Monsters of Television

“I’m Booster Gold. The greatest hero you’ve never heard of. TIL NOW!”

Finally! I had been waiting for this episode for months. Months I tell you. Smallville has introduced a lot of DC heroes into its mythology, some more successfully than others, and the additions of Booster Gold and Blue Beetle were highly anticipated.

“But Matt, this final season is about Clark realizing his potential and becoming that great iconic hero. Introducing other heroes this late in the game is taking away from that focus.” I have a few things to say to that, concerned viewer. The first is: shut up. The second is: yes this is the final season so the show is going to go all out and do as much cool stuff as they can before the final bow. And finally: Booster and Blue Beetle have SO MUCH TO DO WITH CLARK’S PERSONAL GROWTH AS A HERO.

Let’s dive in, shall we?

While Clark is trying to work on his bumbling mild-mannered persona, a disguise he isn’t loving having to wear, Booster is quickly becoming the new fan favorite hero of Metropolis. Played brilliantly by Eric Martsolf, Booster is instantly set up in contrast to Clark. Booster is a hero who doesn’t have to hide. He is his pompous self right out in the open. He saves people for publicity, not because it’s right. All of this goes against everything Clark stands for.

This stark contrast causes Clark to really evaluate what it is about being a hero and about keeping that secret identity. See, here’s that part I was talking about where Booster’s appearance sparks growth in Clark. There are also some similarities between Clark and Jaime, the youngster who becomes Blue Beetle. Jaime is a bit of a dork. He’s clumsy and gets picked on by his classmates. Remind you of anyone? Exactly. (It’s Clark if you’re not following along. Sheesh. Keep up.)

Like Clark, Jaime soon finds himself in possession of an immense amount of power and has no idea how to control it. Unlike Clark and his Kryptonian abilities, Jaime becomes bonded to a piece of alien technology that forms a superpowered suit of kickass armor. Different powers, sure, but the similarities are there. And Clark sees them. It was a great way for Clark to reflect on his own similar beginning and see how far he has come. And it’s a great way to introduce another hero into the universe. So again to those of you complaining out there: shut up.

There’s more to the Clark and Booster dynamic in this episode that pushes us along this 10 year track from Smallville to Superman. Clark imparts a lot of knowledge about power and heroism to Booster, who then gives that same advice to Jaime, inspiring him to become a hero as well. This brings up two important points about Clark. Firstly, he is a leader. He will step in and he will teach and he does it all with such conviction. Secondly, and this plays into the first part a lot, he inspires people. He has this gravity about him, this air of (still growing) experience. You have to inspire to be a good leader and Clark is coming into that aspect very well.

In the last review I mentioned an interesting (and genius) setup that DC is doing by incorporating other heroes into Smallville. They’re leaving the doors wide open for spin-offs. Now it’s a bit like the test run mentality that the Avengers movie is taking: including lesser known properties into a well known one, seeing if those characters hit with audiences, spin them off, rinse and repeat for eternity.

Blue Beetle is a great choice. Am I only saying this because I’m friends with current incarnation co-creator Cully Hamner? Only a little bit, but it makes a lot of sense. He’s young, he’s got cool powers, he’s relatively unknown. DC has brought more attention to the character by including him in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, but he still ain’t no household name. After more exposure due to Smallville you could easily jump right into a show. If you had to retell his origin story you could do it in fleeting mentions or flashbacks in the pilot or give it the Beetleborgs treatment. Catchy theme song that tells you everything you need to know. Let’s bring that back.

Bottom line (and kind of an open letter to DC) is water those planted seeds. Blue Beetle may be hard to do because it would be a very visual graphics intensive show, but there are a lot of other properties that could work with the Smallville model. Hell, it doesn’t even have to be that model exactly. Where’s the gritty Question action/thriller crime drama? Where’s the magical mystery Zatanna show? Instead you give us David E. Kelley’s Ally McBeal 2 Wonder Woman? No thank you.

Phew. That was quite a digression. But it was relatively on topic so whatever. Back to Smallville: Lois had some good stuff in this episode as well. She shared a great scene with Jaime early on where she tells him to stick up for himself. Her episode long battle with Cat nabs her a promotion at the Daily Planet. And somehow she still manages to help Clark work on his alter ego. What can’t that woman do?

Booster delivered on all levels. It brought in new properties without taking away from our beloved protagonist and his journey. Next marks the return of Ollie (about time) and unfortunately, the return of Zod as well. Is anyone else getting tired of seeing that guy? He is running rampant through all Superman related properties recently and I’m getting pretty bored of his presence. I’m looking at you, Zach Snyder. But in this final season I get the desire to bring back the big bads for one last bow. Brainiac got it. Lex is gonna get it. So go ahead, Zod. We’ll kneel, you bow.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

• Was very pleased with how they brought Ted Kord, the second Blue Beetle, into the Smallville universe as well.
• Gotta love a Geoff Johns penned episode.
• Really liked Welling’s transformation into bumbling Clark. His scene with Kord was hilarious.
• Couldn’t stop smiling when Clark changed in that phone booth. Yes.
• Someone please bake me the Superman cookies that Cat made. Pretty please.