Superman
I like Smallville.
Even geeks have our guilty pleasures. Let me add that I have been perpetually two to three seasons behind. I’ve just finished Season 7 which sees Lex discovering Clark’s secret and causing something really bad to happen at the Fortress of Solitude.
For up to date fans of the show, this is old news.
But one question that starts to surface by season 7 which I believe is still being asked by the aux currant fans is: When will Clark become Superman??
Age is not an issue yet. After all, Clark is still in his early twenties and it’s SuperMAN, not SuperGUY. So there’s time. The issue is the events in Clark’s life up until now. There is not much left for him to discover as Superman as he’s encountered just about every major bad guy from his comics rogue gallery already.
But I’ll let the writers of Smallville worry about that. I’ve always felt that Smallville could be subtitled: Becoming Superman – the Hard Way.
And this is what makes Smallville so engrossing to me as a Superman fan: it tells the type of stories that are hard to do with a fully formed Superman. After all, Superman is a tricky franchise: make him too powerful and he’s not relate-able. Underpower him and he’s no longer Superman.
Smallville manages this balancing act pretty well (for the most part) and it helps when Clark still can’t fly.
By the way, when is Clark gonna fly!???
Smallville is now like a pregnant woman at nine and a half months. It’s ready to blow. Clark has been through every trial and tribulation imaginable in ten years and has emerged from each a step closer to becoming Superman – not in powers, but in heart.
And that’s the story that has never been told about Superman in quite this way. He’s more than the sum of his powers. Superman is an ideal. He’s better than us, not because he’s faster than a speeding bullet, but because he will value the life of even the criminal who fired the gun. Superman challenges us to be better than we are and Smallville shows how Clark learned that lesson.
Who we are left with is a Superman with a real honest to goodness past to that we can relate. All other incarnations of Superman (Even Christopher Reeves – my favorite) give lip service to the time that molded Clark into the Superman he becomes. That’s not their fault – they only have two hours to tell the story, but then Superman becomes more alien to us.
We have to assume the Ma and Pa Kent just did good.
With Smallville we watch it happen. Even Tom Welling has grown as an actor into playing Superman convincingly.
So why should Smallville become Superman? Because it could be the most fully formed and well rounded Superman ever. I would love to watch Tom Welling and cast carry on the Adventures of Superman with all the back story that they have earned. Erica Durance is a Lois Lane that I would watch along with Tom Welling’s Superman for another ten years. And Michael Rosenbaum?? Don’t even get me started on how great he is as Lex Luthor. In a world of Lex’s dominated by Gene Hackman and Kevin Spacey, Rosenbaum gives a stellar third alternative. I want to see Smallville’s Superman, Lois Lane and Lex Luthor go at it.
Come on, CW. Do it.
Call it Metropolis.
Nice post, and you got something up first for this summer! Nice.
I have never gotten around to Smallville, for two basic reasons. At first I was not interested in what I thought would be a Dawson’s Creek take on Superman. Then later I felt like I was too far behind to get into it.
But lately I have had quite a few people recommend it, and not in that You need to watch it now ’cause its like the best show ever way, but by describing scenarios and character interactions in really compelling detail.
So maybe the time has finally come for me to check it out.
I know! ‘Bout time, right?
I was a late comer too for the very same reason. I finally rented the first season a few years ago and just watched it at my own pace. Now I’m hooked.