BEFORE LOIS AND METROPOLIS, LANA AND 'SMALLVILLE'.

Byline: David Kronke TV Critic

The WB has made hay from supernatural teen angst, courtesy of both ``Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' and ``Roswell,'' shows in which the teen-age protagonists felt alienated because they truly were different from their peers, in bizarre, remarkable ways. Those shows have since moved on to UPN, so the WB starts over from scratch, with the original pop-culture outsider: Clark Kent.

``Smallville'' updates the Superman myth - well, the Superboy myth, without the patriotic long underwear - to present day. Seems the iconic Kansas town of Smallville took a beating in 1989 in the form of a meteor shower from a planet that went kablooey (which nonetheless had a curious pinpoint accuracy - contrast this to, say, the infinitely tinier Skylab, which originated from Earth's orbit and scattered throughout Australia).

Four upshots of this event: One, Jonathan and Martha Kent (John Schneider and Annette O'Toole, the latter a veteran of the movie ``Superman III'') found a wandering extraterrestrial tot, who grows up to be hunky teen Clark (Tom Welling, whose superpowers extend to looking 10 years older than any high-school freshman the human race has ever seen).

Two: The parents of teen dream Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk) were killed; to this day, she wears a pendant containing a chunk of the meteor that took their lives. Three: that chunk, naturally, is Kryptonite, which makes Clark literally weak at the knees whenever he's near Lana (curiously, it seems to be the only piece of Kryptonite that survived that cataclysmic meteor shower - besides the dopey science, that's another reason the meteor shower doesn't make sense).

Four: Smallville's chamber of commerce changed its name from ``creamed corn capital of the world'' to ``meteor capital of the world.'' (Obviously, not all the upshots are equally interesting.)

Comic-book fans understand, naturally, that Clark has tons of superpowers that he must conceal from the rest of the world, which causes him no end of frustration: ``I just want to go through high school without being a total loser,'' he pouts to his upright pop, who won't even let him use his Emmett Smith-like powers on the football team (the school's logo approximates what we know will become the ``S'' on his costume).

While Clark pines for Lana, who dates the star of the football team (Eric Johnson), he hangs with quirkier fringe characters, Pete (Sam Jones III) and Chloe (Allison Mack); the latter seems far more interesting girlfriend material than ethereal Lana, but this is, after all, TV. He also befriends Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum), the prematurely bald scion of the sinister Luthor Inc. megaconglomerate. Again, comix fans understand that Clark and Lex will eventually become mortal enemies, so this is a potentially intriguing twist; at any rate, Rosenbaum's so naturally charismatic he threatens to run away with the series.

In the meantime, Clark must simmer with the knowledge he could easily manhandle those callow teens who victimize him (only on the WB could Welling play a character that would find himself on the wrong side of a bullying). Oh, and naturally he fights crime, too, though in jeans and T's, not the famous form-fitting tights (executive producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar do, however, have lots of fun playing with the visual iconography, contriving in tonight's premiere to put an ``S'' on Clark's chest and give him what seems to be a red cape).

Wry, action-packed and even vaguely emotional, ``Smallville'' will easily appeal to ``Buffy'' and ``Roswell'' fans, not to mention open-minded ``Superman'' aficionados. The nerds who object to ``Smallville's'' liberties should note that Superman's the ultimate show-biz survivor: He's already survived two prime-time series, a quartet of films that delivered ever-diminished returns, a crummy syndicated show, numerous animated incarnations and even comic-book writers who tried to kill him off, so this series'll bounce off his mythology like a bullet off old Supes' chest.

``SMALLVILLE''

What: Clark Kent's teen years a la WB.

The stars: Tom Welling, Michael Rosenbaum, Kristin Kreuk, John Schneider, Sam Jones III, Allison Mack, Annette O'Toole, Eric Johnson.

Where: WB (Channel 5).

When: 9 tonight.

Our rating: Three stars