Absolute Justice

DVD, Smallville S9 (Absolute Justice)

They broke their one rule: one word episode titles only. Now we have a feature-length episode, which could also be seen as two individual episodes (directed by two different Directors, the second part by Tom Welling, which doesn't stand out, a good thing in that it doesn't take away from the series style by trying fancy tricks), so is it one episode, 'Absolute Justice,' or is it two, 'Absolute' and 'Justice'? Except we've already had one called 'Justice' back in Season 6, so it must be a two word title. Why does this matter? It doesn't really, look at the other rules they followed from the start (no flights, no tights), they've constantly broken them and in this one all three come to destruction - it's exactly the kind of superhero lore-heavy approach to the mythos that they deliberately avoided in the first place. An 'inside baseball,' detail-heavy visual tome of DC Comics history to digest. So it's a good thing we have the equivalent of two episodes' running time to take it all in. Now and again we get a character whose name is kept quiet, but which you know is supposed to be a comics character, even if, like me, you don't know zip about comics! They tend to try (even now, this late in a series that has embraced the superhero cliches that audiences used to find too silly), and keep characters real, the famous name by which they're known pushed to the back and we only know them as they're presented. That doesn't exactly help those who don't know them because we can sense there's supposed to be a history there, but it's impenetrable to the layman who's just watching 'Smallville' with no prior knowledge.

Here, however, they don't shy away from the full 'glory' of silly superhero-ness, right from Chloe first meeting the Star-Spangled Kid (played by Jim Shield who had been Ryan's Stepdad in Season 1's 'Stray), who acts in that cliched hero complex way of being old-fashioned and noble. It's very easy to poke fun, but on the whole I thought they did a good job of introducing tons of characters with tons of history and actually running a story out of all the pieces, which must have been a mind-boggling task to attempt. And because it is suitably bold and big (even if it falls into the usual pitfall of the series in having a final confrontation decide the story, which boiled down to a bunch of people surrounding The Icicle, the villain of the piece, and bashing him), you go along with it and don't question why this completely separate story is being introduced into such a serialised series. It is pretty much a standalone episode, with only the hints of the future fates of certain characters and the lesson of how to run a superhero group, to keep it tied to the series at all. When you really think about it, the story isn't really much of a story at all, but because there are so many characters there's no time to wonder why there is no story. The non-story is that someone's killing off members of this old superhero group (it must be old as footage is on reel-to-reel tape that they have to play back on a projector), and it's a mystery Clark and company have to solve. Then they find out who it is and fight him. That's about it.

I thought it was going to be quite different, because when you think of justice, the first thing that springs to mind is The Justice League of America (JLA) - namely Cyborg, Green Arrow, Canary, Aquaman and The Flash. But apart from Arrow being a member of the regular cast, none of these show up and it's not about them at all. In fact they barely rate even a mention. What are these people doing? You'd think if Queen was head of this organisation, which presumably Chloe is also part of, as she runs Watchtower, that they are 'the team,' but in this episode Clark's group is limited to himself, Chloe ('Who's she, your secretary?'), Oliver and John Jones, the Martian Manhunter. And when they're talking about teams Clark doesn't even mention the others, as if they're not part of it. And the fact we never see them doesn't help to make them a relevant part of the series. I also thought the villain might turn out to be the ice boy from Season 1 who ended up frozen under Crater Lake (I think), since Chloe says something about getting flashbacks to the Wall of Weird, but it had nothing to do with him whatsoever, except for a similar enemy with the same kinds of powers.

Rather, it's the Justice Society of America (JSA), that are the focus. I'd never heard of them before, so Hawkman (and talk of his wife, Hawkgirl, two people who've lived many lifetimes, like in 'Highlander,' for a thousand years), The Star-Spangled Kid, The Sandman, Dr. Fate, Star Girl, and the others who don't actually appear, were all news to me - the only one that I knew about was Green Lantern, and he's only shown in the old footage, not appearing in the episode properly, which was a shame. I suppose this was around the time when the film was being created or discussed, so it may be that they didn't want to cause 'confusion' with a TV version of the character as well. We get to see the headquarters of the JSA, now long mothballed, with a museum of artefacts connected to the members, a nice, King Arthur-like round table, and a fetching, almost 'Last Supper' painting off the entire group (which Green Arrow ruins by firing an arrow into Hawkman's 'Thundercats' chest logo - which came first, did 'Thundercats' rip off his logo or the other way around?). It's a strong evocation of another time and another group of heroes to the ones we're concerned with on a week to week basis, and although it is almost impenetrable at first, you're given time to understand the main members of it.

It helps that Michael Shanks (another of 'Stargate' fame to appear on the series), is the leader, and he does his best to carry off massive black feather wings as a realistic costume, although it can't help but look ridiculous (the mask was good). It makes me think of Thor, and in fact the episode feels very 'Avengers' (not that I particularly like the Marvel team, but it's the same archetypes). Dr. Fate wears the best outfit with his indestructible Trojan helmet of future-seeing glory (one moment I especially liked is when he returns Jones' alien powers to him, even if I'd forgotten that he'd lost them since we almost never see him in his police detective guise - we get a flash of what the green guy really looks like, which was of interest to me). Star Girl gets to wield a staff with a star thing on the end, and it's all rather cheesy, but we're given enough backstory for the main characters to be able to get a little context for who and what they are, even if that's the extent of the episode's reach. It's more like a celebration of DC history than a proper episode, and if you're going to dedicate two episodes-worth of a season to something like that it really needs to be a solid story or something with a strong connection to our characters. So although I quite enjoyed getting sucked into the melee of history and heroes of yore, it lacked the necessary bite to make it fully worthwhile. Not that we don't have anything to get our teeth into.

We don't see Lois or Tess until Part 2, but it's okay, I was just glad the Kandorians didn't figure in the plot as that would have been too much - we get a mention from Clark that he's helping them settle into new lives on Earth, but I don't know how he could be so naive that such warlike soldiers are going to happily give up any thought of conquest on his say-so! It's the usual nonsensical change of views on the series, as one week Clark's seeing a terrible vision of the future where they take over and decides to be more friendly next time, and then he doesn't seem wary of them at all and sounds a bit Fatherly, almost. But they're not important in the episode, so that's good. The most interesting stuff comes from Dr. Fate giving Clark a greater sense of his destiny than the future people did - Lois and Clark need each other, and he'll triumph over Lex Luthor, or words to that effect. But Lex is dead! Of course he isn't, what would Superman be without Lex Luthor? Less busy, and have more time for holidays I guess - I'm not one of those that thinks every hero has to have a villain to validate his existence, a personal, hated rival. Just trying to do good is hard enough without having 'an equal opposite' that must be battled through the ages, although it's a simple concept for people to grasp, which is probably why it's popular. However, I was interested in the possibility of Lex still living, but the words were vague enough (he was described as 'your greatest opponent'), that it could mean Lex' legacy or his minions, like Tess, as much as the man himself.

The only real development, apart from advice for the 'new' team from the old guard, is that Agent Walters or whatever her name was, is a member of Suicide Squad, and so is Tess. The only thing I know about that group is thanks to the plans for a film version: supposedly a group of super-villains conscripted for government missions, but whether this version of the Squad is the same or just using the name is anybody's guess (you can be certain characters like The Joker aren't going to appear on 'Smallville'!). She's the one that ends up killing Icicle, but she also gives Lois the story on the JSA and the whole plan was to get them into the open. But whether she wants to destroy them or, as she mentioned, use them in the coming apocalypse... The story does tie in to the broader season in small ways such as that - we also get another warning for Chloe, this time Jones saying how too much knowledge can be more than a person can handle. Seeing so many fates is what turned Dr. Fate's alter ego, mad. She continues to brush off these forebodings that her path has become crooked and she's heading for disaster… I blame it on her operating system: she was much happier in the old days when it was all Apple iMacs, but now we're 'treated' to a massive Windows logo on her Watchtower screen. Let's hope it doesn't crash too often and at the most inappropriate times!

Finally, while the direction wasn't a highlight, I did think the icy battle of Part 1, which we didn't see in action because Chloe was in the dumpster, later shown in first person flashback via Sandman's dream, was very 'cool.' But seriously, it was nicely done. The slow-motion attack at Watchtower with everyone bundling Icicle wasn't up to quite the usual standard that the series is capable, but it was a showcase scene to demonstrate the group working as a team. As a whole I can't quite award the episode the benefit of the doubt due to it straying off into convoluted comics history without quite making all the characters accessible enough to care too much about their fates. As a big, bold TV film encased within the 'Smallville' season I enjoyed it, but it didn't have the character depth that (and I can hardly believe I'm saying this), this season has shown (in fits and starts). It suits such a relatively strong season to have done something as radical as this, and I would certainly watch it again in future. And I also hope we get one or two more feature-length adventures before the end of the series, just so long as we know whether it's one episode or two. Got to sort out that title situation!

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