When CW aired the Arrowverse crossover “Elseworlds”, fans went wild when a flyover scene of Kent Farm took place and the show played the Superman theme song from Smallville, “Save Me” by Remy Zero. They were elated because it seemed that the series was now in the Arrowverse, but as the scene continued we saw our new Superman, Tyler Hoechlin, instead.
It was a nice nod to the preceding series, and it was great to see it mentioned. The latest crossover, “Crisis On Infinite Earths”, stepped things up by bringing the world of Smallville back to the TV screen. Lex Luthor, played by Jon Cryer, arrived at the Kent farm and found Clark Kent working – but this time it was the Smallville Clark Kent himself, Tom Welling.
As a fan of Smallville, it was awesome to see Welling return to the screen as the titular character once more. But some fans were disappointed that not only would Tom not be donning the suit of Superman, but that his version of Clark Kent had also stepped down as the Man of Steel and had given up his powers. Many fans were angered by this revelation, though they were nevertheless still glad that Tom had returned.
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Why Clark Stepped Away From Superman
But it looks like Executive producer Marc Guggenheim has given fans the reason why this Superman was over and done with. According to him, the decision was an homage to the classic film Superman II. When talking to Fake Nerd Podcast, here’s what Guggenheim had to say.
“We discussed a nod to, believe it or not, Superman II. It wasn’t relevant to the story that we were telling in terms of getting into the specifics of it, and there are certain things that I believe are best left for the fans to discuss and debate.”
While his time in the suit might have seemed to come and go to viewers, Guggenheim continued to explain his reasoning for the scene.
“It was one of the reasons why it was so important for us to show you those Daily Planet articles that Lois wrote. We very much wanted to tell the audience that the promise of Smallville was, ‘He’s going to become Superman.’ We wanted to make it very clear that that did happen, that he did become Superman, that he did have all these adventures, but they are left to your imagination.”
This ending in the miniseries also fulfilled the vow made by Smallville’s creators, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. From the start, they made a promise of “No Tights, No Flight” – meaning that they would not have Clark be in the suit or show him flying. It seems also to give Welling’s rendition of Clark Kent his wish to be normal.
While this ending seems to make perfect sense, it does still make fans wonder whether the decision to toss in the suit and abandon his responsibilities to mankind goes against the character’s nature of honor and bravery.
We can debate this further when the CW re-airs the full “Crisis on Infinite Earths” mini event between Tuesday April 7 and Thursday April 9 due to the lack of newly completed episodes in the Arrowverse.
Do you agree with Clark’s choice to leave Superman behind? Let us know in the comments below.
