On September 25, 2009, The CW Show Smallville had its 9th season premiere and all I can say is wow and I'm not just saying it because I am a huge superhero fan. The first five minutes had a tremendous fight scene which ended with Clark (Tom Welling) catching a train in his bare hands and trust me it didn't look like something out of the George Reeve Adventures of Superman TV series. This scene simply looked cinematic and it really makes me wonder what would happen if the people who worked on Smallville put together a Superman movie.



Now I know what you are thinking there's no way a TV show on the young CW network could have movie quality special effects but after comparing this episode of Smallville to the premiere of Heroes on NBC I have become a believer. A show on a big network like Heroes should be blowing Smallville out of the water and the first season did, but now Heroes is resorting to effects that anyone who owns iMovie on a Mac can create to make the illusion of two people fighting at super speed. Honestly a fight scene on Heroes looks like a drawing of the Tasmanian Devil compared to scenes on Smallville where an actor is literally catching a train in his bare hands and trying to fly off the Statue of Liberty which leaves the audience asking how did they do that?

An example of a Heroes fight scene.
Clark overlooking the city of Metropolis in a highly expensive CGI shot.


Smallville's story is also much more rock solid than Heroes. I know that the people behind Smallville have seventy years of Superman comic books to deal with but Heroes' season long storyline about Superheroes battling a group of sideshow freaks over a compass that shows what your heart desires is just plain silly. Also at the same time it seems like the creators of Heroes are telling a story that was taken from Pirates of the Caribbean rather than comic books. However Smallville's story for this season is much deeper playing off theories by Joseph Campbell to create a tale where Clark who is on the path to becoming the legendary hero Superman must find a balance between his Kryptonian heritage and human heritage or the world will face it's darkest hour. This storyline is enhanced by Clark being visited by someone in the future telling him that if he doesn't choose to become Superman by what would be considered the end of the season everything around him will be destroyed.


Obviously we know that Clark will choose to become Superman but this glimpse from the future shows us that there will be some bumps in the road including possibly the death of a fan favorite character meaning that the legendary hero will not come into existence without a bang. This makes me want to describe what may potentially be the last season of Smallville only as one word, epic.

Watch Smallville Fridays at 8/7c on The CW or online. Also for a comparison check out Heroes on NBC Monday at 7/8c or online.