World of New Krypton Review: Smallville vs. Comics
I completely forgot to post this.
Methinks that the end of War of the Supermen looks suspiciously similar to Smallville 9.22 Salvation. And, dare I say, Smallville did it better. o.O
Although the season 9 arc of Smallville was arguably derived from the 2 year long New Krypton arc that has been going on in all of the Superman titles, I have to say that where the comics kind of went astray, Smallville wound up pwning the comics. Unlike in the comics, when Clark/Superman tries to put forth diplomatic efforts with the Kryptonians, SV!Clark, with some bumps along the way, actually succeeded with his non-violent approach. Even if Zod had managed to almost lead the Kandorians into a war with Earth, Clark outsmarted Zod and turned the Kandorians against him, and thanks to his diplomacy, the Kandorians realized they could trust him to lead them to a better world with the Book of Rao, thereby taking any powered Kryptonian off of Earth forever, including Clark.
At the end of War of the Supermen, the Kryptonians (justifiably) go to war with Earth thanks to General Lane (yes, Lois' dad) committing a gross act of genocide by blowing up New Krypton. Superman, trying to limit the number of casualties on both sides even after both the Kryptonians and humans take each other out in the thousands, uses the Phantom Zone projector to get rid of Zod and his soldiers and decides to trap himself there as well (by setting the PZ projector to self-destruct after they enter) to keep Zod and his soldiers from escaping.
SV!Clark, in a de-powered battle with Zod, winds up not ascending to the "new world" with the other Kryptonians because he sacrifices himself by allowing Zod to stab him with a Blue-Kryptonite dagger (in Smallville, Blue Kryptonite takes away a Kryptonians powers as long as they're in its proximity, unlike Gold K which takes the powers away forever). As of right now, Clark is still falling off of that skyscraper after Zod (now away from the Blue K radiation) ascends with the other Kryptonians where he is sure to be awaiting Vala's hand of justice for killing her sister Faora (Smallville's version of Ursa).
In WotS, Superman does enter the Phantom Zone, but is sent out by Nightwing (not Dick, but Chris Kent, who is Zod and Ursa's son). So it is Chris that makes the sacrifice to take Superman's place in the PZ where he will be trapped "forever". In the end Clark and Lois share a moment on the balcony of their apartment discussing how even if the media is painting General Lane as a hero for being "prepared" for an attack by the Kryptonians (an attack he orchestrated), Lois will tell the truth about what her father did to destroy an entire race of beings.
On Smallville, we have a Lois who has finally learned who Clark/The Blur really is and...we have to wait until September before we see how this all pans out.
So while I don't generally make comparisons between Smallville and the comics because, although the former is one of many versions of the latter's source material, they are still two animals that I can enjoy separately. But, and I'm sorry to my beloved comics, Smallville did it way better with a similar story arc in terms of execution and resonance.