Smallville - Upgrade and Charade
Oct. 1st, 2010 05:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daibhidcIt happened again! I forgot all about Smallville for a week and had two episodes to watch!
"Upgrade". Okay, I gave a sigh when I realised it was another "Clark is exposed to Red K" story. But this was actually pretty cool. The idea that DarkClark finally does manage to connect with Zod was well handled, and should have interesting ramifications. (Unless, of course, they decide to pretty much ignore it, or resolve it in a line of dialogue as quickly as possible.)
The return of Metallo was interesting - unlike most versions, this John Corben wasn't a criminal before he was cyborgised, so it makes sense that once he's thinking straight he'd be a more-or-less good guy, although the shifting factions left me a bit confused in places. And I loved the line "Tess of the D'Ubervillains"!
I wonder what would happen if Zod was exposed to Red Kryptonite?
I think I complained that the DA Sachs story felt rushed, back when he got thrown in prison. But that's because it wasn't over, it was a setup for "Charade" in which he gets recruited by the Black King of Checkmate - Maxwell Lord! (Obviously, this is Infinite Crisis Max, not Justice League International Max. Nevertheless, I think his presence makes this the first post my general "comics-related" icon is actually relevant for.) And the whole War in Checkmate storyline looks intriguing: there's the White Queen faction, who want to control metahumans, and there's the Black King faction who want to destroy them. And then there's the Red Queen (Sasha Bordeaux? Valentina Vostok?) and we don't know what she wants.
But the episode was mostly about secret identity stuff. The whole Zod-phoning-Lois-pretending-to-be-the-Blur thing gets resolved, and we see an interesting reversal of the usual Lois Lane personality - she doesn't want to know the Blur's true identity, even when he's on the point of telling her.
I love stories that start with a dramatic scene and then flash back to show the build up, but I think it should have just shown the fight; showing Stern firing them before we're told they're in competition to keep their position weakened that whole idea, IMO. (In the comics, incidentally, Franklin Stern was the Daily Planet's publisher, rather than editor.) The reference to an ever-changing roster of acting editors was interesting - possibly when they get their jobs back it'll be thanks to the new permenant editor being Clark's old friend from Season 3, Perry White?
"Upgrade". Okay, I gave a sigh when I realised it was another "Clark is exposed to Red K" story. But this was actually pretty cool. The idea that DarkClark finally does manage to connect with Zod was well handled, and should have interesting ramifications. (Unless, of course, they decide to pretty much ignore it, or resolve it in a line of dialogue as quickly as possible.)
The return of Metallo was interesting - unlike most versions, this John Corben wasn't a criminal before he was cyborgised, so it makes sense that once he's thinking straight he'd be a more-or-less good guy, although the shifting factions left me a bit confused in places. And I loved the line "Tess of the D'Ubervillains"!
I wonder what would happen if Zod was exposed to Red Kryptonite?
I think I complained that the DA Sachs story felt rushed, back when he got thrown in prison. But that's because it wasn't over, it was a setup for "Charade" in which he gets recruited by the Black King of Checkmate - Maxwell Lord! (Obviously, this is Infinite Crisis Max, not Justice League International Max. Nevertheless, I think his presence makes this the first post my general "comics-related" icon is actually relevant for.) And the whole War in Checkmate storyline looks intriguing: there's the White Queen faction, who want to control metahumans, and there's the Black King faction who want to destroy them. And then there's the Red Queen (Sasha Bordeaux? Valentina Vostok?) and we don't know what she wants.
But the episode was mostly about secret identity stuff. The whole Zod-phoning-Lois-pretending-to-be-the-Blur thing gets resolved, and we see an interesting reversal of the usual Lois Lane personality - she doesn't want to know the Blur's true identity, even when he's on the point of telling her.
I love stories that start with a dramatic scene and then flash back to show the build up, but I think it should have just shown the fight; showing Stern firing them before we're told they're in competition to keep their position weakened that whole idea, IMO. (In the comics, incidentally, Franklin Stern was the Daily Planet's publisher, rather than editor.) The reference to an ever-changing roster of acting editors was interesting - possibly when they get their jobs back it'll be thanks to the new permenant editor being Clark's old friend from Season 3, Perry White?
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Date: 2010-10-01 06:00 pm (UTC)Pure speculation, but maybe this is where the whole KNEEL before Zod stuff really kicks in? I mean if Clark weren't such a huge dick in Smallville continuity the current version of Zod would be a pretty okay kinda guy to hang out with really.