State of the Smallville Address, Part 2

So where do we go from here? Where will the second half of Season 8 lead us? Well, as someone who refuses to read anything even resembling a spoiler, I can't say for sure. I find that I just don't enjoy TV when I know what's going to happen. Half the fun is the element of surprise. So what I will share with you next are my theories and wishes for the remainder of Season 8.

[WARNING: "LEGION" SPOILERS AHEAD! IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE EPISODE YET, STOP NOW OR FOREVER HOLD YOUR PEACE!]

At the end of "Legion," it wasn't clear whether or not Chloe's healing ability was back. Personally, I think it could be. It's possible that BrainIAC merely suppressed her ability rather than totally removing it. Now, since that lovable Interactive Construct has been removed, it's entirely possible that Chloe will once again find herself able to heal. Another valid argument states that BrainIAC sucked the healing ability out of Chloe during their face-off in "Arctic." I could really see this going either way, but for now, I'm going to say that her healing powers could very well have been restored.

Clark will battle Doomsday. I just hope it isn't a battle to the death. Clark ahs died several times already, including once this season. I would prefer to see an epic battle in the streets of Metropolis, similar to the one in The Death of Superman. How amazing would it be to see Doomsday beat Clark to a bloody pulp and then endanger one of his loved ones (preferably Lois), pushing Clark over the edge and giving him a second wind? Clark could begin pounding on Doomsday, burying him deep underground in an effort to prevent such a distaster from ever happening again. This would set things up perfectly for the future as laid out by DC Comics.

Also, Clark should continue his steady path towards Supermandom. The next step I think he needs to take is to acquire a pair of glasses, something that should have been done in Season 3 when he found himself temporary blinded after using his heat vision on a pair of green Kryptonite earrings. That would have been the perfect excuse for Clark to don spectacles, but alas, it was not meant to be. Yet. Now could be a good time for him to pick up a pair of bifocals to remove any suspicion that he might be Metropolis's "Red and Blue Blur."

Lois has been falling for Clark pretty hard. I think the romance has been progressing a little too fast. Erica Durance isn't supposed to appear in the next couple of episodes, so maybe things will cool off for a while. I am glad to see the most iconic romance in comic book history beginning to take shape. I just don't want them to actually be together until after the series has ended, or at the very end of the series at the earliest.

Jimmy, while injured and receiving care in Star City, will clearly turn out fine. The question looming in my mind is how the Olsen-Sullivan marriage will pan out. How is it that the Legion had heard of "even Jimmy Olsen," but had never heard of his wife Chloe? It seems a bit odd to me. That is a sign that the marriage may not last, whether it's due to irreconcilable differences or a death. As much as I hate to admit it, there is also the slight possibility that Geoff Johns may have written the show into a plot hole, but let's change the subject, shall we?

There has been some speculation that Davis Bloome is no more and Doomsday is here to stay. That seems silly. Why hire Sam Witwer and make him a season regular only to have him in a monster costume the entire second half of the season? Doesn't make sense. I think it's safe to say that we'll be seeing more of Davis in human form. After "Bride" and "Legion," he clearly knows what he's become. From this point on, we'll probably see him trying to deal with his other half. Will it be a situation where his good side tries to fight his bad side? If so, will the good side win for now? Or will they go a different route and show his good side succomb to the dark side, as with Anakin Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith? Perhaps Davis will be so distraught by some traumatic turn of events (like Chloe's rejection) that he will embrace evil as a means of revenge? We shall see. There are many different directions they can take this character and I'm eager to see where things end up.

Well, my distinguished readers, this is all I have to say about Smallville's Eighth Season for the moment. I'm sure there are a great many things that I have neglected to mention, but that is where you can step in. Discuss whatever I failed to mention in the comments below and perhaps I'll write a supplemental post. Let's talk Smallville!

Announcing the Obiter Dictum Podcast!

Well folks, one podcast just isn't enough to keep me overwhelmed. A few friends and I have teamed up to form a brand new podcast that we like to call "Obiter Dictum." What is this, you ask? It's going to be a fan commentary podcast. We'll be watching our favorite TV shows and providing a running commentary along with the episodes for your entertainment. We'll cover shows like Smallville, Lost, Supernatural, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Heroes, Firefly, and much more! Our first official episode will cover Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog! I say "official" because we've already put out a miniature episode we've called #0 in which we explain the premise and introduce ourselves. I am joined by my friends Faith and Ky of the Chic Geek Podcast and Tim of the Crossroads Podcast. (Support them by checking out their shows in my Linkage section over in the right-hand column).

Download Episode 0 - "A Microcast"
Obiter Dictum Website: www.odtvpodcast.tk
Subscribe to Obiter Dictum (RSS Feed)
Obiter Dictum on iTunes

State of the Smallville Address, Part 1

WARNING: SPOILER CROSSING AHEAD! PROCEED AT YOUR OWN PERIL!

Madam and Messrs Show Runners, distinguished guests, and fellow fans: it is once again that time of year when we gather to discuss the state of Smallville. Yes, you guessed it: it's Winter Hiatus time.

So what happened this season? Well, we saw Clark return powerless from a Russian work camp to save Chloe from a LuthorCorp facility where she was held prisoner. After a fatal run-in with a drugged Green Arrow, Clark was revived by J'onn J'onzz, who sacrificed his powers to bring Clark back to life. Lex went missing, but his protégé Tess Mercer took over as acting CEO of the company and all its subsidiaries. She proved to be almost as bad as her mentor, gathering superpowered individuals including DC Comics villain Plastique in an effort to form a team to do her dirty work. Oliver Queen and his band of merry do-gooders temporarily parted ways to avoid detection after being identified by Lex's henchmen. Oliver stayed in Metropolis, however, and proved to be an invaluable help to Clark.

Clark began working across the desk from Lois at the Daily Planet as a copy boy so he could keep up on current events and rush off to save the day whenever it looked like a job for Superm-- err, I mean the "red and blue blur," the name the adoring public had given their anonymous hero. Meanwhile Davis Bloome, a charismatic paramedic, became friendly with Chloe and sparks began to fly. At the same time, though Chloe was planning a wedding with Jimmy Olsen while taking over the Isis Foundation where Lana had left off. Davis revealed to Chloe that he had been experiencing blackouts and that he kept finding himself at the scene of murders with no memory of how he had gotten there.

When Clark received the Kryptonian Crystal of Knowledge previously seen in Seasons 4 and 5, he found himself and Lois accidentally transported to the Phantom Zone, where they encountered Kara, who had been trapped there by BrainIAC in the Season 7 finale. She could have escaped, since the blood of the House of El runs through her veins, but she was afraid she might unleash Phantom Zone prisoners in the process, so she sacrificed her freedom for Earth's sake. However, when Clark let Lois come back to Earth, Zod's wife Faora possessed her body. Faora, as we learned, is actually Davis's mother. Davis is horrified by what he learns and doesn't know what to do. He discovers that, as Faora says, "That which kills you makes you stronger," when he notices that attempting to stab himself in the chest has no effect on him whatsoever. In fact, the knife shatters.

Finally, in "Abyss," my favorite episode of the season thus far, BrainIAC slowly began deleting Chloe's memories and leaving only those involving Davis. Clark, in a desperate attempt to save Chloe, rebuilt the Fortress of Solitude against her wishes and pleaded with Jor-El to restore all of her memories except for those related to the knowledge of his secret. He saw how keeping his secret affected her life and he decided that it would have been better for her had she never known. Jor-El remarked that Clark had grown up and commended him for finally acting maturely before he fulfilled his son's request. Chloe's memories were once again safe, but she had no recollection of Clark's alien heritage.

Then it finally came time for the wedding of Chloe and Jimmy. They had both the ceremony and reception in the Kent Barn. Oliver Queen was hot on the trail of Lex when he ran into Lana halfway around the world. She even returned to Smallville to help celebrate Sullivan-Olsen nuptials, much to the disappointment of Lois, who had secretly begun falling for Clark. Moments after Lana's arrival, the bloodbath began. DOOMSDAY was there! A giant monster covered in bony gray protrusions forced its way into the barn, fixing its bright red eyes on Chloe. It left a path of death and destruction in its wake, killing or injuring anyone who dared try and stop it. Jimmy sustained serious wounds in an attempt to defend his bride. By episode's end, Clark was leaving to find and rescue Chloe from the monster while Lois was to accompany Jimmy to Star City where he was to receive emergency medical treatment and Doomsday was seen bringing an unconscious Chloe to the Fortress of Solitude, where her eyes glazed over, indicating the presence of BrainIAC.

An exciting half-season to be sure! So much happened to our characters in just a few short months. This season has been the best since Season 3, in my opinion. While 5, 6, and 7 were great (note the omission of 4), Season 8 has been much more consistent on a level not seen since Season 3.

So that's what happened in the first half of Season 8. Tune in next time for spoiler-free look to the future

TV & Movie Update

So a while back I listed some TV shows and movies I planned to watch. I'm not making as much progress as I'd hoped, but here's how it's going so far:

• Terminator -- DONE
• Terminator 2 -- DONE
  
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles -- DONE
  
• Firefly -- IN PROGRESS
• Serenity
• Supernatural
  
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Angel

I watched T1, T2, and the first several episodes of T:SCC in a single day. I finished the whole series in just a few days. It was glorious. AMAZING show! Definitely the most underrated and best-written show on television. Not my favorite (that would be Smallville), but it is the most well-written.

Then I got started on Firefly and hit a brick wall. I haven't been able to watch more than 1 or 2 episodes in a sitting. Things seem to keep getting in the way. It's an awesome show as well, and I can't figure out how it got canceled other than the fact that FOX has an itchy trigger finger. I'm halfway through it now and I plan to finish it and watch Serenity, the movie that accompanies it.

However, at the suggestions of several people, especially my friends Tim and Faith, I've added the CW's Supernatual to the list. The show is ending soon, so I'd like to get caught up before it goes off the air. Once I'm caught up, I'll continue with Buffy and eventually Angel. To be perfectly honest, I'm not really pumped for Angel, so depending how I feel about Buffy, I may or may not go through with Angel. We shall see.

What does 2009 hold?

Well another year has come and gone in what feels like the blink of an eye. How does this always happen? Even when you try to slow down, take it easy, and enjoy things, they manage to rush past you anyway. Well, 2008 was a pretty good year. I'm not about to sit here and count down the Top 10 Best [Insert Category Here] of 2008; I'll leave that to Oprah, Barbara Walters and their ilk. Nor will I list a number of resolutions I don't intend to stick to. So heave a sigh of relief.

Instead, I'm just giving you a few things to look forward to in the year 2009. Here's what I'll be watching out for in the new year:

• The return of Smallville - Two weeks from tomorrow, the CW's Smallville will return to the airwaves with what promises to be a story of epic proportions. DC Comics writer Geoff Johns has penned an episode entitled "Legion" that will introduce the Legion of Super-Heroes to Smallville continuity. It should be amazing. If you don't watch the show, you are missing out big-time!
• The DTV transition - Okay, so I'm a dork. Sue me. As someone who has never had cable at home and doesn't really care, I'm looking forward to this. I've had my converter boxes set up for a few months now, and let me say wow! First off, I had no idea broadcast television could look and sound so amazing! It's quite a thing. Second, I get some very interesting digital channels that I didn't have before. It's pretty cool. I'm looking forward to new channels once the switch is complete.
• Watchmen, Star Trek & Terminator: Salvation - These movies top the lists of most geeks this year. How much awesome can one year contain? We shall see. Recently I was disappointed to hear that Watchmen will not end the same way the graphic novel did, but I still really want to see it. Star Trek, while also straying from its source material, also has me excited. Terminator, on the other hand, is an original story, so I look forward to seeing where they take the franchise.
• Superman: Secret Origin and The Blackest Night - It's a coincidence that both of these comic book events are written by Geoff Johns and that they will both be awesome. Oh wait. That's not a coincidence at all! Johns is the best writer in the business right now. I really believe that. The former is supposed to be the definitive origins story for the Man of Steel. It will help DC out of any corners they may have written themselves into. The latter will be a Green Lantern story dealing with the fundamentals of good versus evil. Such an epic year for comics!

Well that about sums things up. Obviously there's a lot more I'm looking forward to, including Heroes, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and catching up on shows like Supernatural and most of, if not all of the Whedonverse. So stay tuned, it's going to be one hell of a year.

Also, make sure to check back here at frankramblings.tk and over at frankpodcast.tk for a VERY exciting announcement in two weeks. It could mean very big things for the future of Frank's Music Free-For-All!

Happy New Year and God bless you all in 2009 and beyond!

My Guest Appearance on Chic Geek!

I just wanted to let everyone know that earlier this week, my friends Faith and Ky of the Chic Geek Podcast were gracious enough to invite me to join them on their thirteenth episode entitled "How to Scare the Chic Geek Girls." Also joining us was Tim of the Crossroads Podcast. It was a lot of fun and I'd like to thank the girls for asking me to take part in it. Show them your support by listening to the episode and subscribing to their podcast in iTunes!

If all goes well, you can expect to hear Tim, Faith, and Ky on my own podcast, Frank's Music-Free-For-All, in early 2009!

Stop blending Superman with Batman!

Recently, there has been a disturbing trend in the world of DC Comics: the powers that be are trying to turn Superman in Batman and vice versa. Allow me to explain myself. I am LOVING the New Krypton story currently going on in the Superman family of comics. I'm not currently reading Batman comics because, honestly, I'm on a college budget. I can only really afford to read the stuff I really love, and for me that's Superman. However, I do keep up on what's happening in Batman through other sources such as Wikipedia, IGN, Newsarama, Comic Book Resources, and other geektastic websites.

For those of you living under a rock, Bruce Wayne a.k.a. Batman recently disappeared from the Batman family of comics following a story called Batman R.I.P. Here's a summary of the ending as I understand it. Batman encountered one Dr. Hurt who claimed to actually be Dr. Thomas Wayne, Bruce's supposedly dead father. At the end of the issue, Batman and Dr. Hurt/Wayne disappear in a helicopter explosion, not to be seen again by anyone for the foreseeable future.

Okay, so they did a death of Batman story. That happens a lot these days. The only problem is what comes next. I read in last week's "DC Nation", a column in the back of DC comic books discussing upcoming projects in the DC Universe, that the Batman family of books is being canceled while they show the effects of Batman's death. This means Robin, Nightwing, Birds of Prey, Batman, and Detective Comics are all being shelved (for now). Also, they'll be doing a series called Battle for the Cowl, in which there will most likely be a fight to see who takes on the role of Batman in Bruce Wayne's absence.

The problem I have with this is that it's almost a direct copy of what happened in the aftermath of the 1992-93 Death of Superman story. After the Man of Steel's defeat at the hands of the monster Doomsday, there was a story entitled Funeral for a Friend. These showed the rest of the world - superheroes and mere mortals like - and their reactions to the death of the greatest hero they had ever known. Following this, no Superman titles were published for a couple of months. The idea behind that was to scare readers into thinking Superman really was dead for good and that he wouldn't be returning. After that came Reign of the Supermen, a time in which 4 imposters claimed to be the real Superman back from the dead, and the world (both in and out of the comics) was undecided as to which one was the true Metropolis Marvel. It turned out none of them were, and the original Superman finally re-appeared after several months off the scene.

So DC has run out of ideas for Batman. How long can you have a guy be "dark" (whatever that really means) and run around striking terror into the hearts of criminals while stopping the seemingly daily jailbreaks at Arkham Asylum? I guess they decided it was time for the Caped Crusader to die for a while so people would miss him and clamor for his return, just as they did with Superman some 15 or 16 years ago. Now I know it's not cool to like Superman right now, because as many a fanboy has told me, "Batman is dark!" but I don't really care. I'm a Superman fan through and through and I say this is desperation on DC's part. It's a shame to see them wasting the talent of a great writer like Grant Morrison on such a derivative story. He dies, his books get cancelled, everyone misses him, he comes back, sales go through the roof for a few months, and Dan DiDio laughs all the way to the bank.

This reminds me of a story from a few months back when it was announced that the Superman film franchise would get a reboot (I believe the exact word was "reintroduce") in the wake of The Dark Knight's rousing success. While I loved TDK, I was not pleased when I heard that Warner Bros. wanted to show the darker side of Superman. HUGE MISTAKE! Superman is NOT a dark character. Superman is a symbol of hope! He is supposed to be the beacon that we all want to follow. He has his faults, sure, but that's part of Clark Kent. Superman is as American as white picket fences and apple pie, to paraphrase Superman: The Movie director Richard Donner. You can't make him into a morally gray guy with cool cars and gadgets. That's Batman. It works for Batman. Doesn't work for Superman. They're different characters. They can complement each other when they're used together in a story, but you can't mix them together and see what you get. Am I alone on this? I can't be. Leave me a comment and let's discuss!

Let me end by quoting, from memory, mind you, the introduction to the 1950's Adventures of Superman TV series starring George Reeves. I think this sums up Superman's essence:

Faster than a speeding bullet!
More powerful than a locomotive!
Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound!
Look! Up in the sky!
It's a bird!
It's a plane!
It's SUPERMAN!
Yes, it's Superman, strange visitor from another planet who came to Earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men!
Superman, who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel in his bare hands, and who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great Metropolitan newspaper, fights a never-ending battle for Truth, Justice, and the American Way!

Wow. That was such a huge part of my childhood that just typing it gave me chills. What say you? Don't be shy. Use the comment box!

< /rant>