Well, Fall is almost here again and we all know what that means…NO MORE F***ING RERUNS!! Yes thats right our favorite shows from last season return once again with all new episodes!

…Even Smallville is coming back for it’s EIGTH SEASON (Yes it’s been on that long)

If you are having trouble recalling where last season left us, let me fill you in. Lionel is dead, Lana might as well be, Lex is gone for good, and it looks like Kara won’t be returning either.

So thats 4 major cast members leaving the show.. oh ..and did I if forget to mention that the producers/ creators of the show have decided to pack their bags too.

So do the math folks. Smallville was already steadily declining in my book without these devastating changes so what can we possibly be looking forward to this season?!

Well, here’s what we know about Season 8 so far. We’re getting two new villans that don’t look very promising. (check the back posts for more info on them) Clark will get a job at the Daily Planet (woohoo?). About the only promising news I can get from my sources is that we will see, in some fashion, the Justice League again.

Sorry if this post sounded way negative to all the die-hard Smallville fans, but I gotta be honest. Smallville has gotten really dry and repetitive the last few seasons. It pretty much ended for me when Jonathan Kent died and soon after they wrote out Martha (Anette O’toole)….Why did they do that?!

So for all those Smallville fans out ther enjoy what I hope to be the last season. I’ll be tuning in too, September 18th on the CW for the premiere.

As a pop-icon, Superman has had to put up with a lot of people misinterpreting him and drawing parallels about his character that are just not supported. And since the release of ‘Superman Returns’ more of these conclusions are being drawn about the big guy.

Let’s first address the gay issue. A lot people want to say Superman is a role model for gay men. Their theory about him goes something like this: Superman leads a double life. One as Clark Kent and the other as Superman. His "true" identity he has to keep secret from the world (in "the closet" as it were). Now I’m not saying it’s wrong for gay people to have Superman as a role model, but Superman clearly is not gay. Lois Lane has been in the picture since the birth of the comic and will most likely remain as Superman’s love interest for as long as the comics are around.

Now, onto the whole Superman/Jesus thing..

I believe religion has as much of a right to be in comics as it does in our public schools. I’m being totally serious. It just doesn’t mesh right. Every time I hear people drawing parallels or making comparisons about comic book characters to biblical stories I get queasy and almost puke. I mean why ruin a good story by making something it clearly is not. If I really wanted to be immersed in religion and spirituality I would read the source texts and not some comic books. Besides, last time I checked Jesus is still pretty popular and I don’t think his image needs to be revamped or his story needs to be told in a way to attract audiences (of course, Mel Gibson might say otherwise).

"The Christian allusions are recent innovations that compromise the integrity of the Superman myth..This does not need to be a consistent cultural form from its beginning to its present, but something has to be maintained," (Amy Pedersen, who is writing her doctoral thesis in art history at the University of California, Los Angeles, on superhero comic books.)

So I guess the point I’m trying to make here is this: Because Superman is this popular cultural icon he will be admired and looked up to by a lot of people young and old. The character and the Superman story will continue to be reinvented and retold for new generations, but it will also rely on the core story of his creators. It isn’t wrong for young comic book readers to want to be like Superman or for anyone to relate Superman stories to other things, but we shouldn’t examine everything about him under a microscope and categorize him into groups. Because if we do this, the story no longer is for everybody. If anything at all, the Superman story was made to be accepted by everyone. I think that is the reason he’s been around for so long.

Here it is. The big, bad, and the ugly stuff thats out there about Superman:

(Be careful! Like I said before, if you’re like me, reading these articles might make you puke uncontrollably)

• Superman/Jesus parallels

• How gay is Superman?

• The Kryptonain Gospel - this one in particular caused me to throw up on my keyboard.

• Interview with Stephen Skelton - AKA ‘the real life Lex Luthor’

Now I haven’t had a chance to read the book or really find out why Skelton is drawing these parallels. But to me it seems ridiculous to make such comparisons. I mean why ruin a great American icon by bringing in religious symbols. Can’t Superman be just a superhero and not hold any divinity?? I can see where Skelton finds these similarities and I won’t deny that there are some. But I don’t think that Joe Shuster and Jerry Seigal (Superman’s creators), being two Jews from Cleveland intended on telling a story of a Christ figure…do you?