Only 1 Superman Adaptation Has Outperformed Every Other Live-Action Version

Image via The CW Published Jul 21, 2026, 6:47 PM EDT Michael John Petty is a Senior Author for Collider who spends his days writing, in fellowship with his local church, and enjoying each new day with his wife and daughters. At Collider, he writes features, reviews, recaps, and conducts interviews. In addition to writing about stories, Michael has told a few of his own. His novella, The Beast of Bear-tooth Mountain, was released in 2023. His Western short story, The Devil's Left Hand, received the Spur Award for "Best Western Short Fiction" from the Western Writers of America in 2025. Michael currently resides in North Idaho with his growing family. Sign in to your Collider account Since Superman first appeared on the page back in 1938, there have been dozens of interpretations of the character via radio serials, television shows, animated projects, and feature films adapting the iconic character, with James Gunn's Superman finally flying into theaters last year. But one adaptation that undoubtedly nailed the character is The CW's Smallville. Telling the origin story of a teenage Clark Kent (Tom Welling) as he grew into Superman, Smallville focused on what other live-action adaptations have failed to highlight: the importance of his relationship with his adoptive parents. Jonathan and Martha Kent Teach Clark Strong Morals While the earliest Superman comic books didn't highlight Ma and Pa Kent's influence on their son's crime-fighting career (back when they were Sarah and Eben Kent or Mary and John Kent, depending on the project), it wasn't long before they became staples of the Man of Steel's greater and ever-expanding mythology. Beginning with issues of Adventure Comics and Superboy during the Silver Age (1956-1970), which often retold the younger years of Superman back when he was still the Boy of Steel, Martha and Jonathan Kent became the definitive "Ma and Pa" Kent. Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would BeYour Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn't work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back. 🎖️Rambo 🍸James Bond 🏺Indiana Jones 🔧John McClane 🎭Ethan Hunt FIND YOUR PARTNER → 01 You're dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you. ASomeone who already has three contingency plans running and is calmly working through all of them. BSomeone who reads the terrain instinctively and knows exactly how to use it against the enemy. CSomeone who keeps their nerve and their sense of humour when everything is falling apart. DSomeone who knows the history of wherever we are and what we're walking into. ESomeone with the right contact, the right cover identity, and the right exit already arranged. NEXT QUESTION → 02 You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission. AOn foot through terrain no one else would attempt — I move where vehicles can't follow. BOn a motorcycle, a cargo plane, or anything else that gets me there before I think too hard about it. CIn something that belongs to someone else — borrowed, stolen, or improvised under fire. DFirst class, with a cover identity and a gadget that does something I won't explain until it's needed. EBy whatever means are available — I've driven, flown, and once arrived by camel. The destination matters, not the method. NEXT QUESTION → 03 You're pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of. ADisappears into the environment, flanks them silently, and ends it before I've reloaded. BCracks a one-liner, grabs a fire extinguisher or a chair, and improvises something that somehow works. CProduces a gadget specifically designed for this exact scenario and uses it with infuriating precision. DPulls out a whip, a pistol, and an archaeological insight that somehow gets us out alive. ENeutralises the threat with maximum efficiency and minimum words — they were already three moves ahead. NEXT QUESTION → 04 The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are. AA bar with terrible lighting, cold beer, and absolutely no questions about feelings. BThe finest restaurant in the city, a bottle of something expensive, and a conversation that is equal parts brilliant and exhausting. CA local dig site, a museum after hours, or a long story about why that particular artefact matters to human civilisation. DPizza. Bad TV. Falling asleep halfway through a movie neither of you were watching anyway. EA debrief that turns into three hours of contingency planning that somehow becomes the most fun you've had all week. NEXT QUESTION → 05 How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability. APrecise and minimal — tell me what I need to know and nothing else. Every word has a cost. BDeadpan and dry — keeping it light keeps me sharp, even when everything is on fire. CEnthusiastic and slightly chaotic — but always with useful information buried somewhere in the noise. DCalm and controlled through an earpiece, with a plan that covers every variable I haven't thought of yet. EBarely at all — silence is a language and they speak it fluently. NEXT QUESTION → 06 Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership. AInfiltrate their inner circle, learn everything, and dismantle them from inside out before they know we're there. BStudy the historical pattern — every villain of this type has a weakness written somewhere in the past. CGet them talking. The more they monologue, the more time I have to figure out how to beat them. DGo through them. Directly. With as much force as the terrain allows. EFind the one thing they haven't accounted for — there's always one thing — and make sure we're holding it. NEXT QUESTION → 07 Things go badly wrong and you're captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters. ACome in alone, quietly, and get me out before anyone knows they were there. BHave already been working on the extraction since the moment I disappeared — the plan is already running. CCome in loud, come in fast, and worry about the collateral damage later — I'd do the same for them. DUse every resource, every contact, and bend every rule until I'm out — they don't leave people behind. ECharm their way in somehow, bluff through the hard part, and still manage to look good doing it. NEXT QUESTION → 08 What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn't replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn't know you had. ATechnology that shouldn't exist yet and the training to use it under any conditions. BSurvival instinct so refined it borders on supernatural — and the scars to prove it's been tested. CKnowledge of history, language, and culture that makes them invaluable in places where force is useless. DThe ability to walk into any room in the world and immediately become the most trusted person in it. EStubbornness that refuses to accept a situation is hopeless — and the improvisational skill to back it up. NEXT QUESTION → 09 Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together. AA partner who never fully switches off — always watching exits, always calculating threats, even at dinner. BA partner who gets the job done brilliantly but has the emotional availability of a locked filing cabinet. CA partner who makes everything ten times more complicated than it needs to be — but who always comes through. DA partner who gets personally attached to every relic, ruin, and artefact we encounter, which slows everything down. EA partner who was not built for this and knows it — but shows up anyway, every time, without being asked. NEXT QUESTION → 10 It's the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one. AOne line. Absolutely dry. Delivered like the world isn't ending. Then we move. BNothing said at all — just a look that means we both already know what has to happen. CA plan I don't fully understand that somehow accounts for everything, delivered in thirty seconds flat. DA piece of historical context that reframes the entire situation and tells us exactly what to do next. ESomeone who steps forward instead of back — because that's who they've always been. REVEAL MY PARTNER → Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse. RamboYour partner doesn't talk much, doesn't need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you've finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You'll never need to ask if he has your back. You'll just know. James BondYour partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it'll take you a moment to remember what's actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You'll never be bored. You'll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing. Indiana JonesYour partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar's eye and a brawler's instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn't matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you'll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them. John McClaneYour partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren't so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay. Ethan HuntYour partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you've finished reading the briefing, and the plan he's settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn't exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ Under those names, Superman's parents ended up being the most important people in his life, shaping who he would become. Not everyone is equipped to handle parenting a superpowered alien from Krypton, but the Kents' moral backbone and tough work ethic were the perfect combination for a young Clark to learn what he needed. Over time, DC Comics flipped the script. While Jonathan usually dies before seeing Clark become Superman (or soon after), DC Comics began to keep both parents alive well into adulthood, beginning with The Man of Steel reboot penned by John Byrne. (Richard Donner's Superman: The Movie took to the old ways of doing things, but the comics kept them around.) Following suit, Smallville does exceptionally well at utilizing Jonathan (John Schneider) and Martha (Annette O'Toole) to guide Clark as he discovers his powers. Throughout the first five seasons, as Clark learns all his Kryptonian physiology can do, Jonathan and Martha are there to help. Without Jonathan's guidance concerning each new ability and Martha's complete support along the way, Smallville's Clark Kent would never have become Superman. This becomes more evident the longer the show goes on, highlighted in "Luthor" (Season 10, Episode 10), which depicts a broken world where Clark was raised by Lionel Luthor (John Glover) and turns out just like him. Clark Kent's Parents Always Support Him on 'Smallville' Image via The CW Part of growing up is making mistakes and learning from them; rarely in Superman-related media do we ever see Clark make drastically poor decisions. He screws up like any flawed hero, but not quite on the same level as Smallville's Clark Kent. Over ten seasons, Clark blows up his life, pushes his loved ones away, triggers his mother's miscarriage, and is ultimately the reason his father dies in the series' 100th episode ("Reckoning"). Yet, Clark learns from those mistakes every single time, becoming a better person and a better hero because of them. For example, when Clark willingly puts on his Red Kryptonite ring in "Exodus" (Season 2, Episode 23) and leaves Smallville, he does so in part because he's ashamed of what he's done. However, his folks never give up on him, nor do they refuse to forgive their son for his foolishness. In fact, Jonathan even makes a deal with Jor-El (Terrence Stamp) to save Clark from his own reckless ways (a contributing factor to his later death). By doing so, Clark is forced to deal with the consequences of his actions. Because of Clark's penchant for good, a trait instilled in him by the Kents, he's often willing to put his own life on the line (powers or no powers) for the sake of others. He believes in Lex (Michael Rosenbaum) because his parents taught him to look for the best in people. Coincidentally, Clark stops trusting Lex later on, following in Jonathan's judgmental footsteps. Also, we certainly can't forget how Martha's love for her son manifests in "Crusade" (Season 4, Episode 1). This is part of the reason that Clark can come back from the mind wipe he received from Jor-El. Had it not been for Ma Kent's willingness to put her own life on the line to save her son, he may never have returned and, likewise, Jonathan may never have awoken from his coma. In short, Smallville's ability to keep Clark grounded in the love of his family is part of what makes the show so special. Sure, Superboy and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman both also highlight Clark's bond with his parents, but Smallville stands out because the show's entire narrative is framed around it. 'Smallville' Highlights Jonathan's Influence on Clark By the time Jonathan Kent was killed, Clark had graduated from high school. Like previous incarnations (most notably Superman: The Movie), Smallville's Pa Kent dies before his son dons the cape and takes flight. But that doesn't stop Jonathan from being a driving influence on Clark's life and destiny in the final five years of the show. If anything, it emphasizes how strong their bond was and how vital Jonathan's moral lessons and stalwart character were to Clark's upbringing. Clark dies for a few moments in "Void" (Season 5, Episode 17) and encounters his father in the afterlife. There, Clark tells his father that he can't live on without him, but Jonathan believes in his son. "This is your destiny," Jonathan tells Clark, urging him back to the land of the living. "You're a symbol of peace, you're a symbol of justice." It's an excellent moment, but not the only one that highlights how Jonathan continues to help his son from beyond the grave. Later, Jonathan continues to guide Clark as a spirit in "Lazarus" (Season 10, Episode 1). He again urges his son to continue toward his destiny, something that will finally be fulfilled come the series finale. But first, he must visit the world where he was raised by Lionel Luthor. Twice, Clark ventures to Earth-2. The second time, he confronts a broken and alone Jonathan Kent. Finally becoming the man his own father raised him to be, he inspires Jonathan's doppelgänger to continue living and make amends with Martha in "Kent" (Season 10, Episode 17). Having come full circle, this moment reminds us that not only would Clark have become a monster had he been raised a Luthor, but the Kents themselves would've lived vastly different lives. So, when the ghost of Jonathan Kent hands Clark his cape in the show's final episode, it's no wonder that Smallville's finale is the most fitting transition from man to Superman we've ever seen unfold on our screens. 'Smallville' Showcases Martha's Role in Clark's Life Image via The CW Jonathan isn't the only one who plays ball in the parenting game in Smallville. Martha is just as vital to Clark's journey, especially in the later years. Though she's only part of the main cast for one season following Jonathan's death (taking his Senate seat and moving to D.C. at the end of Season 6), Martha protects Clark in entirely new ways. Jonathan was the go-to when it came to new abilities and morality plays, while Martha always fought to protect her family from the shadows, a trait Clark later picked up in Season 9. During the second season, Martha takes a job with Lionel Luthor to keep their family afloat and to protect Clark's secret, which Lionel was dangerously close to uncovering. While Jonathan often took the physical approach to the Luthor threat (which ultimately cost him his life), Martha was much more tactical. She uses her position to learn what Lionel knows about Clark and destroy it, and eventually does the same with her political power later on, posing as the Red Queen to infiltrate Checkmate and protect Clark's identity from world leaders. While Martha's role in espionage was entirely crafted for the sake of Smallville, her kind demeanor and heartwarming character are straight from the comics. When Clark accidentally kills an alien tyrant in Season 6, he recognizes the mistake he's made in taking a life. He knew it was his only choice, but he also knew that he was raised better than that. Martha reassures her son that those emotions, that conflict, are part of what makes him human (well, you know what she means). She's right, after all, and it's Clark's view of himself as one of us that connects him to humanity. When he loses that connection, things usually get dark quickly, and we're not just talking about his Season 9 trench coat. 'Smallville's Jonathan and Martha Put Clark on the Right Path Image via The CW Part of why Smallville is still so beloved after all these years is that the show never wavered in its morality. The Kents' strong sense of morality is ultimately what pushes Clark to develop his own. Despite their flaws concerning anger (Jonathan) and deception (Martha), which Clark ultimately inherits and is forced to work through himself, the Kents' sturdy backbone is what puts Clark on the path to becoming a hero in the first place. He goes from always being at the right place at the right time to actively seeking out people to save, something his parents never dreamed of when he was in high school. By contrast, Zack Snyder's controversial Man of Steel features a Jonathan Kent (Kevin Costner) who isn't sure if his son should save people. Of course, the end of this line of thinking results in Jonathan's arguably senseless death, and as a result, Clark (Henry Cavill) travels the world in self-discovery before publicly revealing himself. "People are afraid of what they don't understand," Jonathan tells his son, later reminding him that he has to decide who he is going to be — a man of good character or bad. While this thought doesn't seem too far off on the surface, the twisting of Pa Kent's moral compass ultimately points Clark in a different direction. "I don't know, maybe," he explains when a young Clark asks if he should've let a school bus full of kids die. That's not the Jonathan Kent we know, and it's certainly not the one Smallville portrays. Thankfully, the Smallville legacy lives on in shows like Superman & Lois, where Tyler Hoechlin's Man of Steel takes on both the Jonathan and Martha roles to protect his twin sons and teach them the best way to live. His example as a hero is a lot to live up to, admittedly, but it stems from the way his parents raised him. If there's one thing that makes Smallville worth an extensive watch (or a hundredth rewatch if you're anything like this author), it's the show's intricate and powerful interpretation of Ma and Pa Kent. Smallville is available to watch on Hulu in the U.S.