Women In Lucifer

How many strong female characters in Mike Carey's Lucifer?

Rachel
Jill
the Child of the Basanos
Elaine
Mona
Mazikeen
Cestis
Erishad
Lys
Lucifer's Eve
Esa-Kira, the centaur
Zime'etnu
Beatrice
Lilith
Spera

Smallville: Commencement

Jason is not dead after all. Big surprise. What is it about the Kryptonian stones that drives the Teagues and the Luthors mad to possess them? How can Kryptonian tech cause an asteroid to break up into meteorites that hit Smallville? Why should it?

The Kryptonian tech gives us spectacular special effects but no explanations. It is clearly about to create the Fortress of Solitude when we reach "To Be Continued."

Lionel is prepared to trade Lana's freedom for one of the stones so maybe he has reverted to the old bad Lionel after all? He has concealed the body, which is what I thought that Lex was going to do instead of just offering Lana a good defense lawyer. Why does the activation of the stones knock Lionel out? Will any of this be explained?

Why did one of Lex's men interrupt his conversation with Lana to say, "Mr Luthor, we have a situation!" Was he referring to the meteor shower or did Lex arrange for him to interrupt as a pretext for breaking off his conversation with Lana?

Smallville: Forever

Leaving school and a guy who wants to freeze time because he doesn't want to work in a video store. (That doesn't sound so bad.) Chloe leaves an empty Torch office. She turns to look at the blank walls and empty desks. Chloe will go to Met U and Clark to a College in Kansas but Lana will stay in Smallville.

Jonathan and Martha have had farm help from one unpaid super-powered teenager whereas other nearby farms employ five or six men. Has no one noticed any discrepancy between Kent input and output?

Good riddance to Jason, assuming that he really is dead. In this kind of fiction, being shot in the shoulder and falling off a cliff into a river is no guarantee of death. Jason is more likely to return super-powered and vengeful. Were there meteor rocks in the river?

Lionel has returned from cheerful philanthropy to the profit motive but has not yet returned to bullying, blackmailing or manipulating. He seems to be genuine in his feelings and concerns for Lex. I think and hope that Lionel has permanently improved.

Smallville: Ageless

They call the boy "Evan." I thought that this name had Superman significance. The first version of Clark's foster father's name was Eben. Was there an "Evan" somewhere?

The climax with Evan dying on the windmill was like an earlier episode where a young guy thought that, if he got up somewhere high, he would be taken back to Krypton? There is symbolism in the fact that Metropolis can be seen from the windmill. Clark and Lana are surrogate parents.

Lionel is prepared to kill to protect Lex and it seems to be because he regards Lex as a Luthor and as his son, not just as his heir, i.e., as an extension of himself.

Chloe now knows why Clark disappears all the time. To Lois, it is still just puzzling.

God Is Dead Alpha

Mark, our comic book guy, kept this for me because the Awesome Mage is in it. As a matter of fact, Glycon and Alan make their point quite well.

I do not understand the series' premise. Instead of, or as well as, the One God being dead, all the gods are hanging around? Simon Spurrier points out that Biblical cherubim are multi-membered and cosmic whereas Italian artists changed them into little cupids. Naturally, one of them is furious and swearing about the image-change.

Mike Costa gives us good old Ganesh doing something that I don't quite understand but it's Continued!

Smallville: Blank

Clark loses all his memories.
Chloe discusses his powers with him.
She learns about two more.
Then Clark regains his memories except for the last twenty four hours.

Chloe thinks that his powers are meteoric, which makes more sense.

Lex is finding out more about the caves and Lionel is still off stage. Smallville High students are deciding where to go to University. Are Clark and Lana relaunching their off-off relationship right at the end? Lana and Jason are totally history.

Another guy out there knows about Clark's strength.

Smallville: Spirit

As when Lex crashed in the opening episode, we see that a driver is not looking at the road so this should lead to a crash - and does.

I thought that Chloe had been repossessed by one of those dead witches but instead she had been possessed by a new character. It has become the norm for characters either to act out of character or to appear to do so.

Something important changes or new information is given in each episode. There is nothing about Lionel this time but Jason and his mother seem to have committed murder. At least, they need to have a body disposed of.

Smallville: Onyx

The original Luthor was a scientist. The businessman Luthor must consult scientists.

There was a Star Trek like this. A transporter malfunction divided Kirk into a good but weak one and a strong but bad one but they went through the transporter together and came out in one piece.

One again, Lex sees Clark's strength but forgets it. Chloe's dialogue continues to show that she knows Clark's secret. She goes to stay with Lois on the Army base? I thought that Lois was still with the Kents.

Nothing about Jason and all that but the bad Lex has revived the old Lionel.

Blofeld's Successors

There are at least two worthy successors of Ian Fleming's Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the founder and director of SPECTRE:

Max in Andy Diggle's The Losers;
Zala in Stieg Larsson's Millennium novels.

Dig these guys. Code Name Max, "Blofeld meets Rumsfeld," exists for impossibly many decades and apparently in different places simultaneously. Zala is a GRU agent, then a defector, then a crime boss and also an abusive father.

Both Fleming and Larsson have been graphically adapted so this is all comics-related. I discuss the Larsson graphic adaptation here and here and Fleming here, here, here and here.

Smallville: Lucy

Lois Lane not a good cook is authentic but Lucy Lane a criminal on the run is a real wild departure. Lex's security men slip up in letting her drive away with his money. We see Lex with a gun, which is unusual ever since he became a businessman.

Clark disappears from the Mansion and the kidnap truck is found stopped with its driver unconscious but Lex does not make a connection?

Lana hid the stone and didn't tell anyone else? Neither Luthor had her place ransacked for it? Swann's assistant, who has disappeared.

LL's, so far
Lana Lang
Laura Lang
Lex Luthor
Lionel Luthor
Lucas Luthor
Lois Lane
Lucy Lane

Are the mermaid and the Kryptonian still to come?

Smallville: Sacred

Now, this really is a daft episode. But it does establish a connection between the Kryptonian stones and Lana's ancestress. Lionel seems genuinely to have reformed and now to be seeking wisdom instead of his own aggrandizement. But we still do not know how he was released.

Dr Swann dies. How did he get Kryptonian tech? Well, it seems to have been lying around on Earth for a long time. His assistant has absconded with a stone, Lana has one and the other is back in the cave. I think.

Lana and Clark fly to China in a plane where they have their own lounge. OK.

Guardians Of The Galaxy

I did not really get very much out of this, to be honest. Our villain has a precosmic power source but he can use it to destroy a planet only if he first uses conventional weapons to fight his way past local defenses and down onto the planetary surface? And I am not clear how our guys stopped it happening, either.

So this happens elsewhere in the galaxy while Thor comes from Asgard and the Avengers assemble on Earth? I didn't see as much connection with the Marvel Movieverse as I expected but maybe I missed it? There is Thanos, of course. Maybe that's it? I didn't understand the post-credits scene or the reference to Howard the Duck.

I think that the Marvel Comics Captain Marvel was a man of the Kree? But he doesn't have to be mentioned here, of course.

I am underwhelmed about the prospect of a sequel.

Smallville: Krypto

Did this have to happen? A super-strong dog, not Kryptonian but resulting from Luthorcorp experiments with animals and meteor rocks. Thus, a kind of explanation more appropriate to this series.

He winds up with a red towel across his back. And there are enough jokes about the name. "Krypto" and "Shelby" both originate in the comics. In Smallville, Clark thinks of the name "Krypto," presumably referring to Krypton, but then explains it as "cryptic" when questioned by Lex. There is an implication that Clark will acquire another dog and name it "Krypto," after this one is named "Shelby."

Lionel is back but not with much else happening yet. He looked better with that longer hair. I still hope that his good guy routine is genuine. Chloe is still hinting about Clark's powers. I think that Lana used to get involved with the supernatural back in Superboy comics?

Smallville: Recruit

Clark decides not to be a professional footballer. Well, we already know that he will be a reporter.

Chloe knows Clark's secret since the previous episode and cannot stop hinting at it.

Lex gives Lana reasons to distrust Jason. Nothing about Lionel this time.

Lois is no longer at Met U and is back living with the Kents.

Something changes in every episode.