Claim: Tom Welling played in a superhero drama.

Clark Kent is a fictional character on the television series Smallville . The character of Clark Kent , first created for comic books by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in 1938 as the alternate identity of Superman , was adapted to television in 2001 by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar . This is the fourth time the character has been adapted to a live-action television series . Clark Kent has been played continually by Tom Welling , with various other actors portraying Clark as a child . The character has also appeared in various literature based on the Smallville series , all of which are completely independent of the television episodes . As of 2011 , Smallvilles Clark Kent has appeared in eighteen young adult novels .   In the series , Clark Kent attempts to live the life of a normal human being , and struggles with keeping the secret of his alien heritage from his friends . He has an on-again , off-again relationship with Lana Lang through the first seven seasons , the trials of which are based on his lack of honesty about his secret . In contrast to previous incarnations of the character , this Clark Kent starts out best friends with Lex Luthor , whom he meets after saving the latter 's life . The pair 's friendship eventually deteriorates into hatred for one another . In Smallville , Clark 's powers appear over time , as he is not aware of all of them at the start of the show ; for instance , his heat vision and super breath do not develop until season two and six , respectively .   When developing Smallville version of Clark Kent , the producers decided to strip him down to the `` bare essence '' of Superman ; he is also fallible , which allows the audience to see his humanity , but that he is also '' ... good to the core '' . In the series , he has been seen by critics , and intentionally portrayed by the filmmakers , as a symbolic representation of Jesus Christ . Tom Welling has been nominated for multiple Teen Choice and Saturn Awards for his portrayal of Clark Kent since the show 's first season .