The Big Picture
Smallville
pushed the boundaries of what a superhero series could do on television, starting as a genre show like
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
but eventually growing into its identity as a Superman series.
Clark Kent’s time in the Phantom Zone taught him personal responsibility and how to be proactive in his superhero journey.
Clark’s time in the Phantom Zone was formative and helped him understand the importance of being a superhero and saving the world.
Smallville truly pushed the boundaries of what a superhero series could do on television. In many ways, Smallville wasn’t a superhero show when it first started and felt more like other genre shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But over time, Smallville grew more comfortable with its source material and the identity it could then pull from the original Superman mythos. About halfway through the series’ run, this manifested in the journey to the otherworldly Phantom Zone, where our hero was forced to confront the dark threats his father had locked away. But as it turns out, it’s precisely because of his time in the Zone that Smallville’s Clark Kent (Tom Welling) finds himself embarking on the journey that would mold him into the Man of Steel.
Smallville
A young Clark Kent struggles to find his place in the world as he learns to harness his alien powers for good and deals with the typical troubles of teenage life in Smallville, Kansas.
Release Date October 16, 2001
Seasons 10
Studio The CW
‘Smallville’ Season 6 Threw Clark Kent Into the Phantom Zone
In the Season 5 finale “Vessel,” Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum), who has already chosen his dark path in life, becomes possessed by the phantom spirit of one of Krypton’s most dangerous criminals: General Zod. Upon confronting Zod, Clark is quickly overpowered and sent into the Phantom Zone, which is where we find him in the Season 6 premiere “Zod.” While in the Zone, Clark discovers that his father, Jor-El (voiced by Terence Stamp), created the alternate dimension as a means for holding the most vile criminals imaginable, the aforementioned General being one of them. While this seemed cruel to Clark at first, he soon understood why the Kryptonian Council thought this was their only option, and even came to agree with the concept over time.
But while there, Clark better understood his biological father. The man who he thought — based solely on his interactions with the Jor-El A.I.— was cold, heartless, and wanted him to rule over Earth was actually kind and compassionate and created the Phantom Zone as a place where even the galaxy’s most dangerous criminals could have a life of their own (something Clark echoes in Smallville Season 10’s “Dominion”). Seeing this different side of his father, brought to light largely by his former assistant Raya (Pascale Hutton) who had been trapped in the Zone since Krypton’s destruction, Clark recognizes that while Jor-El couldn’t save Krypton, he could use his abilities to protect Earth.
“Pain is part of anyone’s journey, Kal-El,” Raya explains in the episode “Fallout.” “You can’t escape it. You must accept your destiny.” At this point in the series, Clark is unsure exactly what his destiny entails, and for the most part, he’s shown little interest in it. Jor-El tells him that he must rule over the people of Earth back in Season 2, while the Kawatche people believe that Clark is Naman, a savior from above meant to usher them into a new age. Early on, it’s anyone’s guess as to what exactly Clark is supposed to do with his life (the audience kows he will become Superman), and, as his adoptive parents Jonathan (John Schneider) and Martha Kent (Annette O’Toole) always make clear, it always comes down to his own choice. After his time in the Phantom Zone, Clark begins to make different ones.
Phantom Zone’s Prisoners Taught Clark How To Be Proactive
Image via The CW
Upon escaping the Phantom Zone, Clark defeats General Zod, expels his ghost from Lex’s body, and sends him back to his interdimensional prison, but not before first allowing several other prisoners (called “Zoners”) to escape with him. Sure, one of them was Raya, who wasn’t exactly a prisoner herself, but others included the plant-controlling Gloria (Amber McDonald), the mass-murderer Baern (Bow Wow), the video-on-demand killer Titan (Kane), and even Dave Bautista’s Aldar, who nearly rips Clark’s spine out from under him. Most notably, the phantom eventually known as Bizarro (Tom Welling) also escapes and causes a lot of heartache for Clark come Season 7. But the most important lesson that Clark learned from the escaped Zoners was that of personal responsibility.
You might think that this sounds too much like Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man (which is sort of “on-brand” given that Smallville creators Al Gough and Miles Millar wrote Spider-Man 2), but it’s true. Clark’s own actions let the Zoners out in the first place, and it’s because of the way he was raised that he takes that responsibility seriously. Unlike previous seasons where villains like Brainiac (James Marsters), the Disciples of Zod, or whichever meteor freak of the week on Smallville is causing trouble that week intersect with Clark’s life and therefore cause a response, our small-town hero is forced to actively seek these Zoners out. It’s this proactive attitude that Clark develops as a result of his time in the Zone that manifests itself throughout the show’s sixth season and well into the back half of the series.
For example, when his former friends and allies all brush into town to take down Lex’s 33.1 program at LuthorCorp, even though Clark first thinks he can handle it all on his lonesome, he soon recognizes the strength in numbers and genuinely wants to be a part of Oliver Queen’s (Justin Hartley) superhero league. “I wanna be a part of this guys, I really do,” Clark says to the proto-Justice League in the Season 6 episode aptly titled “Justice.” “[But] that problem I told you about, the one that I caused, I’ve got to take care of that first.” And he does. Clark spends the rest of Season 6 hunting down Zoners, which bleeds into Season 7, before taking to the streets of Metropolis as the illusive “Red-Blue Blur,” protecting people from the shadows. From there, he spends the final three seasons of Smallville prepping to become Superman.
Clark Eventually Overcomes the Phantom Zone on ‘Smallville’
Image via The CW
What’s tricky about the Phantom Zone is that it’s a lawless place full of violence and uncertainty. On three distinct occasions, Clark finds himself in the Zone, and each time he learns how to deal better with the prisonland and its inhabitants. He goes from barely surviving the Zone in Season 6 to helping Lois Lane (Erica Durance) and his cousin Kara (Laura Vandervoort) escape it in Season 8’s “Bloodlines.” By the time Season 10 rolls around, Clark changes his tune completely and jumps head-first into the Phantom Zone (with Oliver tagging along) to deal with a problem there and better manage the prison world.
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In many ways, Clark’s final venture into the Phantom Zone perfectly mirrors his initial stint in the prison world. In Season 5, General Zod sends Clark to the Phantom Zone because he refuses to join up and rule over Earth, turning it into a New Krypton. As a result, Clark’s time in the Zone is a punishment rather than a mission, and it’s entirely centered on his own survival there without his powers. But in Season 10’s “Dominion,” Clark willingly enters the interdimensional prison in order to bring justice and secure order, pitting him face-to-face with General Zod once again so that he might strip the Kryptonian warlord of his power. This reveals that, even without his abilities to aid him, Clark is still willing to sacrifice himself to keep the world safe.
What was first a frightening endeavor that Clark thought he might not escape in the show’s middle turns into a final appeal to his enemy’s better angels by the series end, all before sealing the door shut and closing that chapter of his life. It’s only upon leaving the Phantom Zone behind once and for all (though possibly not forever) that Clark can take his next step toward both Lois and his destiny as the Man of Tomorrow.
‘Smallville’s Clark Kent May Not Have Become Superman Without the Phantom Zone
There’s no doubt that the Clark Kent we see in Smallville was always going to become Superman. In fact, as early as the show’s third season, we see a glimpse of his trademark cape and shield coupled with the knowledge that Clark will seemingly “live forever” (see “Hereafter”). No, Clark isn’t immortal exactly (at least, we don’t think he is), but his legacy as Superman far outlasts his mortal life on Earth. Already the character has been around for 85 years in the real world, and if a fictional character like Superman could last that long without slowing down, there’s no telling how far the real deal might remain in the world’s collective consciousness. Or, at least in the world of Smallville.
In Season 10’s two-part “Finale,” Jor-El reveals to Clark that his time in Smallville, Kansas was all a part of the trials he was put through that would grow and develop him to becoming Superman. This also includes Clark’s initial time in the Phantom Zone and the resulting years of proactive superheroing that followed. Of course, most of those ten years weren’t easy, and everything from that fateful moment between Clark and Lex on the bridge to our hero’s battle with the Lionel Luthor-possessed-Darkseid (John Glover) just prior all led the young hero to that powerful moment in the Fortress of Solitude where Jor-El and the spirit of Jonathan Kent handed him the uniform that Martha made for him.
But Clark’s time in the Phantom Zone was a formative one. After having lost his earthly father, Clark was still learning how to be the man he knew he was supposed to be, and being sent to the Zone helped him figure some of that out. Yes, Clark was always a responsible guy, and often took on other people’s problems as his own, but when it came to being a superhero, when it came to saving the whole world, well, he didn’t get into that sort of thing until after leaving the alien prison his father built. Without that perspective, showing him what could happen to Earth if folks like General Zod, Brainiac, Bizarro, and Doomsday had their way, it may have taken Clark a long time to don the red cape and take flight. Thankfully, Smallville’s Clark Kent took on the responsibility of a superhero, saving the world many times over.
Smallville is available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.
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