Smallville's "Legion" focuses on what has been in the back of the minds of true Superman fans since the series' beginning: Chloe Sullivan never sees Clark Kent (Tom Welling) don blue tights.
At least there was no mention of Alex Mack's character in the pages of DC Comics before "Smallville" was a TV series.
Not to mention that The Legion of Superheroes tells Clark in the season eight episode that there is no mention of Chloe in their historical records.
Though Chloe ends up surviving "Legion," the question remains whose loss or sacrifice will define a Clark Kent whose transition to becoming Superman has just started to take shape during what might be one of the series' last seasons, if not the last one itself.
"If the show doesn't go on, we have a series finale that the writers have been thinking about ..." The CW President Dawn Ostroff says. READ MORE!
A problem the writing staff of "Smallville" encounters is that Clark is too ethically moral to challenge in any new meaningful way given the absence of Michael Rosenbaum's polar opposite Lex Luthor, that is, unless a Kryptonite-spawned meteor freak or a powerhouse monster threatens his friends or the world.
"Legion" presents Clark with the unique challenge of having to defeat a version of Brainiac that has taken complete control of Chloe.
The writers try to find new stories to make a character that will always do the right thing interesting, and this would also be the case for the series finale. Clark Kent cannot suddenly on a whim decide to become The Man of Steel if he has not already done so.
Missing is that defining event in Clark's life that will compel someone so powerful to put his own needs aside and fulfill his destiny as Earth's greatest protector.
Past "Smallville" canon dictates that someone has to die in order for this to happen.
In "Hidden," Clark is shot dead when he gives up his powers so as to live a happy, normal life with Kristin Kreuk's Lana Lang. Jor-El ultimately saves his life, but warns that a loved one will have to die because one life force must be exchanged for another.
This turns out to be John Schneider's Jonathan Kent, who suffers a fatal heart attack.
Clark thereafter never addresses this consequence of him giving up his powers, a lesson he could only learn after his selfishness causes the death of another love one given that the death of a father is natural part of anyone's life and that it has since been forgotten.
Jor-El tells Clark in the same episode, "The lessons that we learn from pain are the ones that make us the strongest."
Without this untold moment in the Superman mythos, Clark Kent will never transcend his identity as an alien with unchecked power to a being who understands his own limitations as a super man. "Smallville" fans will believe a man can fly, but they will not know why he even bothers.
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