention there are Smallville High yearbooks with Supermans freakin picture in it. And even in the episode itself where he decides to wear glasses, he puts them on and acts just tiny bit clumsy, and both Jeff and Cat suddenly can't remember how he was before and don't recognize him flying around in a red cape?? To this day, I still don't buy it. Back to the point though, if Martha is still with Perry after all this time, and add in that he's seen and talked to Clark more than once before in person, with the most recent time being just the year before (maybe like a year and a half, given the six months inbetween seasons 10 & 11), I don't get way a) she (or Clark) doesn't just tell him, and b) why a reporter of his caliber hasn't figured it out himself. I will say that the General probably does know though, and is just going along with it like I think somebody else might have mentioned back when the comic started years ago.

[Kdude22]

Als, wouldn't it be cool if there is currently no plans for Smallville season 12 because they're thinking about starting a new Justice League comic based in the SMALLVILLE universe (possibly called Metropolis, as an option lol)?? Lol the point of this show was to show him because superman, and now that he's officially ease into the role and he's save the whole freakin universe this time around, maybe it's time for a name change.

Besides, we'll probably see the new Watchtower be put to use, see my favorite character have her child, and the stories can still go on. Not to mention I wanna see the new Red Tornado get some more field experience in, see where that Darkseid story can go, and I also wanna either see Bart come back some how or get another Flash in the story since we saw the other Speedsters in the speed force. So much left to do... And with our knowledge of the universe, we could make the stories ourselves if nobody steps up to the plate. Lol