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Post by michaelpaciocco on May 14, 2011 5:36:42 GMT -8
Well, it's not like anyone else was ever going to use it again. I guess they got it cheap - possibly fishing it out of Bryan Singer's dumpster I imagine. Smallville has always been a show that wears its low budget on its sleeve.
That was a bit head-scratching, but a minor one to me, personally. Plus, so many "Lois and Clark" jokes could be made.
Look, I'm just glad (and to be honest, a little surprised) they didn't go for the mass-mindwipe option and throw Lois under the bus too. And while I think the idea of "Lex knows but doesn't give a damn about Clark's secret identity" would be a new spin, I'm just not sure how it would go other than Lex pulling a Superfolks and hiring construction contractors to lace all construction materials in metropolis with Superman....
...actually, come to think of it, why doesn't Lex do that anyway? Eh, probably "weakening Superman" is not as interesting as "outright killing him."
Overall I figure preserving the fact that Lex doesn't know is just one of those things they forced to keep things close to the traditional status quo.
Because blind ambition is the core of Luthor DNA, which has been more-or-less carved into stone in this show. Plus, I'm sure the whole "Superhuman alien who overshadows mankind" thing would probably come into play.
Nope. Can't help with that one.
Of course he was - it's Smallville. I mean, his entire plan hinged on Green Arrow NOT fucking it up. That's not exatly high caliber planning there.
My memory of that movie was that it was a kiss, but ok. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I think he actually started moving Apokalips before the omegas started poofing.
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Post by Mario Di Giacomo on May 14, 2011 7:03:36 GMT -8
My memory of that movie was that it was a kiss, but ok. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I think he actually started moving Apokalips before the omegas started poofing. Technically, yes, but it was a pretty hot kiss. And it was still more impressive than "small dot manages to move a (small?) planet fractionally away from the earth" |
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Post by michaelpaciocco on May 14, 2011 7:08:00 GMT -8
My memory of that movie was that it was a kiss, but ok. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I think he actually started moving Apokalips before the omegas started poofing. Technically, yes, but it was a pretty hot kiss. And it was still more impressive than "small dot manages to move a (small?) planet fractionally away from the earth" Agreed - again, this is Smallville showing how low-budget it is. I'm sort of...immune to that now. Really, the one thing I hope is taken away from this show? The idea that the whole "Clark/Lois/Superman" triangle is dead as a trope forever. Because let's face it, if Smallville couldn't pull the trigger to set up that status quo, then it is officially too stupid to survive. |
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Post by michaelpaciocco on May 15, 2011 19:12:32 GMT -8
One final coda on Smallville, and just an observation
With Smallville ending, this marks the end of almost 18 years of continuous presence of Superman on TV.
Lois and Clark (started 1993)
Then the Superman Adventures Cartoon, which begat the Justice League.
Superman and the Legion of Superheroes Cartoon
Smallville
That's...kind of impressive really. Batman's been on longer through his animation...but only by a couple years.
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Post by jensaltmann on May 15, 2011 23:23:11 GMT -8
One final coda on Smallville, and just an observation With Smallville ending, this marks the end of almost 18 years of continuous presence of Superman on TV. Lois and Clark (started 1993) Then the Superman Adventures Cartoon, which begat the Justice League. Superman and the Legion of Superheroes Cartoon Smallville That's...kind of impressive really. Batman's been on longer through his animation...but only by a couple years. It's even longer if you count the Superboy live-action TV series, which ran from 1988 - 1992. |
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Post by Mario Di Giacomo on May 16, 2011 5:44:36 GMT -8
There was also a little-known animated series in 1988.
(I didn't even know about it myself until a couple of weeks ago)
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Post by K-Box on May 17, 2011 23:01:14 GMT -8
There was also a little-known animated series in 1988. (I didn't even know about it myself until a couple of weeks ago) I actually remember that one. Complete with one episode they blatantly stole from one of the Kolchak: The Night Stalker TV movies (mutated immortal mad scientist killer living in the "Metropolis Underground," blatantly ripped off of the Seattle Underground). |
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Post by michaelpaciocco on May 23, 2011 14:43:05 GMT -8
Just a bit of lazy linkblogging while I'm busy with RL stuff: You'll have to go to the blog to hit the other links though. Also, seriously: The Hero Business is awesome. pacioccosmind.blogspot.com/2011/05/newest-poster-and-linkblogging.htmlCheck out Johanna Draper Carlson's latest Marvel reviews if you want to see how the "big name comic companies" are shedding their readership. It's quite something to behold really. I've always seen Johanna as one of the most even-handed reviewers out there, and if she's this...well, this brutal in her takedowns, then people, you should pay attention. Also, you should really check out The Hero Business. It's a smart little webcomic I'm following these days and I recommend it. The latest strip, dealing with the "rebranding" of a classic-style hero, also does it's fair share of pointing out the shortcomings of the modern superhero comic genre. |
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Post by michaelpaciocco on May 24, 2011 10:53:41 GMT -8
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Post by michaelpaciocco on May 28, 2011 14:18:55 GMT -8
In which I wave my finger condescendingly at both Smallville fans, and comic fans. Also, man I can't believe I generated this many "finale" related posters, and there's more to come. Not bothering to post the rest of this series as it's mostly recapping things I said in previous posts pacioccosmind.blogspot.com/2011/05/smallville-finale-review-part-2-fandom.htmlSmallville Finale review Part 2 - Fandom Clash Perhaps the most interesting thing I've found about the Smallville finale is the reactions I've seen online, and the intersection and interactions between comics fandom and Smallville fandom. Comics fandom, in general, was pretty dismissive of the finale, and Smallville in general. While neither the worst nor best of these types of fan reactions, I think the Smallvillains series by Chris Sims and David Uzumeri is a pretty typical benchmark for these types of things. And I have a couple things to say about what I saw both in the review and the comments. First, a few commenters responded to reviews with "Well, you should review past seasons to get the whole context." Where have we heard that before? Congrats "Smallville" fans - you are now using a long-held fan-complaint normally used by science fiction, comic and fantasy fans. And to Comics fans - do you see how poorly that argument works when you're the ones judging it? Think about that for a while. And from comic fans, the complaint is some variation of "It's sad that Smallville is what people are going to think think of when they think of Superman in a modern context." Do yourself a quick favor, do a google image search on "Crying Superman" see roughly what percentage of those image are from the era of 2001-2011. Yeah. The modern era of Superman comics (All-Star Superman notwithstanding) has been extremely uneven at best, and prone to many of the same problems comics fans complain about the show for. So, currently, we've got Chris Roberson working incredibly hard to redeem J. Michael Stracyznski's "Grounded" story arc. He's doing a decent job, but he's also filling it to the brim with in-jokes and nods to a lot of heavy continuity to get that geek buzz going. Paul Cornell is fairing slightly better, if for no other reason he's mostly sticking to his own story, not filling in on someone else's notes. However, the accessibility problem is much the same, particularly if you don't care about who Vandal Savage and Secret Six and other "guest stars" are. But at least it's adaptable to other media. Before this, there was "New Krypton", which will probably go down as the Superman equivalent of "the Clone Saga" in terms of creative failure. I found it funny at the time, because this was taking place at roughly the same time as Smallville Season 9 was also dealing with Kandorians on Earth. I feel confident in my opinion that Smallville did a better job. Before that you had Johns on Action Comics, doing a bunch of "cinematic" story arcs, with Brainiac, the Legion of Superheroes, etc. These were entertaining comics, and probably some of the best (and most restrained) work Johns has ever done, but hardly world breaking. Pleasantly competent. And again, I have a hard time imagining most of Johns' work adapting to other media (Brainiac, perhaps, or the Legion as an animated DVD). On the other side, you had Kurt Busiek's aborted run. I'm actually not going to judge that too harshly, because you can tell that Kurt Busiek was gearing up for a multi-year long series of arcs, and we only ever really saw the first act of it. It might have even been great, but unfortunately, someone at DC Editorial felt otherwise. Busiek and Johns got things off to a really good start with the "One Year Later" story they did together - that was surprisingly competent and accessible. Which they kind of had to do given the long brutal slog of terrible, godawful Superman comics that came out during the years leading up to "Infinite Crisis". Anyone remember Ruin? The Brian Azzarello/Jim Lee arc? Chuck Austen? Seagle's story arc in Superman? Outside of Gail Simone, it was a dark, dark time. And before that, you had the era of Jeph Loeb; master of the dumb but occasionally fun story. His books didn't make a lot of sense, but they were popcorn when they wanted to be. In conclusion, if comic fans want good Superman stories, maybe we should all focus on making sure there are good ones in the comics worth adapting? Just a thought. |
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Post by Mario Di Giacomo on May 28, 2011 14:29:40 GMT -8
The thing about the Smallville finale is that it really isn't a good Superman story, either. I'm going to snag a chunk of a post I made on Kirk's LJ (which I know you've seen) because I think it's relevant.
Smallville will not endure, I think. Neither will the glorious JMS era. All-Star, OTOH....
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Post by michaelpaciocco on May 28, 2011 15:53:23 GMT -8
Oh, absolutely agreed. However, the "Smallville isn't the comics" doesn't wash as an arguement for me, because the comics (particularly those taking place in the same timeframe as Smallville) were some of the worst in the franchise's 70 year history. With the All-Star exception.
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Post by Mario Di Giacomo on May 28, 2011 16:49:04 GMT -8
Oh, absolutely agreed. However, the "Smallville isn't the comics" doesn't wash as an arguement for me, because the comics (particularly those taking place in the same timeframe as Smallville) were some of the worst in the franchise's 70 year history. With the All-Star exception. Fair enough. I argue more from the "it wasn't particularly well made" perspective.  Actually, this reminds me of something else I was wondering about recently: Are comic book readers settling? By this, I mean that given the sheer number of poorly written stories out there, are stories that are at best average (and, often merely mediocre) being accepted as great simply because they are RELATIVELY better? |
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Post by michaelpaciocco on May 28, 2011 17:19:58 GMT -8
If you define "comic book readers" as "people who exclusively buy Marvel/DC", then yes, yes they are - there is no other justification for the glorification of Chris Roberson's Grounded (I actually think he's a good writer, but what he's doing here is trying to fill out the spine of JMS' stupid, mindless story by throwing in enough callbacks and Easter Eggs while trying to put a fig leaf of a Superman story on top of the warmed over garbage - Look! There's Iron Munro! and a reference to Kal Kent! and this! and that! etc etc). Ditto Jonathan Hickman (great imagination, but can't end a story to save his life) and Matt Fraction.
Dan Slott's "Spider-man" stuff is maybe Tom DeFalco or J.M. DeMatteis on a slow day, or David Micheline doped up - mid-range at best. Geoff Johns is Chris Claremont, but with a fetish for Lucas-level dismemberment substituted for S&M kink and slightly better dialogue.
Of the modern crop, the only writers I view as objectively good, that stand up to older predecessors are Roberson (and he's still got to prove himself), Paul Tobin, Paul Cornell, and Nick Spencer.
However, the general answer is "No, they're not, because they've left Marvel/DC behind and have either quit comics altogether or have moved to other stuff outside Marvel/DC" and the numbers bear that out.
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Post by michaelpaciocco on May 28, 2011 17:22:52 GMT -8
Fair enough. I argue more from the "it wasn't particularly well made" perspective. Superman on Live Action TV has always been....so-so when it comes down to that - see the Superboy TV series and "Lois and Clark". I hold to my opinion that "Smallville" is bog-standard for Superman Live-Action TV, just with more modern effects. I don't think it necessarily deserves the bile it gets. |
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