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| Cat Staggs’ digital cover for #1 |
Smallville is one of DC’s greatest accomplishments in television from the past decade. No matter where you stood on opinion with the show, whether you were there from the beginning and loved it all or just hated the idea of teen angst ridden Superman, DC managed to get a television show starring their biggest character (let alone the biggest character in comics history) on air for ten seasons, ending it on their own terms while other shows like Heroes or the Cape become mere cautionary tales.
I suppose it is fortunate for fans of the show (and fans of DC’s former Batgirl series, pre-rebootlaunch) that DC is preparing Smallville Season 11, a new comic series picking up where the show left off now that Clark Kent has donned the classic costume and is ready to be the hero everyone knew he’d become when the show first aired in 2001. The book will be written by (Multiversity favorite) Bryan Q. Miller, a former Smallville writer, and will be illustrated by Pere Perez (Miller’s former partner on Batgirl).
However, what DC is attempting to do with the series here is rather unconventional. Instead of straight releases to print, the book will be released digitally first before seeing print a month later. It’s similar to what DC is doing with Batman Beyond Unlimited (collecting Justice League Beyond and Batman Beyond) as well as their Arkham City and Fringe-centric digital stories just now seeing print, except this has a more specific release schedule in mind, with the first issue being released digitally April 13th with new chapters weekly, before being collected in a print periodical for May 16th. The digital comics will come with covers by Cat Staggs, while the print covers will be done by Gary Frank.
If there has been one thing sorely missing from the DCnU (outside of Superman’s exterior underpants), it has been the inclusion of Bryan Q. Miller. His work on Batgirl was one of the finest titles DC offered. It’ll be great to have him on a book again, and especially with one whose universe he’s already well-versed in. With the success of post-finale seasons for shows like Buffy, here’s crossing fingers for the future of Smallville.
