I'm not sure exacly what's going on with Superboy these days. For a while there was Kon-El, the clone with DNA from Superman and Lex Luthor. He was killed off but brought back later I think. Maybe he's running with Young Justice now? Then there's Jon Kent, the son of Clark and Lois. Sometimes he's depicted as young, teaming up with Damian Wayne as the Super-Sons and sometimes a bit older, where he's with the LSH. So, there's anywhere from 1-3 Superboys currently out there. I think things were a lot simpler when Superboy was just the Adventures of Superman as a boy!
Superboy actually met Hercules (and Samson) in Adventure Comics #257....
ReplyDeleteand before that in Adventure #233, Superboy poses as a blonde haired Hercules Junior....
as always your cover is a wonderful mash-up new adventure i would buy in a minute....
You said it, Ross! Especially the version voiced, for Filmation, by the late, great Bob Hastings.*
ReplyDelete*Later the voice of Commissioner Gordon on BATMAN'92 (as I sometimes call the WB series).
Though I (like yourself) grew up with Superboy being young Kal-El, for me the best Superboy has been Kon-El. Since we're going to have Jon Kent, though, maybe Kon-El can have a different code-name. (And I think post-Crisis Superman has always started as an adult, though I'm not 100% sure of that.)
ReplyDeleteInclude me in the Silver Age Superboy camp. The one who got retconned into oblivion. The Kon-el version is okay. But the constant revision strikes me as desperation - driven by the (understandable) need to have more and more product available for new generations of comic consumers. But that does lead to Soviet style airbrushing from comic history and complication on complication.
ReplyDeleteEvery few years, it seems, a new Crisis scythes away a hero or four, which just re-complicates everything... you have to resort to Wikipedia to keep up.
I too remember the Curt Swan Hercules meeting both Superboy and his older incarnation fondly. Simpler times.
Dave's right. These annual crises are getting increasingly dubious to suspend disbelief in.
ReplyDeleteCurrently the son of Clark & Lois went travelling with his father, got stuck in a trap on Earth 3 and got away and when he got back was instrumental on forming of the United Federation of Planets in 21st century before being asked to go to 31st century for some cross pollination. The changes made in characters were in scope as big as change when Dave Cockrum took over art. They are not as bad as the clone LSH but not entirely sure with Bendis writing and lots of substitute artwork in first year.
ReplyDeleteNot sure this LSH will last.
Earth-3?! I thought that was permanently blown up by the Anti-Minitor!
ReplyDeleteSince the "Earth 1 " Superboy was said to really be in a pocket universe AND THEN killed off by the Time Trapper, he's been fully erased.
ReplyDeleteThe later Superboys don't seem to bring in that big of a "market share" beyond a couple years. Makes me wonder what the market really wants and if the execs can deliver that.
Probably not. :-(
ReplyDeleteA major problem of a new "when he was a boy" version would put his stories in the late 1990's or early 2000's, smack in the middle of the Bronze Age. As someone who remembers the excitement when the Legion finally got their own series in Adventure, I have no interest in a Clark Kent who listens to grunge or boy bands.
ReplyDeleteUnless the boys in question play musical instruments, they're not really a band. Just a singing group!
ReplyDeletei wonder if the 12 labours of Hercules were performed by 12 different comic book versions of Herc as there are easily that many????
ReplyDeletea council of Herculean membership as it were.....
ooops....
ReplyDeletethe above comment was i, the jack-el....
Then, technically, you're no longer unknown. ;-D
ReplyDelete