Smallville

Biblography

First Appearance: FIRST APPEARANCE: (historical) ACTION COMICS #1 (June, 1938); (current version) MAN OF STEEL #1 (June, 1986);
Created by: Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
Appearing In: ACTION COMICS, ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, SUPERMAN and SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL

Geography and History

Despite it name Smallville is a good sized town of some 90,000 people situated in the Kansas farming belt. During the war it was given over mainly to light industry and aircraft production, but currently it is the hub for the large surrounding farming community. Smallville retains a small town feel with many local stories and family traders despite larger malls in surrounding towns. Smallville surrounded by farming land owned by massive companies and small family farms as well as a nearby Oto Reservation.

The most famous former Smallville residents are reporter Clark Kent (whose parents own a farm just outside of town) and vice-president Pete Ross. Kent was the star member of Smallville Giants Collage football team along with Pete Ross, Kenny Braverman and Scott Brubaker. Brubaker was killed in a drink driving accident and Braverman became the supervillain Conduit.

Brubaker, Scott

Scott Brubaker along with Clark Kent and Pete Ross was a star of the Smallville Giants football team. Normally the town and country kids didn't mix but Scott was different, a likeable guy. One night he was at a party with Kent, Ross and Lana Lang when they decided to leave, he agreed to drive them home against Kent's protestations that Scott had had to much to drink. On the way back their car hit a tree. While the other three passengers where unharmed Scott was left in a vegetative state. At the time Kent (secretly Kal-El of Krypton) was still developing his superpowers and blamed himself for Scott's condition. Scott's parents eventually went to court and got a judgement that allowed them to turn off their son's life support machines and let him die with dignity.

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Kent, Clark Joseph [More>>]

Clark Kent is the only son of Martha and Jonathan Kent. He was a popular figure at Smallville High and was a star member of the school football team. Kent later migrated to Metropolis and became the lead journalist for the famed Daily Planet. He is secretly Superman.

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Kent, Jonathan and Martha

Jonathan Kent and Martha Clark grew up in the town of Smallville Kansas. When Jonathan was listed as Missing In Action during World War Two Martha married the local millionaire's son, Dan Foreman. Foreman Senior pushed the marriage in an attempt to gain control of the Clark family store, but he was thwarted by his son. Dan Foreman was highly successful after his father had after died, but had terminal lung cancer himself. When Jonathan returned after the war Foreman asked him to take care of Martha, shortly afterwards he died from his condition. Martha requested that Dan leave her no money however he did leave her a 10 acre plot of land. Six months later Jonathan and Martha married and turned Foreman's parting gift of land into a workable farm.

The couple tried to have children, but after the third miscarriage their doctor warned against trying again. Not long afterwards while driving back to the farm they witnessed the crash landing of the Birthing Matrix of Kal- El sent from the planet Krypton to Earth by Jor-El. Thinking that the child was part of a human space program that adopted him as their own rather than hand him over to the authorities which they believed had sent him into space. Calling the baby Clark they presented him to the world as their natural born son. In time Clark Kent would become Superman and a highly successful journalist, but it was Ma and Pa Kent that gave him his strong hometown morals and attitude.

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Lang, Lana Elizabeth

Lana Lang was the childhood sweetheart of Daily Planet reporter Clark Kent. They had been an item for most of their lives and after college many expected them to marry. However both Clark and Lana held intertwined secrets. Clark possessed powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men (he was still a decade away from learning that he was from the planet Krypton) while Lana had been implanted with a control chip at birth by the alien Manhunters (like every other child in Smallville) so they could monitor the growth of the Kryptonian. With graduation their best friend Pete Ross left for university while Clark revealed to Lana his abilities (forever dashing her hopes that they could be a couple) and left to explore the world and his responsibilities.

When Superman appeared in Metropolis Lana knew that it was Clark, she moved to Metropolis under the control of the Manhunters and began watching his appearances. Her presence in the background of a number of different news items led Lexcorp investigators to kidnap her in order to find her connection to Superman. She was rescued by Superman and returned to Smallville where she was helped by the Kents to restart her life shortly afterwards the Manhunters were defeated by the Green Lantern Corps and Earths heroes lifting the controls that they placed on Lana's life.

Pete Ross had meanwhile returned to Smallville and taken up a job as a land agent. It began a role that eventually led him to stand for Congress and he invited Lana to come to Washington with him as his assistance. With Clark's blessing Pete and Lana began dating and once again returned to Smallville after the Sons of Liberty tried to sabotage Ross's political career. Lana recently gave birth to their first child, named Clark, who was kidnapped shortly after birth by Brainiac while Superman was rushing him to emergency surgery. After a brief rematch with Doomsday Superman managed to return the child.

Lana was surprised when Lex Luthor chose Pete to be his running-mate in the race to become the President of the United States. Lana is now having to become use to being the wife of the Vice-President. Lana is now caught in an impossible situation. Her husband now works for the man that had her kidnapped and tortured, but to say anything to him would be to reveal the Superman's secret identity. She can now only hope that her problems will be solved with Luthor dying in in office. However there is a serious question about her safety. Luthor reluctantly tolerates her presence and would kill her in a second if she tried to rock the boat.

Lana Lang was introduced in SUPERBOY (first series) #10 (Sept-Oct, 1950) as a love interest for Superboy. She later made the jump to the normal Superman titles and was often a rival with Lois Lane for Superman's attentions.

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Ross, Peter "Pete" Joseph

Together with Lana Lang Pete Ross was one of the best friends of Clark Kent (Superman) during his school days in Smallville. He had a place for Lana in his heart, but did nothing because he knew that Lana loved Clark. The friends went their separate ways after college and Ross went to university. After graduation he returned to Smallville to become the county land agent. His political career eventually took him to Washington with Lana as his assistant. He was successful in elections to Congress, but his career was almost ended by the manipulations of the nationalist Sons of Liberty. Shortly afterwards he married Lana and the two have just had their first son, Clark.

When Lex Luthor became US President he decided that he needed a "man of the people" as his running-mate and chose Pete to be his Vice-President. He used Ross's natural charisma and smalltown charm as a foil to his own buisness-man image. Ross is unaware that Luthor was at one time responsible for the kidnapping and torture of Lana. She keeps this a secret from him as it would endanger his life and Superman's secret identity.[PRESIDENT LUTHOR SECRET FILES AND ORIGINS (March, 2001)]

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