Season 8 of Smallville to Feature Green Arrow and the Justice League

The Justice League: Mortal film may be in a state of permanent hiatus, but the Justice League fans can get their fix with Season Eight of Smallville. According to reports from TV Guide, the next season of the show will feature other DC Comics heroes right from the beginning of the season.

The season opener (titled "Odyssey") will feature Hartley's Green Arrow along with returning guest heroes the Black Canary (Alaina Huffman) and Aquaman (Alan Ritchson) as they come to Clark's rescue after he was left for dead by Lex in Arctic, last season's finale episode. Additionally, the Martian Manhunter (Phil Morris) will return for the episode.

The recurring theme for season eight of Smallville will be 'double identities', according to new showrunner Kelly Souders. "It's about the Superman identity emerging as Clark Kent tries to maintain a normal life - or the appearance of a normal life." As a part of this theme, the Clark and Lois working relationship will begin as Clark takes a job at the Daily Planet, working across from Lois. "The camaraderie as they work side-by-side that everyone loves from the DC Comics and all the Superman lore is going to come to fruition this year," Souders says. "The two of them are thrown together in some unfortunate situations for Clark. She becomes a little bit of an obstacle to him saving the world, when he's on a deadline."

Souders, who is running the show along with Brian Peterson, Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer, says that the show should maintain a similar tone to that established by Al Gough and Miles Millar, who left the show with the conclusion of the seventh season. All four are long time producers on the show, and according to Souders "Luckily [Al and Miles'] voices are still talking to us in our heads as we're breaking stories. Their visions come to us all the time, so I think they did a great job of preparing us for this day."

Smallville airs Thursday nights on the CW. The drama about the early days of Clark Kent stars Tom Welling, Erica Durance, Allison Mack, Aaron Ashmore and Justin Hartley.