LEGENDS: https://legendszine.com/
(This is a digital zine with a FREE downloadable PDF version!)
On October 16th, 2001 the pilot episode of Smallville aired on the WB television network. WB had just lost its flagship show Buffy the Vampire Slayer to the higher-bidding rival UPN network, and the question loomed– could the WB survive without its most prized possession? Would Tuesday nights ever be the same?
As soon as Smallville aired to an audience of 8.4 million viewers– a network record– WB executives knew they had a hit, and scrambled to order what would eventually become a 10-year long series, cementing itself into television history.
From the outset, Smallville was not your typical “superhero show.” In addition to the show’s grounded philosophy (“No flights, no tights!”) Smallville filled in the high-school years of a young Clark Kent, but it also completely changed the way fans viewed Superman’s greatest enemy– Lex Luthor. Before Michael Rosenbaum’s stunning turn as Lex, Superman fans generally viewed Lex as an entertaining yet ultimately morally and philosophically shallow villain. Smallville’s Lex took a black and white comic book landscape and smeared it with a thousand shades of gray. Lex Luthor was no longer simply a villain; he was a young, ambitious loner caught in the shadow and nefarious machinations of his father; in need of a true friend, and as alienated as the young Kal-El. Despite his tragic destiny, viewers in the first season of Smallville weren’t rooting against this young villain; they were rooting for him. Oftentimes more than they were rooting for the show’s hero, Clark Kent.
That more nuanced writing dynamic between Lex and Clark also immediately spawned a thousand fic– and one epic character ship! Clex, or Clark/Lex! For many viewers, the soppy, mooning stares Clark sent Lana Lang’s way were far less intriguing than the strange, hypnotic connection stirring between Clark and Lex. Television’s most epic “meet violent” (“meet cute” car crash style) cemented what would become the fandom’s most popular ship, and result in the creation of thousands upon thousands of fanworks.
Countless Clex works were written, including now-legendary authors including (but not limited to): @astolatstolat, @rivkat , @seperis, P.L. Nunn, Thamiris, Liviapenn , Lanning, @seepunkrun , Te, Henry Jones Jr., and danceswithgary.
The relationship between Clark Kent and Lex Luthor has been explored in other universes (comic books, films, other television shows) but never as viscerally or as nuanced as in Smallville.Twenty-one years later Clex fanfiction is still being published, and Clex fanart is still being created and shared. This Zine is a love letter to that vivacious fandom, and hopefully a bit of a bugle call– that “Yes! Clex is still being written and illustrated! See us roar!”
So. We hope you enjoy the contributions enclosed in this Zine. The moderators would like to thank first and foremost the hard-working fanwriters and fanartists that gave their time, talent, and treasure to make this Zine come together.
We would also like to thank @chase2452 for his initial efforts to set up the 2021 Clex Zine, which became the 2022 LEGENDS Zine; Archive of Our Own for serving as a home and refuge for Clex fanfiction, especially the efforts of the Open Doors team to port the Smallville Slash Archive over to Ao3 in 2012.
And we would like to thank any readers and fanart appreciators who have continued to comment, kudos, and share past and current Clex fanfiction and fanart around the internet.
Thank you, you are the stuff of LEGENDS!
museaway and Storyshark2005
turnnoffyourmind
areudirty
kaledo-art
germansingergirl
vaporwave
pixelskylines
stormborns
