I’ve been looking forward to tonight’s episode of Smallville for a couple of months. Let me backtrack a little: I enjoyed the show when it first aired. In fact, I think that I was pretty good about regularly watching the first two or three seasons. Somewhere in the middle, I stopped – possibly when it was in the height of its “Kryptonite-infused Freak of the Week” mode. I was still enjoying the show for the most part, but I didn’t feel compelled to watch.

Tonight, I was compelled.

Why?

Because tonight’s episode featured the Legion of Super-Heroes… or, at least its founding members: Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad and Cosmic Boy:

The episode broke from canon in the how/why of the meeting, but it was still very much in keeping with spirit of both the Superman mythos and Legion lore. Even though I knew that the episode was written by Geoff Johns, I was a little surprised to find that they incorporated a small part of the storyline that Johns wrote in Action Comics.

It was fun to hear the trio banter with – and about – Clark and his significance to the Legion… while still maintaining a bit of awe and confusion about the man that he would become versus the young man they met.

On the whole, the episode was good – despite a couple of slow spots – but I think that Superman fans and Legion fans alike should be quite satisfied after watching it.

Long live the Legion!