I have been doing some research and I got to thinking. Why Didn’t Siegel and Shuster being from Ohio make Kal-L’s ship land in Ohio? So I started digging it seems Superman’s landing spot has an interesting history of it’s own.
The first time in any media that ‘Smallville” the then named farm town, the Kent farm were linked to a specific location was in The Adventures of Superman radio show. In the "The Secret Rocket" (9/29/47, mention was made several times that young Clark Kent grew up on Eben (the original name given to Mr. Kent before Jonathan) Kent's farm in Iowa.
The name "Smallville" appeared for the first time two years later in Superboy (volume 1) #2.
In the storySuperman Family #195 (May–June 1979), We see interstate 70 near Smallville, the real life interstate runs through some of the other Ideas for Smallville. Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland and more. Interesting thought.
In 1977, an officially sanctioned magazine called Amazing World of DC Comics, put out issue #14. In this publication Smallville was in Maryland.
Legion of Super-Heroes #313 (July, 1984) Shows that Smallville was thought to be somewhere in northeastern Pennsylvania or northern New Jersey.
In the novel The Death and Life of Superman (1993), Jonathan and Martha Kent drive to Smallville from the Kansas airport.
The 1990s limited series The Kents places Smallville in eastern Kansas.
Action Comics $822 Smallville is placed approximately 55 miles from Salina, Kansas.
Lois Lane is credited as giving Clark the nick name Smallville in the comics, then later in other media.
The Superman film series have used Kansas as the setting for Smallville. Man of Steel and Batman V Superman acknowledge Smallville is inKansas as well.
On television Superman the animated series, Superboy, Lois and Clark and of course Smallville all place the location in Kansas.
So it looks like since Post Crisis Kansas is the state where Clark landed. Ever stop to ask why? Think about the DC universe, We can only guestiamete what state Gotham and Metropolis are in. Coast city is thought to be in California. Central City has moved around the map. So why is it that Kansas is such a large part of Smallville’s identity?
Food for thought. Remember “ Look up in the Sky”
Tyler (@JTYPatrick)
Tyler is the cohost of the Capes and Lunatics and Krypton Report Podcasts