Smallville (TV Series)

Absolute Justice (2010)

Tom Welling: Clark Kent

Photos 

Quotes 

• Hawkman : [to Clark]  Dr. Fate says you're a big deal. I don't see it.

  Dr. Fate : Clark Kent is not like the others. His path is righteous.

  Stargirl : If Dr. Fate says he's okay, that means he's okay, right?

  Clark Kent : Why have you been watching us?

  Stargirl : Sylvester wanted to bring together a new Justice Society - One with the surviving members and us new kids.

  Hawkman : It wouldn't have worked, Courtney. People never learn. This generation will make the same mistakes the last one did like the one before that. Obvious by how you've skipped your homework, you don't even know who we are.

  Clark Kent : You don't who we are either. But none of us here are the bad guys.

  [an arrow is shot into the JSA's framed picture, Oliver enters the Brownstone] 

  Oliver Queen : You sure about that, Clark? The winged warrior here threw me through a window.

  Hawkman : I hope I didn't make you cry.

  Oliver Queen : Drop the mace, Conan.

  Hawkman : I will... on your head.

  Oliver Queen : Bring it, Big Bird. Just for the record, you started it.

  Hawkman : I'll finish it.

  [They fight] 

  Stargirl : Hawkman, no!

  John Jones : [Enters]  I hope it's not too late to say, "we come in peace."

• Carter Hall : You're not like the others, are you, Clark? Kids who are in it for the thrills or because they have a chip on their shoulder. You don't do this for glory or vengeance.

  Clark Kent : I guess not.

  Carter Hall : Your team is better than I thought, too. Even I have to admit, Green Arrow has pretty good aim.

  Clark Kent : We're not a team. Not like yours.

  Carter Hall : Why? Because of you?

  Clark Kent : They're the best friends that I have, Carter, but I don't know if we'll ever be what the J.S.A. was.

  Carter Hall : You have to trust them.

  Clark Kent : I do.

  Carter Hall : You have to remember they're people, too. They'll make mistakes. We all do. We all have to keep trying. Isn't that what you said?

• Chloe Sullivan : The real question is, are you okay? I haven't heard from you in days.

  Clark Kent : Yeah, we've been playing phone tag.

  Chloe Sullivan : Uh, no, phone tag implies two people. I've been playing phone solitaire. Not nearly as much fun.

• Courtney Whitmore : Carter, please. There's over a dozen members of the Justice Society still out there. Jay, Ted, Alan. If we didn't team up and stop the Icicle, he'll go after them next.

  Clark Kent : It's obvious you still care about this team. If you didn't, you wouldn't have kept watch over all of this.

  Carter Hall : This is a temporary alliance.

  Clark Kent : Do you have any idea where we can find Icicle?

  Chloe Sullivan : [enters the Brownstone]  I've got one or two. Unless this is costumes only.

  Carter Hall : Who's this, your secretary?

  John Jones : Our eyes and ears.

• Lois Lane : It's not every day that you get an exclusive with a helmet head that can tell you your fate.

  Clark Kent : So... he told you your fate?

  Lois Lane : Huh? Yeah, he was just... babbling about how I'd be there for him and he'd be there for me. It just... sounded like a Valentine's Day card.

  Clark Kent : Who's the "him"?

  Lois Lane : It's ridiculous. Uh, I quote, uh, "savior" slash "sentient power".

  Clark Kent : Do you believe in fate, Lois?

  Lois Lane : Only the kind you make happen.

• Clark Kent : [finding a 16mm film in the Daily Planet archives]  They were systematically caught and taken down.

  Chloe Sullivan : For what?

  Clark Kent : The crimes don't match who they are.

  Chloe Sullivan : They were called con men for a reason, Clark.

  [spotting Sylvester] 

  Chloe Sullivan : That's Sylvester Pemberton.

  Clark Kent : He was accused of embezzling from his own company.

  [spotting Wesley] 

  Clark Kent : That's Wesley Dodds, international business. He had no prior criminal record, until he was arrested at a student demonstration that turned violent. A young woman was killed.

  Chloe Sullivan : Who's that?

  Clark Kent : [matching a name to the face]  Al Pratt. Physics professor at Calvin College. Arrested for assaulting police officers when they went after Dodds.

  Chloe Sullivan : [watching Ted Grant's arrest]  Wait a minute, I know that guy. That's Ted Grant. He's a heavyweight champion, but... how is he involved with these guys?

  Clark Kent : Jay Garrick, a research scientist. He's charged with fraud and resisting arrest.

  Chloe Sullivan : Alan Scott. The CEO of a broadcasting company?

  Clark Kent : Arrested for aiding and abetting. Chloe, they have no connections besides their arrests. They don't even sound like criminals.

  Chloe Sullivan : And I got to say that Abigail Hunkel doesn't exactly strike fear in this hero's heart.

  Clark Kent : Talking about these arrest reports. Each one of them tried to take the fall for the other. And they tried to protect one another.

  Chloe Sullivan : I guess during the golden age of robbery and racketeering, there was honor among thieves.

  Clark Kent : This goes beyond honor. There were missing witnesses, circumstantial evidence, accusations of jury tampering. They stood by one another, and in the end, none of the convictions held up.

  Chloe Sullivan : Almost sounds like you admire them.

  Clark Kent : I admire their loyalty.

  Chloe Sullivan : Well, I'll stay here and finish downloading the 411 on the mystery men the old-fasioned way. You need to go and warn Carter Hall. He's the next name on Pemberton's call list. He called him over a dozen times in the last two days.

  [the film ends] 

  Chloe Sullivan : What kind of a team was this?

• Dr. Fate : Your fate is utterly binding. You are of value, Clark Kent. But you, you walk the same path I do, Chloe Sullivan.

  Clark Kent : Who are you?

  Dr. Fate : Let me show you, my friend.

• Dr. Fate : The hope for tomorrow that your alien friend spoke of - you are that hope. I have seen it.

  Clark Kent : Because you see the future?

  Dr. Fate : I see everyone's fate but my own. Sometimes that scares me. But when I see the future of someone such as yourself, I believe in tomorrow again.

  Clark Kent : When you saw my fate, what did you see?

  Dr. Fate : You will lead this generation as Hawkman once lead ours.

  Clark Kent : You sound like a group I met from the future. They hinted at my destiny, but they were as vague as you are.

  Dr. Fate : Then let me be specific. Although Lex Luthor is your ultimate opponent, you will triumph over him.

  Clark Kent : Lex? Lex is dead.

  Dr. Fate : And when you show yourself to the world, it will be a different age than ours, Clark. A silver age of heroism that will start when they look up into the sky at you with hope for tomorrow. You will have everyone to embrace it.

• Clark Kent : This is Clark. Please leave a message, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

  Chloe Sullivan : Clark, this is Chloe with message number one-too-many.

• Clark Kent : Chloe, are you okay?

  Chloe Sullivan : Yeah. Just some moderate frostbite and a little sleep deprivation. Nothing a cup of hot cocoa and a nap won't fix.

• Clark Kent : [seeing Tess snooping in Lois' desk]  Should I even bother asking? You can either hand those to me or I can take them from you.

  Tess Mercer : Well, it sounds like fun. But given our last few encounters, I should probably stay out of the sandbox.

  [Clark takes the file and opens it] 

  Tess Mercer : Suspicious much? Maybe you two really are perfect for each other.

  Clark Kent : You were smarter when you were leaving.

  Tess Mercer : I always thought it would be hard for you, you know, being boyfriend/girlfriend with someone so nosy. Maybe you're not the only one with a secret.

  Clark Kent : What do you know about this?

  Tess Mercer : Not much. Just that your girlfriend is in way over her head.

• Lois Lane : Front page, Clark.

  Clark Kent : Hey, congratulations.

  Lois Lane : It's hard to believe that a group of underdogs can be swept under the rug like that.

  Clark Kent : Well, at least thanks to you, the world now knows who these heroes are. Hopefully, we'll be seeing more of them.

  Lois Lane : You know, the byline could have read "Lois Lane and Clark Kent."

  Clark Kent : Next time.

• Courtney Whitmore : Part of me wishes Hawkman would find Icicle first. He'd do what I wouldn't. I know it's wrong.

  Clark Kent : It is wrong, Courtney.

  Courtney Whitmore : Sylvester said that. The JSA has always done the right thing. And... in the end, when everything got turned upside down... Hawkman began crossing the line so many times that the line disappeared altogether.

  Clark Kent : Then it's up to you to make it right. You're the next generation.

  Courtney Whitmore : Sylvester said that, too. You're a lot like him.

  Clark Kent : When this is over... don't let the torch that he kept burning, the one that he literally passed on to you, go out. Keep his legacy alive, and you keep him alive.

• Clark Kent : Late night? I heard you were working on some kind of murder case.

  Lois Lane : Cases. Plural. And I've got my hands on a case full of classified intel. Like, double super-classified.

  Clark Kent : Mind if I take a look?

  Lois Lane : Usually, we're a great team, but you already decided to go it solo today, so I just followed suit.

  Clark Kent : I'm sorry that I was out, Lois, but maybe I can assist you. We could be like Woodward and Bernstein. Clark and Lois.

  Lois Lane : Lois and Clark.

  Clark Kent : If it's so double super-classified, how did you get on the case, Lois?

  Lois Lane : I was handpicked by an anonymous source.

• Lois Lane : The two people that were murdered had criminal records. But it's all fabricated. Clark, they were vigilantes like the Blur. Part of an underground group of honest to goodness spandex-sporting superheroes. I met one of them; he was wearing a gold-plated helmet and a cape. Which actually looked pretty good.

  Clark Kent : And that's all you know?

  Lois Lane : No. Their leader, a man named Carter Hall, almost killed one of their enemies. Someone named the Icicle. He had a son. And here's the weird thing. He was plucked from juvie by someone very high up. Sealed records. Now, I'm not supposed to know this... but there were other bad guys that these underground heroes fought, and every single one of them was released from prison secretly. They and their records, MIA.

  Clark Kent : Someone's collecting them.

• Carter Hall : The Justice Society of America was cleaning up the streets before you were in diapers. We tried our best to stay out of the public eye, but... a government task force got wind of our... extracurricular activities. They wanted us to work for them. They wanted us to unmask.

  John Jones : And you said no.

  Carter Hall : We refused to play ball, so they went after us hard. One by one, they uncovered our identities. They had us arrested... and institutionalized. They forced us out of the skies and off the streets.

  Dr. Fate : We were ripped away from our families while trying to protect them.

  Oliver Queen : Then why didn't you fight back?

  Dr. Fate : We did.

  Carter Hall : For as long as we could. As I could. I wasn't the leader they thought I was. I made too many mistakes.

  Clark Kent : I've made mistakes, but I haven't quit.

  Carter Hall : Haven't quit? You haven't started. Not as a team, anyway.

  Clark Kent : You're making this too personal.

  Carter Hall : That is our strength. Not our weakness.

• Chloe Sullivan : [witnessing Clark's interaction with Courtney]  What was that drama about?

  Clark Kent : She obviously has a problem with reporters. She's friends with Sylvester Pemberton.

  Chloe Sullivan : Pemberton knew about Watchtower. He wore some kind of weird uniform, he had a weapon that could control light. He was killed by ice. From someone or something. I'm getting some serious Wall of Weird flashbacks here, Clark. Look, I know that you have a lot of things pressing right now, but this is a job for Clark Kent.

  [handing him her phone, with which she cloned Pemberton's] 

  Chloe Sullivan : His final phone call lasted thirty minutes. It was with a guy named Wesley Dodds. You need to go check it out.

• Clark Kent : I've been meaning to call.

  Chloe Sullivan : Clark, it's okay. No apology is needed. Protecting the streets of Metropolis and chasing down Lois Lane is more than enough to juggle. Add to that you're now leading the secret city of Kandor.

  Clark Kent : I'm only helping them find their place here. They're trying to make Earth their home. Like John Jones did when he got a job in the police department and became a detective.

  Chloe Sullivan : So, what, you're expecting the Kandorians to just become firemen and short-order cooks?

  Clark Kent : They need to make their own lives, and then move on from there.

• Clark Kent : Are you all right?

  Courtney Whitmore : My friend was murdered.

  Clark Kent : I'm sorry.

  Courtney Whitmore : [crying]  I don't know what to do. I don't know what I'm supposed to do.

  Clark Kent : Do you wanna sit down?

  Courtney Whitmore : [noticing his Daily Planet ID badge]  What is wrong with you people?

  Clark Kent : Us people?

  Courtney Whitmore : The press. Haven't you vultures done enough to Sylvester?

  Clark Kent : I wasn't looking for a quote. I...

  Courtney Whitmore : Just stay the hell away from me.

• Clark Kent : Didn't think we'd have to dig this deep.

  Chloe Sullivan : Well, I couldn't find anything online beyond Sylvester Pemberton's rap sheet.

  Clark Kent : [opening a file]  Maybe they didn't want anyone else finding it.

  Chloe Sullivan : They? They who?

  Clark Kent : Sylvester Pemberton worked with twelve other known criminals, including Wesley Dodds.

  Chloe Sullivan : He mentioned bringing a team back together.

  Clark Kent : Back together? That means at some point they broke apart.

• Clark Kent : Who was he?

  Chloe Sullivan : His name was Sylvester Pemberton, but other than that, I haven't got a clue.

  [seeing a doctor pass Sylvester's personal effects to a patrol officer] 

  Chloe Sullivan : But I'm gonna get one.

• Clark Kent : Mr. Hall, I'm Clark Kent from the Daily Planet.

  Carter Hall : [ignoring his handshake offer]  What do you want?

  Clark Kent : I came by to talk to you about a few of your friends. Sylvester Pemberton, Wesley Dodds. They were both murdered.

  Kent Nelson : [nearby, muttering to himself]  Red, white, and blue. Two betrayed. Stars and stripesy, stars and stripe. Sandman doesn't dream anymore. Is Mr. Terrific still terrific? I don't think so.

  Clark Kent : Who's that?

  Kent Nelson : [still muttering]  Who is that? Who is that? Kent Nelson. Dr. Kent Nelson. But the doctor is out. He's gone bowling.

  Carter Hall : My friend is very sick. No, I haven't spoken to Pemberton or Dodds in years.

  Clark Kent : Sylvester Pemberton called your phone several times over the last few days.

  Carter Hall : I didn't answer.

  Clark Kent : Mr. Hall, I understand that you'd be reluctant to talk to the police, given your past, but I...

  Carter Hall : You don't know anything about my past, kid.

  Kent Nelson : [muttering]  No, he doesn't. Tick tock. The Hourman's run out. The Atom is split. No, he doesn't. He doesn't, Nabu, so s-stop whispering.

  [using his x-ray vision, Clark sees a helmet inside Nelson's bag, which turns to look at him of its own accord] 

  Carter Hall : We have nothing else to say.

• Clark Kent : Oliver's searching all over the city for any sign of Courtney. How did they know our identities?

  Chloe Sullivan : I think they've been tracking us a long time, Clark. Let's just hope the prime murder suspect hasn't.

  Clark Kent : Did you find one?

  Chloe Sullivan : Temperature dropped 40 degrees right before Pemberton was attacked.

  Clark Kent : You said that the skin around Pemberton's wounds was covered with ice, just like Wesley Dodds'.

  Chloe Sullivan : This is what led me to Joar Mahkent. Back in Pemberton's day, he was a cryo-kinetic hitman that was called the Icicle.

  Clark Kent : Where's the Icicle now?

  Chloe Sullivan : He's still recovering from some serious injuries he sustained several years ago. He's in the psych ward at Metropolis General.

  Clark Kent : Or at least he's supposed to be.

• Carter Hall : The museum is closed. Permanently.

  Clark Kent : The door was open.

  Carter Hall : Wasn't supposed to be.

• Clark Kent : I can't help but wonder what happened to these people. They were so close.

  Chloe Sullivan : They were criminals, and they were caught. That's what happened.

  Clark Kent : Well, Carter Hall's definitely hiding something else in that museum.

  Chloe Sullivan : Reporter's intuition?

  Clark Kent : Clark Kent's.

• Clark Kent : What is it, Chloe?

  Chloe Sullivan : Dead end. The Icicle's been in a vegetative state for the last decade.

  Clark Kent : If that's true, there's no way he can be our killer.

• Courtney Whitmore : So, what do you call your team anyway?

  Clark Kent : A work in progress.