4. Smallville
When I described Henry Cavill as the 21st Century Superman, it wasn't strictly true. As I also mentioned, Brandon Routh played the part in 2006, and Tom Welling also had a favourable run in the TV series Smallville. Although Welling played Clark Kent before his days as Superman, he finally donned (of sorts) the iconic suit in the final episode of the series. At a time when many, including Tim Burton and Kevin Smith, had tried and failed to bring Superman back to the big screen, comic book aficionados Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (who also had a hand in Spider-Man 2) developed the iconic character's most successful TV series, which ran for an impressive 10 seasons. A series which followed Buffy the Vampire Slayer's 'saving the world whilst trying to make it through high school' formula, the show's second season episode Rosetta introduced the character of Dr. Virgil Swann, wealthy scientist who deciphers a message from space. One of the series' earliest defining moments comes at the climax of the episode; after having pretty much cyber-stalked the high school student with secret powers, Swann finally meets Clark face to face and informs him of where exactly in the cosmos he came from. Needless to say it is Reeve who is the first in the series to utter the legendary name of Krypton. Although Reeve was far from the first actor to portray Superman, this moment obviously symbolises the passing of the torch from one Kal-El to the next; music taken straight from John Williams' classic score is even used to underpin this momentous occasion. Although Dean Cain's own portrayal for four seasons in previous series The New Adventures didn't go unnoticed, he wouldn't make his appearance until the role of villain Curtis Knox was available in season 7. When you consider that in later seasons Smallville would stretch out Clark's journey arguably longer than was necessary, and his eventual appearance in the iconic supersuit was squandered, it's fair to say that Welling was more and more let down by the series' lack of fulfilling it's potential. That, and the countless references to the movies aside however, when those responsible for bringing Superman to a new generation specifically recognise Reeve as defining the role, any other argument is invalid.