Should Smallville Stop Bringing in New Characters?

*Originally published on 11/23/09



For nine years, Smallville has given us it's own unique take on the Superman mythos. For a long time, it stayed in the eponymous hometown of the man of steel to show us his younger years, pining over Lana Lang and learning lessons from his earnest parents.

A few years back, the show moved to Metropolis, essentially making it a Superman show without Superman. Every once in a while, the writers would bring in some other DC character to try and boost ratings for the night. It started with the Flash and soon characters like Aquaman and Cyborg were making appearances. There was even an episode that teased the arrival of Krypto.

As those proved successful, the producers got every character they could to make a guest appearance. Green Arrow was a recurring guest star and is now a full cast member, Black Canary was introduced, as was Martian Manhunter, Zatanna also made an appearance. A season nine episode introduced the wonder twins and the Justice Society will be making an appearance in a two part episode written by Geoff Johns.

It should also be noted that the Legion of Super-Heroes showed up in one episode, though as they have a tie to Superboy's origin that one makes complete sense.

I know DC has a huge roster of heroes to choose from, but isn't this overkill? I'd much rather see characters return than to see new character constantly popping up once and then disappearing forever. In fairness, many of the heroes have shown up more than once, but I think the focus should be on getting the league back together.

I remember back when they were doing the Doomsday arc, I had this whole epic hour long fight scene in my head where every superhero character introduced gets involved. It would've been awesome, continuing Smallville's trend of getting my hopes up only to leave me disappointed, the "epic fight' was a scant three punches before Clark flew him into an exploding building, lame.

This season has Zod as the major baddie. If Lois' visions are correct, he will actually conquer Earth and render it an apocalyptic wasteland. Green Arrow told Clark that regardless of what catastrophe is coming, he's got his back. It's nice, but this is going to require everybody. Justice League assemble! Of course, that won't happen. I know it won't. I need to stop getting my hopes up. I learned my lesson last season. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, can't fool me again, natch.

As great as it is seeing some DC characters get exposure, I would much rather see characters return. They don't all need to be full cast members, but I want to know what J'onn's been up to lately and another Zatanna appearance would be awesome too. With Chloe operating as "Watchtower" I find it odd that Ollie and Clark are the only two who bother to show up. I know we won't see Batman or Wonder Woman for legal reasons and that's fine. Heck, with the upcoming movie, I assume the rights to Green Lantern are tied up to (though a Guy Gardner appearance would be amazing beyond words).

"Justice" was a great episode that allowed all the characters who had been introduced at the time to interact. Later on, after Canary had joined the crew, it seemed like they were getting the league together for real, even getting J'onn into the mix, but then it all collapsed and we have only gotten teases about a reformation of the team.

Rather than constantly try to bring in new characters, I think it would be much better for the writers to try and think of ways to get the old characters back onto the scene. At this point, I think it would do more for fan satisfaction to see recurring characters than to see a constant stream of one and done hero introductions that ultimately go nowhere.