DVD review: Smallville Season 8

Young Clark Kent moved closer to his eventual fate as Superman in the eighth season of “Smallville.” Clark Kent (Tom Welling) becomes a regular reporter for “The Daily Planet” and begins to have feelings for Lois Lane (Erica Durance).

The eighth season of “Smallville” was the first without show creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, or Clark’s former girlfriend Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk). The show also had to replace Michael Rosenbaum, who had played Lex Luthor on the show since its inception. While the shadow of Lex still looms large over Smallville, two new players held their own as villains of the piece.

The new head of Luthorcorp is Tess Mercer (Cassidy Freeman), a marine biologist turned hard-hitting executive with ties to Green Arrow’s secret ID, Oliver Queen (Justin Hartley).

Davis Bloome (Sam Witwer) is an EMT who develops a crush on Clark’s best friend, Chloe (Alison Mack). Chloe, however, is engaged to Jimmy Olsen (Aaron Ashmore). But the reasons that Bloome is drawn to Chloe may be something more sinister than a simple romantic spark, as Bloome’s character darkens as the season progresses.

The season starts strong and has a great run through episode 11, “Legion,” written by Geoff Johns, who has written some of the best “Superman” comic books of the past decade.