If you read Superman comics during the days of the New 52, then you may agree with me in saying they didn’t always meet expectations. Action Comics and Superman may have stepped up their game when Rebirth came along, sure, but I often found myself having to get my Big Blue fix during that time period by way of team-up books like Justice League and Superman/Wonder Woman, or the out-of-continuity Smallville Season Eleven.
For those unfamiliar, Smallville Season Eleven did exactly what you’d expect from the title: it continued the story established by the TV show, thereby showing us the Superman that Tom Welling’s iteration of Clark Kent blossomed into. Along the way, he met other heroes The CW didn’t have permission to incorporate, namely Batman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern. It was an incredible series, and I highly recommend that you go out and pick up some trade paperbacks if you haven’t already.
With Welling now reprising the role of Clark about a decade after he last did so, Smallville diehards such as myself can only wonder if those Season Eleven comics will be canonical with “Crisis on Infinite Earths.” When one fan asked executive producer Marc Guggenheim about this on Twitter, he responded with the following:
“They won’t be directly referenced but we consider the comic to be canon (with one small ‘off-camera’ repurchase of a certain farm).”
Although I didn’t think any direct references would be made to, say, Clark’s reunions with Doomsday, the Legion of Superheroes or Darkseid, it’s comforting to know those all happened, at the very least. It really does give us the idea that Welling’s Superman will be a seasoned veteran once we’re reunited with him.
As for the “off-camera repurchase of a certain farm,” I was wondering about just that when I saw that recent set photo showing Welling and co-star Erica Durance posing at the iconic Kent farm. That bit of property had been sold off at the tail end of Smallville season 10 so that the two lovebirds could relocate to Metropolis. But hey, Clark’s boyhood home makes us recall more memories than his apartment, so I can understand the desire to put him back there.
“Crisis on Infinite Earths” kicks off with Supergirl on Sunday, December 8th on The CW.
