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Brainiac and Bizarro Tag Team Smallville

by brian on February 1st, 2008

Two classic Superman villains worked overtime to ruin Clark Kent’s life in the newest Smallville episode Persona. New SFUniverse columnist Brian Allen gives his take on this one.

I ordinarily have mixed feelings about reimaginings of classic comic book baddies for TV. But I have to say I love the new take on Bizarro, or as they seem to be calling him, “The Lost Phantom.” To paraphrase Arsenio Hall’s barbershop character in Coming to America, his creator named him Bizarro, I’m gon’ call him Bizarro. In the comics the Super Duplicate, despite all his powers has become something of a joke character. Not this guy on Smallville. He’s as strong and handsome as Clark, but his callous disregard for most of humanity allows him to stop saving the world and pay attention to Lana in ways Clark will never be able to.

Yeah, destroying various parts of Smallville and/or Metropolis is bad, but you don’t hit a hero any harder than when you seduce his girlfriend. I’m not talking about “dating Lex out of protest” seduction. Lana was more in love with Bizarro than she had ever been with Clark and Kristin Kreuk portrayed those scenes so well. She and Tom Welling really nailed the heartbreak factor. You could almost hear Clark’s jaw hitting the floor when Lana revealed she had been to bed with his doppleganger. The scenes at the end where the star- crossed couple couldn’t even speak to each other said it all. Props to Welling for pulling off a difficult dual role.

James Marsters, one of the best actors in the genre, kept his winning streak going. He is perfect for Brainiac. You could just feel his contempt for both Kal-El and Bizarro because of their emotional attachment to Lana. I suspect Brainiac will figure out some way to reconstitute the seemingly dead Bizarro and take over the much stronger body with a genius-level brain.

Not everything worked for me though. With everything else going on in this episode, the Lex and Lionel scenes simply felt like an afterthought. Lex took out a hit on his cloned brother, presumably to hurt his father. Lex is Clark’s archnemesis and we shouldn’t be allowed to forget that. It doesn’t mean he has to be in every episode, however. This is one that really didn’t need him.

And call me a nitpicker but it hit me the wrong way when Chloe reminded “Clark” that he has a mind like a titanium trap. Titanium? Really? Does anyone in the real world ever reference that metal? Smallville gives actors enough chances to try and wrap their mouths around terms like Brain Interactive Construct. There’s no need to throw in other science buzzwords that take viewers out of the experience. But this was an overall strong episode and let’s begin the betting pool for when Bizarro returns.

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POSTED IN: Smallville