If you haven’t guessed yet, the new WB drama Smallville—which made its world premiere on Tuesday, October 16th —is the story of a young Superman who not only has to deal with the natural awkwardness of puberty, but super powers that he’s not sure how to control as well. The role of Kent is played by newcomer Tom Willing—a handsome young man with a strong chiseled face and dark eyes that reminds me of the comic book portrayals of The Man of Steel. In Smallville, Kent is basically a big nerd and is rather shy and reserved. He is also striving to gain the affections of Lana Lane, a popular girl at school who happens to be the girlfriend of an extremely jealous jock. The other problem with Lana is that she likes to wear a necklace made of—what else—kryptonite. That’s a major problem for a main man, here.

The few minutes of the premiere episode gives us some background information with the meteor shower and Kent’s adoptive parents finding Kent as a baby. The storyline then jumps 12 years later with Kent in high school and suddenly realizing he has super powers, like the ability to run extremely fast and pretty much not be killed. My problem with this whole storyline is his rather dismissive take on the whole thing—he doesn’t confront his parents until the end of the hour-long episode by demonstrating his powers through putting his entire arm in a wood chipper. Personally if I found I couldn’t be destroyed, I would want answers and quick. His parents then show Kent the spaceship they believe he had come down to Earth in and mention that he basically single-handedly caused the meteor shower that killed Lana’s parents. I’m sure he was thrilled to find that one out.

Also during the first episode Kent meets for the first time his soon-to-be archenemy Lex Luther (played by the perfectly cast Michael Rosenbaum). Lex—who lost all his hair from a shockwave caused by the meteor shower—gets into a car accident that sends him, his car and Kent over a bridge and into a river. Not hurt at all, Kent is able to pull Lex from the car and bring him back to life. Being the smart guy he is, Lex realizes that Kent is not exactly a normal teenager and I’m sure we’ll see his interest in Kent grow later on in the season. Nevertheless, the two sort of form an odd friendship as Lex returns the favor after finding Kent strung up like a scarecrow in a cornfield by a bunch of football jocks and wearing a kryptonite necklace, which obviously doesn’t help matters. The scarecrow prank was an annual tradition for homecoming, which also included painting a large red S on the chest of the scarecrow…hmmm, I wonder if we’ll see such a thing again in the future.

And while dealing with his newfound powers, first love and a powerful new friend, Kent also has to battle a high school student who was the scarecrow during the meteor shower (yes, again with the meteor shower) and was put into a coma due to the blasts. The student is now awake and with his abilities to electrify people, is hell-bent on getting revenge for what was done to him by putting high school football players into comas. Makes sense, I guess. Of course Kent saves the day and is able to do it all without anyone detecting his gifts.

Within one hour’s time, Smallville was able to pack quite a lot of information. Between the introductions of all the main characters and a storyline that shows off Kent’s abilities, you can really get a good sense of where this show is headed. Die-hard Superman lovers may find the premise of this show a little bit to swallow, but for those like me who know only a little bit about Superman it promises a show that takes an interesting twist on the teenage years and how to deal when you seriously know you’re not like everyone else.

C.E. Pelc is a journalist and freelance writer recovering from Jersey-itis in Sacramento, CA. She is also the editor of fm sound (www.fmsound.fws1.com)—a bimonthly online music magazine published by Film Monthly.

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