Jason Bartlett was the supervisor of Project Ares and a supporting antagonist in the WB/CW TV series Smallville's sixth season.
He was portrayed by Ben Ayres.
Biography[]
Combat[]
Bartlett was often seen advising Lex Luthor on latest updates on projects. He apologized for reporting to Lex during his and Lana Lang's time of grieving but Luthor didn't care for his sympathy. He found the Zoner Titan at the destroyed metahuman fight club and gave more information to Lex.
Lex asked if they had Titan alive but Bartlett reported he was dead when their team arrived. Furthermore, they retrieved his body and the autopsy revealed that Titan wasn't human.
Nemesis[]
After Lex escaped from Jodi Keenan, he returned to the facility where it was revealed that her husband, Wes Keenan, was indeed alive and being held captive as a test subject. Bartlett referred to him as "the prototype." Bartlett then reported the prototype was just days from reaching its fullest functioning capacities.
Noir[]
Lex was leaving the hospital after visiting Lana Luthor who was shot at the Daily Planet. Bartlett informed Lex that her attacker was killed while in police custody. He also reported the gun that shot Lana didn't belong to the assailant but to Lex. The gun was unregistered but Bartlett pulled ballistic reports and it matched Lex's gun; the one that had been missing. He speculates that she was carrying it for protection, but Lex didn't know from whom.
Prototype[]
Lex and Bartlett were summoned to his laboratory located underneath Reeves Dam, where the doctor in charge, Donovan Jamison, reported that sections of the laboratory were becoming compromised systematically. The dozens of guards were being completely defeated as an unknown threat grew closer. As Bartlett and the doctor panicked, the door suddenly bursted open.
Lex fired his gun, but the bullets were absorbed by a force-field and a man emerges from the invisible shield and levels the gun at Lex's face. It is Wes Keenan, but instead of shooting, he stopped and waits for further instruction. After having Wes Keenan kill Senator Ed Burke, he returned to the laboratory.
While being monitored by doctors, Bartlett announced there was a witness to the murder. Lex instructed the men to take care of it and they prepare Wes for reprogramming. Lex returned home to spend an intimate night with an unwillingly Lana when Bartlett suddenly appeared and interrupted them who reports that "the asset" failed to return. Lex then left in a hurry apologizing to Lana. Bartlett accompanied Lex who returned to the laboratory and berates the doctor for losing the subject.
Phantom[]
Searching for the last Phantom, Lex found it inhabiting the body of an old man before it escaped and possessed a mail carrier in a neighboring village. Bartlett had the body brought to the facility at Reeves Dam for examination.
Lex demanded they need the entity in a living host. Bartlett explained they are trying to contain it but they discovered a human host could only contain it for about 24 hours, before the host was destroyed. Lex demanded that he and Dr. Jamison try harder as the alien DNA was the only way he can restart his army.
It was later discovered the phantom wraith inhabited the body of a young boy and was collected in an unmarked helicopter. Lex abducted the child and brought him to Reeves Dam to extract the boy's mutated DNA to empower his army of super-soldiers. Lex, Bartlett, and Doctor Jamison were in the laboratory of the dam observing the captured phantom in the boy's form. They take a blood sample to confirm that the phantom is inhabiting the boy. But shortly after the sample was taken, the possessed boy breaks out of the detainment room and kills Bartlett by ripping organs out of his back, as Lex and the doctor tried to escape.
