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Why Smallville's Superman Never Met Batman
Throughout the entire series and despite numerous teases, Clark Kent (Tom Welling) never met Bruce Wayne/Batman on Smallville. Since Smallville was a Superman prequel series, it was set in Clark Kent’s corner of the DC Universe - in Smallville, Kansas - but that didn’t stop the show from using tons of other DC Comics heroes, just not those from Gotham City.
Starting in season 4, Smallville developed an unofficial tradition where it would bring in at least one new DC superhero each season for Clark to team up with. First up was the Bart Allen incarnation of the Flash (Kyle Gallner), followed by Cyborg (Lee Thompson Young) and Aquaman (Alan Ritchson) in season 5. Clark also encountered the Green Arrow (Justin Hartley), the Justice Society, Zatanna (Serinda Swan), Booster Gold (Eric Martsolf), and even the Wonder Twins as the series progressed. Most of Smallville’s superheroes appeared in the later seasons. However, there were a few A-list DC characters Clark never crossed paths with in the show’s ten-season run, the most notable of which being Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and Batman. Clark wasn’t able to meet them until after the show was over in the Smallville Season 11 comic.
Batman was a huge exclusion, considering that he and Superman are DC’s two biggest heroes, and they share an incredibly important - but tense - relationship in the comics. Batman was a character viewers always wanted to see, but was never used by the producers. Smallville writer Bryan Q. Miller has said that at the beginning of each season, they would ask for permission from DC to use Batman in Smallville, but the answer was always no. Smallville creators Alfred Gough and Miles Miller have made similar comments, adding that the reason why Batman was off-limits was connected to DC having their own Batman project in development: the Dark Knight trilogy [via Comics Continuum]. It’s understandable why this was a problem, considering that these movies were made in the midst of Smallville’s run.
Though Batman was unavailable, Smallville did find opportunities to drop nods to the Caped Crusader. Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack) seemingly reference Bruce Wayne when she mentioned meeting a “billionaire with high-tech toys”. A Batsuit was spotted on a dead body in a vision of Lex Luthor’s future from season 1, and multiple references were made to Gotham City.
As noted by Gough and Miller, Smallville was able to get by without Batman, since there were so many other characters that they had access to. Plus, the role that Green Arrow filled in Smallville was quite similar to Batman, and Oliver’s presence may have eliminated the need for the Dark Knight. It’s been said in the past that Oliver could have been a substitute for Batman, and if that’s true, it certainly worked out. In Smallville, Oliver - like Bruce Wayne - was a billionaire playboy who operated as a vigilante. Similar to the dynamic of Superman and Batman, Clark Kent and Oliver Queen didn’t always see eye to eye when it came to their methods. Oliver, who had his own ideas about what Clark should do with his powers, pushed Clark toward becoming Superman. He was also the leader (and the founder) of the Justice League. It’s possible that these are the sort of roles that Batman would have received if DC had approved of his inclusion in Smallville.
