Clark doesn't wear glasses, there's no suit and he can't fly. Not
yet, anyway. Between the boy he thought he was and the man he is
destined to become are the stories of Smallville.
Twelve years ago, a meteor shower burst from the heavens, raining
destruction on the unsuspecting citizens of Smallville, Kansas.
The intervening years have left the town's inhabitants with scars
and secrets. From the ashes of tragedy, Clark Kent grows into an
awkward teen. While adolescence always brings its challenges, Clark's
transition from boyhood to adulthood is particularly difficult.
He must struggle to come to grips with his emerging superpowers
- and the effects of kryptonite - while battling the strange things
that have plagued this idyllic Midwest hamlet since the meteor shower.
The guardians of Clark's secret identity are his adoptive parents,
Jonathan (John Schneider, The Dukes of Hazzard, Dr. Quinn, Medicine
Woman) and Martha Kent (Annette O'Toole, Superman III, 48 Hrs.).
In the aftermath of the meteor shower, they discovered his crashed
spacecraft in a cornfield and took him in as their own. As a result,
he often feels truly alone in the world, like an outsider looking
in. Even his best friends, Pete Ross (Sam Jones III, Zigzag) and
Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack, Opposite Sex), are in the dark.
Lana Lang (newcomer Kristin Kreuk) is the untouchable girl next
door, the girl Clark worships from afar. Although she feels a strange
kinship to Clark, Lana doesn't know much about him, especially that
he blames himself for her parents' tragic death in the meteor shower
so many years ago. A true beauty and one of the most popular girls
in school, Lana dates Smallville's resident heartthrob and high
school quarterback, all-around golden boy Whitney Fordman (Eric
Johnson, Legends of the Fall). Clark's yearning to talk to Lana
is complicated by the kryptonite that she wears around her neck.
Whenever he gets near her, the green stone causes him to become
literally weak in the knees.
Clark forges a remarkable new friendship with Lex Luthor (Michael
Rosenbaum, Sweet November, Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane), though neither
has an inkling of how their destinies will ultimately collide. Inexplicably
bald from exposure to the meteor shower when he was a child, Lex
returns to Smallville after college to help turn around the family
company's struggling fertilizer plant. After Clark saves Lex's life
in a death-defying rescue, the two become friends. Clark looks up
to Lex as the big brother he never had, and Lex is surprised that
this small-town boy is someone he can actually trust. The ill-fated
friendship causes tension in the close-knit Kent family, as Jonathan
fears Lex may take after his ruthless tycoon father.