Let it be known that 2001 is the year of re-imaginings. Tim Burton did it with PLANET OF THE APES. Lou Arkoff did it with CREATURE FEATURES. And now Alfred Gogh and Miles Millar do it with Superboy – or, as the WB likes to call it, SMALLVILLE. Taking the Superman franchise and its classic characters back to high school, SMALLVILLE explains what happened to Clark Kent during his formative years – between the boy he thought he was and the man he is destined to become.
As most comic book scholars can attest to, Clark Kent’s life in Smallville, Kansas, and the mythology of the town itself, is a bit foggy. Audiences know he fell from the sky, the last survivor of the doomed planet Krypton. They know he has strange and unusual powers – the result of Earth’s yellow sun. And they know he eventually moves to Metropolis, a mild mannered reporter by day and a super-powered crime-fighter by night. However, just what happened to make him a “good guy” still remains a mystery. Why didn’t he flaunt his newfound abilities, using them to lead a life of indulgence? Just how did Lex Luthor and Superman become arch enemies?
Those questions and more are answered in SMALLVILLE. But I digress…
The year is 1989. The Smallville high school football team is returning from an unexpected win against its cross-town rivals. The citizens of the Midwestern town are celebrating in the streets – all except for Jonathan and Martha Kent. Instead, the childless couple is heading back home, wallowing in the bum hand life has dealt them. Just then, the town is struck by a massive meteor shower. Innocent celebrants are killed, a young Lex Luthor (visiting a neighboring farm with his father, who is in the process of buying it) gets his hair singed off and an unnamed high school student, hung in a corn field like a scarecrow (the result of hazing), is engulfed in an eerie cloud of smoke. Once the chaos settles, Martha and Jonathan find a little boy, his spaceship and the rest is history.
Flash forward to present day…
An adolescent Clark Kent begins to exhibit strange powers (i.e. late for school, he manages to outrun the bus and arrive at class just in the nick of time). His friends Pete and Chloe, Smallville’s resident Mulder and Scully, are quickly introduced, as is the jewel of Clarks heart, Lana Lang. However, whenever he gets close to her, he turns clumsy and nauseous. His friends see this as puppy love, but could it have something to do with that strange green necklace she wears around her neck – the only remembrance she has of her parents who were killed in the meteor shower years before? Whatever it is, Lana’s boyfriend, Whitney, isn’t all that happy.
What happens next can only be described as a cross between LOUIS AND CLARK, ROSWELL and DAWSON’S CREEK. Jonathan confides in Clark the secret of his ancestry and the cause of his super-powers. Clark’s guilt for the part he played in the death of Lana’s parents – the fact that he arrived along with the meteor shower – draws him closer to her and the Kryptonite necklace. Lex, in town running his father’s fertilizer plant, senses something different about Clark and buddies up to him. Oh, and the scarecrow kid from the opening sequence… he shows up again, unaged and with strange electrical powers, seeking vengeance on the football players who hung him out in the corn field all those years ago.
Of course, by the end of the episode everything is tied up in a nice little bundle. Clark begins to accept his destiny, turning to his adoptive Earth parents for guidance. His love for Lana continues to grow from afar, while she begins to show signs of reciprocation. And Superboy… er, Super-Clark takes care of the psycho, rampaging, electro-boy in a non-harmful way.
Following the philosophy of “no flights, no tights,” creators Alfred Gogh and Miles Millar look to tell “real” stories of what it would be like to grow up with Superman-like powers. More so, they look to add to the franchise and mythology by bringing to life the upbringing that made the Man of Steel the all-American do-gooder he is today. However, audiences may not be ready for DAWSON’S CREEK on steroids (case in point: the on again, off again “success” of ROSWELL). Refusing to depict the hero in his traditional red and blues may do more harm than good.
Take as an example the subplot (and I do mean subplot) of the vengeance seeking electro-kid. Not only did his look and abilities come across incredibly cheesy onscreen, but by the time Clark “battles” him, the exchange is downplayed to the point of being anti-climactic. It’s obvious that the producers didn’t want the super-powers to over shadow the human interactions of the story’s characters. However, why use a “super-villain” at all? It’s a classic case of too much and/or not enough being problematic.
However, there are some dangling story points that look ripe for the picking in future episodes – the growing relationship between Clark and Lex being one of them. Bringing to mind images of the Bruce Willis/Samuel L. Jackson starrer UNBREAKABLE, it is interesting to see the two archenemies as best friends at this stage in their lives. Exactly what happens to turn them against each other will definitely keep viewers coming back week after week. As will the X-FILES-like investigations of high schoolers Pete and Chloe. Using their “Wall of Weird” as a starting point (newspaper clips of every strange occurrence in Smallville since the meteor storm hit), the duo is sure to uncover strange dealings that only Clark can handle. Will they uncover the Man of Steel’s deep, dark secret? You’ll just have to watch to find out.
Ultimately, SMALLVILLE looks to tap the void left on the WB by the departure of ROSWELL – the network is even scheduling it opposite its predecessor on the UPN. However, as the veteran series has demonstrated, the teen drama genre market is a tough nut to crack. And if the series continues down the path of cheesy, kryptonite induced super-villains and no red and blue suit for its hero, it may find itself fighting an uphill battle – one that even a good-looking, 20-something cast can’t win.