Review: Smallville Comic Season 11 Chapter 2

Smallville Season 11: Guardian

Chapter 2

Written by Bryan Q. Miller

Art: Pere Perez

Colors: Chris Beckett

Lettering: Saida Temofonte

Cover Art: Cat Staggs

Assistant Editor: Sarah Litt

Editor: Kwanza Johnson

Page count: 22

Digital Release Date: 04/20/2012

Age Rating 12+ Only

Description: Find out what Lex has in mind for Luthor Corps and Smallville in this next exciting installment.

My thoughts

The images of the second issue practically leaped out of the screen that had me compare the light and breezy feel of chapter one to this next installment. The rich colors employed here gave quite an intense feel mixed with the amount of seriousness made me think would contribute toward the next chapters. Due to this quiet intensity, as a reader, my attention was drawn to appreciate more of the surroundings. I noticed Lois’ computer bearing Wayne Technologies logo. Was this a foreshadowing that the Dark Knight will be visiting Metropolis soon? This I can’t wait. I’m looking forward to Chris Beckett’s work in the series too.

Like everyone who became fans of respective shows, we crave continuity either in TV tie-in books or comics. Miller brought the magic from the small incidences such as the wedding presents to the big issues such as Lex broaching the need to have an adequate weapons platform and his perception of his sister’s death, Tess.

This installment continued not to pull any stops. I loved the little reveals here and there sprinkled throughout the concise dialogue that reminded me of the TV series. Translated here, I can practically hear Michael Rosenbaum (as Lex) and Michael Ironside (as General Lane) during their meeting as the younger man continued to broach the idea of a weapons platform around Earth’s orbit to protect the planet from Superman.

The impression I got from their conversation was, this topic was brought up more than once and I’m also a little apprehensive since how long can a five-star general say no? I had these images in my head that General Lane will get railroaded to liaison or reassigned to some back government project to supervise, leaving Luthor to install a yes-man. I guess we’ll have to see how this will unfold later on.

I couldn’t help but chuckle how Lex just can’t resist to show off (subconsciously or deliberately depends on your perspective) again as he paid the coffee vendor a Benjamin.  The succeeding lucky coffee buyers would be so happy they’d probably come back more than once.

There were two highlights for me here. The first one was page 16 which was a close up between Clark and Lex. It was a good capture that sort of hinted that these men were squaring off in a very non-aggressive way. The dialogue that ran between the men could make a reader pause. I’m reminded again how much of Lex’s old memories from Summerholt were totally blocked out. We never found out if he was successful in retrieving his lost memories yet in the succeeding conversation here, we get a feeling that Lex must have managed to hold on to the old suspicions that Clark is Superman. It seems that being around Chloe throughout his teen-age years and being with Lois, Clark developed his own sarcastic if downplayed comebacks. The second highlight was page 22, the implication of the appearance of Tess to Lex.