SMALLVILLE #1

By: Tony Whitt
Date: Wednesday, March 26, 2003

Not long ago, I reviewed the first SMALLVILLE one-shot and worried about the book's seeming identity crisis - was it meant to be a comic, or was it meant to be a fanzine? And is such an identity crisis worth a price hike of a whole dollar? Now that the series proper has begun - albeit only as a bi-monthly - I find myself asking the same question, and I'm worried about the answer.

If we're going by the ratio of comic material to fanzine material, then SMALLVILLE sits firmly in the fanzine category: there are three "news" features as opposed to only one original comic story. The pictures that accompany Rob Allstetter's "Tom Welling: Rising Star" feature are typical TIGER BEAT-style beefcake poses of the series' star (not that I'm against such things on principle, mind you), and the interview itself is the typical surface-level talk with the celebrity that tends to accompany such photos. The "Lights, Camera...Action!" feature (unnecessary ellipsis and exclamation mark not mine) is similarly lightweight, offering a glimpse behind-the-scenes of the filming of this season's "Dichotic" episode which gives us little apart from a few (somewhat) amusing incidents and the usual "Doing a TV series is hard" comments from the actors. Far more annoying is the first installment of Jami Bernard's "in-depth" Season One episode guide, which features synopses of episodes two through five and categories for each like "Meteor Fallout" with such cutesy entries as "Coach gets hot under the collar!" Ugh. CINESCAPE's own guide to the first season published last fall is far better than this dreck, and I'm not just saying that because I work for them (or even because I wrote it). The audience for the television show is teenagers and adults, but you wouldn't know it from features like this.

The comic feature, however, is a different story - not only is it meant for a wider audience, it manages to completely redeem the entire book. "Paterfamilias" reads exactly like an episode from the second season, and a damned good one at that (though I have trouble believing that someone who finds Bernard's silly categories funny would even know what "Paterfamilias" means). No surprise, then, that series writer Mark Verheiden is half of the writing team on this one, ably assisted by Clint Carpenter. The story about a teen whose father was killed in the meteor shower that brought Clark to Earth and who's been out in the woods trying to find a new one is remarkably touching, without forgetting its "Freak of The Week" roots (did we mention the kid's also invisible?). Even the coda is exactly what we'd expect, as Lex shows us a glimpse of his "turning to the dark side" persona. The main disappointment here is the artwork, as Plunkett and Morales try to (and mostly succeed at) reproducing the exact look of the actors playing the parts. Mostly it works - they're particularly successful at recreating Alison Mack's trademark smile - but it also makes one more aware that one is reading a comic based on a television series, rather than just a good comic book. Some of the best comics adaptations of television series eventually moved away from a photo-realistic representation of the actors - BATTLESTAR GALACTICA always struck me as pretty good at this, for instance - and perhaps SMALLVILLE will follow their example. Eventually.

Right now, though, SMALLVILLE needs to decide what it is, who it's aimed at, and whether it's willing to provide more great comics and less gushing celebrity journalism. Most of those of us picking this book up desperately want the former of these. If we want the latter, there's always TIGER BEAT.

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