Smallville Pulls off an Amazing 10-Season Trick Most Fans Never Notice

Smallville gives viewers ten seasons of Golden Age-inspired Superman fun in an easily digestible television format. It beautifully adapts tropes, themes, and arcs from classic Superboy comics in early seasons to prepare a casual audience for full-fledged Superman adventures later on, often burying references and Easter eggs in plain sight for eagle-eyed comic fans. Amidst D-list villains, famously controversial family dramas, and further elements lifted from the books, Clark Kent’s wardrobe may be Smallville’s sneakiest nod to the comics.

Superman’s iconic suit is one of the most recognizable symbols in pop culture. However, it only lurks on the periphery of Smallville for the entirety of the series as an unspoken objective to be earned. That said, Clark sports his notorious color scheme in almost every episode, sometimes adding jackets or undershirts with neutral tones. Over time, Smallville slowly establishes his growth incrementally through subtle changes to his color palette. Dulled reds on work shirts and chore coats, bright or navy blues on professional attire, and even the Blur’s black outfit secretly strengthen the similarities between Smallville‘s Clark Kent and Superman as he appears in comics.

Updated on October 20, 2024. by Lauren Younkin: Smallville has left an enduring impression on Superman fans and casual audiences alike, and its iconic imagery is one of the reasons why. This article has been updated to explore further what makes the costuming decisions in Smallville so memorable and to ensure that it meets CBR’s current formatting standards.

Clark Kent Must Grow into His Role as Superman

Becoming the World’s Greatest Hero Is a Long Process

Smallville builds upon the goofiness of Golden Age Superboy comics, ignoring the complications of Kon-El, the modern Superboy, and instead focusing on elements that easily translate to the teen drama style of Smallville‘s early seasons. While fans watch to see how Clark’s friends and family will deal with his secret, Superman’s famous primary color palette hides in plain sight. Smallville High School’s colors are conveniently crimson and gold with more casual red and yellow spirit wear, and Ma and Pa Kent sport red hair and mostly blue shirts respectively.

Clark tries a few different superhero outfits before he eventually earns his suit. Comic spin-offs of the hit TV show feature several improvements to his Superman suit, including Speed Force and Green Lantern variants, but Tom Welling only appears as the official Superman of his universe a couple of times in Smallville. Despite this, he does appear in Superman’s traditional color scheme in almost every episode. Earlier seasons trend toward more reds and yellows, while later seasons dress him in more blues.

The shift from the brightest of his colors to the darker of the three does a lot to hammer home Clark’s gradual loss of innocence throughout the series. He begins Smallville as a bright-eyed freshman, still unaware of the exact extent of his differences from his fellow students. As Clark learns more about his alien heritage and begins to experience hardships as a result, he takes on a more world-weary demeanor that is reflected by the color dimming in his wardrobe. Often hidden in plaid shirts or muted tones, red, blue, and yellow appear in almost all of Clark’s outfits.

After Clark graduates and matures throughout the series, he deals with increasingly serious threats, altering the color balance of his outfits. Early seasons have more red chore coats and shirts. While there are darker periods here and there, Clark gradually gravitates more toward blue as he comes of age, and his position at the Daily Planet at the close of the series brings the classic glasses and light blue button-down shirts that fans know and love. It’s a subtle change that symbolizes his growth toward a more recognizable hero. Neutral tones like gray, white, or black occasionally fill spaces or contribute to patterns, but never enough to overpower his classic color palette. This makes the instances where none of Superman’s colors appear all the more significant.

Superman’s Shifting Identity Is a Theme of Smallville

The Color Schemes in Smallville Represent Clark Kent’s Growth

One of the first significant and prolonged diversions from Superman’s color palette begins in Smallville Season 2’s finale episode “Exodus” and continues through the beginning of the next season after a run-in with red kryptonite strips Clark of his morality. He wears all black throughout the beginning of the episode, only switching to a red shirt when Lana finds him in Metropolis. The outfit is strikingly similar to Bizarro’s outfit later in the series. Viewers witness him robbing banks, hurting people close to him, and trying to build another life due to the effects of his class ring, and the drastic shift to the all-black alter ego, the Blur, sells the feeling that Clark isn’t acting like himself.

The Blur’s outfit from the final seasons is also all black, and while this black suit doesn’t come with a crime spree, Clark’s personal life suffers because of his dedication to heroics, making it clear that black represents a departure from the Clark Kent viewers know. In contrast, Clark sometimes appears in white or gray shirts when he lounges at home or works on the farm, symbolizing a departure from his identity as Superman. The balance between Superman and Clark Kent is the source of his deepest complexities.

Superman and Clark Kent aren’t the only dual identities in his life, however. Clark’s human life begins with him firmly embodying a genuine farm boy, raised with small-town values and Midwestern charm. However, as the series progresses he moves further and further away from this life, not just through his escapades as a superhero but through his job at the Daily Planet. Clark’s outfits change with him as he becomes more of a city-slicker, leaving behind the oversized flannels and jeans for a suit and tie. This doesn’t come at the complete compromise of his personality, though, as evidenced by Lois still calling him “Smallville” even after spending more time in the city. His hometown’s importance to him remains relevant throughout the series, allowing the show to live up to its name.

Superman’s dual identities drive his character, often leaving him to struggle with choosing what’s right. If Superman’s primary colors symbolize the moral high ground, black represents its absence, and white represents the unfiltered combination of those colors. In other words, black represents Clark’s Kryptonian heritage and sense of duty, while white represents his human conscience. The suit and its colors ultimately represent his ability to find and utilize the balance he needs to harness his powers for the greatest possible good. All 10 seasons prepare Clark to finally achieve that balance and embrace the duality of Superman. White and black don’t necessarily always symbolize the polar ends of Clark’s character, but they become noticeable when Clark’s primary palette goes on hiatus for an extended amount of time. The lack of color is, quite simply, jarring.

Clark Kent’s Story Is Told Through Outfits

The Hero’s Outfits Reflect His Relationship with His Own Identity

Costumes and wardrobe are essential to a series like Smallville. One of the fastest ways to tell the audience a little about each character’s personality is through visual storytelling, and this is even more true for superhero shows, which naturally emphasize each hero’s costumes. Smallville incorporated several heroes and villains from across Superman’s many adventures, but most of their costumes and designs were subtle until heavy hitters like the Justice League entered the fold. Adding more costumed vigilantes prompted Clark to think about his outfit choices and work toward his super suit, but it also gave him a baseline to measure himself against. The Blur’s all-black costume was an over-correction for Clark in response to feeling like he was losing himself — one that also happens in the comics.

Smallville had a motto coined by the series creators that it stuck to throughout its run: “No tights, no flights.” This was meant to indicate that Clark could not don the iconic Superman costume or grow into his ability to fly at any point during the show, as it would symbolize the end of his growth. Indeed, the finale of the show gives the audience the well-earned moments it had been building up to by finally letting Clark fly and open his shirt to reveal the Superman suit. The wardrobe choices up to that point only sweeten the moment, as viewers get to see the fruition of what has been teased to them all along.

Subtly hinting at Superman’s costume in every episode of the series, paired with the guaranteed eventuality of the suit’s appearance, turns Clark’s color schemes from a series of typical Kansas boy wardrobe choices into an intentional through-line from the costume department. It’s a brilliant and intended way to symbolize Clark’s relationship with his conflicting identities. Clark’s struggle to find balance is the crux of his journey to becoming Superman, and by dressing him in his famous colors for most of the series, Smallville shows viewers that all he needed to find was himself.

Red, blue, and yellow are the primary colors from which all other colors are derived, so it makes sense that Smallville can be divided into three primary parts. Superman is a similarly primary hero, inspiring many who appeared after him and assuredly many more to come. Smallville uses those same primary colors to portray Clark Kent as a simple farm boy despite his otherworldly abilities, hiding them in casual and work attire all while Kal-El works to honor his legacy. Clark’s outfits call to mind the classic aesthetic of Superman comics by cleverly adapting Golden Age stories and themes for a new generation.