‘Smallville’ begins ninth year tonight, promises spicy adventures
Word Balloons: Show looks to super season

BY MATTHEW PRICE Comments 0
Published: September 25, 2009

"Smallville” kicks off its ninth season at 7 tonight on The CW, as young Clark Kent (Tom Welling) comes ever closer to his eventual destiny as Superman.

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Clark gets closer to the traditional "Superman” costume this year, as well, wearing a long, black coat and a shirt bearing the "S”-shield. Clark also finds himself drawn to Lois Lane (Erica Durance).

"Lois is dealing with being smitten with Superman and also still kind of finding Clark irritating,” Durance said at the "Smallville” panel at Comic-Con International in San Diego. "It’s going to be really spicy.”

Welling isn’t just starring in "Smallville,” he’s also a producer.

"I enjoy the production side very much,” Welling said at Comic-Con. "For the last few years, my interest in what happens before we get to set has increased. And this year, I play a larger part in that.”

At the close of Season 8, Tess Mercer, played by Cassidy Freeman, encountered the Kryptonian villain Zod (Callum Blue).

"The first episode starts with me and Zod,” Freeman said in a recent interview. "I figure out who he is.”

Zod appeared earlier in "Smallville” when he possessed Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum), but now Zod appears in Smallville in the flesh. Mercer replaced Lex Luthor as head of LuthorCorp after Luthor’s disappearance.

"The relationship between Zod and Tess is very loaded,” Freeman said. "She’s kind of all business.”

"Smallville” moves to Friday nights this year, but Freeman said it shouldn’t be a problem for the long-running show.

"We already have a pretty strong fan base,” she said. "With Friday nights, you might need a big gun to draw people in, and we hope ‘Smallville’ can be that big gun.”