The Justice Society of America comes to ‘Smallville’

“SMALLVILLE: THE COMPLETE NINTH SEASON”

Blu-ray widescreen and DVD widescreen, 2009/2010, not rated

Best extra: "Absolute Justice: From Script to Screen" is a half-hour look at the season's ambitious two-hour epic (in HD).

THE JUSTICE SOCIETY of America was the first team of superheroes in comic book history and, in the penultimate season of “Smallville,” they come out of retirement to battle the assassin Icicle with the help of Clark and his friends.

In Season Nine, Clark finally gets his first worthy enemy since Lex Luther exited the show with General Zod, best known from Richard Donner's “Superman II.” Throw in Clark's obsessive training, budding romance with Lois Lane, and some DC Comics favorites like Hawkman and Metallo, and you have one of the series' best, most action-packed seasons.

This is also the best the show has ever looked in hi-def, with dazzling colors, strong contrast and detail. While some of the CG effects suffer at such high resolution, it is still far better than the last few seasons, which were plagued by macroblocking and heavy compression. Warner Bros. should continue to be ridiculed for only including Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks on their TV release, particularly one as eventful as “Smallville,” which is filled with sound effects that would benefit greatly from an uncompressed DTS-HD track.

Extras include two commentaries (both excellent, but neither focusing on the “Absolute Justice” two-parter), deleted scenes, a featurette about the character of Zod both in the Donner movies and in the comics, and the deeper in-depth look at the JSA episodes, which were written by DC Comics writer Geoff Johns.

The tenth and final season of the series, which should see Clark's transformation into the Superman we know and love, premieres September 24 on The CW.

— Josh Boone

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