Hmmmm…this is hard but I’m gonna have to go with Tyler Hoechlin…I didn’t think he was gonna be a good Clark when I first herd of his casting…but he is constantly surprising and I feel like I like his acting more and more as I watch the show
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I came here to give a nod to Tyler as well. Way too soon to say he’s “the best”… maybe when he has at least a full season under his belt. However, this version of Clark is the closest live action has come to the way I envision the character. The two sides compliment, instead of contradict, each other.
As far as performance goes, what Christopher Reeve did, slipping in and out of character, it’s the stuff of legend. I mean look at this transformation:
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That’s fair…he is still really new to the role
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He’s new, but he’s very good at it! I was impressed from the first episode and I’ve only liked him more and more.
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George Reeves
Tyler Hoechlin is off to a strong start.
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- Tyler Hoechlin
- Tom Welling
- Christopher Reeve
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I feel like everyone plays Superman and not Clark Kent except Tyler Hecholin and Tom Welling but I like Tyler as Clark more.
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Chris Reeves was the funnest to watch, but his was so incompetent that it didn’t really stand up to close scrutiny (since it required Superman to be a phenomenal actor, which is one skill he wouldn’t pick up from Krypton’s atmosphere). Bud Collyer’s portrayal on radio and animation underscored the distinctions between Clark and Superman so capably that he created the blueprint others would follow
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Clark is always perfect. My best buddy is completely incorruptible no matter who plays him.
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For me it’s got to be between Tyler Hoechlin and Christopher Reeve!!! 
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Henry really did not get a chance to play any version of Clark that is well known to even casuals; people still refer to the pre-uniform version as “Hobo Superman.” And the tease of Daily Planet Clark at the end of MoS was essentially pointless particularly since what little was shown in BvS was Clark-Plays-Cub-Reporter and then those awful social interactions at the Lex Junior charity event. The only person who came across well in any of that was Gadot’s introduction as Diana.
I agree with a lot of the sentiment here, that Tom Welling got to do an excellent job as a young, pre-Superman Clark Kent in Smallville. However, people need to keep in mind that you are comparing countless hours that Tom got to portray a character versus the few that say Henry (or Christopher, or Brandon) got to in one or more appearances.
Also, Tom only played Clark - that also gave him more screen time. His young Clark was definitely better than Jeff East, or Cooper/Dylan in the 2013 film, although Dylan did a decent job acting against pre-Suicidal Jonathan. But I have a certain fondness for the way Stephen Bender portrayed the role and would have liked to have seen him with some dialogue and see more scenes of him in Smallville discovering his powers - he had all the sense of wonder and discovery that Tom got to play, without all that CW teen angst and manufactured drama, much less a crappy romance with a badly depicted Lana and all the other baggage that Smallville brings to the party.
Dean Cain had an interesting experience, since he gets some of the advantages Welling had, in getting to portray a Clark Kent at the Daily Planet, and play off that great supporting cast even more than Tom did, particularly playing off against Perry, but more so in getting the loving relationship with Martha and Jonathan as an adult that Welling was denied. I can’t get past the late 80s/early 90s wardrobe and even the spandex didn’t age too well. Cain was a good Clark but I would give Welling the nod here, even if I only compared S1 of each series against one another.
Christopher Reeve is a popular choice and a good one, and he set a tone that improved upon the kindly, fatherly, benevolent version we received from George Reeves.
However, overall I would say Brandon Routh had both the harder task (in needing to follow Christopher, play a homage to him, and appear to be, at minimum, a refreshed version of those portrayals). Plus, we also got to see the growth and sensibility of that person, as a much older adult, who had suffered tremendous loss, in his brief appearance in the DCW Crisis on Infinite Earth’s crossover and makes the entire convoluted plot contrivance with Lenny that cut Routh’s appearance shorter than it needed to be and made the overall crossover that much more annoying.
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Welling got to play Superman multiple times.
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He might even get to #1
Lois: Clark, this isn’t a job for Superman.
Clark: He’s not going.
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Tom welling is my favorite followed by Tyler Hoechlin. To me Henry Cavill never really got be Clark but he did I think that would have really good.
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That’s a good point! I actually agree with this wholeheartedly
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I think Cavill did get a fair chance to be Clark and did fine in it. Most of that was in the Whedon version of Justice League.
#MakeMustachesAwesomeAgain
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Just saw Superman The Movie for the first time, in it’s entirety, on a big screen, in probably a good decade plus.
I think the reason Christopher Reeve is an overwhelming popular choice for portraying Clark Kent is, as with the job Frank Quitely did in All Star, was the definition he was able to create between Clark and Superman. Which isn’t going to be news to anyone here, but is really what set the standard. Hoechlin did a really good job from the start to capture that in the DCW and has, by and large, continued this with the series, but as @ALFRED.1943 mentioned, Henry never really got a chance to play Clark in a way that defined him from Superman. He was actually Clark Kent for a long time in the first movie, as a kid (albeit not portrayed by Henry), but even as what was purportedly a teen or young adult with Jonathan and Martha in the infamous tornado soon and all throughout the frequently non-verbal rescues before he donned the cape and suit.
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