Smallville Is Still The Perfect Superman Origin Story (Why It Beats The Movies)

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Despite ending its run over 10 years ago, Smallville remains the perfect Superman origin story — even better than the movies. First airing in 2001, Smallville follows a teenage Clark Kent as he navigates his awkward adolescent years with the added complication of his superpowers. A great deal of kryptonite-related issues and villains arise for Clark over Smallville's 10 seasons, with a number of Superman's comic book allies (and members of his rogues' gallery) also appearing.

With Superman being perhaps the most iconic pop culture figure of all time, getting his origins right can be a tricky feat. It's been done a number of times both in films and on TV, but Smallville's approach to Superman's origin story was the perfect one. In the years since, both Zack Snyder's Man of Steel and the Arrowverse have covered Superman's origin, too, although neither they — nor any of the cinematic versions that came before - quite approached the story as perfectly as Smallville did.

Related: Smallville: When Each Main Character Discovered Clark Was Superman

Superman's origins are fairly well-established: he was sent to Earth as a young child to escape the destruction of Krypton and raised on a farm by Jonathan and Martha Kent. However, the devil is in the details, and Smallville took a few small liberties with the story — most notably, the show's "no tights, no flights" rule. While Smallville itself may not be a perfect show, its approach to Superman's origin story was the perfect one for a number of reasons.

Fitting a superhero's origin story into the runtime of a single film can be a challenge for filmmakers. In the case of Superman movies, it's usually done within a handful of scenes, much like Snyder's Man of Steel origin.