Smallville #7 – Review

By: Bryan Q. Miller (story), Chris Cross (pencils), Marc Deering (inks), Carrie Strachan (colors)

The Story: I hate to say it, Batman, but people have a habit of getting shot around you.

The Review: With all the news coming out of DC about upcoming new series, it’s made me start thinking about my reviewing future.  I have a pretty sizable stack of series I cover, somewhere upwards of thirty a month, and anyone who’s followed my work since I joined this site knows I have never once skipped a review unless I’ve Dropped it first—which means I’ve never actually skipped a review.  So adding titles to my list is always a fraught, juggling act.

So let’s say I want to cover Vibe, Katana, and Justice League of America next year (and there are even more I’m looking at).  Do I really want to do 33+ reviews a month (including weekly coverage of Arrow and Young Justice—if and when it ever comes back)?  I do have a life, difficult as that is to believe.  I guess what I’m trying to say is I’m giving a good hard look at the things I’m reading and it looks like Smallville may be one of the expendable items.

Smallville #6 – Review

By: Bryan Q. Miller (story), Jamal Igle (pencils), Marc Deering (inks), Carrie Strachan (colors)

The Story: Batman discovers it’s a little harder to flip-drop Superman than other folks.

The Review: Last month, I went through a strange, almost revelatory moment with the title, where I realized that no matter how much I or Miller or anybody else wanted it to replace the show we watched semi-diligently, it never would.  Comics, particularly ones involving superheroes, are all about indulgences, taking fictional liberties and playing up the action.  For a drama and talk-centered series like Smallville, comics don’t always translate its appeal.

Remember how often and how much of the show used to involve two-character scenes, with long, windy streams of dialogue (and lots of talking while turning away from the other person).  Fighting sequences were limited by budget constraints, but that made the personal storylines more integral to the show.  Miller has almost reversed the action-drama ratios here, and that produces an “episode” that doesn’t much resemble those of its televised predecessor.

Smallville #3 – Review

By: Bryan Q. Miller (story), Pere Perez (art), Chris Beckett (colors)

The Story: Lois’ dad grills her boyfriend—with machine gunnery.

The Review: Ever since comic book writers got the idea of bringing “relevant” topics to their work, they’ve gotten into the habit of placing their protagonists into moral quandaries no amount of superpowers can solve.  The one which continues to plague capes to this day goes something like this: if you have the power to accomplish almost anything good thing you can think of, which ones do you choose?  More importantly, what makes one choice worthier than the other?

I could be wrong, but I’d guess no superhero has had to confront these questions more often than Superman.  In fact, every year or so there’s one story arc where Superman has to deal with the guilt over not being able to save everyone.  Let me start off by promising I won’t go all dirtbag legal-eagle and say, “Well, legally, no one has an actual duty to rescue-blah-de-blah-de-blah…” While that’s a practical sentiment which I understand, I really think it’s a crummy way to see things.  It’d be almost criminal to have the power to save so many lives and not use it.

Smallville #1 – Review

By: Bryan Q. Miller (story), Pere Pérez (art), Randy Mayor & Chris Beckett (colors)

The Story: Somebody save me…I don’t care how you do it…Just save…save…Come on…I’ve been waiting for you.

The Review: Smallville was one of those oddball, hybrid shows the WB tends to produce: a bit too weird and geeky to get mainstream appeal, yet not radically weird enough to achieve cult status with actual geeks.  It was a show centered around Superman mythology, and yet a lot of the times, what went on in the show had little to do with Superman.  Though I watched and enjoyed it at times, I can’t say I ever got invested in it.

Still, it didn’t surprise me when DC decided to go the Buffy/Angel route and spawn off a comic-book spin-off for the longest running Superman live-action series on television.  I probably never would’ve looked at it twice if Miller’s name wasn’t attached to the project.  I greatly enjoyed his lively, irreverent style of writing when he did Batgirl (featuring the unsinkable Stephanie Brown, whom I still miss every day), and since none of DC’s new 52 offer quite that same flavor of story, I decided to eat the sword and check out what Miller could do with the Smallville gang.