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Smallville returns tonight with a very special episode. DC Comics writer Geoff Johns wrote the episode “Legion” especially for Smallville. Since Geoff doesn’t normally work on Smallville, this is a treat for both the fans following the Superman comics and those following Smallville.
Saturn Girl / Imra (Alexz Johnson), Lightning Lad / Garth (Calum Worthy), and Cosmic Boy / Rokk (Ryan Kennedy) with writer Geoff Johns. Image: © 2008 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved
Geoff is a fanboy of the Legion of Superheroes comics himself. As the story goes, he had an idea for this episode that he pitched to Jeph Leob, who he works with in the same office. Jeph (who formerly worked on Smallville) told the producers about Geoff’s idea and that got the ball rolling.
When Geoff Johns spoke to Superhero Profiles about his experience on Smallville, he admits “it was a special episode for me and a special time for me to do it.” So let’s hear it from the man himself, how he made “Legion” extra-special.
“I came into the season with the episode and it kind of dove-tails into the episode just before it (“Bride”) where Chloe is possessed by Brainiac. And so, the Legionnaires arrive just as Clark is preparing to deal with this. The Legionnaires come in and kind of are a wrench in everything. They’re there as thinking that he is going to be the Superman. He’s going to be this guy who’s a big hero and flies around in a cape and does his thing, and they meet Clark Kent. They’re kind of like, what are you doing? Why aren’t you doing this? What’s going on? You know, Brainiac is here, you need to stop him this way and they can’t believe that their idol that they built everything in the future on, that they’ve kind of modeled themselves on, is …”
“A teenager!” I interrupted (sorry), excited for the twist.
“Yeah, is a teen… and is not flying yet,” Geoff continues. “At one point Lightning Lad asks, ‘You don’t fly?’ What’s up with that?” Now that would be funny! “Yeah, it’s pretty funny. It’s pretty good.”
According to comics lore, the Legion of Superheroes is closely knit with Superboy, who went to the future and sparked the founding of the Legion. Being a DC Comics writer, Geoff knows this story by heart. But Smallville isn’t exactly following on all the footsteps of the Superman mythology. How closely did he follow the comics version of the Legion?
“Pretty close. Yeah, there are a few changes here and there because obviously they’re coming to the Smallville world and Clark Kent and the whole mythos are a little bit different in the Smallville world. But for the most part Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl, they’re pretty true to who they are in the comic books and everything that come with the Legion is there too. The Legion flight rings and a lot of the things they refer to are from the comics and the personalities and motivations. Everything they kind of want to do and why they exist is all from the comics.”
How cool is that! Legionnaires rising from a two-dimentional comic book to being live-action heroes! Every fan of the Legion would instantly recognize these details. But would someone who is not follow the mythos get lost? Who are the Legionnaires?
“The cool thing is that, for anyone who doesn’t know the Legionnaires, is that they’re all aliens. They’re all from different worlds that have come to Earth because Superman came to Earth. That Kal El came to Earth as the first alien immigrant. And because of what he did Earth becomes this Ellis Island of the universe. So, aliens from all around come to Earth. That’s what the Legionnaires are. They’re aliens from different worlds. Some of them look human, but like Clark, they’re not human”.
Geoff also talked about brainstorming the script in the writer’s room. “I spent time in the writer’s room breaking the story with [Smallville writers] so it would fit into their episode, so we all worked together on it. [Executive Producer] Darren Swimmer really was kind of my touchstone and the guy who oversaw the episode. He helped me a lot on everything which is great.”
And the cast?
“Oh, it was fantastic. I mean, Tom Welling, Kristin…they’re all great. I spent a lot of time with the Legionnaires telling them about their characters, why they did certain things, what they were based on and they were fantastic. They really captured the essence of the characters from the comic books. Everybody was incredibly nice. I felt very fortunate to have met and worked with everybody up there as I have.”
Geoff is looking forward to working again for Smallville in the near future. “If they do a ninth season, maybe,” he teases. “If there’s an episode like another Legion episode or something else that would be interesting, I’d love to do it.”
What I would love to know is if Smallville is bringing in more of Superman’s lore in future episodes, and Geoff spills that he doesn’t exactly know, BUT “I know they’ve got plans for some more DC lore.”
So there you go, DC comics fans! Your man, scriptwriter Geoff Johns, has visited Smallville.
The series comes back on the small screen tonight, with episode 8.11 “Legion” at 8pm on CW.
Images: © 2008 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved
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