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.
He can do a lot, quite frankly. You have to remember Miller has written the TV version of these characters before, so it’s no wonder they sound natural and familiar. And without their former actors’ particular voices and delivery to get in the way, Miller’s dialogue has even greater opportunity to shine in all its silliness. In fact, I’d say Lois and Clark’s interaction is pretty much the best part of this issue. Lois, as Clark brushes his teeth: “You didn’t just break the sink again, did you?” “We both know you’re the one who broke the sink, Lois.” “To this day, I shall attest it was your super-spit, Smallville.” “Uh-huh.”
Jokes aside, this series has another thing going for it, which is seeing Smallville-Clark as Superman at last. What’s particularly delightful about the experience is we don’t get any of the angst and excessive emoting that made Clark, Tom Welling, and the show in general such a drag when it was on the air. Miller’s Superman is as much of the bright, playful, and principled hero as you can hope for; he doesn’t feel any less authentic than his comic book counterparts.
In fact, in a weird way, we have a case where this parallel-Superman (as I imagine DC considers this guy to be) feels more like what we expect of Superman than the Superman we’ve gotten as of late on Action Comics and his self-named title. Clark projects that great iconic charm and people skills in his adventures. After he rescues some Russians on a damaged satellite, one of them says, “Alexi would like to get autograph for his son, you are the boy’s hero!” Clark replies, “Your son already has a hero to look up to, cosmonaut. His father.” Very Man of Steel.
Then again, if we consider this Clark yet another version of Superman, you can’t ignore the fact that he doesn’t go beyond your expectations of the character either. If Miller wants to anchor this series as more than just a gift to the however-many of the 3-4 million viewers who watched the show and care enough to read the comic, he’ll have to put his imagination to work and craft some stories worthy of the Superman name.
The Batgirl nostalgia runs even thicker with Pérez, Miller’s artistic partner on that series, on board. While you appreciate his clean, slightly cartoony style, which fits Miller’s comedic tone, mostly you’re just distracted with Pérez’s uneven attempts to maintain the characters’ likenesses to their television selves. On occasion, the resemblance is uncanny (Lois in that last panel, for example, who bears a spot-on Durance expression), but more often they switch between Pérez’s naturally loose and limber figures and this almost waxen, unnaturally modeled look.
Conclusion: Thoroughly enjoyable as a sample of Miller’s work and an homage to the show it purports to continue, but as a Superman comic, it has a ways to go to rub shoulders with the majors. In short, it needs to go beyond Smallville.
Grade: B
– Minhquan Nguyen
Some Musings: – For Tom Welling impressions, dig Cat Staggs’ digital first cover. If any of you were as miffed as a lot of people were that the show never showed Tom in the tights and cape, Staggs’ cover comes pretty darn close to fulfilling your dream.