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    Showing posts with label Green Arrow. Show all posts
    Showing posts with label Green Arrow. Show all posts

    Thursday, October 23, 2014

    ARROW, Corto Maltese Episode Review

    Unknown 8:29 PM , , , , , , , ,


    We begin this episode in great anticipation of the encounter between Thea and Oliver.  We first get a glimpse of the exchange between Thea and Malcolm Merlyn when she left Starling City 5 months ago.  It’s clear that Thea has some talents which she hasn’t been fully utilizing.

    Then it’s on to one of the sub-plots.  Oliver tracks down the individual whose fingerprint was on the green glass he found where Sara was murdered.  After a short chase and quick interrogation Oliver realizes the lead is a dead end. 

    But not all is lost to Oliver as Felicity has located Thea in Corto Maltese.  Oliver and Roy get ready to go get back Thea!  I’m sure they think it will all be cake and laughs too.

    Meanwhile, Lyla asks Diggle to go to Corto Maltese with Oliver as she has a field operative, named Shaw, who has “gone dark” in Corto Maltese.  How fortuitous!  Diggle accepts as he’s not expected to be doing much – simply making sure Shaw is OK.

    Then we see some more flashbacks to Thea’s training with Malcolm.  He tells her about how some Buddhist monks believed the first fight begins in the mind and that she must learn to accept pain, but reject suffering.  He plans to teach her how to do this by pouring hot oil over her hand.  She’s understandably not very fond of the idea.

    Oliver lands in Corto Maltese and goes off to see Thea.  Upon finding her to not be at her supposed home he learns from a groundskeeper that she might be at her day job waiting tables.  Why she is waiting tables is beyond me…maybe to learn the culture and language better?  In any case, Oliver avoided getting shot by an arrow that was waiting for him from the end of Malcolm’s bow.  So I guess that’s a plus.

    Thea is surprised but happy to see Oliver when he approaches her at work.  After a short bit of dialogue she repeats her affirmation: she is NEVER going back to Starling City.  Oliver is understandably dejected.

    So, while he tries to think about how to persuade her to come home, Oliver goes off to help Diggle with checking up on Shaw.  The encounter is supposed to be very straightforward and friendly.  But Shaw pulls a knife and almost slices Diggle open.  Luckily he’s been training with Oliver. 

    Shaw confirms Diggle’s identity and then tells him that they need to go stop the sale of Argus’ list of agents and their families.  Diggle takes off with Shaw to stop the sale.  But something doesn’t smell right.  Diggle guesses that something is up and that Shaw is actually up to no good.  But not quite in time as Shaw tazers Diggle, shoots at Oliver who is waiting as backup, and takes the transcoder stick from Diggle’s pocket before making his getaway.

    Roy gets his chance to talk to Thea also.  They share a moment where he confesses he just wants her to be happy.  And if that means that she stays in Corto Maltese, then so be it.  We see that Malcolm is keeping an eye on his daughter from the shadows though and looks none too pleased with her interaction with Roy.

    Turns out EVERYONE loves her hair.  Even me.

    And then a flashback to Thea’s training.  Malcolm tells Thea that he must train her the same way he was trained – and then promptly hits her in the face.  She must have a face of steel though because she doesn’t start bleeding or anything.  Thea does show her war face however.

    The guys contact Felicity for help in tracking Shaw down.  This of course happens right as she is in a meeting with her new boss, Ray Palmer.  He’s quite shocked as she gets phone call after phone call with mysterious undertones talking about finding people.  She’s embarrassed as usual.

    Laurel is angry with the death of her sister and everything and decides that a good way to get out her aggression is to try and beat up a guy who likes to beat his girlfriend.  This does not go over very well for her and she gets her face pummeled quite soundly.  Her face, it turns out, is not steel.

    Then we see Laurel in the hospital and sense that she is starting to go into a deep, dark place.  She’s had it with the injustice of the world.  Who knows what she’s going to do next…  Five bucks says she’s going to learn how to fight and try to take Sara’s place.

    Oliver has one more meeting with Thea.  He discloses that, yes, he’s been keeping secrets.  Thea is still adamant that she will love him as her big brother no matter what.  She’s just pissed that he didn’t tell her who her father was.  That’s when Oliver tells her the truth of how their dad, Robert, died and pleads with her to come home even going so far as to say that he needs her.  He then leaves to go help Diggle.

    The team is set up to intercept Shaw as the deal is going down.  But fate intervenes as a heavily armed group of men shows up and spoils the plans.  A big fight ensues and we get to see that Oliver is actually an amazing shot with a pistol as well.  It seems he learned some other things from his time working with Waller in Hong Kong.  After a solid fight the day is won and the group gets the data back. 

    Thea tells Malcolm that she would like to go home.  He says he thought she was past all of that and that maybe she’s not ready.  A sword fight ensues between the two, because how else would you settle such things, with Thea apparently winning.  She suspects that Malcolm let her win, however, and he ominously states that he’ll see her soon.

    Thea meets the group for the plane back home and everyone is happy.  That is until Oliver gets home to a waiting Laurel.  She asks him to train her but he refuses.  She’s not happy about that.

    Upon entering his hideout under Verdant, Oliver and Roy have a conversation about Thea.  Oliver thinks that something is off with Thea and that she seems a little different.  The conversation is cut short, however, as Sara’s lover and fellow assassin, Nyssa, cuts into the scene with a bow aimed at Oliver and demanding to know where Sara is.

    So hot...So deadly...So cool.

    This should make for an interesting conversation in the next episode…

    P.S. – I absolutely love Katrina Law as Nyssa.  She’s exotic looking like Nyssa should be, talented, and crazy beautiful.  I loved her in Sparticus as well and can’t wait to see where her career takes her.

    Friday, October 17, 2014

    ARROW: “Sara” Episode Review

    Unknown 6:35 AM , , , , , ,
    The episode starts off where the previous one left off – with Sara dead in Laurel’s arms.  Oliver, Roy, and Felicity walk into their secret lair where they are stunned to find Laurel with a dead Sara on their table.  I love this scene as the cast captures the feeling of the moment perfectly.  They range in emotion from disbelief, to denial, and even grim resolve.

    Of course the team is ready to go into action in short order.  Oliver is the bastion of the team and, although visibly angry and shaken, he keeps his cool and gets the team into action.  Step one: try to figure out who murdered Sara.

    Oliver goes to the scene of the crime to investigate.  While there he has a conversation with Diggle about how he’s feeling.  After a short dialogue where Diggle relates how he understands what Oliver is going through because he’s seen it in war, Diggle simply tells Oliver that he’s there to help.  Oliver, being the kind of man he is, says nothing.

    Oliver gets a phone call to meet Detective (now Captain) Lance.  He gives Oliver a file about a murder that happened earlier involving another archer.  Oliver, armed with new information, is on the move.  But not before the archer can kill another victim.

    We get to see a touching scene between Felicity and Roy as Felicity reminisces about Sara.  Shortly thereafter the team gets set into motion to utilize all their resources, including ARGUS and their intelligence database. 

    Oliver continues to be concerned about Thea.  Meanwhile, Roy is showing his own concern by trying to utilize the FBI database to locate Thea.  Roy confesses to the truth and shows Felicity the note which Thea left when she took off at the end of season 2.  The scene ends with Felicity storming off very angrily after a text.

    This leads into the next scene of Felicity barging into Queen consolidated to confront her stalker, new Queen Consolidated CEO Ray Palmer.  He and Felicity share an interesting exchange and you can see that her wall against him, although strong, may be coming down due to his empathy.

    When Oliver gets some information from a low level drug-dealer the team is able to figure out who the enemy is – Simon Lacroix aka- Komodo.  Using the information about the Komodo Felicity is able to track him using his cell phone.  Damn she’s good. 

    Image courtesy of the CW network

    This leads to Oliver interrupting his latest assassination attempt.  A short archer motorcycle duel later and we find out that the Komodo is seemingly better than Oliver.  At least when it comes to archer duels on motorcycles.

    Felicity and Oliver share a moment where Oliver shows just how much the whole situation has gotten to him.  And Felicity shows how she feels as well by telling Oliver that she wants more out of life than just the “hole in the ground” before she walks out.

    Laurel figures that she can help by using her District Attorney credentials to interrogate this most recent victim of the Komodo.  She finds out the link between the three individuals is that they were all working on a business deal together.  But Komodo strikes again and kills the man Laurel is interrogating before she can get all the information out of him.

    But not all is lost!  The information which Laurel got out of the victim is enough to figure out who the next target is.  And it’s a wealthy businessman who is headed to Ray Palmer’s fundraiser at Queen Consolidated. 

    The Komodo strikes, a fight ensues, and Oliver wins the archer duel this time.  Hooray!  But then he has to deal with Laurel pointing a gun at Komodo…she wants vengeance for the murder of her sister and she aims to get it.  But Oliver already planned for this back at the lair and took the bullets out of the pistol.  So even though Laurel disappoints Oliver by pulling the trigger, nothing happens.

    One more tidbit is given out by Komodo as he stands stuck to the wall by an arrow is that he claims to not have killed Sara!  He even claims an alibi which later checks out.  By the way, I’m curious as to how the arrow doesn’t kill him given that it seems to at least have pierced his lung and probably his heart as well.  After all, it was one of Komodo’s arrows which Oliver caught out of the air and then shot back at him so it must have had a real arrowhead and not some tech gizmo arrowhead.  Kind of makes you wonder…

    But we can just stack that onto the list of things that make us go “hmmm” along with the question of who killed Sara.  Meanwhile the group all deals with the aftermath of Sara’s death in their own ways.  One of the interesting developments is that Felicity decides she will work for Ray Palmer after all.  She cites the reason for doing so is because she wants more out of life – the same thing she told Oliver.

    Along the way through this episode we are given flashbacks to Oliver’s time in Hong Kong under the house arrest of Waller.  Oliver is tasked with killing Tommy Merlyn, his best friend.  He of course can’t go through with it and instead has to find an alternative to getting Tommy out of town.  Oliver takes the more “Mission Impossible” style route and convinces Tommy that Oliver’s email going off was all a scam to kidnap a rich person for ransom.  Tommy is “saved” just after being scared almost to death.

    And at the end of the episode we are given a great scene – taken to Corto Maltese we see a kendo training session.  It’s two against one and the team of two is getting their butts whipped.  When the match is over we see Malcolm Merlyn applauding proudly for Thea’s performance.  He congratulates her and she replies, quite ominously, “thanks dad.”

    I’m looking forward to the next episode where Oliver and the team go after Thea.  I can’t wait to see the look on his face when he realizes that Merlyn is still alive and that Thea is training under him.

    Side-note: For those of you that aren’t well versed in the DC Universe, Ray Palmer is a reference to the DC superhero “Atom.”  He’s a superhero who can shrink himself at will and alter the density of his own body.  He’s one of the world’s smartest people and a renowned physicist.  I wonder what they are planning for him in the show…

    Image courtesy of http://kingoftheflatscreen.com/

    Saturday, October 11, 2014

    Arrow Season 3 Premiere "The Calm" Review

    Unknown 10:09 AM , , , , , , ,

    Arrow starts off season three with a bang for sure.  This episode gives us action, love drama, and intrigue.  It’s a classic CW formula. 

    The episode begins with the Arrow and his team already in action.  They are rushing to take down an arms shipment.  It’s in this scene that we see Roy has taken a more active role in the group.  With a little coordination and only a little effort the team takes down the weapons shipment.

    Shortly thereafter we are given an overview of the way things are following the events of the season two finale.  Oliver is broke and no longer owns his company, Diggle is soon to be a father, Roy is a full-fledged member of the team even looking like a “Red Arrow” type of character, and Felicity has a regular job which she hates.  We also see that the relationship between Oliver and Felicity is blossoming into a potential romantic relationship.

    In fact, it is this episode where we get to see Oliver and Felicity finally take a step towards a real romantic relationship.  Oliver asks Felicity out on a regular date which seems to start off fine – until the criminal who has taken up the mantle of Vertigo, Werner Zytle, shoots an RPG into the restaurant where they are having their date. 

    It turns out that the drug Vertigo is still on the streets and the arms shipment which was taken down by the Arrow and his team was meant for Zytle.  Now Zytle, as the new Vertigo, has his sets set on taking over the criminal underworld and is using his newly improved formula of Vertigo to help him.  And first on his to-do list is taking out the Arrow, which he tries to do by having a thug plant a tracking device on the Arrow just before Oliver ended up going on his date.

    Needless to say, Felicity gets hurt and Oliver has feelings of regret and blames himself for her injury.  Even though she is only knocked out, Oliver takes it really hard.  He states that he wasn’t focused and should have noticed the guy plant the tracker on him.  Diggle tries to talk him out of the decision to end the relationship before it begins, but Oliver won’t listen.

    Thus the tension between Oliver and Felicity continues as he breaks it off with her in a very wishy-washy manner.  Felicity says for him to stop dangling maybe and just say never!  Oliver kisses her and tells her not to ask him to say he doesn’t love her.  Felicity is upset and tells him that “I told you as soon as we talked, it would be over.”  And like that, their relationship ends before it begins.

    But all that is after Oliver tries and fails to get his company back from the current board of trustees.  A new player in the game, tech savvy Ray Palmer, shows up and makes a counter-presentation to the board which wows everyone present.  Needless to say, Ray is given the company.

    Thus begins the tension triangle which is ever-present in the show.  Ray Palmer has taken an interest in Felicity.  She is annoyed at Ray for having manipulated her into helping him get encrypted data from Queen Consolidated which helped him win over the board.  Oliver still wants to be with Felicity, but is self-sacrificing and thinks being with her would be dangerous and selfish so he refuses to get involved.

    It’s the typical CW Hero who, while fun to watch and brave against any bad guy or evil doer, is completely afraid of their own happiness.  It’s actually frustrating to watch the unrequited love that is such a constant in these shows.  And yet it keeps us hooked so well, hoping that they can overcome the odds and just be together in the end.

    The episode ends with some action as Oliver and Roy take down Zytle and foil his plan to blow up a stadium - part of a plan to take out three crime bosses and leave him at the top of the underworld.  The episode also ends with joy and new beginnings as Diggle is shown to have become a daddy while Oliver was taking down Zytle.  And finally, it ends in tragedy as Sarah Lance, back in town to see her hospitalized father (or so we are somewhat lead to believe), is killed by a mysterious off-screen archer – shot three times and then falls from a roof to land right in front of her sister Laurel whom she had just met with.

    The plot thickens for sure.  Who is this mysterious archer?  Was it Merlyn or someone else?  And who is Ray Palmer and what are his real plans for Oliver and Queen Consolidated?  And of course, who will try to destroy the city this season?


    I know I’m excited.  I hope you are too!

    Friday, July 18, 2014

    Geoff Johns Confirms 'Arrow' Universe and 'Batman v Superman' Universe Are Separate

    Unknown 1:53 PM , , , , , , , ,

    TV Guide has been updating all day from the yearly Television Critics Association panel. Today it has been officially announced by DC Comics CCO Geoff Johns that the Arrow/Flash universe on The CW will indeed stays separate from the Zack Snyder Batman v Superman universe in the movies. The reason being pretty obvious; that they don't want the TV writers to be a slave to the movie universe:
    "You'll see a lot of DC universe characters [on The Flash and Arrow]. You won't see Batman or Superman. We're on production on Batman V Superman now. So you'll see characters like The Atom or Firestorm, but no not Batman or Superman right now [on TV]. It's a separate universe than film so that the filmmakers can tell the story that's best for film. While we explore something different in a different corner of the DC universe. We will not be integrating the film and television universes."
    I think we all pretty much figured this. So expect a different Flash and Green Arrow if they ever end up in the Justice League made by director Zack Snyder.


    Now I will point out just because Arrow won't be connected to Batman v Superman does not mean Stephen Amell and by extension Grant Gustin (The Flash) can't be in the Justice League. Now hear me out.....What is one of the most famous comic events DC has put out? Crisis on Infinite Earths. Basically their is multiple earths, with multiple characters just on different paths in the comic worlds. So hypothetically speaking if Zack Snyder wanted Amell and Gustin to play Arrow and The Flash in Justice League he could. They would simply be playing another version of Arrow and Flash in a separate universe! While still playing another version on TV. But that's just a fans dream on something will will probably never happen...

    Batman v Superman hits May 2016

    Tuesday, December 3, 2013

    Alex Kingston Set to Return to ARROW

    Unknown 4:54 AM ,
    Alex Kingston and Katie Cassidy in Arrow S01E17: 'The Huntress Returns'



     Alex Kingston is set to reprise her role as Dinah Lance in the upcoming 14th episode of ARROW.

    Dinah Lance first appeared last season with hope and clues that her daughter Sarah (protrayed by Caity Lotz) survived the sinking of the Queen's Gambit. Earlier this season, it was revealed that Sarah Lance was indeed alive and has revealed her identity as the ass kicking Black Canary to Oliver and her father Quentin Lance.

    Now that Quentin knows that Sarah is alive, will he finally reveal it to Dinah and Laurel?



    ARROW returns Wednesday with Grant Gustin's Barry Allen making his debut appearance. Check out a preview below.


    Saturday, November 16, 2013

    EDITORIAL: Why Smallville is a Great Addition to the DC Universe

    Unknown 8:22 PM , , , , , , ,

    "Clark, do you believe a man can fly?" - Lex Luthor, "Pilot"

    With Man of Steel recently being released on Blu-Ray/DVD and the Smallville Season 11 comic book series coming to an evolution, what better time for me to write this article?

    For those who don't know, I am a huge Smallville fan! Smallville was my "gateway" show so-to-speak that not only really boosted my interest in Superman (before then all I had were a few Superman comics, Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League Unlimited, and the Christopher Reeve films), but also in television dramas such as Supernatural, Chuck, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Heroes, and much more. Smallville still holds as my favorite TV series (actually tying itself with Supernatural and Chuck if we're going to be honest) and still remains relevant in the wake of Man of Steel.

    There are a lot of comic book, superhero, and Superman fans out there that despise Smallville for various reasons. Either the show doesn't stick right with the DC Universe & Superman mythos or the characters suck or this or that. The problem with anything is that you'll never please everyone. There will be people who read this who loved Smallville, there will be people that read this that hate the show. There will also be those who only see the headline and comment on it anyway! Smallville really tends to strike a nerve for some people.

    I on the other hand love it, as I explained above, and actually believe that the show is a great addition to the over-all DC Universe, much like many say Arrow is now (of which I also agree). Here's why...


    1. The Mythology/Story - The mythos behind Smallville have always been pretty extensive. Outside of Clark's backstory on Krypton and his biological parents lives there, other characters have been seen to have connections to his life without even his knowledge, which ties the universe together. Oliver Queen, for example, went to the same boarding school as Lex Luthor and later in life, Lionel Luthor had Oliver's parents killed. While Oliver was marooned on an island for 5 years, near the end of that journey, he met Tess Mercer, who is actually a Luthor herself (by birth).

    We also find out that Virgil Swann, played by the late Christopher Reeve, started a group called Veritas whose sole mission was to find the Traveler (Kal-El) and help him save the planet. Lionel Luthor, the Queens, the Teagues, and Bridget Crosby were all members of this group. According to the Season 11 comic, Lionel Luthor also intended to bring Thomas Wayne (father of Bruce Wayne aka Batman) into the group, but he declined his invitation. This mythology has helped explain elements of the series, and universe, that might have otherwise not made sense. 

    Brainiac himself is probably one of the biggest examples of Smallville's extensive history/mythos from his creation to his corruption to his battles with Clark and then his reprogramming, Brainiac has been there (whether he was on-screen or not) from beginning to end.

    Other heroes also exist in the Smallville Universe that have no connection to Clark whatsoever, including the Justice Society of America! They were a group of heroes who fought for what was right but eventually were silenced by Checkmate, another organization that had nothing to do with Clark, so that people would forget about metahumans and go back to the "way things were". Other heroes like Batman and Wonder Woman, who don't appear until the Season 11 comic series, have nothing to do with Clark's journey. Batman however has studied Superman from his time as "the Blur" and even before to learn all he can in case he would have to fight him in battle.

    There's so much more in terms of mythology that this series has to offer through characters like Bart Allen, Arthur "AC" Curry, Carter Hall, Chloe Sullivan, Henry James Olsen, Zod, Darkseid, and many more, but I have a feeling that explaining it all and even just listing it all would take up most of this article, so I will move on, but you you can check out the Smallville Wiki for more information!


    2. The Characters - Another reason I think Smallville is a great addition to the DC Universe is the characters. Sure, the series started out as a teen drama, but it was the characters and the connections that people felt with them that turned it into a sci-fi drama and then into a full-on comic book/superhero epic. There is a reason why Smallville lasted 10 whole seasons and why it's the longest running North American science-fiction series out there, and I believe that reason is the characters.

    I was not the biggest fan of Superman before Smallville because I never thought I could relate to him, I thought he was this "Big Blue Boy-Scout" who flew around saving people from burning buildings and would then sometimes fight Brainiac or Lex Luthor. Smallville's interpretation of Clark Kent changed all that. Maybe it was Tom Welling's portrayal of the character or maybe it was how he was written (most likely both), but whenever I watched Clark's struggles through high school and the tough choices he had to make as "the Blur", I felt like I understood Superman. Without Smallville's Clark Kent, I probably would have never got who Superman is as a character, and even more-so as a person.

    Other characters like Smallville's Lex Luthor and Oliver Queen are also inspiring in their own ways. For about seven seasons Lex fought against the destiny his father planned for him and fought against becoming a darker version of himself. Unfortunately, Lex did end up embracing his dark side in "Decent" and once the series finale came around he was ready to be the Sageeth to Clark's Naman. Oddly enough, the entire time Michael Rosenbaum was on the show, I was rooting for Lex to overcome his father and his dark side. I didn't WANT him to become evil, and that's part of what makes his story so interesting. Oliver Queen also was a character I rooted for on the show mainly because Smallville (and Justice League Unlimited) introduced me to Green Arrow for the first time and made me excited about the character. Oliver actually starts off as a bad person (as seen through flashbacks in the episode "Reunion") and to the opposite effect as Lex, turned out to be a hero instead of the villain. 

    Another thing about the characters is that the creators of the series were not afraid to mess around with the Superman mythos one bit. Smallville's Lois is a prime example as the only thing I can compare her to is the Lois Lane from Superman: The Animated Series, and even that is not completely accurate. Lois on Smallville is very "tomboy"-ish at the beginning but slowly slides into her identity as a reporter and later partner to Clark Kent. Chloe Sullivan was a character created solely for the show, but turned out to be a hit as many fans liked her (while others, unfortunately, despised) even to the point where she actually appeared in the comics as a reporter girlfriend of Jimmy Olsen's who is also an expert computer hacker. 

    Again, there are many more characters I could mention including Henry James Olsen, who was much different than any other Jimmy Olsen we've known but still made an impact on the series, Pete Ross, who was also much different but was Clark's best friend and sidekick for years, Lana Lang, Clark's love for years until they finally can no longer be together, the Kents, who are Clark's (and the audience's) moral compass and center, and Tess Mercer, who was the breakout character that many hated at the beginning but loved by the end. 

    Other honorable mentions include Lionel Luthor, Whitney Fordman, Jason Teague, Kara Zor-El, Brainiac, Davis Bloome, and even General Zod.


    3. The Connections to the DC Universe - As hard as it is for me to pick which one of these points is my favorite, this one probably ranks high up on the list. Smallville has given references to countless versions of the DC Universe through characters, storylines, actors, scores, and more.

    Throughout the series, Clark faces villains like Brainiac, General Zod (two versions that merge into one mind you, there have been many versions of Zod throughout the comics), Bizarro, Morgan Edge, Amanda Waller, Icicle, Doomsday, Maxima, Darkseid, Ultraman, Deadshot, Plastique, Parasite, Faora, Toyman, Slade Wilson, and many more. These are all characters that not only exist within the Superman comics, but also have made a huge impact on the DC Universe as a whole. For a lot of these characters, Smallville will be the only time they will ever be able to appear in live-action format.

    Teams like the Justice League, the Justice Society of America, and even the Legion of Super-Heroes were given their official live-action debut on Smallville, which opened up the series to be the home of a much large universe. You think Marvel came up with the idea of putting multiple heroes (Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, Captain America) in their own live-action features to build up to a team event? Heck no, even if they didn't do it intentionally, Smallville did it first! Bart Allen's appearance in "Run", Arthur Curry's appearance in "Aqua", Victor Stone's appearance in "Cyborg", and Oliver Queen's appearance in "Sneeze" and then as the Green Arrow in "Arrow" all lead to them becoming a team in "Justice" (my favorite episode of the series I might add)! Impulse, Aquaman, Cyborg, Green Arrow, and Superman all together in live-action for the first time. I mean, how DC Universe can you get?!?!?!?!

    Not to mention, when Virgil Swann, again, played by former Superman actor Christopher Reeve (a reference in-and-of itself) appears on the show, John Williams' Superman March can be heard in the background. This is again used in "Finale" when Clark finally becomes Superman at the end of the episode. Danny Elfman's Batman Theme is also heard in the episode "Vengeance" when Andrea Rojas (another DC character who is known as Acrata in the comics) aka the Angel of Vengeance appears. These are subtle, but still exciting nods to the greater DC Universe, part of which made fans continue to watch the series.

    In Season 9 of Smallville, we were given a story arc that was semi-similar to the current Superman arc at the time entitled "New Krypton". This featured hundreds of Kryptonians on Earth and later on their own planet called New Krypton, where they were lead by General Zod. With Zod being a main character in Season 9 and with many Kandorians living on Earth, there were many parallels that year between what was going on within the Post-Crisis DC Universe continuity and Smallville. Story arcs like "The Death & Return of Superman", "New Krypton", "Legends", "Final Crisis" and more have found their way to fit into Smallville's story. Even now in the Season 11 comics, it seems as though Smallville's version of "Crisis on Infinite Earths" and "Infinite Crisis" may be happening (hopefully sooner than later). In any event, Smallville has adapted it's fair-share from the source material, which makes it just as rich.

    There's so much more I could mention with this point I don't even know where to start! Aquaman finding out his birthright to being King of Atlantis (birth-name is Orin) and then marrying Mera off-screen! Impulse changing his uniform to be less-Flash and more comics' Impulse for Season 11. Martian Manhunter going green on screen. And Dr. Fate seeing Clark's destiny! There's so much in this show I can hardly contain myself!

    Not to mention that this series has inspired changes to to DC Universe itself, like Superman's origin in "Superman: Birthright" (a lot taken from Smallville there) and "Superman: Secret Origin"! Chloe Sullivan and Lionel Luthor making their way into the comic books. The whole concept of Clark talking with his dad in the Loft of their barn came from Smallville for goodness sakes. Even the New 52 Green Arrow series (before Jeff Lemire took over) was inspired by Smallville's Oliver. That last one probably wasn't the best example, but even now the character takes some inspiration from Justin Hartley's portrayal as well as Stephen Amell's on Arrow. 


    Ultimately, there are always going to be people who hate Smallville. They will claim that they have "seen it all-the-way through and hated it", they will claim that "it's an abomination to the Superman and DC Comics mythos", they will claim that they "hate the characters", and they will claim on and on that "it sucks". I was actually going to go on with this article and continue for a few more main points (in fact there's a lot more I could say) on why I believe Smallville to be a great addition to the DC Universe as a whole, but I decided that, for now, this is enough. I've been working on this article all day after all and I can always do a "Part 2" if the audience demands it.

    If you're at all a Superman fan or a DC Comics/Universe fan, I highly encourage you to give Smallville a shot. There may not be any Batman or Wonder Woman, but there's Superman, a Superman you can really resonate with and relate to. A Superman who makes mistakes and learns from them. A Superman that struggles to find love and keep his friends. But ultimately, this Superman does save the world, time and time again.

    Sure, there may be some drama in the show and sure you won't always love or even like the characters, but that's what happens with EVERY show! Smallville is the longest running DC Comics television series, the longest running comic book television series, and the longest running Superman television series. Clearly the show lasted as long as it did, and currently is as a comic series, for a reason. At the end of the day, Smallville made me want to become a better person, and unfortunately that is something that most shows are missing nowadays.

    My final thought here is this: in the "Pilot", Lex Luthor asks a question that Superman: The Movie answered decades prior, "Do you believe a man can fly?" At the time, Clark says, "Only in a plane, Lex". But I propose to you that if you can fully embrace Smallville as a part of the Superman mythos, as a part of the DC Universe like I have, that you WILL believe a man can fly. Just like we did when Christopher Reeve took off, when George Reeves and Dean Cain took off, when Brand Routh took off, and when Henry Cavill took flight in Man of Steel this past summer. With Smallville, "You'll believe a man can fly."
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