The latest (and likely last, since the series is wrapping in May) pair of DC Comics characters to appear on Smallville are coming to a small screen near you on April 22nd. The CW sent over some pics of these two new additions to the Smallville-verse, and while one of them looks pretty good, I think they missed the mark on the other.

Appropriately titled “Booster,” the episode finds Booster Gold — the superhero from the future who craves fame — turning up in Metropolis and stealing the spotlight from the Blur (Clark Kent’s persona precursor to Superman). True to his comic book roots, Booster’s goal is nothing less than to supplant Clark and become “the world’s greatest superhero” in the eyes of Metropolis’ citizens. But all things must eventually go awry, and this time it happens when Booster accidentally causes an alien scarab to fall off a truck. The scarab soon fuses itself to a teenager named Jaime Reyes, turning him into the Blue Beetle, but Jaime can’t control his new superpowers and Metropolis is placed in mega-danger.

The episode is being directed by the Man of Steel himself, Tom Welling, and the ep also features what looks to be Clark’s first-ever phone booth quick-change, as you can see from the photos. “Booster” was written by DC Comics superstar writer Geoff Johns, who also wrote the two-part episode where the Justice Society was introduced to the series. Actor Eric Martsolf, a soap opera mainstay who currently stars on Days of Our Lives, guest stars as Booster Gold, while Jaime Reyes/the Blue Beetle is portrayed by Jaren Brandt Bartlett. Bartlett has appeared in lots of geeky shows like The 4400, Dead Zone, Tru Calling, and The Twilight Zone.

As for the costumes… Booster’s works for me, successfully incorporating the leather aesthetic that Smallville‘s heroes favor with his classic look from the comics. (They sure wear big codpieces in the future, though, eh?) But Blue Beetle just looks all kinds of weird. Maybe it will look better in action, but those ginormous shoulder things throw the whole suit out of proportion.

There are more photos below. What do you think?

A little while back we showed off some Blue Beetle transformation footage from the upcoming live-action TV series, now as promised, live action footage has debuted at CES.

Alex Winter, best known for his role as Bill from Bill and Ted created this short. In the short we get to see Jaime Reyes transform into his alter ego.

Winter created the short through his own company Trouper Productions, the company he used to write and direct the live-action Ben 10 films; Ben 10: Race Against Time and Ben 10: Alien Swarm.

Here’s the short:

So what do you think? Overall it’s not awful in my opinion, in fact I’m pretty excited to see full length episodes.

The Blue Beetle TV series was suppose to be debuted by Geoff Johns at Comic-Con, but today he went ahead and jumped the gun, revealing how the transformation will occur.

Speaking in regards to the transformations stills Johns said:

I feel very fortunate to have been a part of Blue Beetle’s introduction way back in INFINITE CRISIS. I’ve said it before, but thanks to the BLUE BEETLE series launched by Keith Giffen and John Rogers with a great design by Cully Hamner, Jaime Reyes rocks. Great character, great story, great look. He’s already appeared in animation, had action figures and right now he’s on my computer in live-action glory. I have an early special effects test that has been floating around of what his armored scarab-suit could look like. This isn’t final. This isn’t greenlit. It’s only a test that was done. We still have a long way to go to see if we can get this off the ground and a lot of people to jump on board…

If you’ll be at Comic-Con in July you’re in luck, Johns believes footage will be in place by that time.

Here’s the transformation courtesy of DC Universe:

What do you think? Perhaps I’ve lowered my expectations for TV, but I think it looks decent enough to get my attention, but the live footage is still needed to give a final opinion.

Well, Blackest Night #1 is out on the shelves, and as set up issues go, it was okay. As I feared however, it looks like the Blackest Night is going to swamp the War Of Light storyline in Green Lantern unless that carries on after this crossover is finished, which I doubt. It does run the risk so far of just being a zombie story I think, but I will refrain from criticism until we are at least three issues in.

Speaking of super-zombies however, the Super-Zombies title from Dynamite has sucked me in. A whole new universe of characters, politics and intrigue established from the get-go, and in four issues I have already begun to care about the characters. This has risen to the top of my must-read list, and if you haven’t seen it already, I advise picking the issues up and giving them a chance. Yes you will be confused as to who everyone is to start with, I still am and need to re-read it to check who’s who. However, I started reading the DC Universe with Crisis On Infinite Earths, and you can imagine how much back-reading I had to do to find out who everyone was there. My only regret is that with Super-Zombies, that back material is not available to dip into.

What has me really pumped however is how the return of the Milestone universe is rolling on, this week in The Brave And The Bold #25, starring Hardware and Blue Beetle. Hardware is his usual sociable self and we see the return of his age old adversaries The System. Oh yeah, and the new Blue Beetle was in it as well.

I adored the confrontation recently between the JLA and the Shadow Cabinet, culminating in Justice League Of America #34, where we learnt just how it is that the Milestone Earth is now part of the DCU. The mysterious Dharma used the power of Rift Fred Benson (from Worlds Collide) to merge his universe with the DCU.

(Erm, from pre Zero Hour to the New Multiverse, did he misfire and shoot past the post-Zero Hour earth? Hell of a pattern that, knit one, drop one, knit one. “Ma, I lost a universe, have you seen it anywhere?)

Anyway, for a geek like me that means for once, all the previously titles still stand in continuity. There was some really good stuff in the old Milestone, and I was very disappointed to see it go.

Now, we’ve seen Holocaust, but I can’t wait to see what’s left of the rest of the Blood Syndicate and what they are up to nowadays.

Of course nostalgia seems all the rage at the minute. Anyone else dig that updated sixties-vibe in Superman World Of New Krypton? And how about the latest revamp of the Red Circle characters? !mpact comics was a bit of a flop, although it too had some good stories. However, I am just old enough to remember some of the actual Red Circle comics themselves. The Crusaders, The Fly and Fly-Girl. Villains like the Brain-Emperor and Eterno.

I am pumped about these, and I look forward to seeing the latter four characters again. The legacy of The Fly with the legacy of Shazam – now that would be an interesting mix.

Oh and have you seen Octobers solicitations? The X-Babies are coming back, but get this, WITH PLANET TERRY! I was too old to read Planet Terry the first time round but that didn’t stop me then, and it won’t stop me now.

Recycling in the music industry is bad. But here in the comic world? It’s good to see all of these old friends again.

As long as they are not zombies.