Smallville - "Icarus"

Spoiler Level: Atomic


"I don't know if they'll have time to have him come back as Death- stroke before the season ends, but I hope they get to."  - Fer, two episodes ago.

Well, that didn't take long!

Michael Hogan plays an unlikeable military leader with an eyepatch!  Is he prefect for the part of Deathstroke, or what?!?  It's a shame he and Dr. Hamilton didn't get any scenes together.

Well granted they never called him Deathstroke the Terminator, but now he's got the sword, the enhanced strength and the healing abilities!!  That's Deathstroke, man.  I never expected that from Smallville.  Awesome.

Okay, starting at the beginning...

Clark and Lois are now officially engaged.  My first reaction when he pulled out the ring a few episodes back was "isn't it a bit early for that step?" but after having a while to think about it I've decided it isn't, considering this is the show's last season.  It shows that Lois & Clark being married has entered the social consciousness as one of the key elements about Superman.  And since it's one of my favorite aspects of the modern Superman, that makes me very, very happy.

I also love any time Hawkman is featured prominently or we have a lot of heroes in one place, so having Hawkman and Stargirl at their engagement party was awesome, not to mention Black Canary getting a few lines on a video monitor and the cameos of the hoodies of Aquaman, Impulse and Cyborg at the end.

Very nice super-hero line up, but I have two little fan nitpicks:

First and foremost-- Kara is actually listed as Supergirl.  And secondly, they have photos of everyone in their secret identities, but they had to use a drawing of  Olliver Queen, the only one who's out to the public?

And speaking of which, the crowd turning on Olliver was a very good scene.  It showed how when we get worked up, all it takes is the accusation to be treated as guilty.  The woman that Olliver rescued was nowhere to be found, probably because she was just as afraid of Ollie as the crook was.  And once the crook said he was the one being victimized, Ollie was automatically guilty in the eyes of the people, because he'd been branded a terrorist.

I would say that the anti-hero furor is getting unbelievable, but the characters are recognizing that fact for themselves-- going from heroes to vigilantes to terrorists in the eyes of the public over such a short time indicates that "the Darkness" is responsible.  I also appreciated that the episode was willing to show how the anti-terrorist attitude, while valid in some cases, can be taken to the extreme and abused by those who want to use that fear for their own ends.

The only thing I didn't like is the whole "the public has turned against us, so we need to all go into hiding" thing.  Huh?  The Justice League is just going to give up and hide their heads in the sand?  It would seem to me that now is the time that you need to stick together more than ever, with Watchtower being your safe haven.  That whole part just didn't make any sense to me.  And besides, it's not like any of them quit on their own anyway, so why not plan on still working together?

Which brings us to the biggie.  The smackdown between Deathstroke and Hawkman.  Wow, what a fight.  Hawkman breaking through the glass window was fantastic, and the no-holds-barred fight was just breathtaking.  Hawkman's mace going through the floor where Deathstroke's head had been a second earlier shows he's not holding back, and I'll be honest, I never thought for a second that Deathstroke was going to win... which made it all the more shocking when he did.  And wow, that scene of Hawkman chasing down after Lois with his wings ablaze was really amazing.

So Clark zaps Deathstoke into the Phantom Zone.  Didn't see that coming either.  I'm not sure how well that's going to play out for him either; General Slade Wilson was still a part of the US military, who seemed to be fully behind everything he was doing.  This is only going to increase his being viewed as a terrorist.

And lastly, the funeral.  Very well represented, considering they couldn't (or didn't) get all the actors back, but still wanted to have all the heroes represented.  And I'm sure the flash of light from the glowing pyramid at the end was meant to say that the reincarnation process has begun again.  Perhaps we haven't seen the last of Hawkman.


However, we have seen the last of Smallville until the end of January.  As of this writing, this episode is still available for viewing for free (with commercials) at http://www.cwtv.com/cw-video/smallville/.