Smallville: Zatanna

Back-to-back Smallville episodes featuring Zatanna (Serinda Swan). It was really difficult to press the delete button on those episodes. My suggestion to the producers of Smallville: Make Zatanna a permanent member of the cast and place her gratuitously in every scene. It's just a suggestion.

I only watched a few episodes of Smallville when it premiered. It was a show that I really wanted to like but just couldn't get into. I was reading comic books before the casts of many of the modern super hero movies and TV shows were even born, and it always bugs me when the writers and producers monkey with the stories.

Smallville lost me when it started to look more like a teen soap opera than anything else. There was just too much of that teen angst thing going on. Tom Welling's got that perpetual wounded puppy look on his face. Juggling the whole saving the planet thing, keeping the super-hero identity secret from everybody but the other super heroes and Chloe and gazingly longingly into Lois's eyes may just be too much for him.

If the show had been on the air when I was a kid, I would've been writing hate mail to the network.

My interest was rekindled when other characters from the DC Universe started appearing: Green Arrow, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Cyborg ... Zatanna, Zatanna, Zatanna. The two-hour "Absolute Justice" episode also threw the Justice Society and Hawkman into the mix. I loved seeing Dr. Fate. He needs to come back soon (that is, someone else needs to be drawn to that mask--and quick).

It's been kind of fun to see them come to life on the TV screen, even if it does seem like a bunch of LARPing teenagers.

For the record, I'm more of a Marvel guy than DC. I collected The Amazing Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, The Uncanny X-Men and a few others. Most of my DC reading happened in the late '60s. I really liked Legion of Superheroes and Teen Titans as a kid, so I'm enjoying the other characters they keep introducing.

Sure, the whole "I'm in love with him but he's in love with somebody else and I'm really sad about my life" (queue "Love Stinks") business is still going on in Smallville in ample measure, but I think I can live with that as long as they keep shuffling in characters like Green Arrow. And Zatanna. Did I mention that I just watched back-to-back episodes featuring Zatanna?

I think I'd watch Smallville every day for hours on end as long as Zatanna were onscreen. If I were to run into Serinda Swan in real life, I could deny her nothing. If she told me to fall down on my knees and worship her, I just might. If she asked me to give her The Amazing Spider-Man #129 ... well, I might have to think about it for a minute--but I'd be thinking hard.

And that little fantasy interlude was completely wasted on Clark. Pity.

In the weekly lovelorn loser department, Chloe was in the same room with a shirtless hunk, and, just her luck, he turned out to be a 12-year-old under a curse from Zatanna's father. But things seem to be looking up in that department, since it appears that Oliver's making his move on her.

Speaking of Oliver, it showed him practicing with his bow at the end of the episode, and laughably, I noticed the arrows were spaced out rather widely on the target. I don't care if he WAS drinking double malts, the REAL Green Arrow would split a dozen arrows through a dime from 25 yards while blind stinking drunk.

Sigh. Well, I'm trying to tolerate the romance subplots and the angst to enjoy the extended cast.

I wonder when Zatanna will be popping in again?