In the mid-season return of Smallville this Thursday, the show takes a page out of the Superman mythology by featuring three prominent members of the futuristic Legion of Superheroes. Although full of special mentions and tidbits associated with comics, the show reached out to the casual fans by explaining who the Legion members are and how they are tied to Clark Kent. Before the opening credits sang “Somebody Save Me”, the proper introductions were made. There was also more action and stunts in this episode than usual, which was a treat, although none of it was due to Clark Kent rescuing anyone. This was still an episode about Clark’s continuing quest to find his destiny, but it also offered a peek into his far-reaching influence on future heroes and generations. And it tied in nicely that someday, we are going to see Clark Kent wear glasses, and fly with a cape and in tights.

Written by DC Comics writer Geoff Johns and directed by Glen Winter, the midseason opener of Smallville is titled “Legion”:

It’s the aftermath of Doomsday’s destruction of Clark’s barn. The whole place is ransacked and Lana tearfully collects herself. Clark reminds her to take a rest but she insists that Chloe needs their help. Lana leaves for the Isis Foundation to dig up more information. Clark is suddenly confronted by this masked man dressed up as an executioner with a super-axe. He takes a swing at Clark and cuts him near the ribs! Three strangers, all with superpowers, take turns in defeating this executioner and make him disappear into thin air. We learn the villain is called Persuader, a villain from the future who can kill Kal El. He came back in time to destroy the device that can release Brainiac from being trapped inside his host’s body. The three super-beings are the Legion, alien heroes from the 31st century who came to stop Persuader from killing Clark. They introduce themselves as Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad, and were star-struck at the hero they adore. Kal El’s influence will reach far beyond his galaxy, and he will open the door for more alien beings to rally to Earth and keep the peace in the different worlds.

  The Legion also came back in time because this day is historic in the annals as the day Clark Kent defeated Brainiac. Clark is confused because he had destroyed the computer before, but the three heroes insist. The Legionnaires are confused as well. The Kal El they remember is very different from the young man before them. “No glasses, no cape, no tights, no flight.”

Meanwhile, Davis finds himself at the Fortress, where a strange-acting Chloe greeted him. Davis tried to talk to Chloe and convince her that his feelings for her are real. Chloe/Brainiac mocked Davis that he is not human, and his feelings are only Brainiac’s means to get him close to her.

When Clark realized that Brainiac may be alive, and possessing Chloe’s body, the Legion insists there is only one way to defeat him – kill the host. Kill Chloe. But Clark would have none of it and so he goes to the Fortress to ask Jor El for advice. There he finds Chloe, now controlled by Brainiac, who wants nothing more than to drain the whole world of its knowledge. And what’s left of it, Doomsday will annihilate. Chloeniac throws Clark into a corner and flies away.

Saturn Girl sought out Lana and asked her to convince Kal El about killing Chloe. Later on, Clark confided to Lana about the Legion’s solution, and she reminded Clark that he’s the kind of man who will do everything in his power to do what needs to be done without harming anybody.

 The Legionnaires find Chloe at the Daily Planet, draining all energy and knowledge from computers and slowly draining the mind of every person on the planet. They stop Chloeniac from downloading all the information and Clark brought her back to the barn, away from all electronic devices. When Saturn Girl realized that Chloe’s consciousness is still alive inside her possessed body, the Legion believes Clark is right. They create an electromagnetic field to draw the computer out and saves Chloe.

Before the Legionnaires return to the future, they give Clark a ring that will teleport him to their future. Lightning Lad asks for Clark’s first baseball hit. Cosmic Boy warns him of the days ahead. The three Legion members face each other, they raise their hands and shout “Long live the Legion!” before disappearing!

Later, doubting about his capacity to become the hero for all time, Lana reminded Clark that he will follow his own destiny, in his timeline and not anyone else.

The last scene of the episode goes back to Chloe’s ruins. Davis Bloome has fully metamorphosed to Doomsday!

Next on Smallville 8.12 “Bulletproof” on Thursday January 22, 2009 on CW.

Images: © 2008 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved

Post from: Superhero Profiles

Smallville resumes its season with the Legion of Superheroes as personal guests of Super-Boy Scout/future Superman aka Clark Kent! Time traveling from the future, three founding Legionnaires  – Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy and Lightning Lad – will help Clark fight another time traveler, the Persuader, an outlaw recruited by the Legion who turned against the superheroes and became their worst threat.

Meantime, Brainiac (as Chloe) is so hungry for knowledge he wants to consume the whole world. He/She recruits Doomsday to the Fortress to prepare him for his destiny of defeating Superman.

Can Clark Kent and the Legion stop these menaces in time?

Next on Smallville, tonight, is “Legion” at 8pm CW. It’s about to begin in 5…4… 3… 2… 1…

[Trailer] [Pictures] [Director's cut] [Description] [Sneak Peek - Chloeniac] [Sneak Peek - Legionnaires introduced] [Sneak Peek - Persuader] [Sneak Peek - Chloe and Davis] [Interview with writer Geoff Johns]

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Saturn Girl / Imra (Alexz Johnson),  Lightning Lad / Garth (Calum Worthy), and Cosmic Boy / Rokk (Ryan Kennedy) with writer Geoff Johns. Image: © 2008 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved

Geoff is a fanboy of the Legion of Superheroes comics himself. As the story goes, he had an idea for this episode that he pitched to Jeph Leob, who he works with in the same office. Jeph (who formerly worked on Smallville) told the producers about Geoff’s idea and that got the ball rolling.

When Geoff Johns spoke to Superhero Profiles about his experience on Smallville, he admits “it was a special episode for me and a special time for me to do it.” So let’s hear it from the man himself, how he made “Legion” extra-special.

  “I came into the season with the episode and it kind of dove-tails into the episode just before it (”Bride”) where Chloe is possessed by Brainiac. And so, the Legionnaires arrive just as Clark is preparing to deal with this. The Legionnaires come in and kind of are a wrench in everything. They’re there as thinking that he is going to be the Superman. He’s going to be this guy who’s a big hero and flies around in a cape and does his thing, and they meet Clark Kent. They’re kind of like, what are you doing? Why aren’t you doing this? What’s going on? You know, Brainiac is here, you need to stop him this way and they can’t believe that their idol that they built everything in the future on, that they’ve kind of modeled themselves on, is …”

“A teenager!” I interrupted (sorry), excited for the twist.

“Yeah, is a teen… and is not flying yet,” Geoff continues. “At one point Lightning Lad asks, ‘You don’t fly?’ What’s up with that?” Now that would be funny! “Yeah, it’s pretty funny. It’s pretty good.”

According to comics lore, the Legion of Superheroes is closely knit with Superboy, who went to the future and sparked the founding of the Legion. Being a DC Comics writer, Geoff knows this story by heart. But Smallville isn’t exactly following on all the footsteps of the Superman mythology. How closely did he follow the comics version of the Legion?

  “Pretty close. Yeah, there are a few changes here and there because obviously they’re coming to the Smallville world and Clark Kent and the whole mythos are a little bit different in the Smallville world. But for the most part Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl, they’re pretty true to who they are in the comic books and everything that come with the Legion is there too. The Legion flight rings and a lot of the things they refer to are from the comics and the personalities and motivations. Everything they kind of want to do and why they exist is all from the comics.”

How cool is that! Legionnaires rising from a two-dimentional comic book to being live-action heroes! Every fan of the Legion would instantly recognize these details. But would someone who is not follow the mythos get lost? Who are the Legionnaires?  

“The cool thing is that, for anyone who doesn’t know the Legionnaires, is that they’re all aliens. They’re all from different worlds that have come to Earth because Superman came to Earth. That Kal El came to Earth as the first alien immigrant. And because of what he did Earth becomes this Ellis Island of the universe. So, aliens from all around come to Earth. That’s what the Legionnaires are. They’re aliens from different worlds. Some of them look human, but like Clark, they’re not human”.

Geoff also talked about brainstorming the script in the writer’s room. “I spent time in the writer’s room  breaking the story with [Smallville writers] so it would fit into their episode, so we all worked together on it. [Executive Producer] Darren Swimmer really was kind of my touchstone and the guy who oversaw the episode. He helped me a lot on everything which is great.”

And the cast?

“Oh, it was fantastic. I mean, Tom Welling, Kristin…they’re all great. I spent a lot of time with the Legionnaires telling them about their characters, why they did certain things, what they were based on and they were fantastic. They really captured the essence of the characters from the comic books. Everybody was incredibly nice. I felt very fortunate to have met and worked with everybody up there as I have.”

Geoff is looking forward to working again for Smallville in the near future. “If they do a ninth season, maybe,” he teases. “If there’s an episode like another Legion episode or something else that would be interesting, I’d love to do it.”

What I would love to know is if Smallville is bringing in more of Superman’s lore in future episodes, and Geoff spills that he doesn’t exactly know, BUT “I know they’ve got plans for some more DC lore.”

So there you go, DC comics fans! Your man, scriptwriter Geoff Johns, has visited Smallville.

The series comes back on the small screen tonight, with episode 8.11 “Legion” at 8pm on CW.

Images: © 2008 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved

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  Clark Kent is about to have a sneak peek into the future, and just how huge his influence will be on the rest of the universe. The Legionnaires introduce themselves to Clark as aliens from the 31st century who have immigrated to Earth to help others as Clark is doing.

Perhaps this meeting is exactly what Clark Kent needed – to see a future beyond Smallville and know his heroism on Earth will jumpstart heroic acts from many different worlds.

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When Clark Kent decided to embrace his destiny, being a hero to mankind was big enough a job or so he thought. He would have no idea that his influence stretches to other beings in the universe. Thousands of years from the present, aliens and beings from other systems will come to earth and make it their home base of operation for defeating evil. And Clark is about to meet a few of his fellow aliens. 

Villains and superheroes pay Clark a visit in “Legion”. An executioner with a super-axe, known as Persuader, is intent on killing the young Clark Kent (and he can!). Three Legionnaires – Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl and Cosmic Boy, come to Clark’s rescue, but they’ll be surprised with the version of “superboy” they’re about to face. For starters, Clark has no cape.

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Teen power to the rescue! Smallville’s return on Thursday stars the founders of the Legion of Superheroes. Three time-traveling teens give their honorary founder a hand at defeating Chloeniac. As Saturn Girl remarks, “this is a historic battle” so we’re expecting a lot!

In the director’s cut, Chloeniac is draining every last bit of information from both computers and brains of everyone on the planet. Can the Legionnaires stop him before everyone becomes a walking zombie? Imra (as Saturn Girl) attempt to stop Chloeniac with her telepathic powers, and Lightning Lad link up with Cosmic Boy to deliver some punch-bag electromagnetic shock.

Image: © 2008 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved

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Are you on the edge of your seat waiting for Thursday? Coz I am, when Smallville finally returns with “Legion“. It’s about time we get relief from the pre-holiday cliffhangers!

In the last episode (”Bride“) Brainiac had full control of Chloe, and Doomsday took her to the Fortress. The construct has always been Clark’s most formidable opponent and had barely defeated him. (We were all led to believe Clark had zapped this ‘thing’ to smitterins). And Doomsday… well, we know his story right? But can the young Clark stand up to him now?

And then there is Clark Kent’s other life. Jimmy was left in critical condition. His barn is a total wreck. There’s still Lex somewhere out there. Oh, and Lana came back, just when Clark was feeling a spark for Lois. Totally not a good time to be Clark Kent!

So, without much further ado, here is a sneak peek at this Thursday’s episode of Smallville, featuring the villain “Chloeniac“!

 Image: © 2008 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved

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Introducing, Smallville’s version of the Legion of Superheroes!

Saturn Girl / Imra (Alexz Johnson),  Lightning Lad / Garth (Calum Worthy), and Cosmic Boy / Rokk (Ryan Kennedy) with writer Geoff Johns © 2008 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved

Traveling thousands of years from the future, Lightning Lad checks out Clark’s Smallville High jacket, while his teen friends do the serious work.

What did the Legionnaires find? Someone hacked that crate in half. Is he friend or foe? Find out after the cut.

What’s this masked man up to? Clark Kent finds the Persuader chopping his barn into shreds.

Notice that blood on Clark’s shirt?

Alexz Johnson as Saturn Girl Imra Ardeen. Imra founded the Legion of Superheroes, a group of teenage superheroes from the future. From the promo trailer, it looks like Smallville will stick to the comics mythos of how Clark (as Superboy) inspired futuristic teenagers into becoming heroes.  

Ryan Kennedy as the Cosmic Boy, Rokk Krinn

Calum Worthy as the Lightning Lad, Garth. He’s getting ready to show some sparks! (where’s the special effects?)

Clark has a Lana moment!     

Images: © 2008 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved

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Smallville episode 8.11 “Legion”

Smallville returns this January with the Legion of Superheroes as personal guests of Super-Boy Scout aka Clark Kent! Time traveling from the future, the founding Legionnaires will help Clark fight another time traveler, the Persuader, an outlaw recruited by the Legion who turned against the superheroes and became their worst threat.

CW released the summary of episode 8.11 “Legion” –

The aftermath of Doomsday’s attack on Chloe and Jimmy’s wedding leaves Clark in shock, but before he can search for the kidnapped Chloe, The Persuader (guest star Fraser Aithceson) appears and attacks him. Rokk (guest star Ryan Kennedy), Imra (guest star Alexz Johnson) and Garth (guest star Calum Worthy), also known as The Legion, step in from the future to help vanquish the Persuader and the group realizes Brainiac has taken over Chloe once again. Meanwhile, up at the Fortress, Chloe, as Brainiac, informs Davis he is Doomsday and was created to kill “the other Kryptonian” and destroy the world.

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Smallville ended 2008 with a scare. Brainiac hacked into the Fortress of Solitude and reprogrammed it into a hideout for Superman’s ultimate nemesis. Doomsday crashed Chloe and Jimmy’s wedding reception and ran off with the bride. Now Clark Kent has to save his best friend from his greatest enemy.

So who can help Clark now that the Fortress is compromised? 

Enter the Legion of Superheroes! No less than the founding Legionnaires themselves, Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad, will travel back from the distant future to help Clark defeat Doomsday. Rokk Krinn (Ryan Kennedy), Imra Ardeen (Alexz Johnson ) and Garth Ranzz (Calum Worthy) will introduce Clark to the famed Legion of Super-Heroes and to what will be Clark’s super-alter-ego.

Image: © 2008 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved

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