Smallville tells the story of Clark Kent growing up in the aforementioned town while dealing with his newfound abilities under the Earth’s sun. The show lasted ten seasons and (spoiler alert!) ended with Clark becoming the fully-fledged Superman in the show’s final episode.
Despite having many ups and downs with his powers, including being stripped of them on a few occasions, Clark remained a hero regardless of whether he had his abilities or not. Let’s take a look back over the ten seasons to identify some of Clark’s most and least heroic moments.
Heroic: Jump In A Tornado After Lana
Early on in the show’s season 1 finale, ‘Tempest’, while Lana is driving home from dropping her boyfriend Whitney off to join the Marine’s, a tornado strikes Smallville and picks Lana’s car into the center of it.
Obviously, Clark has his powers and therefore he isn’t in a huge amount of danger but he is still coming to grips with them, and jumping in a tornado to save the girl you love seems heroic enough to earn a spot on this list.
Worst: Almost Killing The Mugger Who Stole His Father’s Watch
In the aftermath of Jonathan Kent’s death, a mugger takes his watch from Martha Kent in Metropolis, and Clark makes it his mission to retrieve it. Upon finding the man who stole the watch Clark almost chokes him to death before coming to his senses.
The only reason Clark snapped out of his actions was seemingly due to a mysterious new vigilante in Metropolis, the Angel of Vengeance who says that the mugger deserves to die. If it wasn’t for this, Clark may never have realized what he was doing and could easily have snapped the mugger’s neck.
Heroic: Told Lois His Secret
In season 10 episode 5, ‘Isis’, Clark decides that he can’t be with Lois unless she knows his secret so he decides to tell her so they can start their life. This is not to be confused with season 8 when Clark revealed his secret to stop Lynda Lake.
By any measure, Clark confessing who he is to anyone throughout the show required a lot of trust and to include Lois, so they can be together, seems pretty heroic.
Worst: Released The Phantoms From The Phantom Zone
The phantom zone is a prison built by Jor-El to hold Kryptonians. In season five Clark refuses to serve Zod who then entraps Clark in the Phantom Zone where he meets Raya. Only a member of the house of El can open the gateway to escape the Phantom Zone so Raya enlists Clark’s help.
When Clark manages to leave by pressing his blood on the gateway, he also releases other phantoms to Earth including Bizarro who impersonates Clark and engages in a relationship with Lana.
Heroic: Withstand Flames For Lois
In season 6 episode 10, ‘Harvest’, Clark and Lois end up in a small village where Lois ends up being a human sacrifice. The villagers drink water that is radiated with blue Kryptonite leaving Clark power-less against the villagers.
The villagers kill Clark with a scythe and bury him far enough away from the village so that he heals from his wounds and breaks free. When he races back to the village he sees the villagers are about to douse Lois with blue kryptonite fire as their sacrifice but Clark, knowing he will be powerless, runs in and covers Lois from the fire as it tips onto her resulting in the fire badly burning Clark’s back.
Worst: Revived Zod
On the face of it, this may seem like a cliche heroic decision to save even one of his greatest enemies but reviving Zod in season 9 episode 14, ‘Conspiracy’, gave him and all his followers the full arsenal of Kryptonian powers, including flight which even Clark did not have at this stage.
It was this revival that allowed Zod to impersonate ‘The Blur’ to Lois, kill his wife Faora and their unborn baby, and get the remaining Kryptonians on his side against Clark.
Heroic: Sacrificed Himself To Defeat Zod
In the season 9 finale, ‘Salvation’, Zod’s army learns that he was deceiving them about Faora’s death and agree to follow Clark to a new home. Before they can be transported off-world, Zod uses a blue Kryptonite dagger to strip him of his powers to stop him from ascending and stay on earth.
Clark intervenes and the two engage in battle but Clark knows he must get the dagger away from Zod so that Zod is teleported off Earth. Clark impales the dagger into his own chest and falls off the building so that the radiation of the blue kryptonite no longer affects Zod, making him Kryptonian again allowing him to be teleported away.
Worst: Revealed Who He Was To The World
In season 8 episode 15, ‘Infamous’, previous villain Lynda Lake returns to Smallville and threatens to expose Clark’s secret. He decides to take his destiny into his own hands and asks Lois to write a story about who he really is.
Clark at first receives a lot of praise for the many people he has saved but soon after, the media twists Clark’s story and condemns him for all the people that he hasn’t saved. Lynda Lake convinces everyone that Clark is the first wave of an alien invention and the media turn on him forcing him to use the Legion ring to go back in time, put things right and end Lynda Lake for good.
Heroic: Gave Up His Powers In Crisis
It seems as though fans of Smallville did not all take kindly to Clark’s cameo in Crisis on Infinite Earths when it was revealed that he gave up his powers in order to lead a normal life on the Kent farm with Lois and their daughters.
That being said, you can’t deny it’s a heroic decision to sacrifice your life of having abilities humans can only dream of in order to be with those you love. However, if an enemy comes back from Clark’s past to kill him, fans can only hope he has an axe nearby as he may need it.
Worst: Run To Metropolis On Red Kryptonite
At the beginning of season 3, after Clark ran to Metropolis with his red Kryptonite ring on, Jonathan Kent took on the powers of a Kryptonian to bring Clark back to Smallville. The powers must have caused too much internal damage to his body as, after all, Jonathan is still only human.
Clark also disobeyed his biological father Jor-El and as a result, Lana Lang died, but when Clark begged Jor-El to send him back to save Lana, Jor-El said that someone else close to him would die. This replacement turned out to be Jonathan Kent as a result of his brief exposure to Kryptonian powers to bring Clark home.
