Two Clark Kents collide on 'Smallville'

NEW YORK -- Tom Welling has learned firsthand: Being Clark Kent isn't easy.

That, above all, is the lesson of "Smallville," which finds Clark, even more than the typical teen, consumed with awkward self-discovery.

Clark feels like an outsider without understanding why. He senses an emerging destiny, yet he's blind to his future as the Man of Steel. His plight is any teen's plight, writ large and shrouded in secrecy.

"You play this kid in school who's trying to be normal and has these abilities he thinks work against him," says Welling, who stars as that kid. "It's like an exaggerated form of puberty for him as he gets these abilities, which are just exaggerations of things that we all can do: We can all run, he can just run faster; we can all pick things up, he can pick up things that are heavier."

Big deal. What Clark really wants -- the heart of schoolmate Lana Lang (played with winsome appeal by Kristin Kreuk) -- remains beyond his reach.

Catching Clark at this formative, pre-Superboy stage has spelled success for "Smallville" (Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on the WB). Its second-season ratings are up by more than one-third. Viewers readily identify with the self-actualization process he is struggling with, even as they relish knowing what no one in Clark's world has any inkling of: the life as a superhero that awaits him.

Christopher Reeve -- who, for millions, personifies the man Clark grows into -- has only recently seen "Smallville." He approves.

"What they did was take the segment of 'Superman I' on the farm and draw it out into a series," says Reeve, who, of course, starred in that 1978 film and three sequels.

Speaking from his home outside New York City, Reeve recalls scenes from the movie with young Clark (played by another actor) "kicking a football into outer space and racing beside a train. He has all these powers and doesn't know why."

Now 50, Reeve was paralyzed in a 1995 horseback-riding accident and has since spent much of his time as an advocate for research into spinal-cord injuries. But he returns as an actor to the Superman saga for a "Smallville" guest appearance next week.

He plays an astronomer who unaccountably detects signals from Clark's doomed home planet, Krypton.

"Clark and I talk about what the meaning might be," says Reeve.