Smallville: Season Eleven #27

Haunted Part Three

Writer Bryan Q. Miller
Art Jorge Jimenez
Colors Carrie Strachan
Lettering Saida Temofonte
Cover Art Cat Staggs
Assistant Editor Sarah Gaydos
Editor Jim Chadwick
Superman created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster

We pick up with Superman and Impulse arriving at the Louvre in Paris to deal with the art thieves. But an explosion reveals these aren't ordinary art thieves — they're the Brain and Monsieur Mallah, accompanied by a swarm of monkeys and apes, each taking off with a painting. As Superman and Impulse begin corralling the monkeys, Bart says, "This almost never happens in Mexico," implying that he's made Mexico his permanent home, which is why he keeps calling Clark his "amigo." Clark naturally worries about actually hitting the apes, but when one of them sends Impulse flying toward the Louvre's glass pyramid (which he vibrates through), Bart says they can hit the animals.

As Superman confronts the Brain and Mallah, he has Impulse clear the civilians. Bart helps a beautiful woman first, telling her he wishes he could stay and chat, but has to settle for just kissing her hand before returning to the fight. For some reason, Monsieur Mallah is able to hold his own against Superman. The gorilla pulls out a machine gun, spraying bullets all over the place. Bart is able to catch the bullets, but he has to push himself to go faster than his usual speed.

After he stops all the bullets, Bart is genuinely exhausted and gasps that he was going too fast. His eyes suddenly light up with lightning and he hears the dark voice calling his name again. He dejectedly says, "Not now ... not again ..." as he's confronted by the Black Flash. The whole encounter occurs at super speed, so nobody else can see the Black Flash chasing Bart, creepily telling him it's time.

Superman finally knocks out Mallah and his apes with a powerful handclap. He finds Bart down on his knees, weakly saying, "It almost got me ..." But when Clark asks Bart what he means, Bart brushes him off.




I'll admit this was a pretty fun comic. Is Smallville: Season Eleven growing on me? Perhaps. It is really fun to see actual villains from the comics like Psimon and the Brain battling our heroes in exotic locations like Paris. But everything is only skin deep. Psimon only wanted revenge on Luthor and was taken out with just a couple of hits. The Brain idiotically thought he could sell the Mona Lisa and other priceless works of art that were very publicly stolen in broad daylight (that a main point in "Run" — Bart stole something too unique and valuable from Luthor to actually sell it). And, just like Psimon, the Brain and Mallah were very easily defeated simply because the short comic had reached its last page.

So yeah, it's cool to see the Brain and Black Flash and Psimon and all these characters. But that's all we're getting. Just a quick glance at them. Nothing more. This is more like a trading card than a comic. Popcorn entertainment, if you will. Not bad, but not fulfilling.

Well, that's it for 2012, our first full year without the original Bart Allen. Next time, we'll have our Year in Review.