Smallville's Clark Kent isn't the only one getting a visit from DC Comics' Justice Society in 2010. A month before the classic crime fighters show up for Smallville's "Absolute Justice" event, airing Feb. 5, they'll drop by the Batcave for an episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

An animated version of the 1940s superhero team will make its debut January 15 on Cartoon Network's great and goofy Batman show. We'll get to see how The Flash (the original one with the silly hat), Hourman, Hawkman, Dr. Mid-Nite and Wildcat influenced Batman's bad guy-beating skills. We'll also see them in action against a villain named Per Degaton. The ep, titled "The Golden Age of Justice," will also feature Bats teaming up with Green Arrow's main squeeze, Black Canary.

(S09E08) The whole alternate timeline or alternate future concept has been around sci fi for ... well, I don't know how long. The most famous example I can think of is the classic Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror," though I'm sure there are many more. We've already had alternate timeline stories in Smallville (such as Lana's "death" in the 100th episode), and now we have an alternate future story.

Although it used an old television and sci fi concept, this particular story served a dual purpose: it let the viewer know what happened to Lois between the 8th and 9th seasons and also let us know the stakes of a potential Zod victory (although we probably could have figured that one out on our own).

(S09E08) Wonder Twin Powers, Activate! Okay, so it wasn't so much the Wonder Twins as an homage to the Wonder Twins. Or Wonder Twins: The Next Generation. You get the idea. The blingy Gleek cell phone was a nice touch. Hell, the ringtone even sounded like an alien monkey.

Of course, the Wonder Twins were just gravy for the actual purpose of the episode: to further the legend of the Blur and heighten the Lois/Clark relationship. Like her predecessor in the 1990's Lois & Clark series, Lois is a smart cookie but really blind when it comes to secret identities. Speaking of cell phones, her ringtone for the Blur was very cute indeed.

Pam Grier, famous for her appearances in '70s blaxploitation flicks like Foxy Brown and later for her appearances in Quentin Tarantino movies, will be stopping over in Smallville. She'll be playing the character of Amanda Waller for the upcoming two-part episode with the Justice Society of America.

Amanda Waller was created in the comics and has appeared on television already in the animated Justice League series. She was ... how shall I say ... bigger than Ms. Grier. To play the character as she was created, Grier would either have to gain a lot of weight or don a fat suit.

Actually, the creators will probably just leave her as she is. Smallville is something of its own universe (as proven by the appearance of the Wonder Twins). Her appearance is slated for the episodes written by comics writer (and writer of the previous Smallville episode "Legion") Geoff Johns, so I'm already convinced it will be a good episode. Pam Grier is just icing on the cake.

(S09E07) If Smallville continues to produce episodes of good quality like tonight's, I may have to take back some of the things I've been saying about it. Seriously.

Tonight we got a lot of backstory and explanation about some of the stranger aspects of the Smallville universe. Why is Earth such a magnet for Kryptonians, dead or otherwise? Because Krypton has been observing Earth for a long, long time and designated the planet as a bolt-hole. We also learned more about that Kryptonian artifact that has been a mystery in Smallville for a few seasons now.

All this and no Lois, too.

(S09E06) Tonight's episode had everything but the metaphorical kitchen sink. There was a lot going on. We had the rather amusing attempt by Lois to score a morning show job, the start of Green Arrow finding his sidekick Speedy and a little more Tess/Zod action.

In all the years I've watched or read Superman in various forms, I've never seen him go on an online date. I would have enjoyed watching more of that, particularly with Lois whispering in his ear. Isn't it illegal to tape someone without their permission (unless you're the government)? What would Clark write on his profile anyway? " Can lift cars, run real fast and shoot lasers out of my eyes. No Kryptonite, please. Must love farm animals."

(S09E05) Tonight we get an Oliver-centric episode that finally resolves his issues. Good! Now we can get to the more interesting dramas of the series such as that with Major Zod and his time-traveling Kryptonian army.

I had a myriad of questions about certain inconsistencies of the episode. No matter how wrecked Oliver was, how did he get so stupid as to swallow a pill given to him by a stranger in a casino? How did he get a flashlight while in the coffin? What casino takes car keys as collateral? Fortunately, they wrapped it up all neatly at the end by blaming Chloe for all his troubles during the episode.

(S09E04) It's when the writers give Clark abilities he's not supposed to have that I begin to worry, like his "reconstruct the Great Wall of China" vision from Superman IV. Thankfully, in this instance it was yet another of Jor-El's senseless tests and only temporary.

Admittedly, I don't get the title "Echo" for this episode. Is it that Oliver is an echo of his former self? Is it that he's turning the path back to heroism? It certainly seems that way.

Since Clark has switched to the black outfit, I hope people (including Lois) stop calling him the "red-blue blur". Now he's just the Blur. Or maybe the Black Blur, but that could be construed as slightly racist.

A television obituary has slipped through the cracks. Dick Durock has passed away. Who is Dick Durock, you ask? Why, he played the title character in the Swamp Thing movie written and directed by Wes Craven and its subsequent poor follow-up, as well as the television series based on the movies. Also, he played an evil Hulk in The Incredible Hulk television series and was a stuntman on various television shows including Star Trek.

I remember watching that Incredible Hulk episode as a kid, and my first thought was "that second Hulk isn't anywhere near as muscular as the first." Still, in his prime Dick Durock could have undoubtedly kicked my ass.

Just to prove how tough Dick Durock was ... I don't know many people who have long battles with pancreatic cancer. Usually, that takes you out in a hurry. If you could stand up to Lou Ferrigno, pancreatic cancer was in for one hell of a fight.

[Watch clips and free episodes of Swamp Thing at SlashControl]

(S09E01) Welcome back to another year of "the show that wouldn't die". This year, we've been given a target in the first episode that in one year, Clark will somehow destroy the world. However, this was told to him by a Kryptonian ninja woman who is apparently from the past and working for this year's big bad, so her word may not exactly be trustworthy.

The writers have turned Chloe into the new Lana. My sympathies to Allison Mack for being given that tragic role. The special effects of the derailed train in the beginning were pretty cool. I hope they didn't blow the entire season's budget on it.

Clark's Kryptonian father Jor-El will be appearing on Smallville in Season 9, and he'll be played by Julian Sands. It'll be a flashback or time-travel plot device (much like his last appearance in season three when he was played by Tom Welling), so it's not as if the character is coming back from the dead or anything. This isn't Buffy.

The character has been voiced by Terrance Stamp practically since the beginning of the series and has only appeared once as Tom Welling, although his American accent at the time was never explained. Sands plays a younger version, as well, but at least the accent is correct. I wonder if Sands will be trying a Terrance Stamp impersonation the same way that Ewan McGregor copied Alec Guinness' accent for the Star Wars prequels. That would be kind of cool.

Sands is a good actor and I'm sure he'll do the part proud. I do wonder how this series will be affected by the shake-up at DC Comics. Time will tell.

Much like the Disney acquisition of Marvel Entertainment, television is only a part of what this change represents. However, it does affect the television industry and should be mentioned on this blog. DC Comics has changed its name to DC Entertainment to encompass more forms of media, such as television and movies. Also the president of DC, Paul Levitz, has been replaced by a Time Warner officer named Diane Nelson.

While there are those that might disagree with me, this move looks like it's a response to Marvel's success with its movie franchises. Even though DC has done better on television (Smallville, plus various cartoons like The Brave and the Bold), movies are where the big bucks are. Granted, DC and Warner Brothers have had major success with its Batman movies, but it hasn't built any other franchises.

And as with the Marvel acquisition, we'll have to wait and see what the long-term effects of this corporate change will be. DC also loses the rights to Superman in 2013, so exciting things are afoot.

In anticipation of the season premiere on Friday September 25th (and nothing says 'the last season" like a move to Friday nights), a new promotional trailer for Smallville Season 9 has been released (it's on the EW.com site and is sadly not embeddable). The good news is that the trailer gives a pretty clear view of Clark's new costume.

It's somewhat different than the leaked Comic-Con trailer, and that's a good thing. As for the outfit itself: others have said it reminds them of Neo's outfit from The Matrix. While there are similarities to that, it reminds me more of the outfits worn by the Phantom Zone villains in a recent Superman comic co-written by Richard Donner and Geoff Johns. Given this season's big bad, the costume design was likely done that way to evoke Clark's Kryptonian heritage.

So what do you think of the trailer? Does it make you want to stay in Friday nights and not miss an episode?

For those who don't know, DC Comics is more than superheroes and spandex. Under their Vertigo imprint, they've brought such sophisticated fare as The Sandman, Preacher and 100 Bullets to the masses. And by masses, of course, I mean the sixty-two people still reading comics.

This forthcoming season sees DC/Vertigo's Human Target make the leap to the small screen. And now a much lesser known property is following its lead as NBC has picked up Midnight, Mass. as a live-action drama. Over two series, Midnight, Mass. ran a total of fourteen issues from 2002-2004.

Blair Butler of Attack of the Show!, among other programs on G4, is now a cover girl. A comic book cover girl, that is.

According to our friends at Comics Alliance, Ms. Butler will adorn the cover of DC Comics' Booster Gold, Issue 23. Apparently, she's Booster's biggest fan.

This is brilliant. This could just be the beginning. Why doesn't DC (or Marvel for that matter) do this sort of thing for one month in which every cover is adorned by an attractive woman wearing a t-shirt of the character?