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Mild Mannered Reviews - Smallville Comics

Smallville: Chaos - Chapter #9

Released Digitally: August 1, 2014

"Chaos" - Part 9

Writer: Bryan Q. Miller
Artists: Agustin Padilla and Daniel HDR
Colorist: Carrie Strachan

Reviewed by: Matt Schorr

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Professor Emil Hamilton and his cohorts from STAR Labs work with Digital Tess at Watchtower to locate the original person under the sway of Eclipso - Bryce Gordon. Superboy, Supergirl, and Hank Henshaw volunteer to find him, and luckily enough, Tess has a lock on his position.

Gordon stands atop the Daily Planet and declares that Eclipso will visit his wrath upon the earth at the setting of the sun.

Meanwhile, in Antarctica, Lex's Yellow Lanterns are eager to start offing prisoners, ditch their boss, and relish their newfound power. Skeets watches their interactions and flees into the shadows, saying it's all up to him now.

And in Bleed Space, Superman and Lois search for their earth among a large number of dead ones. They find it, still unharmed, just before being confronted with something that bears a strong resemblance to Vegeta from Dragonball Z ... in red. The Red Vegeta calls himself a Weaver and, just before confronting Superman, is joined by three more similar beings. Together, they render Superman unconscious.

They take him and Lois to a holding cell. Then, they receive an interdimensional transmission from none other than Lex Luthor, who suggests the Monitors, rather than razing his universe, simply "reboot" it.

Story - 4: So Lex has become the ultimate evil ... the the personification of DC Editorial... (cue ominous organ music)

All kidding aside, a character seeking to remake the universe to suit his or her own desires is nothing new. Alexander Luthor, Hal Jordan and the Anti-Monitor (to name just a few) have all taken shots at it. But this is the first time Lex has tried it ... well, THIS Lex anyway.

We've been offered some teases of his possible motivations for this, but nothing firm. He's mentioned his memory loss to Otis and Booster Gold, for instance.�Here's hoping for more details in the remaining issues. It would be interesting to hear why Lex is unsatisfied with his reality. After all, at face value, his personal reality seems pretty darn sweet.

For now, all we have is the knowledge that he wants his universe rebooted. It's quite the cliffhanger.�Everyone's paths are converging. The momentum is increasing. We're nearing the inescapable conclusion.

Apart from a few lulls, this story has kept me close to the edge of my seat for most of its duration. That's a rare feat for any comic, and even rarer to accomplish in consecutive issues. But Chaos has pulled it off.

Art - 3: Couldn't we have come up with a villain that didn't look so much like Vegeta?