Since the new TV season seems to be upon us, it is time to reflect back on seven seasons of the CW’s (and a former WB’s) Smallville, essentially the adventures of Superman when he was a teenager.
The original concept of the show was a cross between the Superboy comic books (but no costume or flying) and oldest and newest Superman mythologies: Clark and Lex were friends in Smallville long before Lex became his evil adult self and Clark Kent donned tights and a cape to save the world as Superman. The show borrows heavily from the original concept: Lana Lang, Pete Ross (a character from the Superboy comic books who knew Clark's secret identity, unbeknownst to Clark), and of course Jonathan and Martha Kent. The additions to the mythology: the close personal friendship between Lex and Clark, high school newspaper reporter Chloe Sullivan, and the participation of Lex's father, Lionel Luthor, helps keep the story going and adds to and fleshes out what otherwise could have been a rather simplistic and moralistic story.
Additionally, the show's creator made a character out of Kryptonite. Known in the comic books as pieces of the planet Krypton, the pieces at least originally landed on Earth after first passing through various colored dust clouds, creating different variants with different properties that affected only Kryptonians: Green was deadly, Red temporarily mutated Superman, etc. On Smallville, the Kryptonite arrives in a meteor shower along with the spaceship carrying baby Kal-El. In the opening episode, we learn how the meteors and spaceship arrived on Earth, how the Kents find Clark (for the first time ever portrayed as youngish parents), that a metoer killed Lana’s parents, and that the same meteor shower robs Lex Luthor of his hair as a child.
The town is also transformed from the “Cream Corn Capital of the World,” to the “Meteor Rock Capital of the World,” Unlike the Kryptonite of the comic books, the "meteor rock" (Earth is unaware of the planet Krypton, as is Clark until Season Two) under the right set of circumstances acts as a mutagen to human beings. This allows for the creation of various enemies for Clark to fight (referred to by fans as “freaks of the week”) who because of the Green K influence, are not always easy to vanquish. In later storylines, “meteor rock” becomes a source for scientific study, for better or for worse. Red Kryptonite has no effect on humans, but removes Clark’s inhibitions (turning him into “Bad Clark.”
Throughout most of the series, Clark and Lex struggled to maintain a friendship despite the core tension between them: Lex knows that Clark has a secret and Clark, who wants to tell somebody, just can’t (or won’t). Another significant tension, rising from a nature versus nurture subtext, is Lex's belief that the ends justify the means as opposed to Clark's belief that they do not. The conceit of the show are that these tensions would lead them to become enemies and to their respective destinies. We can be somewhat confident that the writers of the series did not believe that the show would last through the seventh season, let alone eight (and possibly nine?), as the series does show some wear and tear, and has lead to a point where the series may not blend too gracefully with the Superman legend.
Part Two of this post will appear tomorrow.
The original concept of the show was a cross between the Superboy comic books (but no costume or flying) and oldest and newest Superman mythologies: Clark and Lex were friends in Smallville long before Lex became his evil adult self and Clark Kent donned tights and a cape to save the world as Superman. The show borrows heavily from the original concept: Lana Lang, Pete Ross (a character from the Superboy comic books who knew Clark's secret identity, unbeknownst to Clark), and of course Jonathan and Martha Kent. The additions to the mythology: the close personal friendship between Lex and Clark, high school newspaper reporter Chloe Sullivan, and the participation of Lex's father, Lionel Luthor, helps keep the story going and adds to and fleshes out what otherwise could have been a rather simplistic and moralistic story.
Additionally, the show's creator made a character out of Kryptonite. Known in the comic books as pieces of the planet Krypton, the pieces at least originally landed on Earth after first passing through various colored dust clouds, creating different variants with different properties that affected only Kryptonians: Green was deadly, Red temporarily mutated Superman, etc. On Smallville, the Kryptonite arrives in a meteor shower along with the spaceship carrying baby Kal-El. In the opening episode, we learn how the meteors and spaceship arrived on Earth, how the Kents find Clark (for the first time ever portrayed as youngish parents), that a metoer killed Lana’s parents, and that the same meteor shower robs Lex Luthor of his hair as a child.
The town is also transformed from the “Cream Corn Capital of the World,” to the “Meteor Rock Capital of the World,” Unlike the Kryptonite of the comic books, the "meteor rock" (Earth is unaware of the planet Krypton, as is Clark until Season Two) under the right set of circumstances acts as a mutagen to human beings. This allows for the creation of various enemies for Clark to fight (referred to by fans as “freaks of the week”) who because of the Green K influence, are not always easy to vanquish. In later storylines, “meteor rock” becomes a source for scientific study, for better or for worse. Red Kryptonite has no effect on humans, but removes Clark’s inhibitions (turning him into “Bad Clark.”
Throughout most of the series, Clark and Lex struggled to maintain a friendship despite the core tension between them: Lex knows that Clark has a secret and Clark, who wants to tell somebody, just can’t (or won’t). Another significant tension, rising from a nature versus nurture subtext, is Lex's belief that the ends justify the means as opposed to Clark's belief that they do not. The conceit of the show are that these tensions would lead them to become enemies and to their respective destinies. We can be somewhat confident that the writers of the series did not believe that the show would last through the seventh season, let alone eight (and possibly nine?), as the series does show some wear and tear, and has lead to a point where the series may not blend too gracefully with the Superman legend.
Part Two of this post will appear tomorrow.
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