Just like they explained how Jimmy looked like leech boy.

I think they passed "long, long time" a while ago.

One theory I've read is that releasing the FoS releases Doomsday so I don't know if it releases Davis or if it releases the Doomsday "spirit" which possesses Davis or none of the above. If it's the former, then that's yet another degree-less person getting a job you need some sort of degree in.

Right now, I'm interested in why Oliver is hanging around. Because Lex is "dead" does he feel his work is done and can leave Justice-Squadding up to the other guys? Does he own the DP? Is it to spy on Tess? Because from the "new," but still little information, we have on her it seems like her character is going to be very underwritten and hastily thrown together. Why should we care if she has the inner strength needed to run LuthorCorp? Especially when there was an asskicker who definitely had the strength to control the company.

I doubt we're going to get Supernatural: Metropolis, they might have said "maybe" but I can't see it working.

I think it's the latter, because one of the reports confirmed that Tess will be running the DP. Since she's supposed to have something to do with Oliver's past, I assume he'll recognize her (whether he remembers from where or not is another story) and will stick around to find out more about her and her game plan.

Hee!

So we have Black Canary and Aquaman back, Green Arrow is around for the whole season, Plastique, Maxima and now the Legion of Super Heroes (I'm assuming it will be Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy and Lightning Lad). This is going to be the geekiest season yet.

Though I'm not sure about the Legion fitting into the Smallville universe without some fairly radical re-interpretation. And Johns writing them... Well, sure he knows the Legion, but does he know Smallville well enough to keep the show's voice and tone?

Was there any word of Tess having super-strength still? I'm starting to think that's an aspect of the character they've rethought. Unfortunately.

I'm pretty keen for season 8! If they do Clark and Chloe I'll be in heaven!

Oh, regarding the Supernatural crossover, besides the fact that it could never happen, since the two have such distinct, mututally exclusive worlds, it wasn't something that was mentioned seriously.

The panelists were just asked what show they'd most like to crossover with. Allison chose Mad Men, while two of the show runners picked Supernatural.

When are they just going to admit that this is no longer a prequel, and is in fact a Superman TV show now. Pretty much the only thing missing is the suit.

Edited to add: The Smallviller Comic Con teaser

It's kind of hard to see what's happening, but it'll do until a better version comes along.

And an Allison Mack Comic Con interview.

AND Part 1 of the Smallville panel.

Teen Titan beat me to all three links!

Ahh! ED dyed her hair dark, dark brown! It's gorgeous. CF dyed her hair dark, too.

Also, phonebooth moment! Hee. I can't tell if Clark is wearing a suit or just a blue dress shirt (as mentioned by SparkleforSmallville at K-Site).

From TV Guide: I am a little surprised they did not mention this during the actual panel.

That being said, I am of two minds on this one. PS3 has been pimping Clois since the infamous Sci-Fi interview, and putting them together at the Daily Planet is as good a time as any to have Lois start getting interested in Clark. (I am not going to go into lightswitching, or how Lois falling for Clark Kent FUBARS the Clark / Lois / Supes dynamic). I definitely got a laugh out of PS3 openly acknowledging the brother/sister vibe between Clark and Lois.

OTOH, TPTB have been saying the same damn thing about Clois for years.
Season six: they will start getting closer. Hell, we even had the Clark / Lois / Ollie triangle poster.
Season seven: they will start getting closer.
Season eight: they will start getting closer.

What makes this year any different? Especially when they are already dropping hints about season nine?Tess may be pretty vague at this point (and I hope she does not become Lionel style "ambigious becasue we have no idea what the hell she is up to"), but that answer makes me like CF. I do wish we had gotten more information about Tess. All the "female empowerment / finding her inner strength" talk is not exactly what I was hoping for in a villain. Especially one who has to fill MR's rather large shoes.ITA, Sue. There seems to be alot of shiny new toys to play with (Tess, DMT, Ollie, JL, Clois at the DP), and when that happens the crack monkeys tend to forget things.

I am also a little concerned Clark and Chloe may take a back seat to everyone else. "Comic Clois" could easily be Lois bossing Clark around and treating him like a moron. DMT and Tess need time to get established, and there has been some talk of exploring Ollie's back story. (Didn't the Sprint clips do that?) Throw in Chimmy, which normally is used to serve Jimmy's story, 5 Lana-centric episodes, and more one-shots like the Legion of Super Heroes, and I could easily see Clark and Chloe getting Lex style screen time. As in, 4-5 minutes per week. YMMV.Damn straight.

Part 2 of the panel

Word. It's the only way I thin can work for the character or the show - no interest in "Welp, Almiles are gone so we're going to change this and this and this and shove it all the way down your throats."



Well they've got that part right, at least. And hopefully they realize he is the main character? Not some "he's in 5 eps, it's totally the same show" bit.



And as someone who loves DC but hates Legion (and the fact that it took over Superman for months last year) this is about as un-exciting news for me as I can get. [Sorry Craig, I know you love them, but I find them so boring.]



That's my wonder as well.



Well they do get a another point from me for admitting the truth about the chemistry between TW and ED being like siblings. And word on the get closer - they are closer even; he's actually on the same set as her at the same time.



The only thing I will say is I'm not as scared of this because everything seems to be orbiting Clark, Chloe, Ollie, and maybe Tess and Jimmy (Lana will be bumped up when she returns I'm sure). Jimmy is tethered to the story by Chloe's engagement and Tess knowing about Lex's deal. Tess is tethered by Lex, Ollie, being Clark's boss, Jimmy, et cetera. Davis is tied to the story through Chloe. We've got the league, Tess, Edlo, whatnot hanging with Ollie. And the links off Clark and Chloe to everyone else is pretty obvious - so 'm not that worried because end of the day theyare bringing in the new shiny toys - even one offs by having them deal with Clark or Chloe, and I'm sure we'll see some off of Ollie and Tess too.

Ack! What the hell? Whether he meant it to or not, IA: that comment came off as incredibly douche-y. Boo, Peterson. Booooooo! You don't deserve Michael on your stupid show!

Sorry for the ranting. Thanks for the link, Scry!LOL! The man-crushing on Michael can be intense, that's for sure.

And part 3 is up.

I'm a little perturbed that apparently, Jimmy didn't know where Chloe went after she was arrested. I HOPE he spent the summer looking for her, but I won't hold my breath.

Just watched the panel from Comic Con... I hate to be a wet blanket about something that I don't abjectly hate (i.e. Lana and clana), but I think it is a horrible idea to have Oliver as a full-time cast member. And I actually like Green Arrow. I really do not have much confidence for this season at all. *le sigh*

At least in the preview that they showed, someone mentioned Lex's name, so he isn't completely forgotten yet.

Seriously! It's like they're saying "Oh, dear worm, you know you just want to come back and be peed on a.k.a. being given five minutes a show of being yelled at by Clark & being cheated on by whatever ho we got you paired up with!" Give me a break!

I doubt they'd be saying the same shit about KK the second she finishes up all her episodes. It's like if these creeps said, "Oh, yeah, once she done doing that martial arts movie, the door is open for her to come back and cosplay in kinky costumes as she's nearly attacked over and over again by creepy dudes."

I like GA too, but I also worry about the balance of focus with him coming back. I assume he was a 12-13 ep contract, so we won't have him every ep.

Well... He WOULD have, but Lois' boobs weren't going to watch themselves now were they!

I'm really getting vibes of the S4 premiere, where Clark was stuck in the caves all summer and Chloe was presumed dead. Now in S8, we've got Clark seemingly without a memory and Chloe gone missing (although really, Jimmy knows she got arrested, so she *should* be able to follow some sort of trail there).

It's going to be really hard for me to see Clark at the DP without Chloe. I really hope they handle this transition well, but I won't hold my breath. It's just so abrupt.

And speaking of Lois, I saw another clip that showed Lois in a maid's costume.

Part 4 (I assume this is the last one? How long does the panel go for?)

Bo's Ghost: Those boobs aren't going to watch themseles, son.

Joking aside, how did Chloe get free? And more importantly, free of charges? Clark is gone, Lex is gone, Ollie / JL are looking for Clark - who's left? Lois and the General?

Maybe one of Chloe's new powers is producing magic get out of jail free cards out of thin air.

I completely agree. Her answer to that showed a lot of humor and a comfort with the rest of the cast to be able to say something like that. I also kinda love that another female cast member said something positive about Chloe :)

After reading Cassidy's bio and seeing her credits, I'm really pumped to see her in action as Tess because I have a feeling she's going to be really great.



Yeah, that was weird to me, too. I don't need her to "find inner strength". I need her to be bad*** and evol.

I was shocked as all get out that she had like, red hair. I guess I just assumed that since she was blonde on her website, that's the Tess we'd be getting. Somehow, with darker, red hair, she seems like much more of a villain. Now, just slap a black suit and high heels on her and I'm good to go with Tess.

The sad thing to me about Tess is that she is what EvilLana could/should have been. Oh well...I'll take what I can get, I guess.



She looked like an old-school nurse to me, but I can see it being a "maid" look, too.



Was Mary Jane in on that conversation?



Ha! Hilarious :)

If they were going to bring in Brainiac 5, I would, personally, want to see him hook up with Kara (like on JLU), should they bring her back. It would be an interesting dynamic, given the fact that Kara had a few run-ins with Brainiac. It would also give her an interesting way out of the storyline for her to go off with Brainiac 5 and see the world or wherever they go.

The show doesn't feel "Smallville" to me anymore.

It's been moving away at a rapid pace since after Reckoning ... by the time we got to last year, the "Smallville vibe" was on life support. It really is early-Superman. It's not about him growing up as much as "how can we do Superman without the tights?". There's nothing wrong with that show if it was always billed like this -- it's just that it lacks the "heart" (that made it special IMO) almost completely now. It's glitz and high tech gloss and uber-contrived. And they think they can have a S9. Sounders in particular spoke truth when she mentioned something along the lines of keeping their jobs. This means more stretching out.

I've been stretched too far I think and the plastic people who don't have real conversations but just sound bites bother me. Perhaps they will pick up comic fans to replace those who liked more substance.

I couldn't agree more, SueB. The show definitely doesn't feel like Smallville at this point to me either. And every little thing I see is shouting loud and clear that Chlois is NOT coming and Clois is going to be pimped like crazy. For instance, now we see that ED has dyed her hair back darker. I think this is the first time she's come back from a hiatus and her hair has been darker as opposed to lighter. That had always given me just a small smidgen of hope, but now that's gone. I'm confident that Clark's unique ability to unconsciously pick up on Chloe with his superhearing will now also apply to Nois. Watch and see. What I'm gathering from the Comic Con and the TV Guide interviews and such is that these writers know they have a mess on their hands with Chlois fans, and I believe they are taking measures to squash that theory once and for all. If Chloe is shown to have no interest in journalism early in the season, that will pretty much do it for me. Hate to be a negative Nelly and all, but that's the vibe I'm getting from tptb.

I find the new dark hair a bad sign for Chloisers since TPTB have been primarily visualists. If it "looks" right or pretty enough then they think that's enough. They're really that lazy. They probably think "Hey, now her hair is brown so now she's Loisy enough." (rolls eyes)

Could we fanwank that ED's hair is darker for a movie role?

Pushing it to "Reckoning" is pretty generous in my estimation, SueB. Even as someone who has a recently developed love for S4, SV is made up of two shows to me: the first consisting of S1-3, the second being S4-7. S8 doesn't exist to me without Lex, but I guess it'll be #3. Actually, looking back now that it's over for me, I might place the end of SV as I knew and loved it around mid to late S3. I started watching for the Luthors, but I always expected Clex to be the main focus of the series. Once they began to move away from their relationship and it was no longer a priority, SV became another show in my eyes.Really. They've been squandering Michael's talent and pooing on Lex for years. MR was supposedly the second lead on the show, yet S6 didn't even have a Lex-centric epsiode (imo) and in S7 many of his screentime totals were an insult. Bah.This reminds me of Shelby growling at Lex in "Krypto". That's how we, the audience, knew that Lex was "getting draker" that year, you see. *nodnod*

Could you guys please share where I can find it? :) I'm thinking maybe LJ, but I haven't the slightest clue as to where to start looking.

I'm curious if you mean "maid" as in someone who cleans or "maid" as in maiden like when she was dressed as a Maid Marion type for Wither to match Oliver's Robin Hood outfit.

There are audio interviews from everyone at yesterday's panel up at ComicsContinuum (although they were not the only ones at the roundtable asking questions, despite the fact that they make it seem like their people are the only ones asking). Allison Mack provides an answer to a question that's been asked a lot here:

I thought this was the case the second we heard she would take in Bette.

I think the reference someone mentioned was meant to be "maid" as in someone who cleans your house kind-of "maid".

Yeah, and with Lana out of the equation for the most part, it makes sense for Chloe to run Isis. TPTB set that up in the last five episodes of season 7.

And not working to take them down? This person on the screen, the actress is familiar but I just can't figure out what character she's playing.

Well at least one of the explanations has to deal with no wanting to be near Lex Luthor or his cohorts. ...which is passable. But being Mother to the Meteor Infected IS NOT WHO CHLOE SULLIVAN IS!!!!!

Also, it's kind of hypocritical to say that considering Jimmy's connection to Lex Luthor. I mean it was his deal that got her locked up.

Exactly. "She's mad at Lex" is a perfectly reasonable explanation for why she's not at the Planet right now. But does it explain why, after a series-long character arc involving journalism, she wouldn't be trying to take him down and save the Planet on her own? Hardly. Running away is not Chloe Sullivan. Just another example of how badly the show has jumped the rails of its own canon, IMHO. That pretty much kills any lingering interest I might have had in the show, right there. It's just plain lame.

Wouldn't she have been locked up anyway? Jimmy's deal kept her out of trouble temporarily, but if he hadn't made the deal with Lex, she would've landed in jail long before "Arctic", IMO.

Some more tidbits I'm happy about (courtesy of Slavkin/Swimmer):

- Martian Manhunter will appear in at least 3 episodes this year.

- Tess Mercer, although a new character, is absolutely inspired by Tessmacher and Mercy Graves combined (and whose first and last name is also inspired by these two). Her license place even says Mercy.

I think one of the demons from Supernatural jumped over to Smallville and possessed Chloe. Because I cannot think of any other way AM's description for Chloe's season makes sense. Especially since thisdoes not seem to be tied to any reprecussions towards Jimmy "I backed out of a deal with Lex and got my girlfriend locked up for three months!" Olsen.

I give AM credit for trying to spin silk out of straw, but to me, this is crap. All the shiny toys and spiffy new powers in the world are not going to make this any less of a reboot, and Chloe 2.0, with her desire to help the meteor freaks of the world, bang Jimmy and having nothing to do with taking down big mean Lex, is getting the biggest reboot of all. For Zod's sake, Borg!Chloe seems closer to Real!Chloe than Chloe 2.0 does.

I am not amused.

I see we've finally had spelled out the new show going by the name of "Smallville". Too bad the shiny new toys have taken over from Clark (remember him) and that TPTB have screwed up so badly in writing this that they've gone with the "It's three months later, everyone's different now" method of character 'development?' I don't care about the LoSH or any other canon they're sacrificing because they can't write a coherent season with coherent characters.

ETA - Elly, I've seen far better writing in fanfic (some of it's even yours ;)

As usual, Bob, you express yourself far more succinctly and eloquently than most of us can ever hope to. It is indeed crap, IMHO. Seven years of devoting herself to journalism, and suddenly we're supposed to accept her giving up and becoming a mentor to the meteor infected, whilst EDLois and Clark break the big stories? Please. Clearly this is not the same show I've been watching.



Nor am I. If the motivations shifted this wildly in a piece of fanfic, people would laugh at it. These are supposedly professional writers, and they can't even pay the slightest attention or respect to their own characters' history? Bah.



Hee. Right now I'm a mild-mannered housewife, but by September I'm going to be writing for the New York Times! Srsly!

She's mad at Lex Luthor and his cohorts. Her best friend, closest family member and fiance all work for Lex Luthor. And, according to her, she still visits the DP on occasion. At the very least, it's kind of sad for her. But borg!Chloe can't afford to show emotions, she must mother ever stray and passerby she sees. After all, that's the Chloe we fell in love with. *sigh*

It is now that she's one of them. This isn't suprising, nor disappointing, to me in the least. They've been heading down this path for a while now with Chloe...that she would take on more of a hero's role than a reporter's role...and that her focus would be more on investigating in the context of the nascent Justice League than it would for a path she wasn't ever going to stay on (the Daily Planet).

Chloe does a lot of things well, but the things they've focused on in the past two seasons have been 1) her ability to nurture superheros and 2) her ability to investigate. They've been utilizing her very well in those two regards...just not in the context that some have wanted. I think they are pretty much drawing the line in the sand with these comments between Chloe's destiny and Lois'...Chloe's investigative abilities will be used in the Justice League arena, while Lois' will be used in the Daily Planet arena. It doesn't make her less important...it just makes her *different*. If you've ever wondered how they were going to make Chloe and Lois' destinies diverge...how Chloe was ever going to NOT be Iconic Lois Lane...it's all right here. And what's cool is that it's totally organic to the story they've been telling...at least from Chloe's angle. Lois'? It needs some work.

IA. In the earlier seasons, there was no JL and Chloe didn't have a meteor power. What has happened with Chloe going into season 8 is a reflection of the recent history of her character. To be perfectly honest, if Chloe being meteor infected wasn't going to be some life changing moment for her, TPTB would never have introduced the storyline, IMO.

No words. I...seriously cannot believe the words she is saying. What manner of BS is this? Who is this person she is talking about because it ain't the character I've seen for the past 7 seasons on Smallville.

This is the chick who stood up to Lionel Luthor as a teenager and put him in jail. This is the chick who responded to Lex Luthor's threats that if exposing him meant jail time to sign her up. This is the chick who risked her life to go to the FOS *alone* knowing only that two superpowered alien beings were going to have a fight and that she wanted to help her friend.

Chloe is CRAZY BRAVE! She is confident. She is relentless. She is brazen!



If she is angry, then backing down should be the last thing on her mind. She should be moving forward, scrambling to figure out how to get justice. That's her m.o. That's who she is, dammit.



So. much.Word!



I had no interest in watching because of all the other crap I'd have to endure to do so, but I thought I'd at least still have some interest/curiosity about her future and find out how she ends. But, the character I adored is gone apparently and I don't know when exactly she left, but she no longer exists. This isn't the heroine that I thought was the awesomesauce. :(

I really can't care about her at this point.

Chloe ain't Clark. She shouldn't be hemming and hawing and backing away from being the kind of person that she truly is. That's passive Clark's m.o. and I never really liked Clark because of it. Chloe knew who she was and embraced the fact that she was not Miss Nurturer, Miss Domesticity and represented that it was okay for a woman NOT to be the apple pie baking type and to have her own ambitions. Despite it all, I always felt Chloe liked who she was. Changing herself makes it seem like she didn't and that makes her seem really weak to me.

I agree that the new writers are drawing a line in the sand. This has been my fear for several weeks now. I firmly believe they really do want to show why Chloe can never be Lois, and why she's a different type of friend/sidekick/ally to and for Clark. But I couldn't disagree more with the thought that it's an organic move within the context of the show. When we take in all 7 seasons of the show I'd still argue that Chloe's passion for journalism has been a much stronger character trait than her mentoring anyone. What's happened, IMHO, is that the show took two big swerves where characters and storylines radically changed.

The first swerve took place at the beginning of Season 6. Up till that point I'd say we never saw BorgChloe and that up through the 5th season she was firmly entrenched as THE JOURNALIST of the show. But the flying barndoor started us down a path I'll personally always feel bad about. But that's just my personal tastes.

The second major swerve took place at the end of LABYRINTH when Clark suddenly said he loved lobotomy Lana. From there on things got progressively worse for my tastes and the show really never recovered. Chloe still showed signs of her journalistic fire after that (specifically after her Mom went back into the coma), but it just wasn't quite the same. Again, just my two cents. But I don't believe Smallville has organically, onscreen, moved Chloe away from journalism. I say it's a lightswitch. And it stinks in my book. Yep, those comments by Allison have pretty much sealed it for me. My fears have been realized.

At this point, the spec from my vantage point is that the writers are indeed content to lightswitch everyone into a specific position. No organic storytelling is necessary in their minds, IMHO.

But the quote mentions nothing about investigation or the JL or bringing down Lex Luthor. It says her role is now nuturing the meteor infected. Is that heroic? I guess. But it's a completely different form of "heroism" than we've seen Chloe truly interested in.

If they want to make it like some sort of life changing experience, then show us it. Have her make an honest speech that it's no longer what she wants to do. Don't make it some sort of "I'm mad at Lex Luthor so I'm done with journalism" bullshit. Unless this is a ham-handed attempt at another Chloe/Lex parallel with 33.1 v. Isis (helping v. hurting freaks).

Bull. It's contrived. It's single purpose was to shove Chloe out of the Daily Planet airlock to make room for Lois.


I fully expect more of the "Chloe is happy because she got fired by the villain" spin from Cloisers and showrunners as we get closer to the season. It's insulting to my intelligence. Now we get "Chloe is a coward" and that's organic. Fabulous.


Vote with your feet. If S8 does well, they are going to stretch to S9 --- making an already horrible tale completely unwatchable and destroying the precious memories we do have.

Heh. And we haven't even addressed AM's quote about how Chloe would be "lucky" to end up with Clark or Jimmy yet. (Oh and how Clark is the one's who's high maintenance.)

She did say that, right? I don't remember where I read it.

I'm sure that Chloe will still be helping Clark and the JL in season 8. However, unless Chloe was going to miraculously wake up one morning and not be a meteor freak, I think it's natural for Chloe to finally embrace who she is. We started to see this in season 7 when she wanted to use her meteor power even though it could kill her and I guess this is going to be taken to another level in season 8.



Lois was already at the DP in season 7 with Chloe.

Who she is is a journalist and I don't see why being a meteor freak suddenly changes that. She can be a hero as a journalist. She can use her powers as a journalist. I need to see a legitimate reason her journalistic passion goes bye-bye. And I still don't see her as Mommy Meteor Freak nor do I get why she has to become that.

I guess that's where we disagree because I think a journalist is someone who Chloe was in the past, but that has slowly been stripped away in recent seasons once she found out Clark's secret, became a meteor freak, got involved with the JL...etc.



Because she has been given a gift in life and she intends to use it? I guess Chloe could ignore the fact that she is a meteor freak and continue along as if nothing has changed but I just don't think that's the case with Chloe's character, nor do I expect that to be the case. YMMV.