People of Smallville - how much should they know?

[manwhohaseverything]

If we are doing the superjesus of postcrisis. Then narujesus could be a viable option. Everyone know clark is an alien. They shut up because they fear the government/special r&d department who has been poking around borders itching to get in the farmlands would ravage their town. The towns people hate, revere and despise the little alien baby because of the meteor shower damages, accept for Jonathan and martha. Clark performs his feats as superboy and gain their acceptance. Then they decide to shutup because clark is one of them.he beats of the r&d and wierd monsters that's been poping up. it will also have a stranger things and et kinda feel. He would also help the meteor infacted.

>que sadness and sorrow ost <

[superduperman]

One solution that I thought of was what if the government was snooping around the town in Clark's early years? Looking for his ship (not knowing for sure if it was a ship)? Then the threat of the government taking him away wouldn't be some abstract threat, it would be an everyday part of his early life. Clark would know to keep his powers a secret because the men with the vans would be in town looking for anything unusual. No one in town trust the men with the vans but don't know what they are looking for. They know something crashed outside of town but they don't know what it is anymore than the government agents do.

[seismic-2]

Another thing that was silly about Smallville's boast that it was "Superboy's home town" was that, of course, one day suddenly it no longer was. That kid in the blue PJs and red cape who was constantly flying over the town just stopped doing so. People whose truck broke down on the railroad tracks could no longer look to the sky in hope of a rescue. You would think that the citizens of the town could easily match the disappearance of Superboy to the departure of other citizens of that same age, to see just who left. There were only a few dozen (at most) male students in Clark's graduating class, and how many of them went off to college or the army at the time that Superboy vanished? It would seem that you wouldn't have to be Braniac to note the correlation.

[Gaius]

Some people outside of the Kents knowing (Lana, Pete, maybe a teacher, etc) is fine to me but it being an open secret shared by the town is a bit too much for me. I'm also fine with Superman not having been Superboy, at least in the way it was depicted Pre-Crisis.

[BBally]

I think Clark's activities saving the day in secret ala. Smallville should lead into making up the Superboy legend in the future and he can wear the Superboy suit if he's with the Legion.

[manwhohaseverything]

One solution that I thought of was what if the government was snooping around the town in Clark's early years? Looking for his ship (not knowing for sure if it was a ship)? Then the threat of the government taking him away wouldn't be some abstract threat, it would be an everyday part of his early life. Clark would know to keep his powers a secret because the men with the vans would be in town looking for anything unusual. No one in town trust the men with the vans but don't know what they are looking for. They know something crashed outside of town but they don't know what it is anymore than the government agents do.

Isn't that basically what i wrote just above you? The people of the town hide the truth because if the truth gets out government will likely take their lands.

[Sacred Knight]

I prefer that Superman be surrounded by more grounded stuff. Smallville was a run of the mill town, rather than a place where weird stuff happened. Maybe a few recluses that the kids told tall tales about (she buried a dozen lovers in her yard, his house is haunted by the ghosts of the parents he skinned alive), but in reality no different from a hundred other small farming towns. Definitely not Roswell, Haven, or Twin Peaks stuff.

More than fair. Though to elaborate a bit in my head in such a scenario like I stated, he still grows up pretty normal as no one around him would let on that he's any different. Even if they know that he knows. He'd be treated like every boy in town. Then as he gets a little older he'd become privy to some of the weird circumstances and history of the town and would outright lead into him having some Superboy-like adventures, even if he doesn't outright go by the name (though he would go by that name when with the Legion in the future). So I still wouldn't be for altogether destroying a more grounded nature to at least his early years.

But I certainly get the entire idea isn't everyone's cup of tea regardless.

[Tzigone]

Isn't that basically what i wrote just above you? The people of the town hide the truth because if the truth gets out government will likely take their lands.

Too conspiracy-ish for me. I do want Smallville to be be an ordinary place. Besides, it also makes the government much more likely to connect the dots and know Superman's civilian identity, and I'm not fond of that idea.

Some people outside of the Kents knowing (Lana, Pete, maybe a teacher, etc) is fine to me but it being an open secret shared by the town is a bit too much for me. I'm also fine with Superman not having been Superboy, at least in the way it was depicted Pre-Crisis.

I don't want everyone to know, either. I know some fans don't like Superboy being retconned out of Clark's past. I don't like Superboy being retconned into Clark's past in the first place. Nor do I want comic verse to have the meteor freaks of the Smallville tv show. I like the idea of surreptitious rescues occasionally, but also the idea that Clark was effectively able to do these things discreetly. A very few people may know Clark had those abilities. I'm keener on the Pete Ross old school found-out-and-didn't-tell sort of thing than I am on Clark really telling people. Maybe the Kents told someone to help get paperwork in order, and maybe Clark told Lana (uncertain on that), but that's all.

While it's a nice feel-good idea that a substantial number of the town knows and keeps the secret, I think it's a bit too much of stretch.

[seismic-2]

In a town the size of Smallville, it would be impossible for Superboy to keep his identity hidden for 18 years.
"Well, Clem, the way I see it, Superboy's gotta be Jon and Martha Kent's boy, Clark."
"Clark Kent? How do you figure that, Hiram?"
"Oh, for starters, there's the flying dog, don'cha know."

[Gaius]

Too conspiracy-ish for me. I do want Smallville to be be an ordinary place. Besides, it also makes the government much more likely to connect the dots and know Superman's civilian identity, and I'm not fond of that idea.

I don't want everyone to know, either. I know some fans don't like Superboy being retconned out of Clark's past. I don't like Superboy being retconned into Clark's past in the first place. Nor do I want comic verse to have the meteor freaks of the Smallville tv show. I like the idea of surreptitious rescues occasionally, but also the idea that Clark was effectively able to do these things discreetly. A very few people may know Clark had those abilities. I'm keener on the Pete Ross old school found-out-and-didn't-tell sort of thing than I am on Clark really telling people. Maybe the Kents told someone to help get paperwork in order, and maybe Clark told Lana (uncertain on that), but that's all.

While it's a nice feel-good idea that a substantial number of the town knows and keeps the secret, I think it's a bit too much of stretch.

Yeah, Clark as a unseen miracle for the occasional rescue is how I'd prefer an update on Clark as Superboy learning the ropes with his powers.

I also do prefer Smallville, and Metropolis though to a lesser extent, be kept as a fairly run-of-the-mill town since I think doing so makes Superman seem more extraordinary.

[magha_regulus]

Being completely serious here but they need to go back to superman having some level of mental powers. Super hypnotism solves this problem and has longterm precedents in the golden and silver ages. So to answer the question, they shouldn't be in on it at all. I'm definitely a fan of Superman having a career as Superboy in Smallville (complete with membership in the Legion of Superheroes). I think it adds weight to his long experience as a hero and adds to why the other heroes would look up to him and be inspired by him.

superman mental powers.jpg
super hypnosis.jpg
super hypnosis glasses.jpg

[magha_regulus]

Its also my opinion that this is another reason the writers need to emphasize his super-intelligence. It explains the maturity he'd need to pull this off and would be the means for him to come up with super clever ways to keep his identity secret. I'd be all for stories where he perhaps invents a mind-wiping machine and has to wrestle with the ethics of using it for example.

[Tzigone]

I'd be all for stories where he perhaps invents a mind-wiping machine and has to wrestle with the ethics of using it for example.

There really shouldn't be any struggle there, 99% of the time. This is like the creepy parts of the silver age, but taken seriously.

[godisawesome]

I figure it all depends on other factors, like the size of Smallville that you want him to live in, and how early you want him to get his powers.

For instance, if the full spread and capacity of his powers takes time to develop, you can make his time in Smallville be pretty quietly anonymous. If they show up earlier, than you probably need a bit more work to hide it. And as a teacher in the Midwest who’s taught at two different ideas of “small towns”, some of them are sparsely populated enough and isolated enough that you could still easily hide inside them, but others are large enough that hiding it would be impossible.

I like the idea of Smallville being a town of adventure in a world of adventure where Clark being funky and powerful could blend into a bunch of strange things everyone is used to, but I can also dig the idea of it being a small community that ends up protecting Clark as one of their own when he’s trying to maintain a more down to earth disguise, or one where Clark manages to hide it enough to just never be seen.

I’ll confess I actually really loved the implication in the Man Of Steel movie that pretty much all the parents and kids attached to the bus incident knew what was up with Clark, but were loyally and gratefully quiet about it even when Zod was threatening the planet; I think on a film that would have been smart enough to avoid their rather dubious version of Pa Kent, the town’s protectiveness could have been a nice kind of unifying message about humanity and Earth being Clark’s real home.

[Tzigone]

the town’s protectiveness could have been a nice kind of unifying message about humanity and Earth being Clark’s real home.

Could have, yes. Pa Kent was weird, to say the least. Even beyond his telling Clark not to act, there was the part where he said Pete's mom was scared by Clark - I thought they woman might be ready to declare Clark a saint or an angel or something. First of the Superman-worshipping church, maybe (as an aside, I really do hate the Jesus-Superman motifs so very present in the movies - to me, he was sent to earth to save him, not to save us).

I've been thinking on what type of community I want Smallville to be, but that's a topic for another thread, I guess.

But I am afraid the town protecting him would be presented as one of those "small town people are morally superior to city people" themes that I do not agree with and think have been used too much in the Superman mythos. Maybe if it was balanced out by the DP staff or Clark's fellow apartment building residents or something behaving similarly, it would work.

EDIT: I guess the "Smallville as protectors" thing also have varying appeal depending on how much one thought Clark should still be connected to Smallville in the present. Them all protective, but he hasn't been there for 20 years (since parental death?) is a bit different in flavor than if he's back three or four times a year to visit and still seems like he has a some of sorts there. To me, despite having like some version where he was back there and/or found the place defining, I do have an affinity for Metropolis being his home, where he feels he belongs and wants to be. I think my growing distaste of modern Superman (well, since 1978 movie at least, so hardly modern) pointing to his upbringing and "small town values" as being innately superior to those city-raised makes me a little more averse to the idea. Because it wasn't that when he was given that background - it was just a common occupation of the time of his upbringing. Lois had farmer parents too, at one time, but nobody said that made her a small town girl at heart.