It isn't just Chloe who is lost in the annals of history - some examples of historical figures lost, confused, or controversially identified over the course of time.
"That’s what the history books all say."
"And do you believe the history books?"
"Well… yeah."
-- An exchange between a student and a Comparative Literature professor, January 2010
It is popular to think of history in the same way as one might think of the Superman mythos— a concrete set of events, dates, names. Smallville is presented as a prequel to the Superman story; to view it in a different way, the show can be viewed as a behind-the-scenes history of Superman. Smallville’s writers delight in twisting what we think we know, crafting a show that could be subtitled “Lies the Mythos Told Me.â€
The episode “Legion†(8.11) draws this issue to the forefront. In the time of the Legion of Superheroes, Superman is history. There is a museum dedicated to his feats and the smallest details are known about him, including the story of the first baseball he ever hit. And yet, there are things they don’t know, including the identity of Chloe Sullivan, Clark Kent’s best friend and someone apparently absent from the life of Superman. The episode throws Chloe’s fate out as a historical mystery for the Legionnaires. Who is she? If she is so important, why don’t they know who she is? Why have they never heard of Chloe Sullivan?
