The Weekly Planet - Smallville - Caravan Of Garbage

Episode Date: July 9, 2025

Smallville did a hell of a job reinstablishing the origins of Clark Kent/Superman as well building it's own law that's become canon across other DC Universes including Superman in the DCU. Here we look at the pilot episode, a Christopher Reeve cameo episode plus the two hour series finale that wrapped up it's incredible 10 season run. Plus we get into the freak of the week trope, the lack of an actual Superman costume or apperance, it's continuation in the CW with Crisis on Infinate Earths, Season 11 and the potential upcoming animated series. Thanks for watching our Caravan Of Garbage reviewSUBSCRIBE HERE ►► http://goo.gl/pQ39jNHelp support the show and get early episodes ► https://bigsandwich.co/Patreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesJames' Twitter ► http://twitter.coQm/mrsundaymoviesMaso's Twitter ► http://twitter.com/wikipediabrownPatreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesT-Shirts/Merch ► https://www.teepublic.com/stores/mr-sunday-movies The Weekly Planet iTunes ► https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-weekly-planet/id718158767?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 The Weekly Planet Direct Download ► https://play.acast.com/s/theweeklyplanetAmazon Affiliate Link ► https://amzn.to/2nc12P4 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back everybody to another episode of Caravan of Garbage where we're wrapping up our look at Superman, he's on television That's right And we're gonna take a look at every episode of Smallville all 10 seasons Mason What? You watched some? Yeah, I mean when they originally aired and then again now so I'm I'm ready You're up to make a 20 minute video on 10 seasons of a naughties Sci-fi comic book superhero rom-com

absolutely situation soap opera yeah they've nailed the formula here I mean as we talked about these shows always reflect the era and this is like Dawson's Creek Felicity but also monster of the week X-Files Buffy yeah Buffy yeah yeah absolutely also just to be clear we have covered this before we talked about the early Justice League I deleted that video what this is the definitive work. Oh, well, yeah, so don't even look for it. Okay, don't even bother It's not gonna be linked below. That's right. Okay now to be clear We're gonna cover a couple of episode just yeah jokes aside

You know, we love to joke jokes aside for a moment. Then we get back to the jokes, but we're gonna cover a few episodes We're gonna cover the pilot. Yep, of course and we're gonna cover a few episodes. We're gonna cover the pilot. Yep, of course, and we're gonna cover One in the middle. Yep season two and then the big two-part finale We're not gonna cover the one where it gets so horny that he develops heat vision and it erupts from his body We've all seen the clips. We've all seen twice and that's real as well. That really happened to Tom Well, it's exactly right and what is notable if you go and you watch season one, the first episode of season one, and then like the last two episodes of the big finish to season 10. It is so jarring.

It's almost like you're not supposed to watch it like that. No, but we did and you should. And you should leave a like on this video. And it was like watching the last episode of Gilmore Girls, but like Rory is now liaising with the president because an asteroid is about to crash on a stars hollow or whatever. And you're like, yep, I guess why not? Because it's still got the exact same look to it. It does. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Well, let's start here, Mason, because the idea was that this was going to be a young Bruce Wayne series. That's right. You'd know if you watched

our previous video now deleted. That's right. But'd know if you watched our previous video now, deleted. That's right. But of course, now I would say though, in between making that video and this video, maybe some new data has emerged here, James. A new low-stakes conspiracy theory has emerged because, you know, initially, Smallville was made because, you know, obviously it's cheaper. Yeah. It's cheaper to have everything set in the one small town

as opposed to a guy flying around the world and going to a new exotic locale every episode or every season. But also, some people have suggested since the recording of that video that the reason you never see live action Batman TV shows is because the original 1960s Batman TV show was made with Fox, which became 20th Century Fox and then 20th Century Fox's entire library was then sold to Disney.

So the rights to the Batman TV, the rights to a live action Batman TV series might be owned by the company that makes Marvel movies now. But you can still do weird little cameos like Gotham or... You can still do weird little cameos. Gotham, Birds of Prey, Titans, I guess you can. When he turns up in this series as Adam Fight or whatever. Yeah, it's Adam Fight. Is this Batman?

Adam Dark Fight. It's a different guy. Well instead as we learn obviously the Batman in this, his non-powered kind of rival in this in crime fighting and you know love triangles or whatever is Oliver Queen Yes, who even by season 10 is still there in his hoodie with his Oakleys on Yeah, just just firing three arrows at a time and being like well, that's all I can do Clark if you could handle that asteroid or Apocalypse planet or whatever. I don't even have a computer probably. Yeah that's right. Yeah so famously this started as no tights no flights that was from Goff and Miller when they pitched the series to Warner Brothers and the idea was that yeah we're reducing the man of steel to

the bare essentials and that was also worked into Tom Welling's contract so whenever they did try to go hey let's put him in the suit he was like no it's also in my contract that I'm not going to wear this suit. His opinion on that has now changed. Oh so at the time he didn't want to wear the suit? No. Not even a cool naughties version? We'll talk about it later where he is now but no he was very much against it that this is a Clark Kent series and we'll do everything else. I mean we also know that when he returned for the CW and whatever we'll get into it. But of course there are some other DC alumni that turn up in this. Annette O'Toole who played Milana Lang in Superman 3 plays his Earth Mother in this. John Glover is Milana Luther who played the Riddler in Batman the Animated Series and

Dr Jason Woodroom in Batman and Robin. The Floronic Man. Correct! Sort of. And then there's just a bunch of other guest stars like Terrence Stamp, Margot Kidder, Helen Slater, Terry Hatcher, Dean Kane, Linda Carter, people you would recognise from various DC programs. Let me tell you, I recognised all of them. I bet.

So, the pilot's interesting, Mason. Oh boy, is it ever. Because it was originally supposed to air in September of 2001, but then of course something big happened then. It was a big 9-11 because Mark Wahlberg wasn't on the plane, unfortunately. That's right. He would have stopped that. His words. He didn't, again, he didn't say he would stop it. He said it wouldn't have gone down that way.

Yeah, so I maintain it would have gone worse somehow. So they thought well, let's not have Smallville be showered with meteors. They pushed it back to October. The opening episode. Because nobody was thinking about it by October. No, no it was over basically. The episode it broke Warner Brothers record for the most number of viewers for a series debut. This was huge. And I also, I love the idea of Clark's entrance into Smallville just being death and destruction. Pretty cool. Like he's bringing that with him. It's obviously not his fault, but there's guilt associated with that. Lana's parents of course get flattened by a meteor.

They do. And just, just murked in an instant No reaction whatsoever, and I don't mean to be cruel But in a special effect that I think in the present day you could replicate on your phone And then we'll put that bit in here that good bit that good joke Yeah, there's a really good car stunt in this when it goes off the bridge and you see the the Tom Welling stunt double Yeah, twist in the air, that's all really good. If I had to complain about this pilot, and I guess the first few series, is that they're all supposed to be 14 years old. Yeah, and some of them look 14. I think Kristen Krueg...

She was like 19 when it started. I think she looks like a young teen in this. Yeah, Tom Welling is 24. And he looks 24. Yeah. He looks at 24 and a guy who's working out to have abs for Hollywood. That's right, yeah. And it's really funny how they're like, look at this weird dork.

And it's like, he's the best looking guy at this school. By like a long way. That's right. I did like the fact, and I'd forgotten about this at the time, but I liked the fact that Lana Lang wears the kryptonite necklace. Yes. And he doesn't know that that is at that point a weakness to him. So every time he tries to talk to her, he's like,

good, I'm falling over. You know what I mean? He was falling over. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it'd be funny if he just died in math class one day. And like, I don't know, he sort of turned very green. And then he turned to dust. Yeah.

Oh, well. Oh, well. Oh, well. He was weird anyway, wasn't he? Yeah. Why was he so weird and good looking? I don't understand. Good riddance. It He was weird anyway, wasn't he? Yeah. Why was he so weird and good looking? I don't understand.

Good riddance. It was a weird town, Mason. It was a weird town because of course also with the meteor shower comes Kryptonite. That's right. Now famously of course the first episode we get Electricity Man, where it's Kryptonite electricity powers. And for the longest time, in particular the first season, this became the show. A real monster of the Week situation.

A real, like you said, Buffy, X-Files, the supporting characters have a kind of a study room with the wall of weird and all the kind of the bizarre goings on of Smallville. You know, I don't think he ever fights a guy who loses a finger on one hand and gains a finger on another hand, man. But he should have. Absolutely. Well Mason, if you don't mind, let's just have a look at the uh, the season one episodes and how each one plays out. Just very quickly. There's certainly a bug man. Oh yeah. There's electricity man, obviously. Yep. Although he is specifically electricity man, but also does an age man. And also loses his uh, his memories man. Very convenient. Plot device man? Man.

Does he go to prison man? I don't know. You should. I mean he doesn't remember What a convenient defense. Exactly. He'd just be like I didn't remember doing it. I haven't. That's right Episode 2 Greg Arkin gets into a car accident with his meteor rock enhanced insects the resulting attack transforms him into a half man half insect creature and again And maybe we've mentioned this before either on this channel or on our podcast the weekly planet Every episode from this point forward is just people scratching their heads gone Well, this person was killed with a big swarm of insects. Who do you think? was killed with a big swarm of insects. Who do you think... Who... How do...

I'M A BUGMAN! Do you think it's the guy who lives at the edge of town and he's obsessed with bugs? I'M A BUG POWER! And he collects all the bugs? I'm eating the bugs and the rocks! Oh my god, it's the bug man! That's me! You got me, it's a fair cop!

Episode 3! I've lost my memory again, so it's alright. He does come back. Yeah, I bet he does episode 3 a meteor rock infused sauna endows coach Arnold with pyrokinesis. Wait a second Endow him with steam power no pyrokinesis. Oh, they're called they call them meteor rocks Yes, so long. Oh my god for at least till maybe the end of season Yeah, but they did because they don't have they don't know what Krypton is yet And then we'll get to that meteor rocks episode 4 Clark discovers that Tina Greer, a young woman infected with meteor rock radiation, can morph into anyone she wants

Episode 5 Allison, it's an Allison Maxon. No, no, it's an Allison... What's that lady? Um, uh... Alex Mack Alex Mack, yeah Oh, Alex Mack. You think they're related? Yeah, definitely

Episode 5, Sean Calvin falls into the frozen lake and emerges with an insatiable hunger for heat Oh, thanks to the meteor rocks at the bottom of the lake. Oh, is that the one where Clark gets so horny? Probably. Or is that season 2? I don't know. Episode 6 Harry Bolston an elderly man in a nursing home falls into a meteor rock filled pond Stop falling into stuff. Koi powers? Which reverses the aging process and he does murders Okay with his incredible youth? Yeah, I guess. I'm just a baby. Come here into my quib.

Bang! And then he hits him with a rattle. Episode 7. Jodie Melville, Amy Adams, is tired of being overweight, so she creates her own diet which consists of meteor rock infected vegetables. The new diet causes her to shed weight faster than she can handle, which forces her to suck human fat to satisfy her hunger There's a fat vampire in the X-Files remember that episode 8 Luther Corp is experimenting with meteor rocks and overexposure to the rocks has caused an employee Earl Jenkins to develop violent seizures not a superpower but alright episode 9 a corrupt cop something not related to meteors

Oh, wow, the rare exception. Do you think people at the time were like, Oh, where's our meteor rock guy? Or do you think they were like, oh thank god, just a regular guy? I think they were excited for episode 10 then. Episode 10, Something Something Kryptonite Rose, Invisible Person. Episode 11, Bob Rickman has the ability to bend others to his will because of an incident with the meteor rocks a few years earlier. Okay, the meteor rock went through his lore book. His debating handbook.book gave him incredible convincing powers Episode 12 during a field trip lightning strikes Clark and classmate Eric summers while Eric is holding a piece of the meteor rock body switch

He's fine, but he has Clark's powers Oh, like doesn't have any power what then they switch back because he has to be Superman for a minute at the very end Yeah, nice episode 13 three ex jocks are using meteor rock saturated tattoos to give themselves the ability to pass through solid objects. Rock-powered Jocks? Using their abilities, they begin robbing banks. Episode 14. Lex gets kidnapped, but it's not actually kryptonite related. It's related to his shady past and also acts as foreshadowing for his inevitable turn to villainy.

That one wasn't rocks. That wasn't rocks, but it rocks. That one wasn't rocks. That wasn't rocks, but it rocks. That's right. Episode 15, Dr. Stephen Hamilton uses Meteorox to resurrect a toxic flower named Nicodemus. Just remember this, all these old shows had 22 episode seasons.

Oh yeah! Just keeps going. 21, and if somebody sprayed with flowers toxic mist, they lose their inhibitions. That's a horny one. Episode 16, Ryan James, a young boy who can read minds, is forced to use his ability to help his step-parents rob stores. Wait a second, did he get meteor- is that from meteor rocks? I wrote, but I think he can just do it and it's not because he got a green rock stuck

in his ear or something. Right then. Yeah, I think he just did it. Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, because you know, it's a medic verse, human, etc. Kind of. This green lantern's maybe, I don't know. As hoodies?

As hoodies. Episode 17, Tyler Randall, while trying to assist the suicide of his ailing mother, accidentally falls out of a window and a piece of meteor rock becomes embedded in his wrist as he dies. When the coroner removes the rock from his wrist, Tyler becomes reanimated. Now, whenever Tyler touches someone or something, they instantly incinerate and die. God, that one was so weird. Yeah, he fell out a window because he was trying to kill his mum. He was trying to kill his mum. He was trying to kill his mum.

But she wanted him to kill him. Assisted suicide, yes. And he got the rock in his wrist. But then pulling the rock out of his wrist brought him back. And then he came alive from the, yeah, that's correct. Episode 18, Sasha Woodman is able to control bees via enhanced pheromones. Boy I wonder who's doing all the bee murders. It's me, Bee Lady!

Nah I don't think it is, let's do more research. I think it's the Bee Lady! She was stung by a kryptonite infected hive. Yep okay. Episode 19. After a hit and run accident destroys his drawing hand, Justin Gaines is left with an unexpected gift of telekinesis. Although kryptonite is never explicitly seen, Chloe and Lana later acknowledge him as a

meteor freak. Yeah it was probably kryptonite whatever. Probably. Episode 20, an explosion near Meteor Ox gives Lana Lang the ability to see through other persons eyes. Lana watches through the strangers eyes as they kidnap Chloe. Episode 21, the finale. Three tornadoes happen.

Huh, interesting. And that's season one of Smallville in a nutshell. Incredible. What a world. Anyway, to move past that, season two, that's when they start to develop more of the lore of the universe. They're asked to be freaks of the week. Absolutely.

But they've got things like- They're called the bloody viewers. Ah, we got us and everybody who likes the show. That's right. So, Chris Reeve appears in this episode, and he's the one to tell Clark of his real origin, which I think is a wonderful way to do that. Hello, Clark, I'm the only good billionaire. Don't be alarmed. I know you would be alarmed.

Yeah, you don't believe me. Because I'm a billionaire. Yeah. So I'm probably, I want to, you know, suck out your virgin blood, put it in my body to live forever. And that's the most normal thing that I do. But actually, I'm different. I'm different to that. They're not doing that to Chris Reeve in this show.

No. Absolutely not at this point. He's wonderful in this, and I think it's a really nice passing of the torch. Christopher Reeve said he was skeptical of the show at first but he said the acting and the special effects and all of that were really remarkable and Tom Welling is doing an amazing job like carrying on the tradition. So that's great that he gave it. When's he going to be in the costume? Shut up Christopher Reeve. Shut up and get out of here. He also used that episode as a way to raise money for his foundation, for spinal cord research, and I think that's all wonderful and good. He does make a second appearance in another episode as well, so that's great and good stuff, Mason.

Anyway, just to jump to the finale. That's right. This is a big one, Mason. So at this point, budget cuts meant that Al Goff and Marlz Miller, they left the show. Just didn't pay them? Well yeah, that was at the end of season 7 and they were replaced by Kelly Sotars and Brian Peterson. And you can tell by this point that a lot of this is shot on sound stages, indoors.

It loses the cinematic nature of just being outside I feel. Oh yeah, okay. At this point it just feels like the whole thing in a cupboard. Now at this point a lot of changes have been made. Oh my, well Lana's gone. Lana's gone, we got Lois Lane appeared summer in season 4 I believe. There was some crossover but then you know, there can be only one obviously. That's right.

So they got rid of them. Pete's gone. Pete's gone. Jimmy Olsen's dead. But then there's another Jimmy Olsen. And he also played one of the Freaks of the Week or whatever. He played Clark Kent Powers man. And ice man and his ice man quantum break One of them good good on him those guys

Yeah, so what there wasn't maybe we should cover this episode at some point, but there's it there was a Jimmy Olsen Yeah, and then that Jimmy Olsen is killed and you're like well How's this gonna work in Superman modern-day Superman continuity? Well actually he's got an identical brother who's like, I'm gonna want this guy becoming Jimmy Olsen and I'll change my name to Jimmy Olsen. Do you think that's why Zack Snyder killed his Jimmy Olsen? Probably. To bring back the brother of Jimmy Olsen?

Oh you thought he would kill that character and then just another actor would appear on the movie? Oh the same, whatever. I mean maybe. Who knows what's going on in that guy's mind? At this point as well Lex Luthor has stepped away. Michael Rosenbaum was like, I'm done with this. He did make a few appearances, but he comes back for this and you might notice that his head is much bigger because Why did I notice that? Well he was shaving his head. Yes.

This entire time. Yeah, I know. I was just thinking that the other day. I mean a young man having to shave He's one of the most power No, I was thinking one of the most powerful moves a man can do is to be publicly bald For a long time and then just be like I was shaving my head the whole time. I can just grow hair What do you think about that? Just did it cuz I don't even like the look or feel of it. Yeah, right Also, this is a wig. This is a bald cap. Yeah, and you can notice especially if you see the body Yeah, yeah, reverse week. This is a bald cap. Yeah, and you can notice especially if you see the body Yeah, yeah reverse wig. It's a bald wig especially if you see the behind the scenes that he sit there at an interview

He's just got this big light bulb head. I did not notice it. They light it really well in the series It's generally pretty good. He's got a sister. So that's Tess Mercer who is revealed to be Lex Luther's Sister Lionel Luther is I guess been making more and more appearances. Yeah, that's right. And now Darkseid is here. Yeah, and it ends in a big wet fight where wet Lionel Luthor Darkseid fights Clark Kent and then he has to stop a big apocalypse. Yeah, but I mean just prior to that of course, green arrow kills granny goodness, Desaad and glorious Godfrey, three of the new gods.

Oh yeah. With three arrows. Pretty good shot though. Just three real arrows. I mean, they were inhabiting their bodies. I assume they didn't, he just broke sever the connection. Yeah, he just killed three humans. He killed three regular people.

Yeah, that's what happened there. Well good. That makes sense and good. Yeah. So the finale, the finale, I mean it leads to some questions obviously. But the finale begins with a framing story which I feel is largely unnecessary. Where Chloe is telling, is reading a comic book to her, to a child, I assume her child? Hers and all of the queens I think.

Okay right. And it's just the story of Clark Kent as Superman. Which suggests that his identity is now public in this universe. Apparently yeah. I mean unless she wrote it and was like, don't tell anyone this. I photocopied this down at Officeworks. Yeah, it's very clear that it's like, I mean, we'll talk about where he ends up. I mean, she's not much older either. So I don't know. I mean, he gives it up pretty quick. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We will talk about it. But then it cuts back to the present day. And at this point, Clark Lois that we're gonna get married, but now they're not gonna get married You know I would say a rare reversal because you know the hero is always like well actually we can't get married because I Put you in danger Maguire right but in this Lois is like I don't want to get in your way Yeah, you're always jumping about maybe one day you'll fly. I don't want to get in the way of that I know you can't stand to fly. That's right I know I'm not that naive. There we go It's good stuff. Isn't it just yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then of course eventually

Finally, yes goes to the fortress of solitude and he's ghost dad because his dad has died He turns up and he goes you're cool and here's Brandon Ralph Superman suit or the S at least and some of the rest of it Yeah, and we'll see each other rest. Don't worry about it. Yeah, you'll never be in like a You'll never be in a full close-up full body shot. He never wore the full suit. And that's a big point of contention with a lot of people who watch the show. I didn't even get this far. And when I saw that, I'm like, I'm so glad I didn't stick with this.

Now I understand the decision, but 10 years is a long time. Such a long time. It's fine when you do the pilot and then you watch the episode in season two and then you jump to the end. It feels like no time has passed at all. That's right But this is totally fine. I think everybody at the time should have done it this way Wait till it's free on a streaming service that didn't exist then yeah, and just watch whatever you please absolutely And I I don't know I guess it was the era, but it does feel weird to use this the brand and Ralph design I mean it does also use the John Williams score

At that point and also there's there's other motifs of it that's right and then you know the planet of apocalypse is approaching earth and it's gonna destroy earth so then he writes the president's plane and then he just does something yeah and then it goes away sorry sorry I guess he pushed it yeah I guess God crazy X-Men

apocalypse remember that one? Not really. But it was a- what was the- what was the final thing that- how did he finally learn to fly, James? I think- True fighter style. I think he could, right? Yeah, he always could. Is that it? Because what happens is he goes to the fortress of solitude or whatever. No, wait. He's flown before. Yeah, he has flown before. A bunch of times. He's always being taken over by a Kryptonian, but I think he could fly at this point also I don't think he could I think that's the fuck because what happens is he fights liner Luther in the bar Yeah, wet water fights wet liner Luther in that barn And then liner Luther just shoves him or whatever and then he's flying in the air and he's like

I'm just gonna remember all my memories somewhat and then he remembers all the events from smallville seasons one through ten Yeah, and then he's like oh within me is the power to fly and then he just does I think I was supposed to be the one there Yeah, you might be right and also Lex Luthor speaking of memories He forgets all these memories and that's why he doesn't know that Clark in his Superman Even though he saw it a lot because his sister gave him a nano virus or something Maybe erased his memory, but not all of it some of it but also he was dead but they brought him back with clone bits yeah he cloned himself and most of the clone the clones

were mostly bad he salvaged all the good bits and then he put them together in a one clone and then but then the clone wasn't ready it wasn't doing it it wasn't doing it because it needed a heart and then Lionel Luther was like Tess I'm gonna take your heart. Darkside just does it. Yeah it takes his heart? Maybe. Yeah. Darkside intervenes. He does intervene. West Lionel Luther Darkside. That's exactly right. So he's back but then he's lost his memory somewhat. And then he wins the presidency

in a quite frankly very unprofessional all- white ensemble. I didn't like that at all Remember when Obama or that tan suit worst thing he ever did that's right aside from all of his war crimes Yeah, I want to talk about the future of this and how this it does continue It's very sometimes that might even continue beyond that but before we do that. Let's do trivia small This is a trivia section of the show where we go. Hey Hey, listen. All right listen This isn't that important, but we'd love you to listen. Stop. What you do. No we demand it You have to do it. Stop it. Yeah, stop what you're doing the start

It's like there's a newspaper that says Queen industry CEO missing and that's a fun Cold war forward or back in the pilot. Yeah, it's in the newspapers The newspaper is reading on the helicopter before it crashes and Lex Luthor gets kryptonite baldness Yeah, he was a funny little ginger child, wasn't he? For a minute, yeah. Imagine if they were like, we're gonna go with the ginger Lex Luther for this entire show. You think he'd stick around for 10 seasons?

I think so. Maybe he would. Yeah, maybe. The name of the Smallville High School paper is The Torch, and that's the name of the school paper where Joe Schuster and Jerry Siegel, Superman's creators, that's what they worked on in high school. I think you'll find that Superman was created by DC Comics. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, that large corporation.

Yeah. They made all that Superman content. They did, and Frank Miller did some stuff at some point as well. Oh hell yeah. Yeah, you know? Some of the best. All-star Batman. Some of the best, most normal stuff.

This is my favorite bit of trivia I think we've ever gotten, and it really I think casts a light on certain aspects of the show which you might have found confusing. This is going to help you a lot. That's good. I'm finally some help. This was on IMDB Trivia. The only reason I do this video series is because I've wanted some help. So it'd be nice if I could finally get some.

When Clark Kent was chosen to be the Scarecrow by Whitney Fordman and almost fought him, he was very close to overpowering Whitney with his strength. As he grasped Whitney by his shirt tightly, Clark opened up his shirt by accident and showed the necklace that Lana Lang gave Whitney, giving Whitney the advantage. So true, isn't it? Does that help? I mean, it makes a lot of sense now. That also suggests that Whitney's shirt is like made of some sort of lead material. Yeah, man. Because wouldn't it just affect him no matter what? No, you're right. Yeah. That's the magic of small villain meteor rocks. I think so too. Yeah.

Maybe Whitney was exposed to some meteor rocks near a lead sheeting company or something and it turned all his clothes to lead. Not him, but his clothes. Just his clothes. Yes, but they look like normal clothes and they feel like normal clothes. And they can be washed like normal clothes and nobody ever notices. But they're lead clothes. Cause that's how meteor rocks work. They do whatever that's right now

There is a season 11 of this and it is a comic book. Let's watch it on to eyes You said it's not we can't watch it on it's got all sorts of stuff. It's got Batman. Yeah, that's got Green Lanterns Yeah, it's got all the things that you'd want to see in this series quite an interesting Batman design It's got a huge logo if I recall a huge logo big logo big logo man. Yeah big logo man Smallville. Yeah. But it's actually Bruce Wayne it's not Adam Fight Night or whatever his name was. No it's the real guy yeah yeah yeah. Give him an avogander of that James. Dude that's a big logo he's looking good. It's one of the biggest logos. His mouth is covered too right? Uh sometimes. That's good. That's like Batman of the future whose mouth is covered. That's right. Yeah. Yeah, can you breathe through that mask?

Absent doesn't he dies immediately. Oh, no. Yeah. Yeah two pages in he dies. Oh, no Also, of course Erica Durant's and Tom Welling appeared in the arrow verse crossover crisis on infinite earths at this point Clark is depowered and they're raising their children together Again, Tom Welling decided to come back and do this because he was like I don't Want to wear the Superman costume people were mad about this because what he just gave it up Which also Lex Luthor was mad in the same But I think that is fitting with this version of Clark Kent because he doesn't want to do it. He's so Scared of doing anything or making any decision you think that's what it is. Yeah, he's got choice paralysis absolutely

So he just couldn't decide on an outfit? It's been decided for you, Clark. Yeah, yeah. Your ghost dad gave it to you or whatever. Mmm. Uh, yeah, but Tom Welling has said, since then, that now that he's got kids, he's willing to put the costume on.

Well, it's too late. Dude, you're late. It's... you are... You are ten years plus the rest too late. Brother. Come on man. I guess now he wants to be like, like his kids probably know Superman. And he's like, well I was Superman, let's show you. And then they're like, you're just a man walking around.

You're a boy at school. Yeah yeah yeah. Super boy at school. This will only be in the extended edition, but you know Robert Lwellyn, who was Crichton on Red Dwarf, he's got a story in his autobiography about the time that his entire family came to visit him on the set of Red Dwarf, but it was just the episode where he became human. So he's just running around like a normal guy and all the kids are like, oh, oh.

That is disappointing. Yeah. Now there is an animated revival in the works. In 2021, Tom Welling and Michael Rosenbaum They were developing an animated series with the original cast including John Glover Sam Jones the third Kristen Crook and Erica Durant's one of the exceptions is Alison Mack due to charges leveled against her which landed her in jail That's a whole story. You can look into it, but my god crook stuff which landed her in jail. That's a whole story, you can look into it.

But my god, crook stuff. Crook and unexpected stuff. And now she's out and she's married to a lovely man named Frank. I don't know if you know that. I didn't know that part. It's bloody, bloody, just like being in bloody prison, am I right?

The original series showrunners were going to return, but because of what's happening with the DCU, this is on hold. They're establishing a new universe they don't want to bring back something else like this and confuse things at this point. But James Gunn, he is friends with Michael Rosenbaum. I think there's a very good chance we're going to see more Smallville something.

Well he is a Smallville fan. He said this on socials recently. He said and that's why Lex Luthor's company in the movie is called Luther Corp not Lex Corp. Exactly. So in addition to that, John Schneider, who played Jonathan Kent, and now he does movies where if you take his flag down, that's un-American or whatever. That's right. He was also Dukes of Hazzard. He was one of the Duke boys. One of the Duke of Hazzard. He spoke to the pop verse and he said,

there would be no Superman, as in Superman 2025, without Smallville. There would be no DC Universe without Superman. I'm sorry, don't want people to forget the first thing that ever worked a million percent in this entire world with Smallville So we should be on their perpetual Christmas list and look I don't think that is wrong now if you'll excuse me I've got to get in the general lead being pursued by Boss Hogg and I've got a jump over a truck full of chickens Bam bam bam bam bam Nicholas Holt also said that he used Michael Rosenbaum's version of Lex as his inspiration and David Corrin's sweat,

he grew up watching Tom Welling play Clark Kent. On the TV, not just watching Tom Welling. No, he wasn't around. Yeah, just watching him do daily chores and stuff. Yeah, this is what he told EW on Screen Rant. I've also got a lot of physical comparisons to Tom Welling. When I was growing up, he was the Superman who was on TV every week.

I sneaked episodes of Smallville while growing up after school, and I remember seeing Superman Returns in theaters. Since then, I've seen so many iterations and read so much that it all jumbles together and becomes this grand arc. I think if he loves Tom Welling's Clark Kent so much, he should carry a skateboard like he does in the pilot. Just the ones. Just the ones.

And never again. Wow. What an incredible journey through Smallville. A show that we could definitely come back to and just pick any episode to talk about. Oh my god we should pick some episodes at random. I mean if you are interested in hearing about Smallville, Michael Rosenbaum and Tom Welling, they do a podcast called Talkville. That's right. Or Small Talk. It's called Talkville because they were going to call it Small Talk but then the name was taken. Yeah. So they called it Talkville. Which sounds

like the exact kind of dumb thing we would do. Absolutely. Remember when we talked about Hawkeye and we called it Talk Talk? We did, yes I do. Yeah, so that's well worth checking out. I listened to a bunch of episodes leading up to this. But if you want to listen to a bunch of episodes or watch a bunch of episodes of this show early, you can actually head over to BigSandwich.co where they always go up early.

Here's a hint towards next week. Can't fucking remember, Mason, for that goddamn life of me. In addition to that, that's not the only thing there. We do video game let's plays. We looked at a very popular, no, we looked at probably the best Superman game. It's like the opposite of Superman 64. This is the one that people say is the pinnacle. Is it? Maybe. Is it good? Oh no. That's exclusively at BigSandwich dot-co if you do want to check it out It's nine dollars a month you're more than welcome to subscribe and then unsubscribe and download everything or do whatever you want We don't mind also we have a pot whatever you do whatever you want. We don't mind get up some Alice and Mac nonsense I do that. We don't like that at all. You can marry a man named Frank. We don't care about that. That's fine

That's right. Yeah, also we talk Superman 2025 in our latest episode of the weekly planet That's our podcast where we talk movies and comics and TV shows. It's on its own YouTube channel It's on Spotify. It's on Apple if you do want to check it out. I do. Thank you so much to Ben and Lawrence for the edit Thank you, Ben and Lawrence. Happy Superman everyone. Happy Superman everyone. Mm-hmm