Most of my friends know that I’m a big Superman fan. He’s always been my favorite superhero despite the fact that many are hesitant to name him as their favorite because a) He’s too powerful b)They think there’s not much too him or c) He’s too well known and it is therefore cliched to think of him as one’s favorite. Even then, he’s still my favorite.

I have followed Superman in all the mediums - I read the comics for a few years, I’ve seen all the Superman movies, any animated series that featured Superman, any TV shows that featured him - reruns of the black and white Superman show with George Reaves, Superboy, Lois and Clark, and, the topic of this post, Smallville.

There was a buzz around Smallville when it first debuted on the WB more than 7 years ago. And indeed it did start off quite well. The premise was as follows - A toddler in a spaceship crash lands in Smallville, Kansas amid a meteor shower. The meteor shower killed several people in Smallville, including the parents of Clark’s future crush Lana, and also had the unintended consequence of infecting some residents with ‘meteor rock’ (kryptonite as Clark found out later). These same rocks weaken Clark (but you knew that).

Also, the series featured a friendship between Clark and his future nemesis Lex Luthor. They met in the first episode when Clark saved Lex’s life and thus began their friendship and, unbeknown Clark, Lex’s obsession with finding out what exactly it was Clark was hiding.

Unfortunately, the series delved into a series of soapy, filler episodes that outnumbered the good ones and Lana Lang, who Clark could not stop fawning over, was one of the worst characters on TV. Yet, years later, I was still watching due only to my allegiance to the Man of Steel. My perseverance has paid off as Smallville seems to be experiencing a creative resurgence as of late. Might this be due to Lana no longer being on the show? I admit, there’s more to it than that (different writers, etc( but it’s enough for me.

However, even though I enjoy watching Smallville, I still find myself talking at the TV while I’m watching the episode because it’s just so illogical sometimes. Here are a few things:

-Clark has become a reporter at the Daily Planet despite his only experience stemming from writing an assignment or two for his high school paper 7 seasons ago. He hadn’t shown any interest at all in being a reporter and then all of a sudden he’s working at the Planet? Couldn’t the writers have spent two seconds to explain this? Maybe even Clark just saying “Good thing I got this job because I really like writing!” or something equivalently lame?

-These people never graduated from college. They all started at one point but then something happened to the school or something but then they never went back. Therefore, not only does Clark not have any experience to be a reporter, but he doesn’t even have a college degree. Lois doesn’t have a degree either.

-Back in Season 1, Smallville was far away from Metropolis. Now, it seems to be a few feet away as the characters live in Smallville and yet are happily commuting to Metropolis for their day jobs and in fact sometimes seem to make the round trip more than once in a day. And I’m not just talking about Clark zipping back and forth. I’m referring to the mortals on the show.

-Where’s Martha Kent? She’s a senator and all that for Kansas (yeah, I know) but there has been no mention of her for more than a season, even when Clark had disappeared for a few months. I mean, you don’t think she would care or something.

-Also, is Clark still running the farm? Sell the thing, man. You’re the only one who’s holding on.

Anyways, I’ll continue to watch Smallville until it’s no longer on. For the first time in a while, I’m interested in how the storylines will play out (although not looking forward to Lana showing up in 5 episodes this season). I just have to say that I know when the creators started Smallville, they were living by the mantra “No Flights, No Tights” but enough is enough. Put Clark in a costume and have him fly. It’s about time.

The folks over at Warner Brother realized that maybe the Superman Returns movie wasn’t as good as it should have been. From a Wall Street Journal article: Warner Bets of Fewer, Bigger Movies

‘Superman’ didn’t quite work as a film in the way that we wanted it to,” says Mr. Robinov. “It didn’t position the character the way he needed to be positioned.” “Had ‘Superman’ worked in 2006, we would have had a movie for Christmas of this year or 2009,” he adds. “But now the plan is just to reintroduce Superman without regard to a Batman and Superman movie at all.

So… this could mean a Superman movie that will block out all memories of Superman Returns!

Here’s my wishlist for a probable Superman movie:
- The Superman portrayed should be a Post-Crisis Superman.
- No illegitimate children of Superman hanging around. Please.
- Lois Lane should already know Clark Kent is Superman - I mean, c’mon, we should be past this by now.
- No Kevin Spacey. He didn’t play Lex Luthor in the last movie, he played Gene Hackman playing Lex Luthor.
- Superman needs to show some expression now and then.
- The plot can’t revolve around real estate. You would think that this is common sense.
- Different director. Sorry Bryan Singer, you had your chance.

Keeping fingers crossed.

Last night I watched Justice League: The New Frontier, the latest animated straight to DVD movie released by Warners Animation. The first one released was Superman: Doomsday, which I wrote about previously.

The movie, based off a comic book, was animated in an old style manner to mimic the art of the Golden Age. I wasn’t sure how I’d react to it since I’m a huge fan of the modern Justice League animated series, but it worked quite well.

The plot of the move revolves around The Centre, an initially unseen enemy that wishes to eradicate the human race because of their destructive ways.

The movie takes place during the Red Scare in which in addition to fear of communists, the public maintained a fear of superheroes. Because of possible ramifications, the superheroes in general are hesitant to use their powers. However since fending off The Centre required the joining of forces of both the American military and various superheroes, an understanding had to be reached. To deflect a standoff between the two groups, Superman gave an impassioned speech as to how they all needed to let go of their fear of each other and band together to fight the common evil.

I really liked the movie - good plot, good animation, and better than the Superman Returns movie (but like I said before, anything is better than that). It makes you think though - maybe what this world needs to combat the constant fear of one another is a common alien enemy. But that wouldn’t be practical, would it.

The next animated movie due to be released straight to DVD is Batman: Gotham Knight, an anime-style Batman movie in which Batman is voiced by the original Batman voice actor from the animated series, Kevin Conroy. Woohoo!

DC Comics recently came out with an animated straight to DVD movie titled Superman: Doomsday. This is meant to be an adaptation of the Death of Superman storyline from the comics, which began in 1993 and ended in 1994. This animated movie was created by the same people responsible for the Superman, Batman, and Justice League cartoons. However, it doesn’t quite take place in the same universe.

I got the DVD a couple of weeks ago but put off watching it because it’s Ramadan. I ended up watching it Saturday night after I broke my fast in the evening because I got nostalgic for the Superman animated series after catching the end of an episode on cable. So what follows is a look at the movie, with comparisons to the comics. You really don’t have to read what follows if you’re not interested in the topic. Really folks, turn back now or you can’t complain about how much thought I’ve given to this:

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