I miss the original iteration of Superboy. Even though I warmed up to the Kon-El after a while (thanks mostly to his portrayal in the animated Young Justice), I always preferred my Superboy tales to be about "the adventures of Superman when he was a boy!". I have heard good things about the new Jon Kent version (son of Lois and Clark) in the DC Rebirth titles though, so I picked up a couple of digital trades featuring him and I am about to catch up on the new super-developments..
Well, post-Crisis/pre-Flashpoint/Rebirth Superman's recent origin story restored his time as Superboy after all.
ReplyDeleteActually the Legion of Superheroes was based in the 30th/31st century, so "halfway" is not correct!
ReplyDeletei miss the pre crisis superboy/superman too!!!
ReplyDeleteSuperboy was always problematic for DC. On the plus side, he got a lot of new younger readers because he was easier to relate to, but on the other had he screwed up the timeline because Superman was moving forward, agelessly, with the present. Which meant that Superboy had to move forward too, only 10-15 years behind. Oh, they tried to get around it by keeping him in that "Happy Days Never-neverland" of Smallville, but it didn't quite work. Toward the end of his run Superboy was dealing with Vietnam era stories. And when you read Superboy, you knew nothing really bad or permanent could happen to him because, after all, he grew up to become Superman. So, when he was "killed off" in that Legion tale it was a bit of a shocker, to say the least.
ReplyDeleteI really started getting "serious" about comics when Superboy left the Legion for his own run. 1980, I think it was. Superboy and New Teen Titans. Good times, good times...
ReplyDeleteI never really like Superboy, except when he was with the Legion of Super-Heroes. I did enjoy on TV (when I could catch it) a Superboy syndicated series. I remember at the time one of the big guest stars was the guy from Miami Vice. I think he played a bounty hunter. I did not follow Superboy until the introduction of the new Superboy following the death of Superman. I am currently enjoying Jon Kent from Super Sons.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Silver Age Superboy adventure was when he got his life saved by a young blind classmate...named Don Blake.
ReplyDeleteDid Mr. Blake get medically cured of his blindness and decide to become a doctor, when he grew up, as a result?
Emsley Wyatt said...
ReplyDelete"Superboy was always problematic for DC. On the plus side, he got a lot of new younger readers because he was easier to relate to, but on the other had he screwed up the timeline because Superman was moving forward, agelessly, with the present. Which meant that Superboy had to move forward too, only 10-15 years behind. Oh, they tried to get around it by keeping him in that "Happy Days Never-neverland" of Smallville, but it didn't quite work. Toward the end of his run Superboy was dealing with Vietnam era stories."
Whereas in one of his earliest stories he was dealing with [renamed versions of] Bonnie & Clyde! Of course, that was the pre-Crisis [i]Earth-2[/i] Superboy until DC decided that the E2 Superman [b]never was[/b] Superboy...
^_^
And then there was the problem of Kal (on E2, anyway) flying as Superboy although he "later" began his career as Superman just leaping...
My problem with Superboy in the LSH (a team I loved) was that Superboy could not die since he because Superman and the ultimate comic would be Superboy dying and the LSH starting to unravel with the remaining members trying to "fix it" and vowing Superboy would never travel to see the LSH again.
ReplyDeleteI had no issue with the Superboy era but I never took the adventures seriously and preferred when writers didn't.
I had one silver age comic with a Superbaby (i.e. very young Superboy) story co-starring Zatarra. Were there many tales of Superbaby?
ReplyDeleteThere were at least a couple of dozen between 1950 and 1980. I had an aunt who liked them. She thought baby Kal-El was so cute.
ReplyDelete@EW and Simreeve: He only became twice as problematic for them after the ill-advised CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. Which is all the more undeniable reason they should've _never_ done COIE, in the first place.
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