The Trades
Interview: Al Gough: Black Canary Takes Wing on Smallville
by R.J. Carter
Published: February 6, 2008
In the world of Smallville fans, nothing generates a bigger buzz than the introduction of a new character from the DC Comics pantheon of characters. And with each new debut, either love or hate the character, opinions run strong.
The February 7th episode of Smallville, "Siren," sees the return of Justin Hartley as Oliver Queen (aka Green Arrow) -- and along with him, a certain pretty bird calling herself Black Canary (played by Painkiller Jane's Alaina Huffman). We had an opportunity to speak with Smallville guru, Al Gough, about the appearance of the butt-kicking bird of prey, and what it entails to bring in new DC characters.
What's the overall process for bringing an established DC Comics character into the Smallville-verse? Does a call on the part of Warner Brothers trump a call on the part of DC, or vice versa?
It's our call, usually, if we want to bring somebody in, but then we have to make several calls to make sure we can actually do that -- and that call usually starts with Greg Novack at DC Comics. He's our point person there, and our advocate -- the one who gets us the permission to use these characters, whether it's the Justice League folks we used last year, Supergirl, and now Black Canary. Once we get the signoff from him, we're free to go about incorporating that character into the show.
Without spoiling too much of "Siren" away, how is Black Canary introduced into Smallville?
She's introduced, actually, working for the wrong side. She's actually doing something for Lex, which puts her in the crosshairs of Oliver Queen -- and more importantly, the Green Arrow. We wanted to show the first meeting between Black Canary and Green Arrow -- as we like to describe it, "cute and slightly violent." So that was the setup: if she comes in, it should be the first time she meets Green Arrow.
What similarities and differences will we see in the Smallville Black Canary vs. the DCU version?
I'll be honest with you, I'm not that familiar with her in the comics other than her basic information. She's got the "canary cry," she's got the fishnets, she kicks ass, and I think has a lot of attitude. I think she incorporates the basic tenets of the character from the comic, but I don't know where she stands in the continuity or anything like that at the moment, within the comics.
Before every new season of Smallville kicks off, there is always the raised hope of seeing the other two big guns from DC make some sort of appearance, whether it's a "Young Bruce Wayne" passing through town, or a teenaged Amazon princess assisting against a threat. Is there a hope at all of this ever happening?
Bruce Wayne: No. Wonder Woman: Probably not, but we always ask. It's the movie franchises that prohibit us from doing that.
Can you explain in simple terms how the movie projects tie up the television series, when the properties and medium are both owned by the same corporation?
They just do. We're just told that we can't use that character. It's a corporate decision. Again, Greg Novack at DC is our biggest advocate, and we've certainly run up the hill on both Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince, but haven't had any success so far. With Bruce Wayne, we won't because of the movie franchise, and that's sort of an arbitrary corporate decision that we have no control over.
Along that same vein, was it the rumor of a potential James Cameron "Aquaman" film that killed the chances for the Smallville Aquaman spinoff, Mercy Reef?
No, that became, unfortunately, a victim of the UPN and WB demise, and the formation of the CW. We became a corporate orphan, so to speak. It was more a matter of unfortunate timing than anything else.
Are there plans for any other recognizable characters in the future? The Superman gallery of rogues is a little shallow, but there are still unused heavy hitters like Darkseid or Mongul.
We're always looking, and we're always asking. There's nothing I can reveal at this point, but those things are always in process.
Obviously Tom Welling is getting older and Clark can't stay a young man forever. Are there any plans to develop Smallville into a live-action Justice League series, seeing as how the group has already been formed on the show?
Well, they have a "Justice League" movie in development, which was moving forward, and now because of the writers' strike was sort of sidelined, so I'm not sure whether that's going to come back. But again, in the strange corporate world we live in, I think that would negate any Justice League series on our part, unfortunately.
Eventually Clark will become Superman. But given how things have transpired in Smallville, how will Clark avoid recognition by people who know him so well -- in particular, his former best friend, Lex Luthor?
That will be the challenge when we wrap up the series -- although, we know how we want to do it. It'll feed into the Superman legend. Whether it will be a version people respond to remains to be seen. But we do have ideas as to how to wrap our version of Clark and Smallville into the Superman lore.
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