Smallville Season 9 Review

Whoa whoa whoa, wait... dark Clark Kent? What the hell is this, Earth 2?! Oh, it is? Huh.

In A Nutshell:
The season starts with Clark having pretty much totally abandoned his old life and taking his superhero training into pretty obsessive territory. He's shed the red and blue, and now he's just the Blur. And then Lois, who took a trip to the future via Legion ring in season 8's finale, returns to town, and Clark, shockingly enough, doesn't know what to do. Chloe is basically shut up inside Watchtower, doing as girls named Chloe seem to do network TV shows. Oliver, meanwhile, goes on a multi-episode self-destructive streak. You know how Tony Stark was in Iron Man 2? Yeah, like that only worse. He snaps out of it eventually though. The rest of the season is then primarily dedicated the arrival Zod and the Kandorians. But he's not the actual General Zod, he's a clone of Zod back when he was just a Major (but don't worry, he does say the line).

The Good:
I really liked the overall tone of the story this season, showing a dark and conflict-filled version of the show. I think it was a good choice for the story arc. The story arc was great, too. Callum Blue does a fantastic job as a younger Zod, who you almost want to like and then he does something awful. You know what I mean? Yeah, it was a great storyline, and it leads up to one of the best season finales the show's ever had.

The character growth was good this season, too. Clark and Lois start dating early on in the season (shocking), and that works pretty well for their characters. Oliver's self-destructive streak, while at times depressing, served the character well. It was good.

The first episode of the season, Savior, was incredible, as were quite a few this season. Most notably the incredible two-hour event, Absolute Justice. Let me just talk a minute about AJ: it was awesome!!!! The storyline involves the introduction of several members of the Justice Society of America, who must team up with Clark and Co, and the agency Checkmate. AJ was easily one of my favorite episodes of the entire series, and was perfect on almost every level.

So, great story arc, good character development, amazing episodes, and some solid action. That is the good of season 9.

The Bad:
As always, some episodes were better then others. That's kind of a given, but that doesn't make up for it. You've also got the underdeveloped, lemming-esque Kandorians, occasional special effects failures (limited budget, I get it, but still), and the use of the severely underwhelming Tess Mercer, who was inconsistent to the point where it got a bit irritating.

Final Rating: 96%