Would a Justice League Spinoff of Smallville Work?

*Originally published on 11/25/09



I mentioned before how I was growing weary of Smallville constantly bringing in new characters rather than bringing back old ones. I also mentioned my frustration with a lack of Justice League appearances. Smallville will have been on for nine years, I know there has been talk of the show ending it's run for awhile, but unless CW wants to do with Smallville what Fox did with The Simpsons or NBC did with Law and Order (something I don't think it should do), then they need to start planning for a post-Smallville CW.

There was talk of an Aquaman show (ironically, starring the guy now playing Green Arrow) that went under (ha, get it?). There was also talk of a Green Arrow spinoff, of course this was after only a handful of appearances by the character, which was a bit premature if you ask me. Still, I think the CW execs, as well as fans of Smallville can have their cake and eat it too, in the form of a spinoff.

What should the spinoff be? Why, Justice League of course. I know, they tried it once back in the '90s. I still haven't seen that live-action pilot, but I hear it was terrible. Well, things have advanced a lot and I think it's time. As I mentioned before, Smallville has brought in a ton of characters so your core cast is already made. You'd have Clark, J'onn, Zatanna, Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg and Green Arrow. I guess you can have the wonder twins as well, if you must. I don't know where the show plans on taking Chloe, but if she is still on good terms with the heroes, she could still operate as Watchtower.

You may argue that CW doesn't have the budget. I beg to differ. There's a good chance that Supernatural will be coming to an end after this season, so you can take the funds that would've gone into both of those shows (two of CW's biggest) and pool it into one mega show.

While Smallville seemed to put its focus on angst and melodrama, this show would be all about straight up superhero action. There would be character development, of course, but while action was something of an afterthought for the producers of Smallville, it should be a major component of the show. If you're going to bring in Doomsday or some other world imperiling threat, you need the showdown to back it up.

While villains like Brainiac, Zod, and Bizarro could return, they could also up the ante and bring in major baddies like Sinestro, Despero, Darkseid, the white martians, or even do a nod to New Frontier and have them battle The Centre. A Justice League vs. Cthulu arc would be pretty cool as well. You could also an episode or two that has the League teaming up with the Justice Society or maybe even the Legion.

If you wanted to get really nuts, you could cap off the series by having the Anti-Monitor as the main villain requiring the League, the Legion and the Justice Society to all band together. OK, I'm probably getting ahead of myself, but you see the potential.

This show could fill in the gap left open by the ending of the DC animated universe. While they've delivered great original movies, a show like this will help comic fans get their superhero fix. With Smallville's threats becoming larger, it makes sense to bring in reinforcements. It would also lay to rest viewers constantly asking where all the other heroes are as we would see them on a regular basis. Smallville can't go on forever, and this seems like a great way to let the show end while still picking up where it left off and continuing the story.