Tag: Smallville

Smallville is adding so many DC characters to its world that its rapidly becoming Justice League Unlimited-lite, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing I might add. It looks, however, like they’re still hampered by the eternal conflict between the TV and film development. IGN’s Eric Goldman asked Smallville Executive Producer Brian Peterson about the issue,

IGN: Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash… What’s the status with a few of those bigger players from DC and the possibility of seeing them on Smallville?

Peterson: Yeah, I will just say that as of right now – and I’m not saying things won’t change – but as of right now, unfortunately Wonder Woman and Batman are just off limits, as are certain characters that are being used in movies that are in the pipeline. We try to be respectful of that and we are trying to be understanding, though of course everyone would love to have Wonder Woman and Batman on the show, but it just is not something that’s within our realm of possibility right now.

This happens a lot. When Warner Brothers develops a particular DC character they tend to ring-fence that character’s associated properties from appearing in similar projects. This is why Lois Lane could only appear in a limited under of Smallville episodes while Superman Returns was being promoted or why The Batman The Animated Series‘s extended cast couldn’t appear in later episodes of Justice League unlimited. It’s all about the Marketing Department  trying to create a singular brand for a character. The reason I find Peterson’s comments interesting is that it’s a sign that films are far enough ahead in development for DC Entertainment to start ring fencing characters.

Two characters that unsurprisingly don’t seem to have any trouble getting approved are the Wonder Twins. In comic book terms they’re pretty obscure characters having only appeared in continuity in one almost forgotten 1990s Justice League series (Extreme Justice if you’re wondering). They are, however, widely known by the public because of their association with the Super Friends. They came about because of the sidekick syndrome – the need for middle-aged men to add “funny” or “youth” characters to cartoons and comics because they think kids want somebody to identify with. It’s the logic that gave us Robin, Orko, Wesley Crusher, Scrappy Doo, and Godzuki.

Peterson also commented on having the Wonder Twins in Smallville.

IGN: I was very amused to hear about the Wonder Twins appearance. Those characters obviously come with a lot of baggage from their history. What is your take on it? I’d imagine some comedy has to be involved…

Peterson: Yeah. These last couple of seasons have been interesting in that we’ve kind of found that the rhythm of the show tends to be we’ve gotten a little lighter with the comedy, but we’ve also gotten a lot darker in some ways. We have this very interesting bifurcation of the show which I think keeps it really alive and dynamic. So having them come into the show was really fun. They both knocked it out of the park and we had a lot of fun with how Clark and Chloe deal with these two slightly screwed up twins that are trying to be heroes and there’s a really nice emotional takeaway. It was really fun to have them in the show.

The Wonder Twins are Zan and Jayna, a pair of shape-shifting alien-twins who have to make contact with each other to use their powers. Zan can turn into any inanimate object and Jayna can turn into any animal. They usually activated their powers by bumping fists and shouting “Wonder Twins, Power Activate!” The description of them as “two slightly screwed up twins that are trying to be heroes,”  accurately mirrors what most viewers would have thought of the Twins in Super Friends.

It’ll be interesting to see how well the Wonder Twins translate to live action, but I couldn’t resist linking to this Wonder Twins slot from Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim.