In
“Justice,” Clark Kent (Tom Welling) is still busy rounding up Kryptonian
criminals who have escaped from the Phantom Zone. But when his old friend, Bart Allen (Kyle
Gallner) -- the fastest man alive -- happens into Kansas, Clark is suspicious
that something is up.
He’s
right.
Bart is now working in secret with Oliver Queen/Green Arrow (Justin Hartley),
Arthur Curry/Aquaman (Alan Ritchson), and Victor Stone/Cyborg (Lee Thompson
Young) to help stop Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum), and his secret “33.1”
program, which involves the capture and exploitation of those with unusual
abilities. His plan seems to to create an army of "super freaks."
On his mission to learn more, Bart
walks into a trap at the Luthorcorp Ridge Facility, and Clark attempts to
rescue him, unaware that the same facility is refining the meteor rocks that are
deadly to him.
Fortunately, Oliver’s “Justice” league comes to the rescue, and
destroys the facility.
This
sixth season episode of Smallville (2001 – 2011) written and
directed by Steve DeKnight, sets up the Justice League for future appearances
on this long-lived superhero series. Indeed, the league would return with new
members (like Black Canary) throughout the remainder of the program’s run.
We live now in an age when superheroes on film
and TV are not shy at all about appearing on-screen in comic-book uniforms. Smallville emerges from
the age immediately preceding that one (post X-Men 2000]) when this was not the
case. There was some embarrassment, apparently, on the part of producers about the comic-book costumes. Accordingly, the Justice League featured here is not seen in uniform,
but rather in colorful “hoodies” and designer eye wear.
The
Flash -- here called Impulse -- wears a red hoodie, for example. Green Arrow wears a green
one. In a nod to the character’s
appearance in The Super Friends, Arthur Curry’s Aquaman in Smallville
is seen in an orange shirt.
It’s
not a perfect solution, for certain, and today – post-Avengers [2012], the
hoodies seem silly and unnecessary, when we could have seen the characters in their classic uniforms instead.
So
how does “Justice” hold up today?
Well, again, one must consider the historical context.
Smallville arose from a TV era that gave us two brilliant genre series:
The
X-Files (1993-2002), and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997 –
2003). In those series, audiences saw monsters-of-the-week, and also a strong
post-modern, or “meta” sensibility.
The
same is true for Smallville.
Especially
notable in this episode is the latter quality.
Oliver jokes that he wants to give his league something with the name “Justice”
in it. Similarly, Clark notes he boasts some “pretty amazing friends,” which
seems like a reference to the Super Friends version of the Justice
League. The whole episode is quippy and
tongue-in-cheek, and yet effective dramatically in one very real sense.
What
is that sense?
Well, Smallville ran for a very long time,
and had a very “slow burn” approach to its story arcs. “Justice”
is worthwhile because Victor, Arthur, Bart, and Oliver, of course, have all had
special episodes devoted to their back-stories and abilities by this point. "Justice" is not their first appearance, but
rather their first appearance together. Accordingly, there is a sense of history about each of the league members
that we would not have had, if the series had not assiduously devoted time and energy
to establishing their characters individually. That history pays off here.
And
yes, the episode is a bit cheesy.
I won’t write, as one character quips, that “disappointment
abounds,” but clearly this is the Justice League on a live-action TV budget. The team’s most
dramatic moment finds the group -- walking in slow-motion-photography -- in the
foreground of a shot, as Lex’s facility explodes in the background. The effects don’t hold up particularly well
today, and the moment doesn’t make any sense anyway.
Oliver
is still human, rather than meta-human, right? Wouldn’t he want to move quickly
away from a fireball?
Actually, the same
thing holds true for Clark, since we know meteor rocks are on the premises, and would
make for very dangerous shrapnel in an explosion of the size we witness. But
now, instead, we get a cool-for-cool’s sake moment.
The
other disappointment, of course, is that Justice League as featured here lacks two of the most
famous and notable members: Batman and Wonder Woman. Come to think of it, this
Justice League, at this juncture, is all-male.
Still,
I was a big fan of Smallville over the years, in part for the investment that
Welling and Rosenbaum clearly put into their starring roles.
So when “Justice” aired for the
first time -- a decade ago -- I was thrilled to see the Justice League come together in live
action.
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