Whitney Fordman was a student at Smallville High School and star quarterback of the Smallville Crows football team. As a high school senior, he was a member of the popular crowd. He dated the beautiful cheerleader Lana Lang and he and Lana were elected Homecoming King and Queen.
After graduation, he joined the United States Marines and was killed in action in Indonesia. Whitney's heroic sacrifice is one of the things throughout Clark's journey in Smallville that inspired him to become Superman.
Personality
Whitney was presented as having the "ideal" life by being the star of the football team with potential to eventually go onto a professional career with the Metropolis Sharks, as well as dating the perfect girl. As a high school freshman, Clark Kent was envious of Whitney, perceiving him to be living the high school dream. As Whitney's senior year progressed, Clark realized that his life wasn't as perfect as it seemed.
Whitney watched Clark's friendship with Lana blossom and began to see him as a competitor and a rival. He went out of his way to humiliate Clark, notably stringing him up as a Scarecrow in a cornfield in his underwear as part of a Smallville High tradition to haze the freshman class. When Clark saved his life he expressed regret for having treated him that way. Over the course of Whitney's senior year, Clark was Whitney's main rival for Lana's heart.
Whitney's primary motivation was getting out of Smallville by securing a football scholarship. As the scholarship gradually seems more unlikely, Whitney became resentful and lashed out. Whitney became a member of a gang that used Kryptonite tattoos, to give them the ability to phase through walls. Clark managed to convince Whitney to leave the gang. The two eventually began to respect each other, especially when Clark made a decision to not pursue Lana romantically that year .
The death of Whitney's father George had a great impact on his life. Upon finding medals once owned by his father from Vietnam, Whitney realized that there was more to life than high school and playing football. Whitney decided to follow in his father's footsteps and joined the United States Marine Corps. By the end of his senior year, Whitney Fordman went from a stereotypical jock to a well defined man, ending his friendship with Clark on good terms before departing Smallville and died a hero trying to save his fellow Marine.
Powers and Abilities
Whitney Fordman is an ordinary human with no superhuman capabilities. On one occasion however, he did develop super-powers after being exposed to green meteor rock.
- Intangibility: Whitney Fordman once had a tattoo made of ink cultivated from green meteor rock. This temporarily gave him the ability to phase through solid objects.
Early life
Whitney grew up in Smallvile where he worked in the Fordman's Department Store which had belonged to his family since 1943. From a young age, he professed a love for the sport that made him a football star at Smallville High. During this time he met Lana Lang and began dating her. At the start of football season, Whitney encouraged Clark Kent to toss a football and dunk Lana Lang.
On the Show
Season One
Whitney performed an annual 'hazing' ritual on Clark Kent, choosing him to be the one freshman hung up as a "Scarecrow" in the cornfields of Smallville. Whitney put Lana's necklace on Clark, inadvertently incapacitating him with meteor rock radiation. Lex Luthor rescued Clark, who then got back at Whitney by stacking his pickup truck on top of two others.
Whitney tried to apologize to Clark and get Lana's necklace back, but Clark coldly told him to go into the cornfield and find the necklace himself. Later, when Whitney was attacked by Greg Arkin, Clark rescued him. Over time, Clark and Whitney became less hostile toward each other. When Whitney grew distant following his father's heart attack, Clark encouraged him to open up to Lana. When Whitney tried to kill Kyle Tippet while under the control of Kyle's former friend Clark stopped him.
After losing his football scholarship, Whitney got mixed up with some former jocks with tattoos made of meteor rock that temporarily gave them the power to walk through the walls . However, when Whitney learned that they were planning to blackmail and potentially murder Lex Luthor, he told Clark what was happening, resulting in a confrontation in a car impound lot that resulted in the death of one of the jocks.
As Whitney's father's heart disease grew even worse, he was moved to hospital on a full-time basis. However, shortly before he died, Clark asked Lex Luthor to help Whitney's father fulfill a promise he had made that he would see his son play his first game with the Metropolis Sharks: Lex literally hired the entire team to play a game with Whitney as their quarterback while his father watched. George Fordman died shortly afterwards.
While going through his father's things after the funeral, Whitney came across his father's military medals from the Vietnam War, including one for his father saving three people. Whitney realized that being a football star isn't the only way to be a hero and impulsively decided to join the Marines.
He asked Lana to wait for him. Before he left, he made an honest apology to Clark for the way he had treated him and even asked Clark to look after Lana until he returned. With this, Clark and Whitney finally made peace and perhaps even became friends.
Season Two
As she began her sophomore year, Lana prepared a video of well-wishes from his friends back home to send to Whitney, but then decided that she should be honest with him. She recorded her own message, breaking up with Whitney. Whitney wrote a letter to Lana in response to the videotape. He mentioned the pain he felt when receiving the message and said it was a truth that he didn't want to hear. But Whitney decided to let go and told her that he was glad she was looking for happiness and hoped that she'd find it.
Whitney was killed in action in Indonesia, sacrificing his life trying to save a fallen soldier. His letter to Lana was in his hand at the time of his death and never made it to her.
Whitney was later announced as missing. Tina Greer broke out of Belle Reve Sanitarium and impersonated him in order to be with Lana, but Clark discovered the truth and she was killed in the final confrontation.
Both Clark and Lana were deeply affected by Whitney's death: Lana regretted ever having sent the video to him in the first place and feared that Whitney's last thought before he died was that Lana wasn't there for him and Clark remarked that Whitney had willingly put himself in harm's way to protect other people and wondered if he would have such bravery if he didn't have his abilities.
Relationships
- Lana and Whitney
- Clark, Lana, and Whitney