Super Ringo!

Beatles drummer Ringo Starr is teaming up with comic-book legend Stan Lee to become an animated super-hero, CNN reports here.

This will mark the 4th animated incarnation of Ringo, but only the second time he voices himself. In the 1964-65 Beatles cartoon and in the 1968 animated feature, Yellow Submarine, Ringo (like the other Beatles) was voiced by another actor. He appeared as an animated version of himself in an episode of The Simpsons.

Remember Smallville?

OK, Smallville returns this week with a new episode for the first time in over a month. I never did a review of the last new episode, so let’s just do a quick recap. The episode was more of a set-up for future storylines with the convenient plot device of a fear toxin. A LuthorCorp accident releases a gas that causes victims to see their worst fear realized before putting them in Nicodemus-flower-like comas.

Jason: (who was at LuthorCorp applying for a job, unbeknownst to Lana), Jason is afraid that a) Lana fears he has an ulterior motive in following her from Paris to Smallville and b) that she is still in love with Clark (duh). So, obviously, Jason must have something to hide that he’s afraid Lana will discover. Something to do with his mother, perhaps?

Lana: afraid that everyone she loves will die like her parents did. No revelations there, moving on.

Clark: Lana will discover that he is an alien responsible for the death of her parents. Again, nothing new here. He quickly shakes off the effects. Next.

Chloe: discovers her mother isn’t dead, but is actually institutionalized, then fearing that heredity will cause the same thing to happen to her. Actually at the end of the episode we learn this is the truth about her mother. This is an interesting development.

Lex: (who purposely exposed himself to it to help find the cure. OK): has a repeat of the vision he saw in the first season of him as president in a black glove, smiling as he brings about Armageddon (the actual Apocalypse, not the movie. THAT would be a big fear), so I guess he fears he will become mankind’s worst enemy. Alright, Lex fear big, baby!

That covers the fears we are privy to. Meanwhile, Lionel, still claiming to be on the side of good (after body-swapping with Clark in an earlier episode) is released from prison by a mysterious benefactor. As he walks out of prison, he is greeted by a limo occupied by someone he recognizes, but we don’t see. Who could it be?

Also, as Chloe confides to Clark her mother’s secret, she hints that she may have also discovered Clark’s secret.

OK, that sums it up. On with the new episodes.

Johnny Carson R.I.P.