Smallville: Season Eleven #29

Haunted Part Four

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 Seigel & Joe Shuster

Our cover shows Superman and Impulse being chased by the Black Flash. It's a rather strange cover, in that none of the characters her seem to look quite right. Especially Impulse, who's now all of a sudden an 11-year-old boy. I really wish Jimenez drew this.

Sometime between last issue and this one, Bart came clean with Clark and told him all about the Black Flash. And since Bart's too scared to run anymore, Clark is flying him back over the Atlantic. Clark asks why Bart never mentioned the Black Flash before, and Bart explains that it wasn't always there. The first time he saw the Black Flash was when Lex Luthor kidnapped him and forced him to run longer and faster than he ever had before, way back in "Justice."

(I'm calling it the Black Flash, but Bart hasn't settled on a name for it yet, testing out Speed Demon and Black Racer.) Bart tried to put this haunting vision behind him, but now he knows it's still there, even when he's not running. Clark asks why he risked that race to India, and Bart confesses that since Clark is the only person who can almost keep up with him, he was hoping that he'd be able to confirm or deny the existence of the Black Flash.

Secretly, Bart was hoping he was just going crazy, finding that preferable to actually being chased by a dark entity. Clark doesn't believe Bart is crazy and vows to find some way for him to get face-to-face with Bart's "boogeyman."

That night, Lois Lane is investigating a sudden clean-up effort at the site of the old LuthorCorp industrial site that Bart, Clark and the others destroyed five years ago. Everyone is wearing HAZMAT suits, even Lois. One of the workers finds a strange bit of crackling energy near Bart's old cage. When he gets too close to the electricity, he gets caught up in a bright whirlwind. When it spits him out, the man is suddenly old and withered.




Yeah, it's still popcorn entertainment, but I actually am liking this story. I think Jimenez is getting more comfortable with this style. And I'm glad to see more direct references to the show. Even though I hated the show, it's nice to see that Miller is paying attention to detail.

Next time, we'll return to Young Justice: Invasion.