Comic-Con '08 Smallville Panel (spoilers)

[goldenboy]

Smallville Crammed With Capes In Season Eight

Smallville season eight will be even more comic-booky than we suspected, judging from today's panel at Comic-Con. Action Comics writer Geoff Johns will write an episode that introduces some of Superman's most colorful friends from the comics. And it looks like Clark's biggest battle yet could cause a lot of collateral damage. Click through for details and spoilers.

The Smallville producers showed a new season eight trailer, which included footage from previous seasons, but also new footage of Green Arrow, Aquaman, Black Canary and new characters Davis Bloome/Doomsday and Tess Mercer. New clips included Clark getting the stuffing beat out of him in Russia, Chloe saying that she's nothing special, while trying to get away from an attacker, and Chloe and Jimmy together. And Metropolis in ruins. Green Arrow shoots Clark, and then we see an S-pendant in Clark's hand. And Doomsday saying: "There's something out there, and whatever it is, it can kill you."

The big announcement at the Smallville panel was that Geoff Johns will write an episode of the show, introducing the Legion Of Superheroes, Clark's buddies from the 30th and 31st centuries. It's a kind of goofier, more futuristic version of the Justice League, where everybody has "flight rings" that allow them to fly, and most characters have one super-power that's spelled out in his/her name, like Matter-Eater Lad or Lightning Lass.

Also, the producers repeated their previous statements that they would keep the "no tights" rule for Clark, but relax the show's old "no flights" rule. They said they wouldn't rule out a cross-over with fellow CW show Supernatural. Tess Mercer won't just be replacing Lex as head of LuthorCorp, she'll also be Clark's boss at the Daily Planet. Chloe will be developing new powers, and other new attributes, this season. Also, it was hinted that the footage of Metropolis strewn with rubble was the result of Doomsday putting the big crazy smackdown on Clark's ass. Picture of Smallville Comic-Con bag from Seat 42F. [Thanks To Smallville Podcast (http://www.smallvillepodcast.com/2008/07/27/smallville-panel-comic-con/#more-926) and Wizard Universe (http://conreport.wizarduniverse.com/2008/07/27/sdcc-smallville-screening-and-qa/)]
Smallville: Smallville Crammed With Capes In Season Eight (http://io9.com/5029733/smallville-crammed-with-capes-in-season-eight)

[Black King]

the Legion is going to show up in Smallville. Wonder if Clark is going to spend some time in the 31st Century.

[goldenboy]

A few more tidbits from Geoff Johns..


SDCC '08 - Geoff Johns Brings the Legion to 'Smallville'

By Vaneta Rogers
posted: 27 July 2008 12:57 pm ET

The Legion of Super-Heroes is coming to Smallville, and the writer who's guiding the futuristic team in comic books will be the one introducing them to the show.

Geoff Johns, writer of next month's Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds mini-series for DC Comics, will also be writing the Legion's introduction to the Smallville television show. As announced Sunday at San Diego Comic-Con, Johns will be writing "Legion," the ninth episode in this year's season 8 of Smallville.

"I've known the Smallville writing team – Todd [Slavkin], Darren [Swimmer], Brian [Wayne Peterson] and Kelly [Souders] – for a long time," Johns told Newsarama. "I had an idea for an episode, so we all had lunch. And I pitched them the idea of bringing the Legion of Super-Heroes to Smallville. And we're off and running."

In comics, the Legion of Super-Heroes is a group of super-powered teenagers from 1,000 years in the future who are inspired by the legend of Superman. The Legion story, which saw the young heroes time-traveling back to visit a young Clark Kent, recently inspired a Warner Bros. animated TV series.

Smallville fans had already seen updated versions of several DC Comics heroes on the live-action show, including Green Arrow, who's become a regular character. Just last month, it was announced that a new "Doomsday" character, played by Battlestar Galactica alum Sam Witwer, will be added to the Smallville cast this season as a nemesis for actor Tom Welling's Clark Kent.

While the show's very human-looking Doomsday is apparently a re-interpretation of the monstrous comics character who once killed Superman, according to Johns, the Legion that appears in his Smallville episode will be the team that comic book readers recognize.

"I can't get into any specifics about the story we're telling because we’re still working on it all. But they're from the 31st Century. And it will be focusing on some obvious characters who first met Clark," Johns said. "It will be written to fit with Smallville, and I think it's going to be a really fun challenge to approach the Legion in a different way. But with me, you know you're going to see Legion rings, and they're going to be as true to the core as possible. It's going to be the Legion of Super-Heroes."

Johns, who just recently used Legion characters in a story he wrote for the Superman-centered series Action Comics with artist Gary Frank, couldn't confirm if the Legion characters he's introducing in Smallville would appear in more than one episode.

As Smallville fans may remember, this won't be the first time the name "Geoff Johns" is attached to the show. In Season 4, a super-powered, villainous football-playing character was named Geoff Johns. And as most comic book fans know, Johns shares offices with former Smallville writer and comic book creator Jeph Loeb, who was involved with the series during Seasons 2-4.

"Like I said, I've known the Smallville team for a long time. And I have to thank Jeph Loeb for introducing me to those people in the first place," Johns said. "I'm really looking forward to working on the show. It's exciting to see the Legion be part of that."
Newsarama.com : SDCC '08 - Geoff Johns Brings the Legion to 'Smallville' (http://www.newsarama.com/tv/080727-smallville-legion.html)

[Mr Pointy]

Thanks for posting those GB. I'm a little wary of the human incarnation of Doomsday, given that the alien comics version (at least the only one I remember :)) bloody well killed Superman! Anything less powerful could be disappointing.

However, the Legion...whoo hoo! Sounds like they'll be there with flight rings and everything...brilliant! I hope that it's the original trio (Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad). They were never part of the DC mainstream but I always enjoyed their books and I thought they were an important part of the Superboy/man mythology. It was a real shame when John Byrne wrote them out of Clark's Superboy years in the post-Crisis revisions and then when other DC writers had to go through hoops to re-establish them.

[goldenboy]

Smallville's 31st Century Teens Revealed (http://io9.com/5094994/smallvilles-31st-century-teens-revealed)