Part Two of the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover saw the long-awaited return of Tom Welling as Clark Kent.
SPOILER WARNING! Read on only if you’ve seen Part Two of the crossover.
Lois and Clark of Earth-38 (Supergirl’s earth) are joined by Iris West-Allen as they travel to Earth-167 (the earth of the “Smallville” continuity), where they find that reality’s Clark Kent (played by Tom Welling) as he chops wood on the Kent Farm. The trio are whisked away before they can fully explain why they’ve coming looking for him, with Lex Luthor (from Earth-38, played by Jon Cryer) appearing, planning to kill this version of Superman.
Clark reveals that he’s no longer Superman, as he’s given up his super powers, and is now just a farmer going about his business. It’s also revealed that Clark and his Lois Lane are married, with two daughters.
“Batwoman” Executive Producer Caroline Dries told reporters at a screening last week, “We had conversations about how to best see Tom Welling again. We knew that we really wanted Brandon Routh as Clark Kent in the Daily Planet. I think the Tom Welling that we all kind of picture when we think of him as Clark is on the farm, so it made sense. And the farm is still there. Tom was joking when he was there, saying things like, ‘Look, that cow recognizes me!'”
While he has no powers, Clark was still able to give it to this version of Lex Luthor when provoked. Marc Guggenheim, who served as showrunner for the crossover added, “I feel like every note, even Tom’s little facial expressions when he says, ‘Still stronger!’ are great.”
Fans of “Smallville” took to social media to react to this scene, with many disapproving of the way “their” Clark Kent’s story appears to have panned out. But it appears as though Tom Welling fully supported the choices the writers made for his comeback.
“Honestly, he was terrific,” reveals Guggenheim. “We got on the phone with him and basically pitched him everything. The scene was already done, so we just emailed it to him, and he basically said to me, ‘I love this. You guys have basically written the one scene that I can’t say no to.'”
While there are no announced plans for Tom Welling or Erica Durance to return in the remainder of the 5-part “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover, there’s every possibility we may not have seen the end of the “Smallville” couple now that we know they’re part of the Arrowverse multiverse.
I knew they’d find a way to screw this up and that’s why I chose to skip it and wait for the aftermath. Smallville spent 10 seasons having Clark come to terms with his powers and embrace his destiny and this cameo sounds like they tossed the entire premise of the show in the dumpster. In fact Clark wished his powers away on Smallville multiple times and the moral of those stories always ended up being to stop running away from his birthright, no matter how noble he thought he was being. I wonder if any of these writers actually… Read more »
the cw demographic is females under 30 and any additional male watchers they can get because they are comic book shows. I find that most people who are complaining about the cw Crisis on infinite Earths are older males who are NOT the demographic.
I have no problem with this de-powered Clark Kent. I didn’t bother me at all. It’s actually a nice swerve. The fact that he has two daughters is a nod to the 4-issue Superman: Secret Identity by Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen. I honestly thought that they might have gone with John Byrne’s explanation of kryptonite only affecting Kryptonians originating from the same universe. That’s what I thought at first when Lex Luthor pulled out kryptonite on Welling’s Clark Kent and it didn’t work on him. First impression was “Oh, snap! That’s because that kryptonite isn’t from the same universe.”… Read more »
Secret Identity was a self-aware “what if” story about a guy that wasn’t really Clark Kent/Superman, so as much as I did enjoy that loose wink and nod interpretation of the Superman mythology I refuse to give them credit by saying that they were going for that especially considering that Smallville’s Clark Kent was definitely an iteration of Clark Kent/Superman. I love when characters are re-imagined in different ways but this cameo literally negated the entire 10 year run of Smallville. I see people citing things like “Welling didn’t want to wear the suit anyway” and “Smallville Clark wanted a… Read more »
Technically speaking, that pattern holds true here, as Earth-167 was wiped out (off-camera). So death and destruction followed his power loss again.
Sadly, this appearance just shows how much Welling isn’t interested in the character. If he was, this wouldn’t be “the one scene I couldn’t say no to”.
I was pretty sure of that a long time ago, as of the last episode of Smallville, but this (for me) clinches it.
Subtle nod to Superman 2, which I had no problem with, but my issue is with the fact that he could have easily apprehended luthor and prevented him from causing more trouble at the very least. Even a de powered Clark would do the right thing.
Oh well… it was good to see him and lois again though. I knew Tom wouldn’t put the suit on and I made peace with that a long time ago.
I think the main issue is Lex tells him his world, and many others are about to end, but Clark doesn’t seem to care all that much. You’d think he’d take the threat seriously and try to do something about it. Instead it was just kind of played for laughs with Lois thinking he was telling a joke and off they went to take care of their daughters. Not that I really care as it’s the CW and I think the shows on there are pretty terrible to begin with, but I was interested to see how Welling and Routh… Read more »
I’m hopeful that in four more episodes, there’ll be some kind of turn around. I mean Clark gave up/lost his powers twice a season on Smallville, so here we go again…
Otherwise, I’m the king of “Fanon Discontinuity”; there is no seventh Star Trek film (they just miscounted, like calling Grover Cleveland two different Presidents), the Drawn Together movie was a really bad fever dream (if you remember it too, that was a bad year for the flu), and the majority of the last season of Friends was just Ross losing touch with reality.
As much as I loved the fact that he would do anything FOR his daughters (being a parent myself I understand) I don’t think this is the end of his cameo. Because as a Parent I would do anything TO PROTECT my sons. Superman would have a backup plan in place in case something so drastic comes that he has no choice but to get his powers back to save the world, more so now that he has kids. All we need is one scene Lois and Clark jump to Earth 1. Clark with a sun crystal in hand to… Read more »
I feel the same, especially about protecting his kids. You can check my post about it above if you like.
Well, I think it’s one thing for Tom Welling the actor to give zero damns about being Superman. It’s quite another to have the character of Clark Kent give zero damns about being Superman after having a series devoted to a journey of him accepting himself, his destiny, and becoming Superman only to have him quit a few years later? Then on top of that he seems only mildly bemused by the idea that multiple universes including his own (with his wife and daughters) are in grave danger.
a. He only had about 4 minutes to hear what was going on, and it sounded kind of out there, and that was not his Lex, and even if he wanted to help his ride already left.
b. God forbid a superhero gets a happy ending, he should have stayed in the game like Routh’s Superman did…..OH Yeah…..all his friends and his wife died from poisonous gas..its the multiverse.. enough Supermen to go around…nice to see one with a happy ending.
Sman1938. Speaking for myself I have no problems with a superhero having a happy ending. Quite prefer it actually. Not saying he needs to stay “in the game” forever. Not saying the character is required to die in battle or spend his life brooding on a rooftop or anything like that. Maybe his giving up his powers would come off better if this were supposed to be many, many years later but even as long as it’s been it hasn’t been THAT long since the ending of the series. Seems way too early for retirement let alone completely giving up… Read more »
So I just saw tonight’s episode of the crossover and hmmmm I’m still thinking about what had just happened. So I’m going to have to take a little time to think about it. I’ll say what I thought about it soon. I will say that this is only part 3 of 5 for this crossover, so whatever happened in this episode, could possibly be reversed by the end of the event.
Without spoiling anything from tonight’s episode , I will say that this episode is like the equivalent to Avengers Infinity War. Having said that, I have a feeling that part 4 and 5 might be like Avengers End Game. That’s just what I’m thinking though.
“Hope is the light that lifts us up out of darkness.” I keep thinking of those words that Superman said and I can’t help but think but to keep those words in mind for the rest of the crossover.
Clark can always get his powers back if he needs to. Smallville’s Superman already defeated the Anti-Monitor, in the Season 11 comic which the Crossover is treating as Canon. Universe 167 is safe.
I hope so mlefort347. I really do.
I’m 50-50 on this. It was a nice scene with the best things about it the interaction with Lex, the Luke Skywalker “The Last Jedi” kind of moment with an uplifting touch with the punch with Tom& Clark proving once again that it’s the man that makes the suit not the other way around (which is what SV was all about along with embracing destiny) and they don’t need it to be more Super than the other ones. The cons were the giving up his powers when the whole thing about being with Lois is that he would never have… Read more »
Although the Lois and Clark walking away to see there kids still makes a nice close to the series for me…. I would love to see Tom back for the final episode.
I hope that what you said is true about Tom’s Superman Clark_Kent29. I will say that what you’ve said does help me be more hopeful that we will see Tom, Brandon, and Tyler again. More so for Tom and Brandon because we already know that Tyler will be back for his own Superman show. Thank you for that.
It was a tip of the hat to the Smallville series. That’s all I got out of it. And frankly, I didn’t care for it. Thought it ended up being a stupid moment especially after watching ten years of Smallville. But that’s what they do in these Crisis story lines.
Clark_Kent29, if he does come back with a black suit, I hope that it will look something like the Lois and Clark comic version that was out 4 or 5 years ago.
Yeah, that intrigues me. And will we see him with cape or no black cape? More than likely they could have chosen the black one to distinguish him from the others who wore variations of the regular Superman colors.
That’s a really cool picture Clark_Kent29. Thanks for sharing. I hope it happens. I was thinking how Brandon vanished and it looked very similar to how others have vanished, so I’m optimistically thinking whatever’s been done to Routh’s Superman and everyone else who has vanished can be undone and brought back. I can’t help but think that Brandon’s Superman’s words of “ Hope is the light that lifts us out of darkness.” is meant as a reminder to fans that even though it may look bad now, it will get better. And that maybe Brandon is hinting to the fans… Read more »
That is my hope as well. Now that they’ve killed important characters from current shows such as Iris and Tyler’s Superman there is no way those deaths will stand.
You’re welcome. 🙂 We’ve got to have…hope. 😉 In terms of that scene with Brandon gone we have to consider that if it happens, the 3rd Superman may be Cain,Gerard Christopher or even Cage if they still can get him. Guggenheim was mentioning that even though filming had shut down they were still waiting to get “someone”. And he did say they’re gonna announce something huge in January. There’s not many more bigger names they can get safe from a Keaton or Cage but sometimes they lead us on. They do need something big to lure viewers back it for… Read more »
What if, now please excuse me if this is a bit of a stretch, but what if Cavill’s Superman shows up with the three other Supermen? I doubt it but I just thought I’d throw that idea out there.
I’ll probably get criticized for this thought….. highly criticized even,but oh well. Again I don’t think that it will happen and I highly doubt it will, but still. I’m curious what others think.
It’s not impossible. But I think it’s unlikely. I think Cavill would problably be willing to do it but not so sure that WB & his manager who is problably still trying to negotiate his return to the movie wouldn’t be so eager. Then there’s scheduling & other factors. Also given we have seen him in the character in 3 recent movies I wouldn’t call that as big as Tom & Brandon returning who were absent from doing it for many years. But anything’s possible, I guess we have to see what happens.
True. Schedule would be a major factor. Is he still filming the Witcher? If so than that would also be a reason why he can’t if he was in the middle of filming.
That’s a very cool picture Clark_Kent29.
I hope it happens.:-)
Ya know one fan theory on YouTube is that the watch that Clark is wearing on his left hand might have blue Kryptonite in it because of the bluish hue it has. If that’s the case, then all Clark has to do to get his powers back is take it off.
I have to look better, I missed that. I thought about the wedding ring being gold kryptonite but I’m wondering if they’ll use his memories of DAX-UR telling him that he sacrificed his powers to have a family by wearing the blue Kryptonite bracelet. Then there’s the Superman 2 theory of Jor-El having stripped him from his powers. It’s funny because a month ago I heard a rumor about them reaching an agreement with the Brando estate for use of his footage. I even thought about a crazy theory about this not actually being the Clark from the SV tv… Read more »
So I did some research after we last chatted. Turns out that the writers of the DAX-UR episode are exactly the same ones that wrote Tom’s Crisis scene. Interesting, right? I re watched the DAX UR scene and it’s of note of how interested Clark is in the fact that Dax was able to have a family and live in peace. Back then I wondered if it would play out in an episode later on but it never did. But now… Clark asks him for the blue Kryptonite to defeat Bizarro but Dax thinks the request is to live a… Read more »
I will stand at applause if Tom shows up with the Smallville theme song Clark_Kent29.
😀
It’s sad how predictable they are. I just caught up, I was 100% sure this is exactly what they would do. They didn’t… uhm… “disappoint”.
I hated Smallville when it was on and even I feel insulted. The best thing about it was that Welling was channeling some serious Dad Schneider in his scene and that’s sweet.