Smallville is a show of beguiling contradiction . It ’s about Clark Kent , but no one refers to him as “ Superman . ” It ’s infuse in DC comics arcana , but began its existence as a WB adolescent dramatic event . It ’s been on the air longer than Seinfeld , but almost no one owns up to watching it . Let ’s cut into into those wacky mannerism of this once unkillable superhero dramatic event , whose series closing curtain airwave date was announce today .
Last October , I was at the New York Comic Con watch Geoff Johns — DC Comics ’ Chief Creative Officer , Green Lantern dealership reinvigorator , andone of DC ’s best - sell authors — address an eager crowd of several hundred Green Lantern loyalists . In inform fan about the publisher ’s plans for the Flash serial and Green Lantern cartoon , Johns told fans that he would be penning an sequence of Smallville about Booster Gold , DC ’s loveable ( albeit repeated loser ) superhero .
This news was greet with an enthusiastic applause and scattered whoop , but what happened next was remarkable . In an off - the cuff scuttlebutt , Johns said something like , “ You really ought to check out Smallville — they ’re doing some cool poppycock for its tenth and final season . ”
I ’m paraphrasing Johns , but have ’s unpackage that notion . Johns was attempting to convince 300 or so ardent member of DC Nation to watch a show about Superman . We exist in an era in which TV and film studio apartment are strip - excavation the lores of all sort of wackadoo and obscure comic characters ( just look at the roll forMatthew Vaughan ’s $ 120 million XTC - Men First Class ) . The theme that this well - regarded Jehovah was modestly suggesting to devoted DC fans to watch a show about the Man of Steel ( in its milestone - packed final time of year , no less ) was unthinkable . It was like I was attending a convention on Bizarro Planet .
high-pitched Re shots of the X - Men : First Class cast have us seriously worried
Of course , Smallville is not plainly a show about Superman . It was spawned from the same aboriginal bouillabaisse that give birth such genre - inflect soaps as Charmed , Roswell , and ( to a more entertainingly ego - aware extent ) Buffy . Unlike these show , Smallville has soldiered on , coelacanth - style , outlast most science fiction shows ( it ’s surpassed every Star Trek series ) . And as Smallville trundled forth , its dramatis personae and themes changed . Original inamorata Kristin Kreuk ( Lana Lang ) and villain Lex Luthor ( Michael Rosenbaum ) were replace with entrant Lois Lane ( Erica Durance ) and Tess Mercer ( Cassidy Freeman ) .
As the shape mature , they evolved from 20 - somethings in high-pitched schoolhouse to 30 - somethings experiencing quarter - life angst . Smallville ’s traffic top out long ago , this prime - metre Methuselahpulls in baffling numbersfor a decade - old show — a little less than the universe of New Mexico ( an calculate 2.4 million viewers ) watched last Friday ’s mid - season premiere . To contrast , the best - selling topnotch - centrical title sell at Diamond comical retail merchant in December was Superman#706(which moved 43,027 copies ) .
The show ’s farsighted run has led to a thematic dissonance as well — Smallville often beat a critical passing game for being escape , but the show reach for politically salient scifi drama . Clark ’s concern about keeping a secret identity from the show ’s other geezerhood have given style to the concluding time of year ’s storyline about the Vigilante Registration Act ( VRA ) , a crusade by a mind - controlling blank space god to quash superheroes using America ’s military industrial complex . The show wants oh - so - dreadfully to be taken gravely , but in doing so , open up itself to pack that makesthe Nuclear Manlook like Spalding Grey . Let ’s take a flavour at a scene from last calendar week ’s episode , “ Collateral . ” In this episode , Clark and his superhero crimebusters have been abducted by the VRA and are storm to live in a Matrix - like reality so the VRA can divine Clark ’s powers . *
[ * Side Note : The once - an - instalment depowering of Clark is an always entertaining face of the program . Almost every week , Clark is subdued by Kryptonite in some form , whether it be a Kryptonite cage or obelisk or Kryptonite - lace drink water that makes him helpless to malevolent crypto - Mennonites ( not get this up ) . It ’s not unlike Night Boat from The Simpsons — “ Every calendar week there ’s a epithelial duct . Or an intake . Or a fjord . ” Unsurprisingly , the show is no unknown toBDSM themes . ]
Smallville gives us Saul Tigh as Deathstroke ( and erotic waterboarding )
In this sequence , Chloe Sullivan ( one - time serial even Allison Mack ) rescues her boyfriend the Green Arrow ( Justin Hartley ) from the computer using a little Gun Kata . By pervade a Superman show ( arguably the least psychoneurotic of democratic superheroes ) with grimy Wachowski - lite gunplay , Smallville stumbles in its attempt at ethnical relevancy . Yes , Smallville walks a strange line between nubbly hokum and pomo superhero grittiness . Clark may fightevil trenchcoat - invest Kryptoniansor governance assassins , but there must be one required scene in every episode that takes topographic point at the Kent b .
The once - an - instalment mandate coming into court of the Kent barn is a metaphor for the show ’s WB past times — as much as the plot veers into high-pitched - espionage prank or the highfalutin world of Metropolis , the show ca n’t get by its adolescence . A plebeian complaint levied against Smallville is that it ’s time of year 10 , and Clark ’s only now learning to fly . My big trouble has always been that there ’s a guy who can ramble at the speed of sound , but we perpetually see him hang around in the hay .
Smallville ’s occasional endeavor at high-pitched drama aside , perhaps the strangest facet of the show is its mostly nonexistent human relationship with comics culture . Here is a show that has accomplish TV ubiquity and regularly mines DC footnotes for stirring ( guest appearances by Stargirl , Deadshot , and Silver Banshee ! ) , but it receive but a passing nod from the comic - reading biotic community — heck , the most revenant comment in Smallville recapitulate around io9 has been the snarky ( and from time to time sincerely fuddle ) , “ This is still on the air ? ”
Smallville was n’t the most profound show out there , but it was one of the most resilient . Let us not dance on its grave , but remember its quirks . Someday we too will be force to go the great Kent b in the sky , and cocksucker , it ’s no lowly feat to stay on the air as long as JAG . Its two - time of day finale airsFriday , May 13 at 8:00 PM . Smallville will be 10 .
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