Smallville
Smallville was the epic ten-year journey that told the tale of how Kansas farmboy Clark Kent grew into the world’s greatest hero. While many felt the whole show was too protracted and gave up halfway through, others stuck with it to the very end. It would be worth it, they said, to finally see Tom Welling’s Clark suit up as Superman.
You can imagine their total anger, then, when the two-hour finale event never saw Welling in tights. Sure, the last few seconds gave us a recreation of the classic Superman image of Clark pulling open his shirt to reveal the ‘S’ shield underneath, but for many it was far too little too late. Likewise, Superman had kind of appeared earlier in the episode – in the form of a blurry, tiny computer-generated version.
The nail was dug even deeper for longterm Smallville fans when Tom Welling revealed the lack of the Superman costume was his doing. Producers originally wanted him to don the red and blue spandex, but Welling believed that that would be against the premise of the show – which was about Clark Kent and not Superman. We admire the actor’s commitment and passion for his vision for the series, but sadly it differed from virtually all of the fans.
