Superman & Lois Gives Teenage Clark Kent His Own Smallville-Blur Saga

Superman & Lois is continuing its nods and tribute to Smallville, as the Arrowverse’s Clark Kent followed a similar path during his teenage years. The CW has had the opportunity to be the home of not just one, but two different Superman series. When The WB and UPN merged into The CW, Smallville was one of the shows to carry over into the new network where it ran for an additional five seasons. Tom Welling’s show paved the way for how DC TV is today and some of the properties are honoring Smallville in their own ways, including Superman & Lois. The episode “The Best of Smallville” became another opportunity for Superman & Lois to pay homage to Welling’s series.

While the new Arrowverse show follows Clark Kent as the established hero and parent, his Superman has a few similarities to Smallville’s incarnation. Even though both his parents are dead, Superman & Lois is including flashbacks of Clark growing up in the small town that was crucial to his upbringing. Just like Welling’s Clark, Hoechlin’s teenage version, played by Dylan Kingwell, never ended up operating as Superboy. However, Clark would still be stopping crimes and saving people during his time in Smallville. The fifth episode included a flashback of Clark stopping a robbery from happening at an electronic shop.

Despite not wearing a costume, Superman & Lois’ teenage Clark had his own little saga as a crime fighter before becoming the Man of Tomorrow. However, similarly to Smallville’s Clark, the Arrowverse version didn’t do a costume initially and instead wore a black hoodie and a ski-mask. Martha Kent obviously wasn’t thrilled with her son running around as a vigilante. But Martha recognized that Clark was meant for bigger things and the two came to an understanding about it. Clark’s vigilante activity was a clever way to pay tribute to when Welling’s Superman went by The Blur, whose costume consisted of a black trench coat and a silver House of El symbol on his chest.

It makes sense, from an overall perspective, for Superman & Lois to continue making these nods to Smallville. Even though Welling’s show ended in 2011, for Hoechlin’s series to be set again in the small Kansas town is relatively recent for The CW. For Smallville’s first seven years, it was heavily taking place in that town as Clark learned more about his powers, explored his Kryptonian heritage, and went through trials and tribulations that would help him become Superman in season 10. The final three seasons are when Smallville was more focused on Clark’s life in Metropolis, working at the Daily Planet and beginning his romance with Lois Lane.

Superman & Lois choosing to exclude their Clark having had a Superboy phase in his teen years also makes sense. With Jordan Kent still learning about his powers, the Arrowverse is more or less setting him up to be its Superboy. It allows Superman & Lois to use that title more uniquely as opposed to just passing on one of Clark’s earlier superhero identities before he became the Man of Steel. As much as it does help Superman & Lois to set up Jordan’s potential path, it was also another fun way to honor Smallville and its Blur-phase.

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Andy Behbakht
(1043 Articles Published)

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Andy is a senior writer at Screen Rant as he has covered the world of entertainment journalism since 2010, including superhero/comic book media. In addition to his work as a reporter, Andy co-hosts The Flash Podcast while running and producing the entire DC TV Podcasts network. He is also the founder/editor-in-chief of The Marvel Report since Fall 2015. Andy has previously written for sites such as FanSided, KSiteTV, TV Fanatic, It’s Just Movies, Heroic Hollywood, TV Overmind, and more.

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