https://collider.com Read up on the latest Smallville News, Reviews and Features from the team at Collider. Tue, 26 Dec 2023 03:30:19 GMT en-US hourly 60 We all know that Smallville is about a young Clark Kent (Tom Welling) on his way to becoming Superman. It takes him a decade to get there, but once he's there it feels both earned and about time. But what makes Smallville, especially in its earlier years, work so well is the well-placed juxtaposition between Clark and his best frienemy Lex Luthor, played to perfection by Michael Rosenbaum. Still considered by many to be the best interpretation of the character, Smallville's Lex steals the show in every scene he's in, and it's because of his ultimate destiny that we hope (beyond hope) that he won't fall into that same dark pit he always does. Yeah, Smallville is about becoming Superman, but it works because we also get to see the origins of Lex Luthor.

]]> Tue, 26 Dec 2023 03:30:19 GMT https://collider.com/smallville-lex-luthor/ Prime Video’s Reacher was one of the best new shows of 2022, with a standout performance from its lead actor, Alan Ritchson. With Reacher now in Season 2 and a Season 3 renewal already granted, Ritchson as an action star seems way overdue. To many, he’d seemingly come from nowhere to fill (out) the shoes originally worn by Tom Cruise in the character’s eponymous 2012 film and its 2016 sequel, Jack Reacher: Never Back Down. To others, however, Ritchson’s rise to prominence has been a long time coming. DC Comics fans, especially, have watched the actor with interest, remembering his first speaking role as none other than Arthur Curry, aka Aquaman, in the hit CW drama, Smallville.

]]> Mon, 18 Dec 2023 00:46:17 GMT https://collider.com/alan-ritchson-aquaman-smallville/ Smallville is one of those shows that knew how to push the boundaries of what a superhero series could do on television. In many ways, Smallville wasn't a superhero show when it first started and felt more akin to other genre shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But over time, Smallville grew more comfortable with its source material and the identity it could then pull from the original Superman mythos. About halfway through the series' run, this manifested in the journey to the otherworldly Phantom Zone, where our hero was forced to confront the dark threats his father had locked away. But as it turns out, it's precisely because of his time in the Zone that Smallville's Clark Kent (Tom Welling) finds himself embarking on the journey that would mold him into the Man of Steel.

]]> Mon, 11 Dec 2023 23:00:19 GMT https://collider.com/smallville-phantom-zone/ Having aired for an impressive 10 seasons and 217 episodes, Smallville ended in 2011 with a bang as Clark Kent (Tom Welling) finally became Superman. In many ways, Smallville ushered in a new era of superhero television, proving that comic book heroes could in fact still work on the small screen in our modern age. Over a decade, Clark battled many enemies, including his former best friend Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum). Still, despite Lex's destiny as Clark's greatest adversary, there is another who rose up and took his rightful place as the Man of Steel's arch-enemy: General Zod.

]]> Fri, 08 Dec 2023 15:15:17 GMT https://collider.com/smallville-zod/ No actor fits the bill for the Man of Steel quite like Christopher Reeve. While the Superman: The Movie star isn't the only one who can pull off a cape and tights on the big screen, he certainly set the standard. So much so, that when it came down to Reeve's appearance on Smallville, the whole experience was seen as a "passing the torch" moment between Reeve and his young successor, Tom Welling, who played a teenage Clark Kent still discovering his powers and origins.

]]> Fri, 17 Nov 2023 07:00:16 GMT https://collider.com/smallville-christopher-reeve/ Since Superman first appeared on the page back in 1938, there have been countless interpretations of the character via radio serials, television shows, feature films, animated projects, and other non-comic book material that have sought to introduce the character to new audiences. After a few years off the airwaves, the Man of Steel returned to the screen in 2001 for the WB-turned-CW series Smallville. Telling the origin story of a teenage Clark Kent (Tom Welling) as he grew into Superman, Smallville got one thing right about the DC Comics character that other live-action adaptations have failed to highlight: the importance of his relationship with his adoptive parents.

]]> Tue, 14 Nov 2023 10:31:16 GMT https://collider.com/smallville-superman-jonathan-martha-kent/ During Smallville's first seven seasons, viewers watched Michael Rosenbaum's version of Lex Luthor grow more into the classic comic book villain. One person who had a big influence on Lex's dark path was his father Lionel, played by John Glover. In the show's seventh season, Lex sealed his fate as a villain when he murdered his father. On a recent episode of Rosenbaum's Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum podcast, Glover revealed that he suggested to the writers to have Lex kill Lionel.

]]> Wed, 08 Nov 2023 19:25:16 GMT https://collider.com/smallville-season-7-lex-luthor-lionel-john-glover-comments/ There's a longstanding history in the entertainment industry of professional athletes, especially wrestlers, who go from the ring to the screen. John Cena famously plays Peacemaker in the DC Extended Universe, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson got to play Black Adam, but there's another big-name WWE star who has taken to the screen: Dave Bautista. Nowadays, Bautista is probably most closely associated with his work on the Guardians of the Galaxy series, but back in the day, he launched his acting career after first appearing on Smallville.

]]> Mon, 30 Oct 2023 01:45:23 GMT https://collider.com/dave-bautista-smallville/ In our modern age of comic book-related media, it's easy to take live-action superhero teams for granted. With the Marvel Cinematic Universe and shows like Titans, Doom Patrol, and the entire Arrowverse out there, it's clear that we've come a long way since the turn of the century. But one show has often been credited with helping propel the genre forward on television, a WB-turned-CW series about a young Clark Kent (Tom Welling) before he became the Man of Steel. That's right, we're talking about Smallville, and how just over halfway through the series, the show made a serious left turn into superheroics like never before.

]]> Wed, 25 Oct 2023 17:45:21 GMT https://collider.com/smallville-justice-league/ For years, Aquaman was a joke. Just because this character was innately silly and had superpowers that didn’t revolve around killing people, Aquaman became a go-to source for mockery. TV programs like The Big Bang Theory and Family Guy especially were relentless in their withering skewering of this classic superhero, a microcosm of the endlessly witty writing that permeated both shows. However, this ruler of the underwater kingdom had the last laugh in December 2018 when the character finally got a solo live-action movie. After years of Aquaman jokes and problems for the DC Extended Universe (save for the success of 2017’s Wonder Woman), Aquaman became a massive box-office success. In fact, this James Wan directorial effort turned into the biggest DC Comics adaptation in history at the worldwide box office.

]]> Sat, 07 Oct 2023 22:30:28 GMT https://collider.com/aquaman-tv-show/