Smallville might have ended about 15 years ago, but fans still argue about Lana Lang today. It seems while some fans of the show loved her character, others blamed her for most of everything that happened in Smallville… and, of course, coming in between Clark Kent and Lois Lane. Either way, for seven seasons of the show, Kristin Kreuk’s character was right at the center of all of Superman’s teenage drama, including the complicated love triangle between herself, Tom Welling’s Clark and Michael Rosenbaum’s Lex Luthor.
Now, almost 20 years after her first appearance on the show, Kreuk is stepping back into the comic book world with a story of her own: Black Star. The Titan Comics releases will be a five-issue series on July 29, 2026 created by the Smallville star alongside Peter Mooney and screenwriter Eric Putzer.
But those expecting it to be anything like Smallville might be a little disappointed.
Black Star, described as The Revenant meets Harry Potter, is a mix of gothic horror, historical drama and dark humor.
The story unfolds in early 19th-century Winnipeg during the violent fur trade era. A man named Dashiell Carlyle discovers he has magical abilities while rival factions clash across the frozen frontier. Soon he learns he’s not the only one with power. A secret order recruits him with promises of building a better world. But their utopia may demand a horrific price.
That’s probably not the dark story we’d expect from Kreuk, considering all the roles we know her for. Does Scottie know?
Kreuk says the idea actually came together years ago while filming the Canadian legal drama Burden of Truth, which ran from 2018 to 2021. “Black Star was born while Peter, Eric, and I were filming ‘Burden of Truth’ in Winnipeg,” she explained. “We were inspired by the city’s lore and, because we worked so well together, began spending our spare time on set (and then, for years afterwards) developing our own take on the history and magic we imagined pulsing beneath its surface.”
“Sometimes people come to my hometown and they can’t see past its rough edges or inhospitable weather,” said Mooney, who grew up in Winnipeg. “But it was clear Kristin and Eric could see right into the strangeness that makes Winnipeg so unique.”
Putzer believes comics give readers something film and television can’t. “There’s an intimacy to comics that no other form quite achieves; the reader controls the rhythm, the breath, the revelation.”
Smallville fans who spent years watching Lana Lang navigate meteor freaks and Smallville High might find it strange seeing Kreuk craft a violent supernatural tale set in the 1800s. Then again, that same unpredictability kept viewers arguing about Lana every week back in the day. Let’s hope Kristin Kreuk’s new comic book offers more of the same.
RELATED: Batman Appeared in Smallville – and Everyone Missed Him
