Tonight, the Legion of Super-Heroes will debut on Smallville, bringing the concept adored by DC Comics readers for 50 years to millions of television viewers.
For Geoff Johns, who wrote the episode after pitching the Legion's appearance to the Smallville
producers, the chance to bring the Legion to a live action series fits
right along with his revitalization of the team in comics during the
last year. As the Legion celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2008, Johns re-introduced the original Legion team to his Action Comics series and later launched the current Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds mini-series with George Perez for DC.
As comics readers know, the Legion of Super-Heroes is a group of
super-powered teenagers from 1,000 years in the future who are inspired
by the historic legend of Superman. When the Legion was introduced in
comics, the founders of the team, Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl and Lightning
Lad, traveled back in time to meet a young Clark Kent and became some
of his closest friends.
Now the story from the comics will be echoed in "Legion," this week's Smallville
episode, as actors Alexz Johnson (Saturn Girl), Calum Worthy (Lightning
Lad) and Ryan Kennedy (Cosmic Boy) portray the three Legion founders as
they travel back in time to meet Smallville's young Clark.
Smallville fans have already seen versions of many DC Comics
heroes on the live-action show, including Black Canary, Bart Allen,
Cyborg, Aquaman and a regular role for Green Arrow. This season, the
show also introduced Superman's most potentially deadly villain,
Doomsday, and the Legion will show up on Smallville just as that
villain's debut story hits its climax with a little help from Brainiac.
Newsarama talked to Johns about writing all these DC characters for
television and found out that not only is this episode respectful of
the comics versions of Doomsday and the Legion of Super-Heroes, but
some of the lines in the show are straight out of the writer's comics.
Newsarama Note: There are some spoilers ahead for what’s already occurred in this season’s Smallville episodes.
Newsarama: When we talked about this episode when it was announced at San Diego Comic Con, we only talked about the debut of a live action Legion of Super-Heroes. But after the surprises Smallville
had in November before its mid-season break, this episode is also the
continuation of a pretty big cliffhanger involving Doomsday and
Brainiac, isn't it? He's possessed Chloe?
Geoff Johns: In the show, Brainiac is a literal computer virus
that infects people and takes them over. And he's infected a handful
people, and now there’s Chloe Sullivan. Picking that up was obviously a
challenge, but it was a challenge I welcomed because I really enjoyed
the set-up for it. And then carrying that through and tying it into the
Legion and having it all culminate into one big flash point was very
exciting.
NRAMA: Counting the people who have been possessed by Brainiac
on the show, wouldn’t that make Chloe the fourth one? Is she Brainiac
4? And what does that mean for the future?
GJ: That's an interesting question. I guess we'll find out.
Clark meets the Persuader
NRAMA: Besides Brainiac, this episode is also dealing with
Doomsday. Having just written the comic book version of Doomsday in the
last few months in your Action Comics issues, what do you think of how the Smallville universe is handling the Davis/Doomsday character? Did you get to write him in this episode?
GJ: I do get to play with Doomsday a little, telling Davis
Bloom's backstory and what Doomsday is on Smallville. I have to admit
that when I first heard he had this alter ego, I didn't really
understand where they were going, but then, believe it or not, it's
actually really close to canon. They took what Doomsday is and where he
comes from in the comic book and just personified it with a human side.
And that human side is more of a camouflage.
NRAMA: Is the attack by Brainiac and Doomsday the motivation for the Legion's visit to the past in this episode?
GJ: Well, the Legion comes in for one reason that's seemingly
unrelated. Then it all dovetails into one adventure. Time travel knocks
down a few dominos and you have to figure out how to put them back.
NRAMA: The episode also has the Persuader in it. Was that your idea, and why pick him as the Legion villain in this episode?
GJ: There was a villain from the future coming back, and I
thought, more than almost anyone, he would look great on film. I love
the Persuader, and I wanted to see him swinging around that Atomic Axe.
I did a list of villains that could come back, but at the end of the
day, Persuader was the best one.
NRAMA: So then are the Persuader's powers on the show similar to
the comic book character? I mean, you said he has the Atomic Axe, right?
GJ: Yeah, he's got his Atomic Axe, which Saturn Girl says at one
point can slice an atom in half. So yeah, Persuader is the Persuader. I
think this year in Smallville in particular, unlike some times in the
past, they’ve attempted to stay true to the comics.
NRAMA: You've made it clear in our past discussions
that you're a huge fan of the Legion of Super-Heroes. What was it like
for you to hear the dialogue you'd written for these three characters
interpreted by actors in live action?
GJ: It was great seeing the Legionnaires come to life. I was
working on the set when they were filming, and I think the first time
they came out and had their rings on and their pseudo-costumes, I just
had this huge smile on my face. Just seeing them film that first scene
where they explain why they're there, what Clark means to them, it's
cool to see the Legion come to life like that. They’ll be exposed to
millions of people Thursday night, most of those people will have never
heard of the Legion.
NRAMA: We've talked before about why you think the Legion's so important to Clark Kent's development into Superman in the comic books, but is this visit important to Clark's future in the Smallville universe as well?
GJ: Very much so. In a different way, but the repercussions of it and the seeds sown play into the series later on this season.
NRAMA: What's it like for Clark to hear about what's coming in his future?
GJ: They do tell him about the future, but they temper it
because of their Legion Code and the rules of time travel. But Clark
probably hears a little more than Cosmic Boy would want him to know.
And that's a lot of fun. There's a couple things that the Legion
mention specifically that will resonate with comics readers and fanboys
-- because Legion members are essentially fanboys and fangirls
themselves, coming back in time to meet their greatest idol. So they
know a lot about him, but there are certain things they see now that
don't necessarily match what they've come to know in the future. What
they believe is probably more in line with what we know about Superman.
So, on one hand, they’re fanboys looking at Smallville and going…”Uh, why aren’t you flying yet?”
NRAMA: While Smallville is clearly a different universe
from the comic book DCU, we've seen in previews for this episode that
there are a lot of nods toward the comic Legion just in the way they're
dressed, with their rings, obviously, but even a few little touches on
their costumes. Was that important for these characters?
GJ: That's something everybody on the show was really into,
making sure that, while they weren't going to wear spandex, they still
needed to be Legionnaires. So I said, well they've got to have the
colors and they've got to have their symbols. You know, Cosmic Boy has
to be black and purple, and the only symbol of sorts he has are the
metal discs. But they work.
NRAMA: Even besides the rings and costumes, are there other small things they mention that comics readers will recognize?
The Legion finds an "artifact" of their past
GJ: There are so many throwaway lines that will resonate with
comic book readers. Maybe for some other viewers, it will just kind of
pass them by. But there are a lot of references to things in this
episode. There's a couple things directly from the comics I've done in
the last year on this episode. There's a prop from my Action Comics
run, there's a line that Garth says to Rokk in it, and we mention Polar
Boy's planet. Persuader is obviously in there and called the Persuader.
It's pretty full of references like that. It's a Legion of Super-Heroes
episode, and the coolest thing about Darren [Swimmer],Todd [Slavkin],
Brian [Wayne Peterson] and Kelly [Souders], the producers, is that
they've really embraced that and let the Legion be who they are. Darren
was kind of my point guy on the episode, and he was great in the
pre-production about the script and letting the Legion be the Legion.
There were certain things -- I was like, "they've got to say this;
you've got to have a moment of this."
This is the first live action Legion, so we wanted to make sure they
really were the Legion of Super-Heroes. And that in turn carried over
to Glen Winter, the director, who kicked ass. And any Legion fan should
be grateful about how respectful he was and how important the material
was to him. He really responded to their motivation and their story.
And there were instances where there were chances to pepper in more
stuff, and he was all for it, always with his eye on character and
story. Working with the actors was great too. I can't say enough good
things about the whole experience.
NRAMA: In this episode, you've got Clark Kent dealing with the
Legion of Super-Heroes, Brainiac, Doomsday and the Persuader. With all
of these things happening at one time on Smallville, this episode is
pretty epic, isn't it?
GJ: It's pretty epic for the show, though I deal more with Davis
Bloom than Doomsday. The hardest thing was the budget because it's the
reality of television. There's a big difference between film/TV and
comics. With comics you don't have to worry about how many times
someone uses their powers because you can't afford it or you have to
save cash for something else. It's very different from comic books. So
that was the hardest challenge.
I really wanted Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl to use their
powers every five seconds. That's just my instinct. So really
controlling what happened yet making it as big and epic and cool as we
could within the constraints of TV was a challenge.
Geoff Johns, making new friends on the set
NRAMA: The network released some "director's cut" videos of a
couple scenes, but there were just placeholders for the special
effects. Have you seen the special effects?
GJ: Yes, and they are awesome! And the whole idea was that we
could have the characters use their powers as much as we want and it
will look just OK, or we could have them do it just this many times and
it will look bad-ass. And they will look bad-ass.
And there's something they do in there that's just really cool. I don't even know if they've done it before with their powers.
NRAMA: I think we might have seen a spoiler for that on one of
the director's cut videos that was posted by the CW. Was it where Garth
and Cos put their powers together to make an electro-magnetic pulse?
GJ: A biological electro-magnetic pulse, which is different than a true e.m.p. but has the same effects.
NRAMA: Just to finish up, Geoff, what was this experience like for you, working on these characters on Smallville?
GJ: I tell you what -- it's very cool to be on a show where in
one episode I get to write Clark Kent, Brainiac, Cosmic Boy, Lightning
Lad, Cosmic Girl, the Persuader, and Doomsday. It doesn't get much
better than that.
I’m anxious to bring more DC Comics to the screen, big and small.
Related:
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Johns (right) and the Legionnaires 3
