Justice

Nerd that I am, one TV show I do enjoy is Smallville. As I've blogged in the past, what makes that show compelling for me isn't watching Clark Kent grow up to be Superman, but rather, Lex Luthor's painfully slow descent to the dark side. Sadly, I haven't been watching Smallville all season, because the Athabasca cable company doesn't have a channel that carries it.

Until last night, when I stumbled across it as I was heading off to bed.

So, naturally, I had to stay up late to watch one of the most anticipated episodes of all season, Justice.

Let me bring you up to speed: the creators of Smallville have been bending their rule of "no superheroes in costume" in rescent season, as over the past two years, we've had Clark Kent cross paths with Bart Allen (who, in the comics, just picked up the mantle of the Flash), Arthur Curry (Aquaman) and Victor Stone (Cyborg of the Teen Titans). Well, things came to a head this season with a 10-episode arc featuring Oliver Queen. In his third appearance, Queen showed up in his classic green tights and introduced himself as Green Arrow. Turns out Queen's old prep school classmate Lex Luthor has a secret project going called Section 33.1, where he's been experimenting on humans with superpowers to figure out what makes them tick. Queen doesn't take to kindly to this, so he went all vigilante to shut Luthor down. Quite early on Queen discovered Clark Kent's powers, and invited Clark to join him on his quest.

And now, the rest of the story....

Clark runs into his old buddy Bart Allen, and Bart's got a secret. Turns out Bart's now working for Queen, and using his super-speed to steal intel from Section 33.1 instillations. Well, Luthor eventually sets a trap for Bart, Luthor captures Bart, and Luthor proceeds to experiment on the fastest man alive. Clark discovers this, tells Queen, and Queen opens a door to reveal that Arthur Curry and Victor Stone are also in his employ, travelling the world, doing good, and shutting down Lex Luthor. Queen doesn't have a name for his team yet, but he's leaning towards the Justice...something. Clark then joins the team and "the Justice...something" goes off to rescue Bart and shut down this particular 33.1 instillation.

Yeah, that's right, the Justice League was on Smallville.

Needless to say, this episode was one massive geek-fest, as it was filled with references to the Justice League, climaxing in the end, when all 5 memebers walk away from the exploding building, and it recreates the opening shot of the opening credits sequence to the Justice League cartoon.

I really, really enjoyed it, and I can start watching Smallville again.