By Lisa Fary
I’ve tried many times over the years to like Smallville. Supes drew me in; the maudlin drama turned me off. But, I’ve kept trying every couple of seasons. Never made it through a whole episode before flipping to something else or opening a book.
Until Friday night.
“Absolute Justice”, the two hour episode written by Geoff Johns. Hawkman, Doctor Fate, Stargirl, Martian Manhunter.
Holy crap, that was good.
That’s what I want from my superheroes. Costumes. Super powers. Super powered toys and accoutrements. Fighting bad guys because it’s the right thing to do. Sure, it gets ya down and, sometimes, you lose people, but you’re the only one who can do it.I want my heroes heroic, shoving down their feelings until they wake up in the middle of the night with acid reflux, just like me.
I don’t want this “Ohhhh! I’m so different and lonely!” crap filled with emo emotions. Shove it down and take another Prilosec with a cocktail like the rest of us, Peter Petrelli.
Oh, wait. Wrong show.
In addition to never making it through an episode of Smallville, I also know jack about the minutiae of DC continuity. I know some stuff I’ve picked up from some comics like New Frontier, some eps of Justice League: Unlimited, and Batman: The Animated Series. Really though, it’s too bloody exhausting to keep up with and I don’t get any particular enjoyment out of it.
Didn’t need any of that for “Absolute Justice”. Oh, it paid off if you’re in the know. John had a gleeful exclamation every few minutes. If you’re not in the know, it didn’t matter. It also didn’t matter if you’d never seen Smallville.
“Absolute Justice” proved that you can do superheroes for without making it all dark and gritty. You can do it with their proper costumes without it being effing stupid. You can poke fun at stuff like Hawkman’s over the top badassery without being a douche who’s making fun. Yes, there’s a difference. The douche does it to feel superior; the other is done out of love.
It also proved that this can be done on television without playing to the mundanes who can’t wrap their heads around something fantastic, without pandering to those women viewers who get confused the second a flying man or a robot appears on screen (those women would rather be watching Grey’s Anatomy, anyway).
So, please DC and Warner Bros. Make a half-hour, live action Justice League show for the CW or TNT and do it the same vein as “Absolute Justice”. And do it before Disney does it with Marvel and throws it up on ABC or ABC Family.
Seriously, I couldn’t give two poops about Marvel, but I’ve always liked the DC universe. So, do this for me. Give me a proper live-action show without the maudlin drama. And try to get Power Girl in there. I’ve already decided that Yvonne Strahovski from Chuck can play her. See? I’m helping. You’re welcome.
Lisa Fary is a graduate of the creative writing program at Florida State University and holds an advanced degree in Special Education. Her earliest influences are Princess Leia, Rainbow Bright, Astronaut Barbie, and her 6th grade teacher, Ms. Palmer. She’s angry that it’s almost 2010 and she still doesn’t have a hovercraft, but will accept a jetpack as consolation. That jetpack had better be pink with a rhinestone monogram.
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Lisa Fary's earliest influences are Princess Leia, Rainbow Bright, Astronaut Barbie, and her 6th grade teacher, Ms. Palmer. She's angry that it's 2011 and she still doesn't have a hovercraft, but will accept a jetpack as consolation. That jetpack had better be pink with a rhinestone monogram. 
IT.WAS.FRAKKIN.AWESOME!!!
JSA, Amanda Waller, Check-Mate, SUICIDE SQUAD! I gasm'd the nerdness for 2 hours! I love me some Smallville, been watching it faithfully for years and this is by FAR the best yet!
One thing…they haven't gone to the actual Smallville for a few eps. I'm guessing the show's title now refers to Lois' nickname for Clark.
SAY WERD!!
Now I really can't wait to watch this. We taped it last night. I totally second Yvonne Strahovski as Power Girl, that would be awesome.
johns again proves why he is one of the best writers in the dc uni…the man just loves the jsa
all the easter eggs were great…especially the original red tornado
now bring on the suicide squad and Apokolips and lets have at it
I, too, am only passingly familiar with most of the DC universe, but I've been watching Smallville for most of its run. (Got fed up for a while around season 6 and didn't start watching again regularly until last year. The first half of this season's been surprisingly good.) I'll admit that I was most excited about seeing Michael Shanks and Brent Stait together again after 12 years, but the rest of 'Absolute Justice' was pretty damn great as well. This is what I wish Smallville was like more often.
I'm so glad that they've finally figured out what to do with Chloe again. She was awesome in the early years, and then she was kind of lame for a while when her primary function was pining after Clark and getting herself in trouble so he could rescue her (i.e. "plot device"). Being Watchtower really suits her.
Not sure how I feel about the whole Checkmate storyline yet. Guess I'll have to keep watching and find out.
Great article, Lisa. It almost made me want to reconsider liking Absolute Justice. Almost, but not quite. Smallvile did some good episodes in its first four seasons, but for me, this one was lumped in with the not-so-good pile. Michael Shanks was just terrible as Hawkman (he looked like he really didn't want to be there). Yes, I did like his goofy verbal sparring with GA, but that's hard to mess up; it was all of Shanks other scenes that made me cringe. Also, the actress who played Stargirl was pretty bad, you gotta admit; she looked the part but her acting was very poor, compared to their spot on casting choice in another ep for Zatanna. And this was absolutely a pilot for a JSA series, since Clark Kent had NOTHING to do with the story. The CW needs to spin off SOMETHING from Smallvile – JL, JSA, GA, Watchtower, whatever – and put this long in the tooth series to rest.
In his Hawkman get up, Shanks sounded like he was trying to do Christian Bale's gravely Batman voice. As far as Clark not having much purpose in the story, I think that was a logistical thing due to Tom Welling directing the ep (as well as being a pilot).
I've tried watching Smallville many times and this was the first time I stayed for the whole episode. We used to cover the show on a regular basis, but the women doing it got so fed up they stopped watching the show! So yeah, I'm aware that his was kind of a flash in the pan.