On November 1, 2002, Aspect released Alan Grant’s Smallville: Dragon, a story about an ex-convict who takes on the abilities and appearance of a dragon after being exposed to kryptonite in a cave. The mutation also causes him to try and kill all those who testified against him. The novel also features Clark being hypnotized into believing he is a normal, human teenager, with no abilities. One month after Grant’s novel, Bennett and Gottesfeld returned for a second time to write Little, Brown Young Readers’ Flight, a story about a young girl, Tia, whom Clark discovers has full-sized wings. Clark and his friends believe Tia is being abused by her father, so they teach her to overcome her fear of flying so she can go find her mom. Flight, like See No Evil, was also a planned episode at one point, but because the crew were not sure they could get the flying effects right they decided against it. Nancy Holder took over writing duties for the third novel in the Aspect series. Released on January 1, 2003, Hauntings follows Clark and his friends as they investigate the ghostly presence in one of Smallville’s haunted houses. Little, Brown Young Readers released Animal Rage next, written by David and Bobby Weiss. The story focuses on an animal rights activist, Heather Fox, who can transform into any animal she touches. Heather uses this ability to harm those people who hurt animals, until Clark discovers the truth and stops her. Aspect brought in Dean Wesley Smith for their next novel. Whodunit involves Clark, Chloe, Lana and Pete investigating the murder of a boy and his sister, while Lex struggles with whether he will pay a ransom demand for his kidnapped father or simply try rescuing Lionel himself.
Little, Brown Young Readers published the next two books in April and June 2003. The first was written by Cherie Bennett and Jeff Gottesfeld, titled Speed; the second was written by Suzan Colon, and titled Buried Secrets. Speed involves a boy using an hourglass his father gave him for his birthday to stop time and commit various hate crimes without getting caught. Clark stops him before he can cause any damage at a local multicultural festival. Buried Secrets follows Clark and Lex as they both fall in love with a mind-reading, substitute Spanish teacher. In the novel, Clark and Lex’s friendship is put in jeopardy as the two compete for the teacher’s love.
On September 9, 2004, Aspect published Shadows, written by Diana G. Gallagher. Shadows is about a girl and her father who move to Smallville, only her scientist father creates a monster which begins killing people. Jonathan Kent assumes the deaths are LuthorCorp related, which causes tension between him and his son. Clark ascertains the truth to prove Lex’s innocence, and stops the creatures before they can kill more. Suzan Colon returned to write Runaway, a story about Clark running away to the city and living with other homeless teenagers. Clark falls in love with one of the girls before eventually returning home. Smallville: Silence was written by Nancy Holder, and featured the characters investigating the appearance of zombies. Little, Brown Young Readers released their eighth book, written by Bennett and Gottesfeld, titled Greed. Here, Clark and his friends take jobs as summer counselors to disadvantaged youths. One of the boys falls into Crater Lake and is imbued with the ability to foretell the future; Lionel learns of this and tries to exploit it. Pete also tries to abuse Clark’s abilities by tricking him into playing in a basketball game, and then betting on the outcome.
Alan Grant returned for a second outing to write Curse, about a grave digger who unleashes a one hundred-fifty year-old curse onto Smallville, and Clark’s attempt to put everything back to the way it was. On February 1, 2004, Little, Brown Young Readers released a new book by Suzan Colon. In Temptation, Clark uses red kryptonite to try to impress Lana and Chloe, after they become infatuated with a new, French foreign exchange student. Aspect released their final novel on March 1, 2004. Written by Devin K. Grayson, City follows Clark and Lex as they take a trip to Metropolis. While in the city, the pair get caught between the Japanese mafia and a secret agent who believes he has found an alien. In Little, Brown Young Readers’ final novel, written by Cherie Bennett, Sparks chronicles Chloe’s experience after being hit by kryptonite sparks from a fireworks display. The sparks make Chloe the desire of every man, but when they wear off, one of them decides he really does want Chloe and kidnaps her. Clark comes to her rescue in the end.
