With the new “Superman” movie, directed by James Gunn and starring David Corenswet, doing quite well at the box office, we wanted to dive in to a
social media post
that has pointed out that Superman might have grown up in Maryland.
The new movie was released on July 8, 2025. It’s currently in its second weekend and has maintained the #1 spot at the North American box office, collecting an estimated $57.3 million in its second weekend. This is considered an average decline for a big summer film. Globally, in two weeks, “Superman” has already grossed $406.8 million worldwide. Now, lets get into this whole Maryland thing.
While “Smallville” has been depicted in various locations throughout Superman’s long history across comics, TV shows, and movies, the most consistently established and widely recognized location for Smallville is Kansas. In the very early comics, Smallville’s exact location was often ambiguous or changed. There was even a brief instance that suggested Smallville might be in Maryland, between Metropolis and Gotham City on the Delaware Bay.
According to
Southgate Media Group
, in 1977, an officially sanctioned magazine called
Amazing World of DC Comics
, put out issue #14. In this publication Smallville was in Maryland. “
In a costume fashioned out of the blankets that accompanied him from Krypton, Clark Kent began his crimefighting career in Smallville, Maryland as the teenaged Superboy.
”
However, the popular 1978 Superman movie firmly established Smallville as being in Kansas and this has largely become the canonical location in most subsequent adaptations. So, while there was a fleeting mention of Maryland in some older comic material, the definitive answer for Smallville’s location is Kansas.
