They Had Me Going

On my morning scroll through Bluesky for a blog topic…

Maryland mentioned?

SUPERMAN

On the planet Krypton, Kal-El (Kryp-tonese for "Star-Child") was the son of scientist Jor-El and his wife Lara. Discovering that Krypton's core was unstable, Jor-El warned the Science Council that planetary destruction was imminent. But due to too much time spent in deliberation, it was not possible to build a space ark to evacuate any of Krypton's population. As the planet underwent its death throes, Jor-El sent his four-year old son, Kal-El towards planet Earth aboard an experimental rocket. On Earth the child was found and adopted by Jonathan and Martha Kent who called him Clark (Martha's maiden name) and instilled in him a high moral code and Earthian values. From the beginning the Kents knew of his otherwordly nature, and it was not long before they discovered his otherworldly capacities: he was incredibly strong, seemingly impervious to harm, able to float in the air, and was extraordinarily precocious. In a costume fashioned out of the blankets that accompanied him from Krypton, Clark Kent began his crimefighting career in Smallville, Maryland as the teenaged Superboy. 

Smallville…Maryland?

Surely not. It’s somewhere in the Midwest, right? But then something else in the narrative caught my eye.

On Earth the child was found and adopted by Jonathan and Martha Kent who called him Clark (Martha's maiden name) and instilled in him a high moral code and Earthian values.

Well of course. Martha Clark. How many generations of Clarks have we had in our neck of the woods. Why wouldn’t Superman have a Clark family connection?

Clark family

Clark’s Hardware

Clark’s Elioak Farm

Clarksville 

Clark Kent?

What can I say? At five am a fleeting reference to Martha Clark was enough to get me going. Off to Wikipedia I went, only to find this:

His ship landed in the American countryside near the fictional town of Smallville, Kansas, where he was found and adopted by farmers Jonathan and Martha Kent, who named him Clark Kent.

I looked and looked. No reference to Maryland. I thought I had been had. Then, from nearby Montgomery County, an explanation.

Superman…is from Maryland?  MCS Staff, The MoCo Show, July 20, 2025

In the very early comics, Smallville’s exact location was often ambiguous or changed. There was even a brief instance that suggested Smallville might be in Maryland, between Metropolis and Gotham City on the Delaware Bay.

Oh!

The MoCo Show article links to this Facebook page: Maryland is a cult, not a state.

Fascinating.

But can you catch the likely history error here?

Let’s get real, though. Are we going to accept that Smallville is in Kent County merely because the family was named Kent? That would be as silly as believing in a HoCoLocal connection because…well…

Martha Clark. 

That’s all it took and my imagination was off and running.

I hope your day is as much fun as the twenty minutes I spent on this wild flight of fancy. And, by any chance you spot Superman today while you are out and about, tell him we need him more than ever.

Village Green/Town² Comments