*Originally published on 2/23/10
After much anticipation, the Smallville "movie", Absolute Justice hit the airwaves. As promised, it featured the debut of the Justice Society of America. We also saw the return of the Martian Manhunter (who now has his powers back). The episode itself was quite awesome and had everything I hope to see in this show on a regular basis. I had high hopes for it, given the fact that Geoff Johns was writing it, and he lived up.
The episode had not just two, but six heroes coming together to stop a common enemy. We haven't seen a team up like this since season 6's Justice. One of the main points of the episode was to contrast the team spirit of the JSA against the current generation of heroes who once in a while get together, but mostly do their own thing.
We also got the introduction to Amanda Waller and the Checkmate organization. As awesome as the episode was, one of the best parts was Waller's claim that all of the heroes, old and new alike, were going to have to get together to face the upcoming apocalypse.
Now, some fans were speculating that she said Apokolips and not Apocalypse, suggesting the arrival of Darkseid, but I think she's referring to Zod's clan rising to power. Tess' involvement seems to support that idea. I highly doubt CW is willing to fork over the kind of money it would take to bring the New Gods to life. Besides, given how they've handled some of the villains (coughMyxyzptlkcough), I don't know if I want to see Darkseid show up on Smallville
After the Doomsday debacle, I swore that I wouldn't get my hopes up for this show. I knew that it didn't have the budget to deliver the sort of superhero action that I want to see. I swore to just take it as is and not raise the bar too high. Then this episode comes out and gets me all hyped up again. I said I wanted to see J'onn return, and he did, he even got his powers back. I said I wanted to see Zatanna come back and she did the very next episode (are the writers reading my articles or something?).
If it weren't for the fact that he's already extraordinarily busy, I would suggest hiring Johns on as a permanent writer as he does a great job with it.
We've been down this path before, and I'm hesitant, but darn it all I'm actually excited again. This won't end well, I can feel it. I'll get it all hyped up in my head and it won't live up.
On the one hand, Absolute Justice is about as big as the show got, so why would I expect more right? The problem is that Waller said that they need to put a big team together. So, it would stand to reason that they have something in mind. I figured that they used a large chunk of their budget on that, but maybe they tucked some away for a huge finale.
I think it stands to reason that the Kandorians are going to get their powers back. Yes, Clark burned the tower, but that doesn't mean it can't be rebuilt, or somehow still utilized. With a whole army behind Zod, Clark's going to need all the help he can get.
So, who can come to his aid? Let's look at Clark's potential army.
Clark
Green Arrow (both of these are rather obvious)
Black Canary
Cyborg
Flash
Aquaman
Martian Manhunter
the Wonder Twins
Zatanna
Hawkman
Stargirl
the new Dr. Fate
Mia/Speedy
It was also hinted in Absolute Justice that JSA icons like Alan Scott (Green Lantern) and Jay Garrick (Flash) were still alive, so maybe they could show up? It would be interesting to see Jay show up since Bart used that as one of his alias' as a nod to the other Flashes (my guess is they'll retcon it to say he knew who the guy was and took the fake name as a sort of tribute).
I have a feeling that that would be pushing it, but at the very least, all of the heroes who have shown up before (ie the ones listed) should show up for the final showdown.
As cool as it would be to see the Legion return, I don't know if that's gonna happen. I have only a passing knowledge of them in the comics, so I don't know what the standard is for going back in time to help Clark out of a jam. They offered to help fight Doomsday, so maybe they'll show up too.
Another X factor is the suicide squad, name dropped by Waller after she disposes of Icicle. So who would be on this team? I can assume that the surviving members of Tess' Injustice Gang (Plastique and Parasite) will be recruited. Deadshot maybe? Bullets would be useless but given the abundance of various colored meteor rocks, there's no reason they couldn't craft specially made bullets for him.
Will all of this happen? Will all of these characters show up? I'm going to venture to guess no. It would be awesome if it did, but I've been burned before and I'm hesitant to get too excited. The fact that there is excitement period speaks to the impact Absolute Justice had. Unlike with the Doomsday arc, where I envisioned a huge mega team up of all the heroes, I'm going to try my best to just wait and see how this plays out. At the very least, it can't be the stunning disappointment that the previous finale was.
If they have the sun turn red at some point earlier in the season, they can ration out the heroes appearances. It might not be as cool, but at least it would be something. We'll have to wait and see how it turns out.
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