Smallville

[Krutch]

Welling and Rosenbaum would be up for a Smallville: The Animated Series

Rosenbaum mentions he recently had talks with Smallville creators about entertaining the possibility of an animated show.

[ZariusTwo]

SouperboyX, a fan editor, has stitched together "Last Son of Krypton", a 5+ plus hour feature film merging Smallville with Zack Snyder's "Man of Steel", even rotoscoping Tom Welling and grafting him on to Henry Cavils's face.

Synopsis:



With the imminent destruction of Krypton, their home planet, Jor-El (Russell Crowe) and Lara (Ayelet Zurer) seek to preserve their race by sending their infant son to Earth. The child’s spacecraft, accompanied by a meteor shower, lands in a town called Smallville. Jonathan (John Schneider) and Martha (Annette O’Toole) Kent name the baby Clark and raise him as their own son. Clark (Tom Welling) grows up with extraordinary abilities and learns to cope with his alien heritage. While dealing with his relationships with Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack) and Pete Ross (Sam Jones III), his high school crush Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk), iconic Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane (Erica Durance), and lone heir of Luthorcorp Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum), Clark struggles with finding his rightful place among humanity. As Clark’s path to adulthood begins to rapidly unfold before him, he realizes the secrets of his Kryptonian past may hold the key to his future as Earth’s greatest protector.

(links to the edit are in the description of the second video)

Souperboy's description of the project

This is a project I conceptualized back in 2013 around the time “Man of Steel” was released. I thought the movie was great and loved the way Zack Snyder, David S. Goyer, Hans Zimmer, and others involved modernized the story of Superman. What they did in my view was present a realistic and gripping narrative on the idea of Superman existing in today’s world, with today’s consequences. Can Superman exist in a world with so much grey area? What is his purpose in the 21st century and was he going to have trouble withstanding the test of time, especially in a world with so many other modern superheroes? I love that DC took risks with Cavill’s Superman and think that there are many great qualities to his interpretation of the character. Themes like isolation, loneliness, identity, public opinion, cultural issues, and more are what make this new Superman exciting and relatable to me. But I also like the way Snyder visually presented this Superman as well. The flight sequences, the action, the grand scale, the musical rhythm, etc. It was great to see a Superman movie exhibit those elements with a big movie budget, and something that I would’ve loved to see “Smallville” do.



“Smallville” is still my very favorite depiction of the Superman story. The social implications of Clark having this humongous secret, the way the Kent’s undying love and support is portrayed, the existential questions Clark faces in nearly every episode about his purpose in the world, the complicated relationship he has with Lex Luthor; Themes of family, strength, destiny, love, and hope against significant odds represent “Smallville” to me. Being a long-running TV show, the creators (Alfred Gough and Miles Millar) really had a lot of emotional areas of Superman’s nature they could explore and they made the most of it. Tom Welling’s portrayal of Clark Kent is what I see as the definitive Superman to this day. We saw him grow up from teenager to hero, struggle with the pressure of having immense responsibilities with his gifts, and also try to adopt meaningful human relationships while being the farthest thing from normal himself. Welling’s Clark was vulnerable, scared, courageous, caring and most importantly, human. That’s what made him so relatable. That’s what brought the charm to “Smallville”. Which is something I wish “Man of Steel” had a bit more of.



I love “Smallville” and “Man of Steel” both in their own ways. My conceit behind this project is to take the best parts of both of them and merge them together to create what would be the definitive Superman story in my mind. I tried this in the past with “Superman: Genesis” and was still hindered by the lack of a grand, thematic Superman movie. Once “Man of Steel” came along I figured many of the elements of that fit in quite nicely to those of “Smallville” and that there could be an opportunity to try again.



So here it is. “The Last Son of Krypton”. 7 years in the making. This is my take on the 21st Century Superman. A 5+ hour fan-edited film that is meant to take you on a ride with the World’s Greatest Hero from A-Z. “Smallville” is the skeleton. “Man of Steel” is the meat. I also loved the style and aesthetic in “Superman Returns” and many elements from that are included as well.

Here are my thoughts, having viewed the whole thing (spoilers)

Let's get the obvious out the way first...WOW

Now onto the meat of the matter.

Spoiler:

I've seen edits that alter narratives many a time, but the sheer amount of narrative changes he put together for this is just mesmerising. He took stuff from later episodes, deposited them at earlier points in the series, and somehow it all fits together. This is a testament to not just how diligent he is at episodic research, but also shows Smallville is full of moments that can fit just about any scenario with a few touch-ups.

I was very surprised at how quick you got Tom in the suit, moments after the fortress was formed even...but I suppose that was to be expected considering the pace of the remaining Kryptonian's arrival. We'd had two hours plus of build-up, so by this juncture the audience have licked their lips long enough so serve up the main course!

How you structured Lois and Clark's relationship to begin as work colleagues rather than as close friends from high school was a fine comics accurate-touch, and it allowed Lois to really peak in her element as a feisty, determined intrepid reporter digging as far as she can down the rabbit holes.

Lex's journey was the most consistent from what we know of his tv portrayal, a few minor creative tweeks and omissions, but the themes are all there and the whole story plays out fairly straight forward, right up until the fortress invasion, that was a treat, I felt Lex and Jor-El never truly having a confrontation was a major element Smallville missed taking true advantage of.

I don't think there's too many things to critique, at least things he might already be aware of himself (I noticed a repeated frame in part six during the Crosby and Marth conversation), perhaps there was one too many dream sequences for my liking too, some parts of that confused me, particularly during the Lana and Teague fight, and Lex at the fortress...I know "Arctic" doesn't give anyone a whole lot to work with, but I'm having some issue understanding what Kara rescued him from, I thought it was going to end with him being transported to the Phantom Zone until the scene with Kara.


I've had moments altering narratives in edits where I feel it made more sense in my head than anyone elses', rofl. If he can explain these things, I'll have an easier time understanding the decisions and choices.

Overall, Man of Steel provided some tender meat to a pleasantly functional skeleton, everything fused together, and those little issues noted above aside, I will state with great enthusiasm this guy has stitched together the best fan edit of 2020, and definitely one of the best Superman edits of all time. This is what Smallville was always capable of being, it has the best Superman cast, the best 'young' depictions of the characters, and is a great spin on the hero's journey template.

I hope this edit inspires others, as much as it inspires me, to be more creative with their own editing projects and dare to think and do different.

Hopefully any kind of sequel won't take up another seven years, but then, perfection cannot be rushed!

[Leo656]

F*ck Tom Welling.

[ZariusTwo]

The full five hour edit is now available. It's about 14.8 GB. I've cleared out my disc space and am in the process of downloading it.

In my ongoing correspondence with souperboyx, he did indeed clarify a couple of things for me

1. He's went back and fixed the repeated frame from the Martha and Bridgett conversation for the full release

2. He'll be posting clips from the edit to Youtube. Due to the running time, there are so many sequences from this edit to share that can give everyone a tantalizing glimpse of the film without remotely giving away too much

3. Lana's dream sequences were meant to be her glimpsing "visions", a consequence of carrying the stone around for too long. Due to my confusion (which I conveyed to him), he admitted there may have been a better way of presenting this, I suggested he should stick to the clips that look and feel the most 'lucid'

4. His explanations for what happened with Lex at the fortress largely came down to wanting to preserve some "mystery", and give the audience some ambiguity to think about.

5. He has no plans for a follow-up, which I feel makes the clear set-ups a lot more needless

[ZariusTwo]

Loads of clips have been posted by SouperboyX on his channel:

[ZariusTwo]

The CW are reportedly interested in reviving the show

https://geekositymag.com/the-cw-want...gs-smallville/

[Leo656]

Welling got fat and also hates the character. I don't know why anyone would even want this.

Stupid. Superman-related projects should be the sole province of people who understand and appreciate what a gift it is to be working on the character. Not people who think they're "above it" and only doing it for a paycheck.

[Turo602]

I liked Welling in the role but oddly, I could never see him as Superman. Young Clark Kent was fine for him, but he doesn't quite have the Superman look, especially today.

[Autbot_Benz]

how his clark gave up his powers in Crisis on Infinite Earths

[Andrew NDB]

I can't imagine there's an audience for this. Did his cameo on Crisis even move the meter? That whole universe seems like it'd be radioactive after already ruining all of the villains Clark was supposed to later on fight as Superman... long before he was Superman.

*looks at the "source":

Oh, it's "Giantfreakingrobot." They're just another arm of "Wegotthiscovered." Fake movie and TV news, only. Ever.

[Leo656]

The only conversation about his Crisis cameo was 1. "So this Clark barely even got to be Superman at all before he willingly quit to go have kids with Lois? What an asshole!", and 2. "So Tom Welling refused to even show up and do it unless the entire point was that Clark wasn't Superman? What an asshole!"

One or two people thought it was neat just to see him again, and they felt that it was "fitting" with what "Smallville" had presented previously. I guess that much makes sense; after ten seasons of him whining about not wanting to be "Superman", it does make sense that this version of Clark would immediately just figure it was too hard and quit. But I maintain that just like everything else about the character as presented in "Smallville", if you actually think that's a GOOD take then you have some serious fundamental misunderstandings about who Superman is and what drives him.

That show "tricked" a lot of people into liking it by leaning heavily on stuff they liked and remembered from the Chris Reeve movies; visual elements, musical cues, and things like that. But it's a really bad take on the character and they play him like an asshole. That will forever be my opinion. Every single time I try and give it another chance, I'm only reminded just how much they got wrong.

I can't even get into the stuff about how they messed up so much about his villains and the comic book mythology once they started trying to incorporate that into the show. A lot of that WAS pretty bad, but I could forgive a lot of that IF they hadn't also done such a bad job with Clark. How much of it was the writers and how much of it was Welling's own stupid choices, I don't think we'll ever know. Suffice to say, I didn't like it.

[Galactus]

Isn't that kinda the the drawback of these prequel series? Like he's not supposed to be Superman yet but he's encountering Brainiac and Metallo and Bizarro (or at least versions of them) before he's supposed to. Even if you're cool with that I'm not sure that TV quality cgi in the 2000s was up there to really do any of these characters justice.

I dipped in and out of the show over and it seemed like Superboy by way of Buffy the Vampire but not as good. I did make an attempt to watch more of the final season to see how it was all going to come together. At that point Clark was working at the Daily Planet, Lois knew his secret, he was working with a proto-Justice League and generally seemed to Superman in every way other than actually being Superman. It was very annoying.

It wasn't the worst show in the world. It was just kinda there and was just about good enough to stay on the air for a decade.

[Leo656]

I think the biggest drawback and reasoning to all of that was, it was conceived as a four-season show and that was it... and then it kept going. The original creators specifically envisioned it as "Clark in High School" with each Season being a year of school. Once he graduated, the show was supposed to be over. If they had stuck with that, a lot of the show's problems would have never even been a factor.

BUT, as is often the case, it got huge ratings for its network so they refused to let it end. But the point where they ran out of ideas because the long-term plans changed becomes VERY obvious.

I can't even really fault them too much for the bad "TV CGI" and weird costumes for some of the comic book stuff that came in later on, it was the best they could do at the time more or less. Some of it even looked kinda good. But the serious disconnect between what the show originally was and what it became later on hurts the entire thing pretty badly, more than any of the other factors I think.

At some point, they really needed to just let it "evolve" into a straight-up Superman show if they were going to keep it running and use so much of the comic book stuff. And the only real reason they couldn't is because Tom Welling refused to do it, and they couldn't recast him since a lot of chicks loved him and that was most of the audience. Once it was "Superman" in every way except him actually being Superman, the contrivances to extend the show's life without ever putting him in the suit got pretty unbearable.

I get why they cast Welling in the first place and he looks okay, but I cannot stand his indifference/dislike towards the Superman character and so much of what was wrong with the show was entirely because he refused to actually play the Superman character. Like dude, guys with black hair and cheekbones aren't that hard to come by; if he doesn't like the character, find a guy who does and most of your problems go away.

[Turo602]

Originally Posted by Leo656

The only conversation about his Crisis cameo was 1. "So this Clark barely even got to be Superman at all before he willingly quit to go have kids with Lois? What an asshole!", and 2. "So Tom Welling refused to even show up and do it unless the entire point was that Clark wasn't Superman? What an asshole!"

One or two people thought it was neat just to see him again, and they felt that it was "fitting" with what "Smallville" had presented previously. I guess that much makes sense; after ten seasons of him whining about not wanting to be "Superman", it does make sense that this version of Clark would immediately just figure it was too hard and quit. But I maintain that just like everything else about the character as presented in "Smallville", if you actually think that's a GOOD take then you have some serious fundamental misunderstandings about who Superman is and what drives him.

That show "tricked" a lot of people into liking it by leaning heavily on stuff they liked and remembered from the Chris Reeve movies; visual elements, musical cues, and things like that. But it's a really bad take on the character and they play him like an asshole. That will forever be my opinion. Every single time I try and give it another chance, I'm only reminded just how much they got wrong.

I can't even get into the stuff about how they messed up so much about his villains and the comic book mythology once they started trying to incorporate that into the show. A lot of that WAS pretty bad, but I could forgive a lot of that IF they hadn't also done such a bad job with Clark. How much of it was the writers and how much of it was Welling's own stupid choices, I don't think we'll ever know. Suffice to say, I didn't like it.

Honestly, it sounds more like you have a severe misunderstanding about what the show was doing considering a lot of the stuff it did was no different than what Snyder himself did with the character. Welling's Clark Kent wasn't ready to be Superman because of the burden and responsibility that comes with it which was kind of the whole point of Man of Steel, and that Superman didn't even fly or become Superman until he was 33. They even did an episode that touched on the idea of the world eating someone like Superman alive which further highlighted why Clark just wasn't ready to be Superman yet.

I honestly don't understand how exactly his character is an asshole in any way shape or form. He goes through the whole teenage phase in the first few seasons because he IS a teenager but even by teenage standards, he's still very much Clark Kent. The whole Kent family dynamic is as strong here than anywhere else and they get to explore all sorts of situations a teenager would go through as Superman which usually results in Clark sucking it up and suffering for being the good guy because he can't expose his secret.

The show obviously got a lot wrong in terms of characters and villains, but like what is anyone honestly expecting from a show like this? It's not the comics and it's going to lean heavily into the fact that it's its own continuity just like any of the modern CW shows that get just as much wrong. The whole premise of the show was no flights and no tights, which is exactly what they were trying to do with him on film at the time as a way of reinventing the character, except Smallville had the decency to make him young.

Whether you can accept it for what it is or not is totally up to you, but to say they didn't understand the character is just flat out wrong.

[Leo656]

The key difference is, in Snyder's version you have a Clark who absolutely REFUSES to quit being who he is and doing what he does - even if he occasionally has misgivings or feels discouraged; he still perseveres. And in Welling's portrayal, not only does he resist his "destiny" at every turn, thanks to "Crisis" we now know for a fact that he barely even got to be "Superman" before giving it up for "a simple life" on the farm with Lois, shirking his responsibility entirely because "I'd rather be normal".

It's not about how conflicted or anything one or both versions of the character are. It's about how Superman the character would NOT quit being Superman because he knows how important he is to the world. That if he ever gave it up, and something bad happened that he could have prevented, then by proxy it becomes His Fault.

There's an issue Jurgens wrote once - I forget the issue number, but the cover is Superman and Lois on top of a snow-covered mountain - and in it, she asks him why he even bothers. Why he feels so driven to be this "Superman" character, when he could do literally anything else with his life, whether that be King of the World or just hide out and live a life of total leisure. "Why be Superman?" she asks him.

And he simply replies, "Because no one else can."

THAT, to me, is one of the most fundamentally important scenes in the character's entire history, when it comes to understanding who Clark is and what drives him. And I think if anyone would try to write that off as "Just one interpretation" or "Just one story by one writer", that's pretty dismissive. I feel like nothing else has ever really nailed the heart of the character, the way that one scene does. And that if any portrayal of Superman isn't using THAT motivation as its base, then they're already off the mark.

Cavill's Superman follows that central motivational conceit. He's doing the things he does even BEFORE he's Superman "Because no one else can", and he'll KEEP doing them even if the whole world tells him not to bother. "Giving up is never an option."

And then there's Welling's Clark. "I don't feel any sense of responsibility to the world. I don't WANT to be their hero. I just want to go dick around on a farm and raise kids with my hot wife. If Brainiac or Darkseid invade, Oh F*cking Well."

THAT'S what I mean about "fundamentally misunderstanding the character". I can't accept any version of Superman who doesn't put his responsibility to use his powers for the good of the entire world ahead of his own self-centered pursuits. This is what I hate about "Superman II", as well; it's a movie about Superman quitting his job to go chase pussy, and how because of that the whole world goes to hell. At least, by the end of the movie, he learned his lesson. Welling's Superman obviously never watched or lived through the events of Superman II.

Superman Never Quits. Welling's Superman did. He not only rejected his responsibility at every turn until the show's cancellation "forced" him to finally be "Superman" for at least a minute, thanks to Crisis we know that he eventually just plain quit. Thus, he isn't "Superman" to me.

So yeah, I don't think it's wrong in the least to say that Smallville and Welling completely misunderstood the character. I don't even think that's an opinion at all. I don't think "Superman's sense of responsibility is so great that he'd never, ever give it up" is even an opinion. I think that's 100% of Who That Character Is, and that if you ignore that then you're indeed "getting it wrong."

It's less about the build-up to "Becoming Superman" and everything complicated about the character getting to that point. That's typical "Heroes' Journey" stuff. What I can't abide, is the fact that Welling's version just plain f*cking gives up. We go from him not even wanting to be Superman, to him only being Superman for a very short time, to then just plain saying "Nope, this gig ain't for me."

I know that 100% of that is probably on Welling's personal dislike of the character, but again, F*ck That Guy, then.

[TMNTFanatic4Life]

Smallville wasnt all bad. The best was Michael Rosenbaum as Lex Luthor...he was fantastic. He sold me as Lex, especially when he turned full heel in seasons 5-7. No doubt the show went to thrash with main villains after he left.

Doomsday was a disaster. Zod...Callum Blue was pretty good in the role, props there. And Darkseid.....yeah pretty terrible.


I will also say James Marsters as Brainiac was pretty good in the role and John Glover as Lionel Luthor throughout the series was fantastic as well.

[Leo656]

John Glover is pretty great in everything, though.

Rosenbaum was alright for the material they gave him. I'm just never a fan of "sympathetic" Lex. He definitely looked the part more than most so I get why he's a lot of people's favorite. I just thought they made him too much of a Daddy's Boy. But I didn't have a real issue with Rosenbaum himself. Other than he, also, didn't like playing the role and basically quit because his friends made fun of him over it. Like god, grow up and be a professional. That entire cast was such a bunch of petty, whiny kids. I try and separate art from the artist but sometimes it gets tough. Like everyone in that show basically got the break of a lifetime, people mostly liked them in their roles, and come to find out most of them didn't even like doing it, couldn't wait to get out of it... it all reeks of being spoiled and entitled. And it makes it hard to go back and re-watch it. Like I'd always rather see an actor do a job because they WANT to do it, not just because they're paid to be there, even if they're good at it.

I understand that is a Me Problem. Nobody needs to try and "correct" me. I'm just explaining how I feel.

As Luthors go I think John Shea is pretty untouchable, even though he refused to be bald. I can easily ignore that since everything else about him was so perfect.

[newfan]

Originally Posted by TMNTFanatic4Life

Smallville wasnt all bad. The best was Michael Rosenbaum as Lex Luthor...he was fantastic. He sold me as Lex, especially when he turned full heel in seasons 5-7. No doubt the show went to thrash with main villains after he left.

Doomsday was a disaster. Zod...Callum Blue was pretty good in the role, props there. And Darkseid.....yeah pretty terrible.


I will also say James Marsters as Brainiac was pretty good in the role and John Glover as Lionel Luthor throughout the series was fantastic as well.

Same here, I really liked the Luthor's characters in this show.

I didn't see the Crisis on Earth ep with Welling as this ep wasn't aired here along with the others (and they took their time airing those) I assumed maybe because it was the Batwoman part of the crossover and that show hadn't started airing here at the time. I don't really care to seek it out and watch now.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by TMNTFanatic4Life

And Darkseid.....yeah pretty terrible.

Oh yeah, I forgot all about that. "Darkseid" on Smallville... what a crock.

[ZariusTwo]

Originally Posted by TMNTFanatic4Life

Smallville wasnt all bad. The best was Michael Rosenbaum as Lex Luthor...he was fantastic. He sold me as Lex, especially when he turned full heel in seasons 5-7. No doubt the show went to thrash with main villains after he left.

Doomsday was a disaster. Zod...Callum Blue was pretty good in the role, props there. And Darkseid.....yeah pretty terrible.

I thought they missed a trick when they made Tess 'good' and almost 'motherly' too.

Anyone else think Callum is a dead ringer for Wade Barret or is that just me?

They dropped the ball on Martha running Checkmate too. Bendis would borrow a lot of that for Lois during his Superman run.