If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But if it works, take advantage of it.
Confession time.
For the first year or so of my comic book obsession, I was completely content with picking up trades and getting my fix that way. And then DC announced something that made me rethink my strategy—Chloe Sullivan was going to start appearing in the pages of Superman. Two days later I was a subscriber to Superman.
By now, we all know that Chloe won’t be appearing in Superman any time soon. And frankly, I’m okay with that considering the watered down version of Chloe that was going to be in the comic. Chloe Sullivan in the comics just doesn’t work, in my opinion, unless she’s chums with Clark. Her character is so clearly defined by her friendship with Clark that it wouldn’t be the same if their history wasn’t part of the continuity.
Say what you will about Smallville creators Al Gough and Miles Millar, but they hit a home run with Chloe. The fact that DC purchased the rights to the character validates my claim. Why else would they do such a thing unless they knew she could be profitable in the future? But I know a way for Chloe to show up in the pages of Superman without messing with her character or her place in Clark Kent’s history.
Chloe Sullivan, meet the Multiverse.
It’s simple. Give the Smallville universe—the one where Chloe is Clark’s best friend, Lois knew Clark in high school, and Jimmy doesn’t like Clark all that much—a place in the DC Multiverse. Last time I checked, there were some Earths not accounted for, so I’m sure TPTB could find a place for all those wonderful versions of the Smallville characters. And when Chloe somehow finds her way to New Earth with the knowledge that Clark Kent is Superman, she can be the character that so many viewers have come to love on Smallville. She won’t have to be Lois’s much younger cousin with a love for journalism who has no kind of relationship with Clark whatsoever. Like I said, Chloe has been such a part of Clark’s life on Smallville that it would be a shame to let the aspects of the show that have worked to go to waste.
And who knows, if introducing the “real” Chloe to the DCU can work, then why couldn’t an ElseWorlds (or Multiverse) version of Smallville that picks up after the end of the TV show work as a comic book, much like what is being done with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly? I guess the point I’m trying to make here is that in its eighth season, the only original characters remaining on the show are Clark and Chloe, and Chloe isn’t even a character from the Superman mythology. For years people have been predicting when she would meet her untimely (or for some people, timely) end, but hasn’t her presence—and the excellent acting by Allison Mack—proven that Chloe Sullivan can have a place in the mythology without compromising what made her so popular in the first place?
By Mandy Stegall