Some of you may not know this, but before the creation of the Arrowverse surrounded by Stephen Amell’s Green Arrow, there was a little show called, Smallville. Smallville focuses on a young Clark Kent going through high school while learning about his abilities. The adaptation of Superman that we usually see focuses on an already well-established superhero who understands what his abilities are and how to use and control them. In Smallville, Clark is constantly learning what abilities he possesses and with the help of his adoptive parents, he learns how to blend in with the rest of his normal classmates, as much as an alien from another planet can. If you are a fan of the Arrowverse led by Stephen Amell’s Green Arrow and were left dying for more content, then a great place to look would be Smallville. Although it may be a much older show, it contains all the elements that made the Arrowverse so great.
The Arrowverse begins with The Green Arrow in his early vigilante days after his return from surviving the treacherous island known as Lian Yu. Shortly after his return to Starling City, later known as Star City, more heroes are formed such as The Flash, Supergirl, Batwoman, Black Lightning, Superman, and more! Unfortunately, many of these heroes do not start off on the same Earth. This universe did a great job introducing us to a live-action superhero multiverse! During the finale of Crisis on Infinite Earths, the original multiverse was destroyed before Oliver Queen, now known as Specter, created a new multiverse, thrusting all these heroes onto one Earth. Throughout this Crisis event, there was even a scene where Lex Luthor, from the Arrowverse, went from multiverse to multiverse attempting to get rid of every version of Superman throughout the universe until he found the one Superman he couldn’t defeat and it was none other than Tom Welling’s Clark Kent from Smallville. Lex is shocked when he attempts to destroy Superman using Kryptonite and it does absolutely nothing. It turns out that this version of Kal El eventually gave up his powers and Kryptonite is now useless against him. That scene alone creates so many questions!
Although Arrow did a fantastic job creating an entire superhero universe, it was not the first to do so. Before that, there was Smallville which was focused on building a world surrounded by Superman instead of surrounded by The Green Arrow. Although the show was primarily focused on Superman, it had several episodes dedicated to introducing beloved characters such as Aquaman, Impulse, Cyborg, and The Green Arrow. Each episode did a fantastic job introducing their characters and relationship to Clark Kent. Soon after Oliver Queen and Clark Kent discover each other’s secret identities, The Green Arrow recruits several others with abilities to form a team who share his interest in getting justice for the innocent. It turns out that the team consists of many of the people that Clark has had encounters with such as Impulse aka Bart Allen, Aquaman aka Arthur Curry, and Cyborg aka Victor Stone. In one episode titled, “Justice” in season six, Clark assists the team in rescuing Bart from one of Lex Luthor’s laboratories where he has his experiments done on people with abilities. Although he does not join the team right away it is a great sneak peek at what the future holds for the young Kryptonian!
A unique storyline in Smallville is Kal El’s love interest. Many of us, if not all of us, know and love the great reporter from the Daily Planet known as Lois Lane. However, Lois wasn’t introduced into the series until season four. For the first six seasons, Lana Lang was the only girl Clark had eyes for. In fact, Clark couldn’t stand Lois’ personality in the beginning. She was the complete opposite of Lana, but eventually, she grew on him. There are several moments that hint at their future relationship but before that, Lois is involved briefly with Aquaman and has a committed relationship with The Green Arrow. At one point she almost finds out that Oliver is the masked vigilante until Clark helps him conceal his identity.
Watching Smallville is similar to watching the first three Star Wars movies, especially Revenge of the Sith. In the Star Wars prequels, we get to see how Anakin Skywalker transitions to Darth Vader over time. We see not only how it happens, but we see all the reasons why it happens and how it could have been prevented. In Smallville, we see how Lex Luthor and Clark Kent start their relationship as close friends, and as time goes on more and more factors contribute to the rift in their friendship until finally, they become mortal enemies. There are even several scenes throughout the show that foreshadow their destiny. We get to see how Lex Luthor turns from good to evil. Although he typically has good intentions throughout the show, we witness his downfall and rise to villainy. This show may be older, but if you haven’t seen it, just know that it is a fresh take on a handful of characters within the universe surrounded by Superman.
