Challenge: How would you integrate Bruce Wayne in Smallville?

[u/Ivan_Redditor]

So, let’s say WB didn’t put their bullshit restrictions on TV Batman and CW was actually allowed to put the Caped Crusader in the show. What season would you put him in and how would you write him?

(Adam Knight doesn’t count, since it’s already been debunked by Gough and Millar that he was never intended to be Batman)

(I’m also aware that Smallville was originally a Batman origin show before being reworked into a Superman one)

[u/DrHypester]

I'd basically make him a combination of Adam Knight, one of the Justice League kids and Oliver Queen/Green Arrow.

Start with a guest episode, where Clark is out in the world (maybe even make it a season premiere) and he ends up in a monastery where this guy Bruce is learning some deep meditative practices and it helps both of them get their shit together to defend the place, and then they go their separate ways.

In fact, you could do this twice, bring him back for a second episode where Zatara rolls through Smallville or Metropolis doing his show and you can guest both young Zatanna and Bruce Wayne as his assistants/trainees and Bruce can teach Clark to escape from Kryptonite or something.

Then you have a season where Bruce is actually IN Smallville, because he's learning business from Lionel or medicine from Dr. McIntyre or secret societies from Genevive Teague or whatever, it almost doesn't matter, he'd just be a recurring character. If you really wanted to keep him on you could have him do the same thing in Metropolis, learning genetics from Emil Hamilton or something like that.

Then the next time we see him, he's starting as Batman, works with the newbie Justice League (perhaps in Oliver's place), then he has a whole Batsuit and is caught up with Chloe Sullivan and whomever else while working in Gotham City and frequenting Metropolis as a business rival of Lex's and love interest for Chloe.

[u/Willravel]

I'd set a few specific rules:

1) Bruce Wayne never needs to set foot in Smallville, so keep him in Gotham.

2) We don't see Bruce until season 9 or 10 of Smallville.

3) Bruce four years older than Clark.

4) Bruce is essentially the same man as he is in Chapter One of Batman: Year One, meaning he's come back after 12 years of being gone since he was age 15.

5) We NEVER see Batman.

Clark follows clues of criminality to Gotham, runs into a vigilante, meets Bruce, never connects the dots.

[u/EEEELifeWaster]

I'd have him set during the period where he's still figuring out how to become a vigilante. He's not Batman yet, he's just a random vigilante figuring out how to be Batman kinda like Gotham.

He'll team up with Clark as both the vigilante and Bruce. I feel like it would be VERY likely that Clark knows Bruce is gonna be Batman.

Multipl episodes could see Clark and Bruce go up against Batman villains/proto-Batman villains (Like Ra's Al Ghul, Penguin before he gets called that, Carmine Falcone, Scarecrow before he gets called that and etc.)

His last appearance on the show could see the scene where the Bat crashes through his window and he finally becomes Batman.

The finale could see mentions of a Bat vigilante in Gotham.

[u/CultofLeague]

Clark finds himself in a maximum security prison due to him investigating the machinations of Lionel Luthor. Unfortunately, he finds that the prison is being powered by a Kryptonite power source which nullifies his powers, forcing him to have to find friends that arrange for a prison break, even as he's constantly questioned and singled out by one of the guards. Along the way he uncovers the corruption and abuse of the inmates, including Meteor freaks Clark had long ago forgotten about.

Halfway through the episode, Clark finds out the name of the prison is Blackgate Prison and just when he tries to stages an escape, he is betrayed by the inmates and Meteor freaks he's been trying to befriend.

Just when all hope seems lost, the security guard who's constantly questioning Clark talks to him while in maximum isolation. He offers help to Clark, knowingly telling him that he knows he isn't supposed to be in there. Together they hatch a plot to compromise the security and force the government to intercede.

The plot goes off successfully, but when all is said and done, Clark loses all track of this mysterious guard who is known only in the system as Matches Malone, a name that seemingly only appeared in the prison system a few weeks before Clark arrived.

The episode ends with Clark watching a news announcement that Wayne Enterprises is funding and sponsoring a rehabilitation program for many of the inmates and Meteor Freaks. Meanwhile, the camera pans to the back of "Matches" who gives over a remnant of the broken Kryptonite to someone named "Lucius" and instructs them to inspect it and keep it safe, as "Matches" watches a monitor where Clark's abilities in the prison are observed.

Knowing how Smallville episodes go, there would usually have to be something more obvious inserted there to make it more obvious for casual viewers who this person is, but I think this summary would work for the producers to 1) Make a soft, soft Batman introduction that they could later retcon as not being Batman if they feel WB getting cold feet about having Batman around and 2) lay the groundwork for Bruce to have a gradually increasing recurring role as the show goes on and actually have that "It's Bruce Wayne!" introductory episode later on.

[u/AdrenalineRush1996]

I'd have him appear in the final season but he wouldn't don the mantle until the flashforward. Could see someone like David Boreanaz playing him.