Along the way, the show included a monster of the week formula where Clark battled people given superpowers from Kryptonite — "Smallville" was very consciously "Superboy" by way of "Buffy The ...

Smallville wasn’t even cited by name until the late 1940s. As the Superman comics grew hugely popular, DC Comics wanted to capitalize on that popularity and created Superboy, a spin-off character who ...