Source: More Fun Comics #101 (1945) to Superman: The Secret Years #4 (1985)
Type: The real deal (since retconned)
With March comes spring. And with spring comes birth, youth and renewal. And with all that comes... Superboy Month! Yes, for 31 consecutive days, Reign of the Supermen goes back in time to Clark Kent's younger days and to the youthful clone that came later!
Though we think of him as a Silver Age icon, Superboy really starts in the Golden Age. In those early stories, he looks to be about 12 and helps country boys who get into trouble a lot.
Tall tales from the tree house. But it's still in the Silver Age that Superboy finds his sweet spot, continuing - or actually, prefiguring - the crazy madcap adventures of Superman. Red Kryptonite, Bizarro, other Kryptonian survivors (most notably Krypto the super-dog), and science that makes no sense whatsoever all feature. Just as Superman has a couple spin-offs in Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, Superboy spawns the Legion of Super-Heroes. These guys from the 30th century aren't inspired by the deeds of Superman, but those of SuperBOY. That, in itself, is a little insane, and speaks to the (at least perceived) popularity of that version of the character. Eventually, the Legion would gobble up Superboy's comic book slot, sometimes letting him share the byline, sometimes not.
My own first exposure to Superboy - aside from knowing he was something Superman did when he was young (possibly from an episode of Super-Friends) - was New Adventures of Superboy in the 80s, which I freely admit I bought for the Dial H for Hero back-up. Except I really liked Clark Kent's Archiesque adventures as well, with Lana as Betty and Lex as Reggie. Still have a soft spot for such characters as Sunburst and Dyna-Mind.
Sadly, Byrne would do away with the notion of Superboy in his version of the character, though he'd return in a variety of forms over the years. Superboy's had a couple of television series, both live action and animated, not the least of which is Smallville. Superboy is still with us and going strong, whether we're talking about Kon-El or Tom Welling.
So we'll honor the character's many iterations all month. Hope you'll stick around.
Type: The real deal (since retconned)
With March comes spring. And with spring comes birth, youth and renewal. And with all that comes... Superboy Month! Yes, for 31 consecutive days, Reign of the Supermen goes back in time to Clark Kent's younger days and to the youthful clone that came later!Though we think of him as a Silver Age icon, Superboy really starts in the Golden Age. In those early stories, he looks to be about 12 and helps country boys who get into trouble a lot.
Tall tales from the tree house. But it's still in the Silver Age that Superboy finds his sweet spot, continuing - or actually, prefiguring - the crazy madcap adventures of Superman. Red Kryptonite, Bizarro, other Kryptonian survivors (most notably Krypto the super-dog), and science that makes no sense whatsoever all feature. Just as Superman has a couple spin-offs in Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, Superboy spawns the Legion of Super-Heroes. These guys from the 30th century aren't inspired by the deeds of Superman, but those of SuperBOY. That, in itself, is a little insane, and speaks to the (at least perceived) popularity of that version of the character. Eventually, the Legion would gobble up Superboy's comic book slot, sometimes letting him share the byline, sometimes not.My own first exposure to Superboy - aside from knowing he was something Superman did when he was young (possibly from an episode of Super-Friends) - was New Adventures of Superboy in the 80s, which I freely admit I bought for the Dial H for Hero back-up. Except I really liked Clark Kent's Archiesque adventures as well, with Lana as Betty and Lex as Reggie. Still have a soft spot for such characters as Sunburst and Dyna-Mind.
Sadly, Byrne would do away with the notion of Superboy in his version of the character, though he'd return in a variety of forms over the years. Superboy's had a couple of television series, both live action and animated, not the least of which is Smallville. Superboy is still with us and going strong, whether we're talking about Kon-El or Tom Welling.
So we'll honor the character's many iterations all month. Hope you'll stick around.
Comments
Byrne later said that his intention with the Superman relaunch was to show an inexperienced Superman learning as he went along. He said that if he had known DC was going to force him to present Superman as having operated for several years at the launch of the ongoing, he would have kept Superboy so he could still tell his inexperienced Superman stories.
It's too bad, because while not having Superboy makes a bit more logical sense to me, eliminating him really hurt the Legion of Super-Heroes. I'm glad they brought him back.
Another thing that made Superboy more engaging is that he was closer to the reader's age, and much more approachable than the then aloof alien Superman.
And while Byrne used the pocket universe Superboy to fill that niche (coming soon to a Reign near you), it didn't help explain the non-existent Supergirl's presence on the team.
Byrned Truly Really Last Son of Krypton policy = Big Mess.
Possibly coming in post-crisis, I agree with Byrne's notions for getting rid of him. As you say, he was more approachable than the silver-age alien Superman, but that doesn't apply to the reboot version.
I've never quite got the "closer to the reader's age" argument either. Not that it doesn't work, but sometimes it seems like no-one has actually asked the children. I remember JMS saying he fought not to put kid characters in the cartoon Real Ghostbusters, because kids would want to be the characters from the films (or close appoximations), not kids who follow them about.
Or, to put it another way, I have a 5 year old nephew who loves playing Lego Batman. And when asked, he wants to be Batman, not Robin. I'm sure if there was a Superman version he (and most kids) would want to be Superman, not Superboy. There's a reason that Marvel never called him Spider-Boy, after all.
(This doesn't apply to Conner Kent and other versions though. This is simply me not really caring for a version of Superman who is the same but a bit smaller. As I said though, I didn't grow up with him, which probably makes a difference.)
The origin of Clark's powers was still in flux at that time too, and I like to think there was a subtle difference between Krypton-1 and Krypton-2. Superman's original origin was that every Kryptonian had grown strong and resilient through evolution, and I speculate that the Earth-2 Superman's highly evolved nature allowed him to adapt to a yellow sun and grow to use its energies. In contrast, inhabitants of Krypton-1 were never said to be highly evolved, but their ability to process yellow sun energy was simply an innate quirk. This is all fanfictional in nature, of course.