The CW's Smallville has taken a lot from Superman comics over the years, but now it's time for the long-running comic to find inspiration from the series.  Starting with Superman issue 674, being released on March 12, everyone's favorite aspiring reporter, Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack), will be joining the comic book realm.  This is the first time an original character from the television show has made the leap to the Superman comic books.

In an interview with Newsarama, comic book writer Kurt Busiek says that he was inspired to bring in Chloe due to the fact that another famous character, Jimmy Olsen, first appeared in a different form of media.  He was on The Adventures of Superman radio show in 1940 before being adopted by the comics a year later.  “It made me think, ‘Yeah, and the next obvious choice would be bringing in someone like Chloe, but the problem with that would be...' and then bam, a way to do it fell into place that I thought really served the book well, and made her a strong and useful and fun addition to the cast," Busiek said.  "One that would give us several elements to the cast structure that have been missing for years, but in a new and different way."

However, comic book Chloe Sullivan may be slightly different than her television counterpart.  Due to issues with likeness rights, the character has to be drawn to look like Chloe, but can't look too much like Allison Mack.  And though comic Chloe will be an aspiring journalist, roughly the same age as the Smallville version, and still Lois' cousin, she won't be a mirror image of the television character.  For one thing, Clark and Lana are adults in the comic book, and this Chloe is still a teenager.

“The problem we'd have faced if we brought her in with the same background as the TV show is that she'd fill two basic roles -- the Girl from Back Home and the Reporter -- and those roles are both pretty solidly filled in the adult Superman cast, by Lana and Lois,"  Busiek explained.  "So she's got to have a different spin, one that lets her occupy a different role from either of them.  She's the younger sister of someone Clark went to school with, not a classmate of Clark's herself.  As a result, she's the new intern at the Daily Planet, fresh out of journalism school and itching to make a name for herself.  That'll make her clearly different from Lois and Lana, and at the same time more familiar to watchers of the show.”

The other big difference between classic Chloe and the new version is that she won't have superpowers or know Clark's secret.  “No way. No one in Lois' family - save Lois herself - knows the secret," Busiek says.

Though Chloe will be introduced in issue number 674, she'll also feature prominently in 675.  Busiek is staying tight lipped about any future plans for the character, but this is certainly an exciting time to be a Superman fan.

- Don Williams, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: Newsarama.com
(Image courtesy of the CW)