Category: Archived

Recently I started rewatching Smallville. I was skeptical about the early seasons, but discovered season one had a rare, naive spirit that was warm and healing.

Season two felt like it was trying to be better than season one and ended up being worse. Many of the problems I mentioned in the first season (formulaic, simplistic villains, single note characters) are ALL addressed this season. You can see them trying to fix those things. But while they make small advances towards being a better show, they fall short of making a season that is as emotionally rewarding as the first.

1. It Still Don’t Make No Sense

In this season they introduce Red Kryptonite, which changes Clark from cautious, polite, selfless hero into boisterous, confident jerk who isn’t afraid of showing everyone what he can do. It’s a complete shift in behaviour. He rides a motorcycle down the school sidewalk and then attacks his Father in the parking lot. Everyone close to him sees him behave differently, but somehow only a single person addresses it at the end of the episode.

That’s irresponsible storytelling.

 

2. People Are Still Pretty

Like. So pretty. It’s overwhelming.

 

3. More Father Storylines

I guess they’re trying to make “Fathers” a theme. Lex’s Father, Lionel, is in more episodes this season and he Lex have repeated, megalomaniacal conflicts. The reason why they’re fighting isn’t established in a strong, emotional foundation, so a lot of their fighting always feels like, “here we go again.”

Meanwhile, Lana makes contact with her biological Father and attempts a relationship with him. Then there’s Clark who argues with both his Fathers, as we’re introduced to (the voice of) Jor-El this season. Clark argues with Jonathan about whether or not Lex is a good guy and about what he’s allowed to do. The conflict with Jor-El is kind of similar. Clark wants to be his own man, but he isn’t yet. And see? He’s torn between what Clark Kent’s Father wants for him and what Kal-El’s Father wants for him.

Personally, the “Father Conflict” bell is rung a little too much this season.

 

4. Christopher Reeve, Man

Christopher Reeve, the Clark Kent/Superman from the 70’s and 80’s movies, has a cameo in Smallville. I never saw the George Reeves portrayal (and you can’t ignore the animated Superman voiced by Tim Daly), but Christopher Reeve’s Superman was the best. Every Superman we’ve looked at since, we compare to him.

If you weren’t aware, Christopher Reeve was involved in a horse riding accident and was paralyzed at 43. He died at age 52. I don’t put much stock in Hollywood deaths, but I did this one. I remember I forced people to gather and commemorate it.

I’d forgotten he was in Smallville. It was good to see him alive again, accompanied by the faint theme from the old Christopher Reeve Superman movies.

 

5. The Cave, The Cave, The Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaave

In episode ten, Clark discovers this cave with Native American paintings on the wall. We learn that these cave paintings describe a legend that sounds a lot like Clark. They say things like, “a man will fall from the sky” and, “he will have the strength of ten men.”

It’s a different take on the Superman mythology and it’s a little weird. My biggest problem with it, though, is that Clark is constantly going down to these caves. And he keeps bumping into people he knows. “What were you doing down here, Clark?” they ask. What is anyone doing down there? They’re staring at the goddamn walls at symbols they can’t even read. AND EVERYONE KEEPS GOING DOWN THERE.

It’s frustrating.

The unfortunate side effect is that the closer Clark moves to his alien heritage, the further the series moves from the humanity that makes the show so good.

 

6. Fewer Meteor Rock Freaks

Season two focuses less on meteor rock freaks being created and more on other threats: hostage situations, a youth-sucking woman, and teen hormones.

While there are still a lot of meteor rock related conflicts, whenever meteor rocks are involved it feels more like they happened to be a part of the story, rather than directly instigating the conflict.

 

7. It’s Trying to Grow Up

In season one, everyone gets saved and you knew everyone was going to be OK. Season two doesn’t want to do that. For example, Clark doesn’t save everyone and has to learn how to accept that. And while this is a necessary story to tell, its execution lacks pathos. In the episode, one of the characters Clark saves is dying and there’s nothing Clark can do about it. In their last moment together, the character tells Clark that he’s going to save a lot of people and that Clark shouldn’t ever give up. There’s no exchange between the characters of what they mean to each other, so there’s no sense of loss.

It kind of encapsulates the problem with Smallville‘s second season. Despite being the series’ second installment, we’re witnessing a show that’s very young. Much like its characters, it’s trying to figure out what it wants to be. It’s trying to be a better TV show and failing. And while it loses some of the purity and warmth of the first season, season two is the awkward teenage years we must all go through before we grow up.

Like most people, I watched the first few seasons of Smallville and gave up on it. Recently, I felt the need to rewatch Superman II. Then I rewatched Man of Steel. Then I found myself watching clips of Smallville on YouTube. And like many of my television watching habits, once I’ve seen a few YouTube clips of a show, I get thirsty and need to rewatch the whole show.

More than that, though, I think I need some Superman in my life right now. Lately I’ve felt a little powerless, a little hopeless. And while a lot of superheros are meant to counter that, Superman is the purest. He feels personally responsible for the well-being of everyone. He tries to use his great power to shield everyone from harm (often quite literally) without any regard for himself. He’s a symbol for hope that makes us feel like we can be saved. And more importantly, that we can save each other.

So while I’m rewatching, I’d like to share with you some my thoughts on each Smallville season in case you need a little hope too.

1. Sometimes It Don’t Make No Sense

Every so often the show made me laugh out loud at how implausible it was. I can appreciate that the show creators needed the occasional dramatic conclusion (like an explosion) and I understand that it’s superhero show, but still. In one episode, Clark stops a bad guy by throwing a bowling ball through a wall at an ordinary, human bad guy. In another episode, he decides to blow up some propane tanks and use his body to shield the person he was trying to save. Everyone was fine.

2. The Villains are Simplistic

Not many of the villains in season one have complex motivations. Sometimes the villain is so singularly focused they do wrong almost by happenstance, rather than intent. I actually found this refreshing. My favourite is a guy named Sean. He “drowns” in some icy waters and survives, but can no longer retain warmth. He also gains the ability to absorb heat and must do so perpetually. He starts with small things like fire, but graduates to body heat. “I just want to get warm,” he says. Don’t we all Sean, don’t we all.

3. It’s Formulaic

I was extremely hesitant to watch season one. I remembered it being episode after episode of: Meteor Rock Freak shows up, causes trouble, Clark and friends investigate, Clark fights Meteor Rock Freak, Clark wins. And while it is that, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

4. Relationships / Characters are One Note and Rarely Deviate

Clark likes Lana, and Lana has feelings for Clark, but Lana is dating Whitney. Chloe likes Clark, but Clark likes Lana. Lex is buddies with Clark, but is intensely curious about Clark’s secrets. Jonathan wants to protect Clark. Pete tells jokes.

5. It Takes Place in High School

I once convinced a friend to watch Buffy the Vampire the Slayer. It’s seven seasons long so I promised to skip scenes or episodes I considered unnecessary. I skipped season one entirely, but probably should have skipped more. He had a really hard time with the teen angst in the early episodes. Growing up with Buffy and having seen it while I was a teenager, it was never a problem for me. Coming at the series fresh as an adult I can appreciate that teen drama would not only be of no interest to new viewers, but possibly be an annoyance.

And Smallville is full of teen drama.

6. The Actors are Purdy

We demand attractive actors in television and movies because people are inherently drawn to more attractive faces. And Smallville does a great job of having pretty people. There were moments, lost in another close up of Kristen Kreuk where I thought, “how much of the success of this show is hinged on Kristen Kreuk’s beauty?” Hard to say, but I think quite a bit.

7. It’s Naive

There’s a pleasant simplicity to Smallville‘s formula. While more “quality” television is about wrestling with moral and institutional gray areas, Smallville really captures the purest essence of what Superman is supposed to be all about — saving people. There’s a warmth to mindless television we all need sometimes. There are no drastic character complications, no deaths, no major changes.

I have a lot more seasons to go, but I feel like I can call it now: season one is the Superman story I was looking for. Every episode someone cries out for help, and every episode, Clark is right there to help them. For all its faults, I have a feeling that no other season will be as naive and pure as this one. There’s an unbridled feeling of hope practically beaming through the screen. There’s an assuredness that each episode someone is going to be in trouble, and Clark is going to save them.

And I loved every sappy second of it.

In my efforts to seem like a normal human being welcoming new visitors to my YouTube channel, I made the welcome video you see above…

Out of the wreckage of the 20 minutes worth of video footage, I also pulled out these… “gems” of my awkwardness. Thought I’d share it with you all. Enjoy!

I’ve seen the reports, but it just isn’t true. I am, very much alive.

Okay, so there haven’t been any reports, but with such a long hiatus since the last posting of comics, even the strongest of fans would start to wonder, “What happened to Resonance Men?”

There had been updates quite often because I was trying to win a contest, and what I did was blow through my buffer to pump content out for that thing. I wanted to give you all a look into the process that I’m undertaking to see this project to completion!

1.) Writing and thumbnails

This is the stage I’m currently at now. My plan is to write the script for each chapter. When I finish writing the script, I go through and do what we call “thumbnails” which are just tiny little sketches that rough out what each page will look like.

By going ahead and laying out each chapter, I’m able to see and fix things like pacing, gaps in the story, character development and action.

The thumbnails for chapter two are complete. I just finished up the latest draft of chapter three tonight (I’d thumbnailed my last version, but it had some of the aforementioned problems, so I fixed those in the script) and I’m ready to go through and do the thumbnails for it this week.

I then plan on doing the same process for Chapters 4 and 5. Script, then thumbnail.

This will give me the full and complete vision of the rest of this book.

2. Penciling and inking

After I finish thumbnailing every chapter, I’m going to beginning going through and making larger sketches of each page. This will focus more on the faces and details of each panel.

I’ve been using some scaled templates I made for a 6×9 book to give me a feel for how everything will look on the page. After a page is penciled, I will scan it in for inking in Manga Studio.

This part will be a bit more of a mashup of tasks. The key here is that I can do my penciling anywhere, but I can only ink at home. There will be some finesse to the plan, but I think I can get it together.

Hopefully I’ll be able to knock out the penciling/inking for the rest of the book before starting the next segment, but we’ll see how long it takes.

3. Flatting and coloring

Flatting is basically putting down all of the base layers of color in your drawings. I do this portion in Photoshop and I stay there to do the rest of the coloring and effects as well.

Coloring to me is all about the light and shadow and any effects. The reason I would love to finish all of the inking first is that once I get to the coloring portion, the pages are finished and everyone can read them (especially Patrons) as I finish them.

This would mean that I could have a constant flow with everything planned out ahead of me, and that’s where I want to be.

At this point, Patrons would be getting updates before they post online because they would see them as they were produced. (Just saying! :D)

In conclusion…

Resonance Men is still in production. The only thing that has slowed is the actual pushing pages onto the internet, but the idea is to get to a point where I can just set it all up and go.

If you have any questions, let me know in the comments!