Welcome Back, Smallville!?

By now, if you’re a Smallville fan, you’ve probably heard through the grapevine or www.bleedingcool.com that Bryan Q. Miller was tapped for writing season eleven of Smallville in novel format. I seriously feel like I was the last to know about this, but that aside, if it turns out to be true, it would be a very good thing for fans of the show.

At the end of the story, we are left with the idea that, “OK. Clark goes on to be Superman.” and that sends us right into the comic books or movies. For a lot of hardcore fans, that just never jived. Smallville made a different world for us. Instead of trying to make it blend together, in the end it would have been better for it to go in it’s own direction. I still love where it ended, and I am glad he finally donned the tights. That doesn’t mean when I read the comics now that I consider these to be his adventures after Smallville.

So we are left with an assumption. Clark becomes the hero he was meant to be and everyone lives happily ever after? No way! Smallville freed Superman from continuity!  So much happened so early in his life that there were literally a million places for him to go from there.

A few things specifically I’d like to know exploring the Season 11 option would be, how does Clark handle being in the limelight? It was talked about throughout Season 10, but we never get to really experience his “coming out” party. We finally see him as Superman, yet not really interact with the world. I’d like to see how he feels about being Superman.

I want to see him put his family back together. The House of El should have played a bigger part in his Smallville run, but understandably that just isn’t always in the budget. In novel form, we can see characters like Kara and Conner take a more prominent role in his life.

I’d also like to see the return of Doomsday or Darkseid rather than a new villain. Let’s face it, it’s hard to do these guys justice in television. Rather then build up an entirely new villain for Season 11, I’d like to see them build on the return of an old one versus the new Clark.

What about a Lois and Lana resolution? It always bugged me that Lana was still out there and the only reason Clark wasn’t with her was because she became some Kryptonite Super Hero that Clark couldn’t get near. That’s called winner by default. Lois deserves better than that and I think there is a story left to tell there.

The true Justice League would be interesting. “Justice” was one of my favorite episodes, but we never really got to experience that again. The team always had a cameo when it counted, but with the novel, perhaps we can see something more than that. Clark being a leader is part of who he is as Superman and we should get more than a glimpse of that.

I’d be really pleased if Bryan Q. Miller had the green light to introduce other DC characters like Batman. It’s clear the show always wanted to go there but couldn’t. Maybe the red tape is gone? Wouldn’t that be something.

Not to mention all the other characters in Smallville that left us wanting more. Chloe has huge potential as Watchtower to become basically Oracle from the comics. At the end of Smallville we see her reading a story to a kid…so who’s the kid? Does that mean her days as Watchtower are over?

And let’s not forget Lex Luthor. Who doesn’t want to see where he goes from there? The memory wipe was a quick fix, but we’ve seen Lex go to great lengths just to get back a few lost weeks before. Imagine his entire life! That’d probably be his quest, and it’d be interesting to watch. Also, wouldn’t the fact that he doesn’t remember make him a good guy again? There’s that nature versus nurture question again.

As of writing this, DC Comics has not confirmed the rumor, but I will be reporting back as soon as they do. I am excited and hope this leads to many more books or even comic books based on the Smallville Universe. It’d be nice to have the Superman I’ve grown to know and love over the past 10 years back.