While speaking to IGN and TVGuide about Smallville: Season 11's new chapter, which features the return of Impulse (A.K.A Bart Allen), former Batgirl author Bryan Q. Miller has revealed that Smallville: Season 11 will have a monthly tie-in chapter showcasing stories outside of Clark's journey.
The original schedule for the book has been to release three weekly digital chapters a month, and on the fourth week of the month the story would be collected to print and put on stands that Wednesday, with no digital chapter releasing. That has now changed, and the off week will contain a digital chapter expanding the universe.
While speaking with
TVGuide, Miller said
"These are stories that will help fill in the rest of our world while Clark is busy on his main adventure. The first four off-weeks will be 'Effigy.' It gives everyone a chance to keep that Smallville machine rolling every week." 'Effigy' will feature
Smallville's John Jones teaming up with recently introduced hero, Batman. While talking to
IGN, Miller explained the first arc of the tie-in series is
"a 4 chapter tale that follows Detective John Jones as he investigates a series of murders that have a deeply-rooted connection to his past. And our Batman (whom we met in Detective) goes along for the ride." Commenting on whether the tie-in arcs would be collected into that week's print issue, Miller confirmed that the expansion arc would be digital-exclusive.
"Our parallel Smallville narratives will be digital-exclusive, only seeing print in collected trades."
Smallville: Season 11 returned to Comxiology today with a brand-new chapter featuring the return of Impulse. The story-arc is called 'Haunted' and will see almost each of the main characters being haunted by an element of their past. While talking about the story, the author stated that
"There's something that has been haunting Bart for some time, some baggage he's been carrying. Everyone in our story is being haunted — physically, metaphorically — by some element of their past." said Miller to
TVGuide. While commenting further on Impulse's story, Miller confirmed that we will finally see how he gained his powers.
"For the first time ever we head-on address how Bart got his powers. Perhaps there was more to it than possibly even Bart knows." Speaking to
IGN, Miller promises that Bart's character has barely changed from the one we saw on the TV series, saying
"Under the outfit, he’s definitely the same “amigo” who stole Pa Kent’s wallet, lo those many years ago. But there’s something he’s been hiding from his friend, Clark, for almost as long as he’s known him. When he shows up in Metropolis, that secret won’t be very far behind."
Bryan Q. Miller also explained that 'Haunted' will hunt-deep into the mythology of
Smallville, something hardcore fans already got a taste of through various flashbacks in the book.
"It's the first time we are relying heavily on previous Smallville series history. This arc has many more roots in specific episodes and mythology from the series." The episode will not only feature Bart's past, but will continue on the story threads of Lex Luthor trying to dive deep into Tess's memories and Chloe finding out more about her Earth-2 doppelganger (who had previously teased "The Crisis").
Finally, Bryan Q. Miller later teased to
IGN the future of new heroes and possibly creating a Justice League for the
Smallville universe, teasing a unique roster.
"Absolutely", commenting on whether or not we'll see the league form.
"Though, by the time we see them out in full force towards the end of the season, it may not be the roster everyone’s expecting. Regardless, we’ve got a few more familiar DCU faces to meet before we do a roll call."
The latest chapter (#25) of
Smallville: Season 11 is now available across a plenthora of platforms including iTunes, Comixology, Kindle and more.
Images courtesy of TVGuide.
Sources:
IGN;
TV Guide