Speaking as one who has never even seen an episode of Smallville, Carol, and who knows she's not alone, that really does seem like something of an exaggeration.
Seriously, there have always been stories which seem 'in character' and others which seem 'out of character' to individual readers; a far smaller number will seem out of character to more than one reader. I don't think the arrival of Smallville has changed much in that respect - I've been reading fanfic since around about the end of Season 2 (1995?) and, actually, it's my impression that the quality of fanfic, including characterisation, plot development, structure, style and use of language, has overall improved since then - of course, the arrival of authors such as LabRat, Yvonne, you yourself, Nan, CC, Lynn, ML, Tank and many more have helped there.
Wendy
