Smallville – "Icarus"

Director: Mairzee Almas
Writer: Genevieve Sparling

At last we have come to the final season of Smallville and the final appearance of Impulse on the show. (He will show up in the Season 11 comics, and I'm not too excited for that.) And if you thought Impulse's last appearance was brief, just wait until you watch this episode! Or don't. I don't recommend this show. At all. To anyone.

Our story begins with Clark Kent finally proposing to Lois Lane. But this happy event is overshadowed by the government's crackdown against Clark and his super friends. Led by General Slade Wilson, the VRA (Vigilante Registration Agency) has launched Operation: Icarus to round up all known vigilantes. And Wilson actually has done his homework, figuring out the identities of just about every superhero on the show. He's even distributing wanted posters that show the faces of Green Arrow, Aquaman, and Impulse (using a picture of Kyle Gallner from his first appearance on the show). Slade doesn't, however, have a picture of Clark, resorting to his Superman logo and referring to him only as "The Blur."

Anyway, to make a long story short, there's a bunch of interrogation scenes, culminating in Wilson holding Lois in his office at the top of a skyscraper. Hawkman comes crashing through the window at the last second to save her, and after a brief fight, there's a big explosion. Hawkman wraps Lois in his wings as they plummet to the ground.

Clark confronts Wilson on the ground, who tells Clark that Lois and Hawkman died, even though he didn't bother to check. He explains he named the operation Icarus because he thought the superheroes were flying too close to the sun, but now he relishes in the poetic irony of having watched Hawkman's wings literally catch fire. Clark asks how Wilson survived the explosion, and he mysteriously says he's now immune to death's stroke (get it?). In response to this, Clark apparently sends Wilson to the Phantom Zone with a convenient handheld Phantom Zone projector.

Clark then checks on Lois and Hawkman. Turns out, Carter's wings protected Lois, but Carter himself sustained fatal injuries in the fight and ensuing blast. So our episode ends with a funeral for Hawkman in an Egyptian pyramid. Everybody is there ... sort of. About half the heroes, including Impulse, have their hoods on and the camera is careful not to show their faces. Anyway, once Carter is buried next to his wife, a mysterious white pyramid-like object appears and knocks everybody out. What does this mean? Who cares? This show sucks.




According to IMDb, Kyle Gallner did appear in this episode, but was uncredited. I don't know if they're just counting the picture we saw of him, or if he actually was at the funeral, hiding under his old Impulse hood. Considering how out of shape he looked in his last appearance and how little the director was willing to show him, it's not inconceivable that even more extreme measures would be used this time to conceal Gallner. But, I think it's more likely that the roles of Impulse, Aquaman and others were played by extras in this scene. And that just shows the cheapness and lameness of this show. The death of a hero should be a big deal, and a show should be able to arrange for previous guest stars to come back at least for one day of work.

This episode was quite unbearable, especially with this show's pathetic attempt at the Deathstroke character. The Hawkman fight was the only bit of action in the episode and it was rather uninspiring. However, I did have to laugh at how bad our heroes are at protecting their secret identities. I mean, the VRA figured everything out, except for Clark, but even then, they were halfway there. Ultimately, though, I am just very glad that I don't have to endure another episode of this show. I credit them for at least attempting to use the character Impulse. They didn't come anywhere near meeting my expectations, though.

Next time, we'll return to Teen Titans #90.