"If it weren't for you, Kent, I'd be in Harvard by now with a coed on each arm." - Ian Randall, "Asylum"
Ian Randall is an intelligent metahuman student who hoped to graduate early and leave Smallville. It is unknown how Ian acquired his powers, but it was likely due to meteor rock exposure.
Powers and Abilities[]
Ian duplicating himself.
- Duplication: He has the ability to create a biological duplicate of himself by fully concentrating his will. He strips off his clothing and the duplicate climb out of his back. The duplicate is completely capable of independent thought. The original Randall can absorb the duplicate back into himself at will, absorbing the memories, skills, and experiences of the duplicate. In this way, he was able to attend twice as many classes and planned to graduate from high school early and use the Luthor scholarship to go to an Ivy League college.
Season Two[]
Ian kills Mr. Frankel.
Due to Ian's fixation on succeeding and graduating early, his obsession with achieving success eventually drove him over the edge, beginning when he killed Mr. Frankel, the shop teacher, who had threatened to give him a C. He initially attracted Clark's attention when he and a duplicate began to date Lana Lang and Chloe Sullivan simultaneously, intending to use Chloe's journalist status to get an encouraging article written about him while Lana provided him with a more personal connection to Lex Luthor. Initially he deflected Clark's suspicions of him by claiming that Clark was just jealous, with his duplicating abilities providing the perfect alibi for any attempts Clark made to convince the girls that he was with the other, but later sent a duplicate to kill Clark and Pete Ross after Clark revealed that he knew Frankel had given Ian a C (He had examined the grades with his X-ray vision when Pete wanted to know his grade).
Ian dates Lana and Chloe at the same time.
After Lex provided Clark with Ian's scholarship application- revealing that he was taking classes at Smallville High and Smallville Community College simultaneously-, Clark and Pete eventually confirmed their theory by paging Ian to be at Chloe's house and at the Talon at the same time, Clark watching Chloe's house from his truck while Pete waited outside the Talon. To avoid being exposed- particularly after Clark convinced Lana to admit the truth to Chloe-, Ian trapped and attempted to kill Lana and Chloe by hurling them off a dam after writing a fake 'suicide note' on the Torch computer, but Clark super-sped in at the last minute to catch an unconscious Chloe after one of the Ians threw her off the dam. Annoyed with Clark's meddling, that same Ian tried to kill him with a large pipe while he was tending to Chloe, but quickly realized that he was indestructable. After knocking that Ian unconscious by throwing him at a sign, he helped Lana when she and the other Ian nearly went over the edge. The other Ian, however, could not hold on and fell.
Season Three[]
Ian and his duplicate kill Van McNulty.
It is later revealed that Ian was sent to Belle Reve, where he nurtured a strong grudge against Clark for 'ruining his life', apparently unconcerned about the fact that he had killed a man long before Clark became involved in his actions. A year later, he aided Eric Summers to steal Clark's powers in an attempt to both escape Belle Reve and exact revenge. He first made Van McNulty smuggle-in a piece of meteor rock and then, he and his duplicate crushed Van's neck while he was weightlifting on a benchpress. Ian then used the meteor rock to paralyze Clark who went to visit Lex and then brought him into the sanatorium's cellar where Eric leached Clark's powers using electricity. When he urged Eric to leave the sanatorium, Eric tossed him away with his newly super powers. However, Ian survived (see Notes).
Appearances[]
Notes[]
- An interview with Jonathan Taylor Thomas can be found in Issue 1 of Smallville.
Ian dying in a deleted scene for Dichotic.
- In a deleted scene for Dichotic, Ian was originally supposed to be killed off. After Clark saved Lana, he rushed down to the bottom of the dam to see Ian lying on the ground and coughing up blood, and planned to take him to the hospital. But then the other Ian came, told Clark that it should've been him down there, and then started coughing up blood himself, much to Clark's surprise. This Ian weakly stated, "We were born as one, and that's how we'll die," as he collapsed, and then was reabsorbed into the original Ian as Clark looked on.
Smallville Torch article.
- Ian was last seen tossed away by Eric Summers, then possessing the powers of Clark Kent. A Smallville Torch article indicates that Ian is still alive, after the events of Asylum (and now in trouble for killing Van), meaning that Eric did not kill him.
- It is possible that Ian Randall was later released by Checkmate (before the agency's destruction). In the episode Absolute Justice, Part 2, a conversation between Lois Lane and Clark Kent establishes that Checkmate has been secretly releasing all the bad guys (that fought the members of the Justice Society of America), and collecting them, by 2010.[1] In Charade, Checkmate is shown to have arranged for the life sentence of Ray Sacks (who had been put away by Clark and the Wonder Twins) to be overturned. One scene has Chloe Sullivan show Clark a list of other people, whose release has been arranged by Checkmate. Clark identifies the people on the list (which is not shown to the viewers) as people that he put away.[2] In Shield, Bette Sans Souci (who had been put away in 2009 by Clark Kent and Green Arrow) is shown to have been released from her incarceration, and joined the Suicide Squad.[3] In the episode Homecoming, Clark spots Greg Arkin (one of Clark's earliest foes) at their high school reunion, and identifies Greg as one of the people that he put away in high school (with Clark's panic at the sight of him indicating that Greg would have been unlikely to simply been released, having served whatever sentence he was given).[4] In Prophecy, Vordigan (who had been put in prison, through the combined effort of Clark and Green Arrow)[5] is shown to be out of prison.[6]
In the Comics[]
Duplicate Man as he appears in the comics.
Ian's ability to split himself into two is similar to a Superman (and Batman) villain called the "Duplicate Man" (real name unknown), who appeared in World's Finest #106 (December, 1959).