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Smallville’年代克拉克·肯特the Perfect Sendoff on The CW’s Crisis on Infinite Earths

♫Somebody saveeeeeeeeeee me♫

ByRachel Leishman Dec 10th, 2019, 1:23 pm

Tom Welling as Clark Kent

When it comes toSmallville,many of us remember watching the show back in 2001. I was ten when it started and in love with Tom Welling because, come on, can you blame me? I wore my Kryptonite necklace to school every day and would try to talk to my brother about theories like he didn’t know infinitely more than I did about Superman and his lore.

But, like all good things,Smallvillehad to come to an end, and did so without Clark Kent ever really wearing the Superman suit that we have come to know and love. The show, which spawned countless fanfic accounts for Clark and Lex Luthor, is something of a cult classic, I suppose. If you can push past Allison Mack’s involvement (she played Chloe Sullivan on the show), then you can watch all ten seasons and fall in love with the teenage Clark Kent as he grows into the Clark we know and love at the Daily Planet.

So, when the news broke that Tom Welling was returning to hisSmallvilleroots to play Clark in The CW’s Arrowverse Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event, my brother and I both had expectations for where we would see the character go. What neither of us excepted was for Clark to have a very fitting end that really had nothing to do with his Superman ways at all.

When Lex Luthor (played by Jon Cryer) comes to Earth-167, Clark Kent is outside his home in Smallville, Kansas, chopping wood. Lex comes and is ready to kill Superman on every Earth and hands Clark a bit of Kryptonite to do so, but surprisingly, it has no effect on him.

In an incredible twist, all Clark Kent fromSmallvillewants is a family. Throughout the run of the show, the death of his father, Jonathan Kent, weighed on Clark because for the first time really in Superman history, we got to explore their relationship more and more. We saw the tension when Clark wanted to play football and when he went behind Jonathan’s back to do so. We saw their love and their growth in ways that have always been brushed aside in other properties.

So the fact that Clark Kent was Superman up until he had his own kid and then gave it all up to be there for his daughters? It would have made Jonathan Kent proud, and as far as we know, Earth-167 doesn’t need a Superman, so him giving up his powers isn’t selfish, but rather, the best thing for the world and for Clark and his family. It’s a beautiful end to a show that built a relationship around Clark and his Earth parents that never existed that much in the other screen adaptations, and seeing Clark in this way now, after all these years, is the perfect end to a beautiful series.

Twitter also shared their love of bothSmallvilleand Clark’s ending after last night’s episode.

Sure, there is an argument that Lois Lane and Clark Kent would have worked something out so he could still be Superman, but guess what? As I previously said, we don’t know what this world is like. Clark Kent might not need to be Superman anymore, and if he gave all that up for his family, it just makes me love him even more because he’s making Jonathan and Martha Kent proud.

(image: Dean Buscher/The CW)

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Rachel Leishman - Assistant Editor

Rachel (she/her) is an I, Tonya stan who used to have a poster of Frank Sinatra on her wall as a kid. She loves superheroes, weird musicals, wants Robert Downey Jr. to release a new album, and would sell her soul for Pedro Pascal as Kraven the Hunter. She is Leslie Knope and she's okay with that. Secretly Grogu's mom and Lizzie Olsen's best friend.