Few TV shows change as much from beginning to end as Smallville did. When it started in 2001, the Superman prequel series was essentially a teen drama in which the main character just happened to have superpowers. Come its conclusion 10 years later, however, and Smallville had grown into a loving homage to DC lore with a sprawling stable of superheroes pulled from the comics.
Smallville fans will remember an early version of the Justice League forming in Season 6 and Justin Hartley’s Green Arrow becoming a regular character from Season 8 onward. Clark also encountered various other vigilantes in the show’s later years, with some of the most memorable being Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, and Zatanna. Still, there are many more that fans would be forgiven for forgetting ever made their way into Clark’s life, usually because they appeared once and then were never mentioned again. To give Smallville its flowers, though, it did bring certain superheroes to the screen that even the DCEU and James Gunn’s DCU have struggled to adapt.
10
Bart Allen Was Impulse, Not The Flash, From Season 4 Onward
Those who watched Smallville no doubt remember the speedster played by Kyle Gallner, as he was the first superhero pal Clark Kent ever made. What many probably don’t remember, though, is that he was not actually the Flash. Gallner’s character was not Barry Allen but Bart Allen — Barry’s grandson in the comics — who goes by the crime-fighting alias Impulse.
Jordan Fisher played a different version of Bart, this time Barry’s son from the future, in The CW’s The Flash series.
First appearing in Season 4’s “Run,” Bart went on to make a further three guest appearances, including becoming a founding member of Clark’s aforementioned junior Justice League and last being seen in the Season 8 finale “Doomsday.” Despite his sizable contribution to the series, though, people still misremember which character he actually was.
9
Speedy Was Introduced as Green Arrow’s Sidekick In Season 9
It’s hard to determine who forgot about Speedy the most, Smallville‘s fans or its writers. Real name Mia Dearden, Speedy was introduced as Oliver Queen’s sidekick, and it seemed like she was going to be a big deal when she was introduced in Season 9. Especially as her two appearances seemed to cement her as an important part of Green Arrow’s arc.
In “Crossfire,” Oliver takes troubled runaway Mia under his wing when he discovers her in an underground fight club. In its follow-up, “Disciple,” meanwhile, Mia fully becomes his protégé when she discovers his secret identity as Green Arrow and the two of them battle the Dark Archer, Oliver’s former mentor. After this, however, fans never saw Mia again. At least The CW’s Arrow explored the Green Arrow family in much greater depth just a few years later.
8
The Angel of Vengeance Was Forgotten After Her Season 4 Debut
Andrea Rojas is easily the most obscure DC superhero Smallville brought to the screen, so it’s fair enough if fans forget about her existence as much as comics readers do. Introduced in Season 5’s “Vengeance,” Andrea is a vigilante operating in Metropolis who is looking to get revenge on her mother’s killers. She gained powers after receiving a heart transplant from a Kryptonite-infected, meteor-enhanced individual.
Although Andrea is dubbed the Angel of Vengeance on Smallville, she is known as Acrata in the comics.
As the first vigilante Clark meets on the show, Andrea plays an important role in inspiring him to eventually become Superman, even if she completely disappears from Smallville lore after her sole appearance. The character did star in a shortform webseries, Vengeance Chronicles, but if this was intended to launch a fully-fledged spinoff show, it didn’t materialize.
7
Wonder Twins Made The Leap Into Live-Action In Season 8
The Wonder Twins — the colorful superhero siblings created for the classic Super Friends cartoon — were the last characters fans expected to show up in Smallville, and yet that’s what happened in Season 9’s “Idol.” In this episode, superpowered twins Zan and Jayna attempt to emulate their hero, the Blur, but only interfere with his investigations and get into trouble.
Smallville had to tone down much about the Wonder Twins to make them fit into its more grounded world, but there are various Easter eggs to their animated origins. The twins still have to bump fists and say “Powers Activate!” to use their abilities, and Jayna has a sticker of their sidekick, Gleek the monkey, on her phone. Likewise, it’s subtly hinted that they are really aliens, although they claim to come from Sweden. This remains the Wonder Twins’ only live-action adaptation to date, after HBO’s planned movie starring Riverdale‘s K.J. Apa and Scream 7‘s Isabel May fell through.
6
Stargirl Joined Clark’s League of Heroes in Season 9
The CW’s Stargirl was quietly one of the best DC adaptations of the past decade, but Courtney Whitmore’s live-action career actually started much earlier than her own self-titled TV show. The character first made the leap from the page in Smallville Season 9, and fans may not remember that she actually ended up becoming a recurring character throughout the show’s final two seasons.
First appearing in “Absolute Justice” as a younger member of Hawkman’s Justice Society, Courtney featured in a total of five episodes, so it’s surprising that fans don’t discuss her involvement more often. Maybe it’s because of the nature of her role on the show. With many of the series’ earlier superheroes, like Bart, being phased out, Stargirl was called upon any time the plot required Clark and Oliver to need some superhero back-up. As such, she was typically there to fill out scenes rather than to develop as a character.
5
Legion of Super-Heroes Came Back From The Future In Season 8
In the comics, the Legion of Super-Heroes — a squad of supers from the 31st century who are inspired by Superman — are a major part of Clark Kent’s pre-Metropolis life. It was only right that they appeared in Smallville, then, with the group’s inclusion playing a big part in the show’s final seasons from Season 8’s “Legion” onward.
In the form of Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad, the Legion time-traveled from the future to stop a supervillain from their era from killing the young Clark. Cosmic Boy later returned for the Season 8 finale to warn Clark about Doomsday, and Season 10 saw Buffy‘s James Marsters return as a good version of Brainiac, Brainiac-5, who was a member of the Legion. Likewise, Supergirl’s last appearance on the show saw her decide to leave the present to join the Legion in the future. The Legion would later return to live-action — and The CW — in the Arrowverse Supergirl series.
4
Aquaman’s Wife Mera Swam Into Smallville Season 10
Aquaman was part of Smallville lore as early as Season 5 — The CW even almost gave him his own spinoff show — but it wasn’t until Season 10 that Arthur Curry’s wife, Mera, appeared. The future queen of the oceans showed up in Season 10’s “Patriot,” in which she and her hydro-powered husband team up with Clark and friends to battle Deathstroke, who Darkseid had corrupted.
Smallville had previously shied away from Aquaman’s Atlantean mythos, but Mera’s inclusion finally saw the show embrace his status as a prince of Atlantis, a hint at what the spinoff series could’ve explored. Smallville doesn’t give Mera too much screentime, but it does showcase her hydrokinesis, and Marvel’s Elena Satine is solid in the role, predating Amber Heard to become the first ever live-action adaptation of the heroine.
3
Superboy Was Folded Into the Show in Season 10
With Michael Rosenbaum leaving the show in Season 7, and Lex killed off-screen in Season 8, Smallville Season 10 devoted a major subplot to Lex’s return via cloning. Initially, a young, rapidly-aging clone of Lex known as Alexander was teased to be the resurrected version of the character, before Smallville revealed that he was actually a hybrid of Lex and Clark’s genes, making him a surprise Superboy adaptation.
Adopted by the Kents, Alexander became Conner Kent and developed many of Clark’s powers, including a weakness to red kryptonite that brought out his inner Lex. High School Musical‘s Lucas Grabeel played the young hero, having previously portrayed the teenage Lex in earlier seasons. Unfortunately, Season 10’s “Scion,” in which he embraces being Superboy, was his last appearance on the show, as a planned return in the series finale fell through.
2
Jay Garrick Was the First Flash in Smallville Season 9
Bart Allen may not have actually been the Flash on Smallville, but that doesn’t mean the series didn’t sneak in another version of the Fastest Man Alive elsewhere. Although Barry Allen and Wally West never crossed paths with Clark Kent, Jay Garrick — the first hero to sport the Flash mantle — made the smallest of cameos in an episode of Smallville‘s penultimate season.
In Season 9’s “Absolute Justice,” Clark learns of the previous generation of superheroes, the Justice Society of America, who have gone into hiding after Amanda Waller’s Checkmate organization hunted down and imprisoned many of their numbers. Hawkman and Doctor Fate play major roles in the episode, but we also catch glimpses of various other JSA members in some old footage that Clark and Chloe discover. Jay’s iconic winged helmet is also later on display at the Society’s headquarters.
1
Green Lantern Made a Blink-And-You’ll-Miss-It Cameo in Season 9
By the end of its 10-season run, Smallville had managed to include pretty much every single major DC superhero in some shape or form — except for Batman, Shazam, and Wonder Woman, who were off-limits. Fans might expect Green Lantern to be on that list of exclusions, but the truth is that one version of the Emerald Knight did actually appear in the flesh on Smallville, even if it was only very briefly.
Like Jay Garrick, Alan Scott is another Golden Age icon who turns up for a few seconds in “Absolute Justice” as a former member of the JSA. Checkmate had arrested and put Scott, the original Green Lantern, behind bars. He even has his Green Power Ring on his finger. Presumably it needs charging up, otherwise he could surely use it to bust himself out of jail.
Remarkably, despite the character dating back to 1940, this remains Alan Scott’s only live-action appearance to date. An earlier version of HBO’s Green Lantern TV show was set to star Jeremy Irvine as Alan, before Lanterns ultimately centered around Hal Jordan and John Stewart. James Gunn is an outspoken fan of Smallville, so hopefully his love of the show will inspire him to bring Alan Scott — and others on this list — into his DCU at some point.
- Release Date
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2001 – 2011-00-00
- Network
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The WB, The CW
- Showrunner
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Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, Brian Peterson, Kelly Souders, Todd Slavkin, Darren Swimmer
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Allison Mack
Chloe Sullivan
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Michael Rosenbaum
Lex Luthor
