Back in the early 2000s, the superhero television landscape was a vastly different beast. While the MCU now has a legion of Disney+ shows, and The CW’s “Arrowverse” bridged together multiple DC franchises, the world was quite different back when Smallville came out in 2001. The series gave us more “modern” (for 2001) takes on beloved Superman characters, including staples like Lana Lang, Lois Lane and Lex Luthor, not to mention Clark Kent himself. Still, for die-hard Smallville fans, one of the show’s most interesting legacies comes from a character that wasn’t even in the comic books at that point: Chloe Sullivan.
By the end of Smallville, Chloe had evolved from being a “proto-Lois,” from before Clark’s legendary partner joined the show, into an invaluable ally for the budding Justice League. The show was a great conclusion for Clark Kent, but characters like Chloe still had room to grow and stories to tell – thus, Smallville Season 11 came to be.
Smallville ran for an impressive ten seasons, but Season 11 was the series’s first foray into the world of DC Comics. The series serves as an epilogue for the TV show, concluding the stories of many characters, including Chloe. She takes her “Watchtower” persona to a new level, becoming the primary architect of a new age of heroes, establishing Justice League bases in major cities worldwide. And, yes, she even met (and worked with) the Smallville’s universe Batman.
In Season 11, the Smallville universe faced a multiversal threat from the Monitors: interdimensional beings on a quest to end all existence. They destroyed Earth-2, but that universe’s Chloe was able to make contact with Smallville’s Chloe, warning her of the impending crisis.
Now, Chloe had to coordinate the defense of reality itself, while also dealing with her impending motherhood. Here, we see that Chloe has matured into a bona fide DC superhero: her character transformed into a grounded woman protecting a world (and a universe) she wanted her son to grow up in.
By the time her story reached its final pages, Chloe had fully embraced her dual identity. Working as a high-level investigative journalist for the Star City Register by day (under a pseudonym) and managing the Justice League’s communications by night. At last, Chloe had achieved that same “double life” she once admired in Clark.
Finally, Chloe could introduce her son, Jonathan, to a world protected by the Justice League, and a city where heroes were no longer just stories in the newspaper, but a family she had helped create.
The DC universe is no stranger to TV-original characters, as any Harley Quinn fan would know. However, things were a bit different for Chloe. She has been largely absent from the comics since 2015, missing major DC events such as The New 52 or Dawn of DC.
Following the real-life drama surrounding actress Allison Mack (who played Chloe in Smallville), both Warner Bros. and DC distanced the brand from the character. Now, Chloe still exists in a sort of publication limbo: she’s still a pillar of the Smallville side of the multiverse, only that her character has been quietly moved to the sidelines.
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