Tom Welling returns as Clark Kent in Smallville's eighth season premiere. Where does Clark wake up after last season's explosion? Is Lex Luthor dead? Find out tonight.

It sums it all up in a super sort of way.

There's a moment in the season debut of Smallville tonight when the Green Arrow, played by Justin Hartley, looks at Clark Kent, played by Tom Welling, and says, "Pretty soon you'll be sporting a home-made costume and leading a double-identity, just like the rest of us."

It then is suggested to hunky Clark by Black Canary, played by the sultry Alaina Huffman, that he might want to try something, uh, "a little more form-fitting."

Therein lies the reason we have a soft spot for Smallville -- which begins its eighth season tonight, on the CW network across Canada and on Sun-TV in Ontario -- while many other forms of science fiction leave us cold.

Smallville focuses on the adventures of a young Clark Kent before he technically becomes Superman. And it's that unique mix of sci-fi, foreshadowing and nostalgia that continues to be intriguing almost a decade down the line.

Okay, maybe nostalgia is not the right word, because Smallville is set in modern times. Perhaps saying

Smallville is a unique mix of sci-fi, foreshadowing and familiarity is more accurate, since most of us are up to speed at least on the basics of the Superman tale.

It should be stated, too, that yours truly is not a comic-book geek, unless Archie counts, and we don't think it does (why couldn't Archie ever see that Betty was just as hot as Veronica, huh?).

The thing is, you don't have to be a Superman junkie to like Smallville. You also can enjoy it merely as a fantasy thriller, kind of a Heroes before there was a Heroes, or a Fringe before there was a Fringe.

The episode tonight is titled Odyssey, and as it begins, it's four months after the big confrontation between Clark and Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) at Clark's ice fortress. That's where Lex discovered Clark's secret -- that he's an alien with super powers -- just before the whole Fortress of Solitude literally came crashing down on them.

Clark wakes up in a place he certainly didn't expect to be. But where's Lex? Is he alive? Is he dead? Has he used this opportunity to quietly make an anonymous visit to the Hair Club For Men?

Every fantasy series needs a menacing villain, and the young Lex has been a good one. But in Lex's absence, a new villain emerges tonight -- it's Tess Mercer, played by the fetching Cassidy Freeman.

Mercer is the new CEO of LutherCorp, which seems strangely unaffected by the subprime mortgage crisis. Anyway, it doesn't take long for Tess to show her cold-hearted and uber-ambitious side.

Hey, if we stared into her eyes long enough, we probably would do anything she wanted -- but that's another matter.

Smallville isn't for everyone, but the same can be said for most sci-fi, and this show certainly has developed a fiercely loyal cult following.

After all, how many TV series get to last eight years, let alone eight weeks?