It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Superman! But wait -- where's the suit? And why isn't he trying to save the world? Yes, it's still the famous caped crusader we all know and love, but this time he's an awkward teenager struggling to survive in that dangerous jungle we call high school. "Smallville," a new original WB series, follows the daily trials and tribulations of a young Clark Kent (Tom Welling) as he deals with typical teenage problems; you know -- zits, homework, bullies, emerging superpowers.
In the pilot episode (which premieres tonight at 10:00 p.m.), a meteor shower erupts from the heavens, disturbing the innocent townspeople of Smallville, Kansas -- a.k.a. the "cream corn capital of the world" -- and changing their lives forever. Jonathan (John Schneider) and Martha Kent (Annette O'Toole) discover baby Superman lying in a spacecraft in a cornfield and adopt him as their own son. The special effects here are wonderful, with all the action of a superhero adventure movie, only on network television. In the opening scene, we meet Superman's parents before they discover their "special" child and we see Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk) as a little girl.
Meanwhile, the ruthless Lionel Luthor buys a farm from a local and brings his son Lex (Michael Rosenbaum) along.
Now fast forward 12 years to the present when Clark, Lana and company are teenagers in high school. Far from being the fearless hero he (according to the comic books anyway) becomes later in life, the WB's Superman is a bumbling teenager who falls flat on his face whenever he gets near the object of his affections, the beautiful and popular Lana.
Lana, however, sports a kryptonite necklace; that weak and dizzy feeling Clark harbors whenever he gets too close to her isn't just a simple case of love-sickness.
Unfortunately, Lana is just another WB stock character of the unattainable girl-next-door who is so beautiful you want to hate her, but so sweet and innocent that you cannot. Lana is -- surprise, surprise -- dating the star quarterback of the football team, Whitney Fordman (Eric Johnson). However, in general, Smallville High School has stayed away from the "nerds vs. cool kids" stereotypes so often portrayed on prime-time television shows about teens.
Lex Luthor -- who, for those of you unfamiliar with the popular comic, becomes Superman's evil archnemesis in his later years -- forms an ironic friendship with Clark, when the boy saves his life early on in the pilot episode. Their friendship causes some tension between Clark and his father, since Jonathan associates Lex with his merciless businessman father and refuses to trust him. Clark's friends Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack) and Pete Ross (Sam Jones III) do a great job of keeping Clark grounded.
Tom Welling certainly does a wonderful job as Clark Kent. He has the striking good looks of our favorite hero and the charm and sensitivity that the WB has mastered so many times before.
In the premier episode, Clark decides to join the football team in order to avoid being the "Scarecrow" (the football team's annual tradition of stripping down an innocent victim then hanging him from the cross in the cornfield). Though his father warns him that he could seriously injure somebody with his incredible strength, he joins the team anyway. His plan backfires, however, when Whitney gets jealous of Clark after seeing him together with Lana, and decides to make Clark the Scarecrow.
It's teenage hazing at its finest as the football players throw Clark in the back of their truck -- Whitney too wears a kryptonite necklace, weakening Clark's superpowers for the time being -- and hang him from the cross.
He is rescued by the "Scarecrow" from 12 years earlier who, when the meteor hit, was transformed into an electrically-charged villain who Superman must destroy before he takes revenge on the students of Smallville High School. In the final, "Carrie"-like scene, Superman (or shall I say Superboy) saves the day.
"Smallville" is DC Comics meets prime-time television; all the action and adventure of the world of the caped crusaders coated with the saccharine teenage melodrama that only the WB can reproduce. While the premise is obviously farfetched, the acting is sincere, though some of the details are clich. I mean, have teenage girls shed their diamonds for kryptonite? And watching Lana Lang return home from a high school dance as Clark eyes her longingly from a distance reminded me a little too much of, well, the end of every single episode of "Dawson's Creek."
The concept, though, is very original and leaves room for a great deal of creativity. The writers must now answer the inevitable swarm of questions that will arise: So can Superman lead a normal life? Will Lana ever get rid of her kryptonite necklace? And the question that is, I'm sure, on all of your minds: Can Superman have sex?
From running faster than the schoolbus and beating everyone to school to saving his friends from the wrath of the Scarecrow, this Superman definitely makes the typical WB high school scene less dull than usual. Just keep that kryptonite away and you have the potential for a promising new series.
