Smallville - Definition and Overview

This article is about Superman's adoptive home town. For the television series of the same name, see Smallville (TV series).

Smallville is the fictional town in the USA which Superboy protects and in which most of his crime-fighting adventures take place. It is also the town in which the young Clark Kent grows up before moving to Metropolis to begin his career as Superman. The actual location of the town was never originally specified in any one state in the comics (though it was placed in Maryland in Amazing Worlds of DC Comics #14), and its location varied widely throughout many stories, most of which placed it close to Metropolis and Midvale, home of Supergirl. It was eventually placed in Kansas in the Superman movies and finally in the comics which took the movies' lead. The town was first given the name "Smallville, USA" in Superboy #2 (1949).

"Smallville, USA" is also a generic term to describe a relatively small American town.