For 10 seasons, Tom Welling’s Clark Kent stood for truth, justice, and teen melodrama on “Smallville”.
On May 13, 2011 — 15 years ago to this day — the popular DC show concluded with a fist-pumping final scene where Clark rips open his shirt to display the iconic Superman logo while John Williams’ unmistakable score rings like a battle cry. The perfect ending to an imperfect series that treated canon like a piñata, beating the tar out of it until it resembled whatever the showrunners wanted. Yet, at its core, it’s still the most human story about the man beneath the Man of Steel.
Part superhero series, part teen drama, the show spotlights a teenage Clark living with his loving adopted parents — Jonathan (John Schneider) and Martha Kent (Annette O’Toole) — all the way to him becoming a reporter (albeit an unreliable and flaky one) for the Daily Planet. It’s both a coming-of-age and coming-of-powers story, but it doesn’t put the character in the famous costume until the very end. Even though Clark often wears red and blue clothing as an allusion to his alter ego, he isn’t zipping around as the Man of Steel throughout the episodes. The reason is simple: this show is about Clark – not Superman.
Like any series of this nature, “Smallville” is as much about its supporting cast as it is its lead. Clark’s adventures become all the more memorable because of his interactions and assistance from pals like Pete Ross (Sam Jones III), Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack), and even frenemy Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) in the earlier seasons.
Rosenbaum’s complicated and deeply layered portrayal of Lex continues to receive praise to this very day, with even DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn labelling him the best Lex of all time. The character isn’t the conniving, megalomaniac villain whom fans have become accustomed to, as his arc features critical points where viewers question if there might be a better path for the character, where he becomes a hero alongside Clark. Alas, it’s written in the stars that Lex is meant to be Supe’s greatest nemesis and a stereotypical terrible rich dude in the end.
Speaking of the stars, “Smallville” also features Clark’s powerful cousin, Kara Zor-El (Laura Vandervoort), too. She receives a significant storyline push in the seventh season of the show, as she’s awoken from an 18-year sleep to a fish-out-of-the-water experience on Earth. Prior to “Smallville”, Supergirl had only appeared in one live-action adaptation: the horrendous 1984 film that could have doubled as bleach for the eyes. Fortunately, this show offers a better version of the character, while it also undoubtedly inspired the future “Supergirl” series, starring Melissa Benoist, and 2026’s upcoming “Supergirl” movie featuring Milly Alcock as the Woman of Tomorrow.
For all its positives, many purists can’t escape the fact that “Smallville” is a canonically inaccurate story. This is a different version of Clark than the one audiences may know from previous “Superman” movies and the comics. While there are recognizable narrative beats — such as him falling in love with Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk) before Lois Lane (Erica Durance) and keeping his powers secret — many creative liberties are taken to assimilate and pack decades’ worth of lore into 10 seasons.
For instance, a prototype version of the Justice League forms with Clark teaming up with the Green Arrow (Justin Hartley), Aquaman (Alan Ritchson), Bart Allen (Kyle Gallner), and Cyborg (Lee Thompson Young). Notably, Wonder Woman and Batman are missing from this lineup, and the show skips a few Flashes ahead through Bart’s inclusion ahead of his grandfather, Barry, and cousin Wally West. Let’s just blame Barry here; he probably jogged on the Cosmic Treadmill again and messed up the timeline!
Oh, and who could forget how the monstrosity known as Doomsday is turned into a Jekyll and Hyde paramedic named Davis Bloome (Sam Witwer), while Zod (Callum Blue) borrows a page out of Captain Howdy’s playbook by possessing Lex’s body. Not every creative decision made by this show is a home run, but it was ambitious and daring in a way modern superhero renditions are rarely allowed to be.
“The whole premise of the show was not canon,” Millar told The Hollywood Reporter. “The idea that Clark arrived in the meteor shower that killed people, and that Lex was there. All those things were completely new, added to the mythology of Superman, but we categorically would not be allowed to make that show and make those changes today, which is a real tragedy because I think what’s amazing, if you look at the history of comics and these characters, is they’re always evolving.”
It’s a fair point. DC’s own canon is held up by two toothpicks at best, so why not view the show through an Elseworlds lens? If the showrunners didn’t inject a little flair for the dramatic here, would anyone be interested in watching a series where Clark needs to do math homework and try to find the new Limp Bizkit album in a Smallville record store? In comic book canon, Clark’s earlier years are actually pretty boring!
Regardless of how anybody looks back on “Smallville”, two things remain true. One, it changed the course of comic book adaptations on TV for the better, opening the door for others, like the Arrowverse, to follow.
But perhaps more importantly, it’s still the best onscreen adaptation of Clark Kent. We watched the boy become a man over 10 seasons, finding out what makes him happy, sad, and indifferent. Watching the moments that forged his moral core. Everything that led to him becoming Superman.
While “Smallville” is far from the perfect series, or even the best superhero adaptation of all time, its legacy cannot be understated. It’s a unique take on one of the greatest heroes in pop culture, focusing on what is his most powerful quality: his humanity.
You can watch all ten seasons of Smallville on either Disney+ or Hulu.