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If not Superman, Shadow Man: Smallville star Tom Welling talks about what he hated about his hero name

The Smallville cast hated the name Red Blue Blur

Superman
Image credit: Warner Bros.

Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s….the Red Blue Blur.

That’s the superhero name Clark Kent went by during the later seasons of Smallville before he became Superman. Since Clark moved at superspeed, all people were able to see was a red blue blur (due to the color scheme of his clothes), which earned him the vigilante nickname. It’s not as catchy as Superman, but it served as a placeholder until Clark Kent adopted the more familiar moniker in the series finale.

However, not everyone in the cast was a fan of the name.

“I think it was more the nuance of the performance than it was changing any writing or storylines. Because I would’ve gotten rid of the Red Blue Blur in a second if I could have, but that wasn’t going to happen,” Tom Welling says during a Smallville panel at MCM London Comic Con 2022.

“I would’ve not wanted to say the Red Blue Blur,” Erica Durance adds. “Shadow Man or something would’ve been better,” Welling suggests.

For more on Smallville, watch the complete panel below:


About MCM London Comic Con 2022

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Joshua Lapin-Bertone

Joshua Lapin-Bertone: Joshua is a pop culture writer specializing in comic book media. His work has appeared on the official DC Comics website, the DC Universe subscription service, HBO Max promotional videos, the Batman Universe fansite, and more. In between traveling around the country to cover various comic conventions, Joshua resides in Florida where he binges superhero television and reads obscure comics from yesteryear.

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