There’s something sexy about a woman who has the strength of character to confront the challenges that would leave the rest of us in the fetal position. Granted, some men (commonly known as losers) don’t like strong women. But the rest of us are totally into women who are strong. These are the women of fiction I love for their strength…

One of the major themes of the original DADOES was an exploration of the role that empathy plays in defining humanity. It looks like this prequel is going to continue that exploration, but pump it up a notch.

This is a decent story from a publisher that understands exactly who its target audience is. I look forward to seeing what will happen to our hero next. This is the first Zenescope comic I’ve read that has a hero instead of a heroine, so it’s not as predictable as you might think.

This is a fitting finale because it personifies the duality of Smallville: sometimes this season makes your über-geek feel all warm and shiny, and sometimes it sucks rotten duck eggs. This episode is a microcosm of that duality. It hits the highs and the lows of the show as we’ve come to expect during Season Nine. The real trick, however, is that they do it all in one episode.

With only two episodes left before the season finale, Smallville has a lot of loose ends to tie up. But they decided not to do it in this installment.

I have previously commented that I like the Kandor backstory. This may be the episode that changes my mind. The problem has to do with all the other subplots and characters that are crowding out the central appeal of the Kandorian and Kryptonian backstory.

This week’s installment starts with Lois, dressed in a sexy bunny outfit (of course) popping out of a giant cake. Obviously, she’s undercover. When she emerges from the cake, we realize that the crooked DA Ray Sacks, who we first met in that early season episode starring the Wonder Twins (“Idol”), has been released from prison.

When they outsource galaxy-saving to the cheap labor on the outskirts of the galaxy (they would have gotten away with it, to, with that clone army, if that damn Obi-Wan Kenobi hadn’t gotten involved), what will the Jedi do? How will they repackage their skill sets? Here are some ideas…

This installment marked the return of Metallo, the Kryptonite powered cyborg we first met in Smallville episode 9.02 (appropriately titled “Metallo”).

I’ve been saying in almost every review of this ongoing adaptation that I am going to read the original source material. Last issue I finally got off my ass and into the library. I have to say that, having read the novel, the graphic adaptation seems to be holding up pretty well.