Smallville #2

Posted: Sunday, May 25, 2003
By: Ray Tate

"Beauty"
"What I Did On My Summer Vacation"

Writers: Mark Verheiden & Clint Carpenter;Clint Carpenter
Artists: Renato Gedes;Tom Derenick(p), Oclair Albert;Norm Apmund(i), Jeromy Cox;Trish Mulvihill(c)
Publisher: DC

Those expecting Smallville to be a simple comic book will be surprised to find a magazine in a comic book format and printed on comic book paper. It's a descendent of Doctor Who Monthly a magazine that provides articles, interviews, episode guides and analyses of stories that originally ran for thirty-three years as well as a continuing comic strip.

Smallville provides eighty percent comic strip content. The remainder is given to two interviews and a meager episode guide. For an episode guide possessing more substance, critical thought and trivia I recommend Mark Clapham's horribly titledSmall Town, Strange World. He should have called it Somebody Save Me.

Television series fans will enjoy the Sam Jones interview, but the Alison Mack interview is much more interesting due to Ms. Mack's speculations and one particularly spectacular photo. The stories are excellent and imitate the style and presentation of the television series. The stories also expose the weak underbelly of DC's pathetic Superman titles.

"Beauty" is a classy little mystery that keeps you guessing. The plot could have easily been rewritten to fit a traditional Superman story, but the characterization makes it a Smallville story and ever more superior.

Verheiden and Carpeneter smoothly bring together the main characters. Chloe's cynical instincts naturally direct her to an expose on the phoniness of pagentry. Lana once was a pageant contestant, and her want to help becomes perfectly understandable. Pete signs he and Clark up as grips so he can get closer to one of the ladies.

The artwork more or less captures the essences of the characters. Chloe seems to be the easiest to express in the illustrations. Clark looks to be about seventy percent Tom Welling, and Pete is decently portrayed in the panels. Kristen Kreuk's exotic countenance is as usual the most difficult to bring to the pages.

Any lack of resemblance is more than made up by the excitement and fantastic depiction of Clark's powers. The moment Clark rises from the rubble unscathed is far more potent than seeing Superman punched to the moon. Every moment, Clark uses his powers in Smallville is an event. That larger than life feeling is well mimicked in the miniature and ridicules the spectacle in the so called original universe books.

The second story gives a glimpse at Chloe's internship with The Daily Planet. The new triangle Carpenter forms as well as Chloe's multi-tasking ability makes this a winning short. I also appreciated the visual nod to the television series Alias when one cool-cat speeds his car to the desperately escaping students and orders "Get in."

Again with editing, this story could have fit in the DCU. This could have been a Lois Lane/Batman story in Action Comics if the characterization didn't so fit the Smallville cast, which are expertly captured by the team of Derenick, Apmund and Mulvihill.

Once more a book based on the television show surpasses its counterparts in the silly, confused world of post-Crisis comics. The two stories are easily readable and require no previous explanation. The plots and the characterization would attract an audience even without a source. Smallville is the only ongoing Superman series I can possibly recommend.