fajrdrako | Comic book: Special Lex Luthor Issue

Anyone who's read a lot of comic book adaptation of TV shows or movies knows how bad they can be. One learns not to expect much.

Smallville #3 is a beautiful exception.

Written by Mark Verheiden and Chris Carpenter, the main story, "Framed!" it has something close to the weight of canon, and in all the right ways. It has all sorts of things I loved It has his friendship with Clark, and in the course of the story, Clark rescues him. It's angsty: It has Lex spending his birthday in prison, alone and unhappy, on a trumped-up charge; and his reaction on believing he has seen Clark killed.

The second story, "Mommy Dearest", gives us a glimpse of Lex's childhood, including a good scene featuring Lex with his mother Lillian. My favourite moment: seeing Lionel through Lillian's eyes. That one scene explained a lot of her character, and his, and their relationship.

It has photographs of Michael Rosenbaum. Bonus. And John Glover too.

I thought the art by Renato Guedes and Oclair Albert was excellent - it even bore a resemblance to the actors.