Product: Smallville: The Complete Ninth Season (2009)
Rating: 4.0
Season 9- Kneel Before Zod!
This has to be best season in Smallville's history. The main protagonists in Season 9 are Major Zod and his army of Kandorians We finally see Zod, even though its a younger version of him (Major Zod, a clone, who's DNA was taken years before he became the evil conquerer General Zod, who destroyed Krypton). He's basically a replacement for the Smallville version Lex Luthor, who like 'Major', we see before he became the archnemesis of Superman. Last time we saw Zod was the season finale for Season 5 and premiere for Season 6, in that he possessed Lex Luthor and was easily defeated by Clark in a 3 minute fight where at the end he was banished to the Phantom Zone. (This was very disappointing to fans, as Zod is this great villian and was easily disposed of, and in the form of Lex. Don't get me started on how easily Darkseid was defeated in Season 10! Darkseid is a demigod, and he was defeated so...nevermind)Clark finally wears a REAL COSTUME (not the red jacket/blue t-shirt deal. And I like the black costume over the red leather jacket costume in Season 10! He looks like Flash Gordon with an S on his chest! ) The Blur's black costume is reminiscent of Superman's black Kryptonian costume from the comics (and perhaps from the Tim Burton version when he was picked to direct 'Superman Lives', the cancelled movie where Superman wore an all black costume) and we finally see him wearing his family crest (the 'S') on his chest. The whole back and forth with Clark and Zod was very similar with Clark's relationship with Lex, as they befriended each other at first (although Clark is never truly trusting of Zod, knowing what his older self turned into)Clark and Lois' romantic relationship develops, we are introduced to Metallo, we see more of Green Arrow and meet his new sidekick Mia (known as Speedy in the comics), we see Jor-EL in the flesh and Krypton in the episode 'Kandor', (which shows the friendship Jor-EL and Zod had, similar to Clark and Lex)and we meet the Justice Society of America (Featuring a super hero cast of Hawkman, Dr.Fate, Stargirl, Star-Spangled Kid, Sandman, and villian Icicle). And finally, behind the scenes we see Checkmate, the secret government organization bent on taking down superhumans, believing they are a major threat to mankind.Overall, a huge improvement on the disappointment of Season 8 (the Doomsday storyline, very poor writing, many holes in the plot, terrible climax! And why get rid of Jimmy?) and in my opinion better than any other season, including Season 10.Just one complaint I have about ALL of Smallville's episodes: The human characters have had to have MULTIPLE CONCUSSIONS as they have been thrown across rooms so many times and have been knocked unconscious! And they have been in Smallville and Metropolis Hospitals MULTIPLE times, with HUNDREDS of injuries! Where are the scars? Human characters like Chloe, Lana, Lois, Lex, Oliver, Tess, Jimmy, Martha, etc.. have ALL had injuries to their body and face, yet they have no scars!? Hmmm....