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Superboy (Kal-El)
Encyclopedia
The original Superboy is a fictional superhero who appears in DC Comics
. The name of Superman
as a boy, Superboy has adventures that occur in the relative past to those of Superman and take place predominantly in his hometown of Smallville. Superboy is from the destroyed planet Krypton
, where he was born under the name Kal-El, and lives on Earth under the secret identity
of mild-mannered student Clark Kent
. Debuting in 1944, the character was in continuous publication for 40 years, developing a supporting cast and mythos
of his own, before DC Comics removed him from Superman's fictional history. In 2009, however, DC Comics partially restored Clark's teenage career as Superboy. Superboy or elements from his story have been adapted to other media, particularly television.
(without fellow Superman co-creator Joe Shuster
) in November 1938. The idea was turned down by Detective Comics, Inc.
, and the publisher again rejected a second pitch by Siegel two years later.
After the appeal of kid superheroes had been demonstrated by the success of Robin, the Boy Wonder
and similar characters, Detective Comics reversed itself in late 1944 and started publishing a Superboy feature, in an effort to expand the Superman franchise by presenting a version of the character to whom younger readers could easily relate.
Superboy first appeared in More Fun Comics
#101 (January/February 1945, published in late 1944). Though Joe Shuster supplied the art, the Superboy feature was published without the input or approval of Jerry Siegel, who was serving in World War II
. This fact increased an already-growing rift between the publisher and Siegel and Shuster.
After just seven issues of More Fun Comics, the Superboy feature moved to Adventure Comics
, where he debuted in issue #103 (1946) as the cover and lead feature for the anthology
comic. In a period when the popularity of superheroes was generally in decline, the adventures of Superboy became increasingly popular.
Three years after the move to Adventure Comics, Superboy became only the sixth DC superhero to receive his own comic book when Superboy #1 debuted in 1949. Superboy became the first new superhero title to succeed since World War II.
The first Superboy story also updated the origin of Superman
, and for the first time shows his father Jor-El as being aware that his son Kal-El would have powers on Earth that he does not have on Krypton. In this original story, years after his arrival on Earth, Clark Kent
saves a man pinned under an automobile and subsequently decides to become the costumed hero Superboy. Clark appears to be around ten years old in this story, and in his first story in Adventure Comics, he actually celebrates his tenth birthday.
In the first couple years of the Superboy feature, Superboy remained a boy close to that age. The character gradually aged, however, and by the time Superboy #1 was published, Superboy was usually depicted as being in his early teens.
Billed as "The Adventures of Superman When He Was a Boy", Superboy stories in both Adventure Comics and Superboy treat him as essentially a junior version of Superman. To that end, he wears the Superman costume and his alter ego Clark Kent wears glasses as a disguise for his civilian identity. Superboy's powers are identical to those of Superman
, including enhanced strength, speed, vision, and hearing, plus flight and invulnerability.
Though clearly superhero stories, Superboy's earliest adventures shared features with non-superhero comics of the late 1940s. For example, the three stories published in Superboy #1 had elements of teen romance, juvenile delinquency, and teen humor. In the words of Robert Greenberger, "No costumed super-villains plagued Smallville."
Not only are the earliest Superboy stories free of supervillains, Superboy himself is essentially earthbound and remains in the story "present." Not until 1949 does Superboy take a trip the Moon, intercept a comet in outer space, and fly back in time to the American Revolutionary War
.
.
Superboy's foster parents, previously only Mr. and Mrs. Kent in their infrequent appearances in the Superboy feature, finally appeared on a cover (Superboy #3), began appearing more frequently in the stories, and received permanent first names, Jonathan in Adventure Comics #149 (1950) and Martha in Superboy #12 (1951).
Superboy #8 (1950) saw the first adventure of "Superbaby," a character which extends the "Junior Superman" concept to that of a super-powered toddler. The Superbaby stories are set in the time just after the Kents adopt Clark. Superboy #10 (1950) featured the first appearance of Lana Lang
, a character that would become a romantic foil for both Superboy and the grown-up Superman. Lana's debut also featured her first attempt to learn Superboy's secret identity.
In Adventure Comics #210 (1955), Superboy acquires a superdog, Krypto
, the first additional survivor of Krypton that he meets. Though Superboy regularly interacts with the Smallville police, Chief Douglas Parker
, who first appears in Adventure Comics #225 (1956), is the first officer to become a regular supporting character.
Pete Ross
first appears in Superboy #86 (1961) and quickly becomes Clark's best friend—and just four issues later, the guardian of his secret identity after accidentally finding it out while witnessing him changing into his costume. Bash Bashford, bully and a nemesis of Clark, became the last major addition to Clark's supporting cast with his debut in Superboy #157 (1969).
Early on, the Superboy feature became a platform for backdating first meetings between Superman and members of his supporting cast, nearly always contradicting previously established continuity. Thus, Superboy first meets Perry White
in a 1947 story (Adventure Comics #120), and in the following year, meets Lois Lane
(Adventure Comics #128), years after the adult Clark Kent had first met his fellow Daily Planet
staffers in Superman stories. In a similar vein, Kal-El later meets toddler Jimmy Olsen
(Adventure Comics #216, 1955) while still Superboy, as well as meeting a time traveling teenage Jimmy Olsen (Superboy #55, 1957).
Superman's first meetings with a number of his fellow superheroes were also backdated to his adolescence. Thus, Superboy meets Bruce Wayne (Batman
) in World's Finest Comics #84 (1956) and on three subsequent occasions; Clark befriends short-term Smallville resident Oliver Queen (Green Arrow
) in Adventure Comics #258 (1959); and Superboy teams up with Aquaboy (Aquaman
) to fight polluters in Superboy #171 (1971).
," with Superboy stories taking place perpetually 15 years or so behind the current year.
In the earliest stories, the time period in which Superboy's adventures were set was never clearly defined, with some adventures seemingly taking place in the same year the story was published. For example, in a 1952 story, Lana Lang participated in a "Miss Smallville of 1952" contest.
In the late 1950s, Superman comic editor Mort Weisinger
decided to place all of Superboy's adventures in an early-to-mid-1930s setting, in light of Superman's first comic appearance being in 1938. In 1970, the Superboy writing staff decided to "update" Superboy by setting his book always about 15 years behind Superman. This resulted in the 1970s stories featuring Superboy being set in the 1950s.
Starting with the debut in 1980 of a new Superboy comic, the Boy of Steel's era was moved up again, to take place in the late 1960s/early 1970s. This also explained Superman's shifting age within his own comic books.
became the editor of Superboy and Adventure Comics, and under his guidance, Superboy began to acquire a regular cast of supervillains. Some of these villains first made their appearance in the Superboy feature, and would later go on to plague Superman.
Superboy first meets another human survivor of Krypton, Klax-Ar, a villain who claims he destroyed the planet, in Superboy #67 (1958). One year later, both the Phantom Zone
and its most infamous occupant, General Zod
, make their first appearances in Adventure Comics #283 (1959), in a story that features Superboy accidentally trapping himself in the Phantom Zone after a cache of dangerous Kryptonian weapons arrives on Earth. Zod and other Phantom Zone villains would become recurring villains in Superboy stories, and go on to plague Superman.
The first Bizarro
, in Superboy #68 (1958), is an imperfect copy of Superboy; he appears in a story that utilizes the misunderstood monster trope
in a manner reminiscent of Frankenstein
.
The Kryptonite Kid
and his dog, aliens who could project Green Kryptonite
radiation, start bedeviling Superboy and Krypto in 1960 (Superboy #83).
Superboy's cosmic heroics also earn him the enmity of an alien criminal task force, the Superboy Revenge Squad
starting in Superboy #94 (1961). Two months later, the Revenge Squad started showing up in Superman stories.
Some of Superman's established foes were also backdated to his days as Superboy. Mister Mxyzptlk
, the magical imp from the Fifth Dimension who had been Superman's bane since 1944, begins plaguing Superboy in Superboy #78 (1960).
The most famous example is the young Lex Luthor
. In a story in Adventure Comics #271 (1960) that purported to reveal the origin of the enmity between Luthor and Superman, Lex is revealed as a brilliant Smallville teen who is a friend of Superboy until Lex blames him for a lab fire that destroys a critical experiment and causes Lex to lose his hair.
Superman's first encounters with his mineral nemesis, Kryptonite
, were also backdated to his boyhood. The first Superboy story with Kryptonite, in Adventure Comics #171 (1951), followed the first Superman comic with Kryptonite by three years—and its use on the Superman radio show by eight years. Five years later, a Superbaby flashback in Adventure Comics #231 (1956) backdated Clark's first encounter with Kryptonite yet again.
Though Green Kryptonite, the type that can kill Superman, originally appeared in Superman stories, Red Kryptonite, whose temporary effects on Superman are unpredictable, made its first appearance in the Superboy story in Adventure Comics #252 (1958).
and Supergirl
. Mostly, though, Superboy lacks superheroic peers with whom he could regularly interact.
In 1958, a Superboy story called "The Legion of Super-Heroes" in Adventure Comics #247 changed all that. The story features three super-powered teenagers from the 30th century who offer Superboy membership in their superhero club, the Legion of Super-Heroes
. Although this was intended as a one-shot tale, the three future teens returned as guest stars in late 1959, and over the next three years, the Legion appeared periodically in Superboy, Supergirl (who also joined the Legion), and even Superman stories. The team membership also exploded from the initial three members to nearly twenty. Finally, the Legion got its own feature, starting in Adventure Comics #300 (1962), with Superboy usually, but not always, appearing as part of the team.
The popularity of the Legion of Super-Heroes soon rivaled that of Superboy himself. Nine issues after their feature debut, the Legion displaced Superboy as the lead feature in Adventure Comics, and soon forced original Superboy stories out altogether. Superboy's last consecutive original story in Adventure Comics #315 (1963) ended a run of 213 original Superboy features in the series.
Superboy still appeared in nearly every Legion story through Adventure Comics #380 (1969). In the next issue, the Legion was replaced by Supergirl, while the Legion (usually without Superboy) took over Supergirl's spot as the backup in Action Comics. In 1971, the Legion moved over to Superboy as a semi-regular backup. History repeated itself as the Legion backup feature quickly became more popular than the title feature. Beginning with Superboy #197 (1973), the cover logo was changed to read Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes, and the Legion, including Superboy, took the lead spot in the comic.
The Superboy backup in #197 was the last original Superboy feature to appear in his own title. With the next issue, Superboy became an exclusively Legion of Super-Heroes title, with Superboy appearing in every issue as a Legion member. The series title remained Superboy through #230 (1977), after which the series became Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes from #231-258. With Legion of Super-Heroes (vol. 2) #259 (1980), an issue in which Superboy leaves the Legion, Superboy's name was ousted from the title altogether. Though he still sometimes appeared in the series that once bore his name, the series remained a Legion comic until its last issue, #354 (1987).
Much as Superboy's debut in Adventure Comics depicts Clark celebrating his tenth birthday, New Adventures of Superboy #1 features Clark celebrating his sixteenth birthday and includes a flashback to Clark's first days as Superboy at the time of his eighth birthday. Later issues of the series continue themes from Superboy's earlier runs in Adventure Comics and Superboy. For example, Superboy first meets a teenage Hal Jordan
(Green Lantern
); his Earth-Two
counterpart, Clark Kent (Kal-L) as a teen; and Toby Manning (the villain Terra-Man
) as a boy in the Old West, all years after his first "adult" meetings with them were published. In a backup feature entitled "Superboy's Secret Diaries'", the new series also explored Clark's first couple years as Superboy. Another milestone for young Clark was the introduction of Lisa Davis, a romantic interest who was attracted solely to Clark Kent, with no idea whatsoever of his secret identity (as opposed to Lana Lang's on-again, off-again suspicions of a Clark-Superboy connection); the two would appear as a couple until the series' end. The New Adventures of Superboy lasted 54 issues, with the final issue published in 1984.
Superboy's life in college following his high school graduation and the deaths of his adoptive parents was explored in a backup feature called "Superman: The In-Between Years" that appeared in Superman in the early 1980s. This backup feature was followed by a 1985 four-issue miniseries called Superman: The Secret Years that examines Superboy's junior year, and how he starts calling himself Superman.
Following Crisis on Infinite Earths
(1985-1986), The Man of Steel (1986) modified Superman's backstory
so that he no longer had a history as Superboy, and never donned a costume until after he finished college. Because of the importance of Superboy to the history of the Legion of Super-Heroes, the 1987 storyline "The Greatest Hero of Them All
" revealed that the Legion's Superboy came from a "pocket universe" created by the Legion foe the Time Trapper
, rather than the main DC Universe. This version of Superboy dies after saving his parallel Earth."The Greatest Hero of Them All". Legion of Super-Heroes (vol. 3) #37-38 (1987), Action Comics #591 (1987), Superman (vol. 2) #8 (1987)
Only one year after Superboy's comic-book "death", the live-action television series Superboy
began its four-year broadcast. In late 1989, DC Comics began publishing a new Superboy
comic book based on the TV series. As in the TV series, in the comic Clark Kent (Superboy) is in college, attending Shuster
University in Florida. The new Superboy comic lasted 22 issues and one special, ceasing publication in 1992, just about the time the TV series itself came to an end.
concluded in 2006, Superman's backstory has been modified again, and many elements of Superboy's history have been restored to his biography. The limited series
Superman: Secret Origin
(2009-2010) fleshes out many of the details of Kal-El's revised backstory. The writer of the limited series, Geoff Johns
, describes the story as follows: "It goes from Clark's teenage years, through his first adventure with the Legion of Super-Heroes
and into his arrival and introduction to Metropolis
as Superman. We've included the first three covers with the interview and you can see a pretty big part of Clark Kent's history is being reintroduced as well - namely, Superboy. But with a bit of a twist."
The first issue of the miniseries depicts teenage Clark first suiting up shortly after learning that he is from Krypton. In the second issue, Clark performs rescues and other super-feats in costume, but keeps his activities secret, giving rise to the myth of a "super-boy" operating in and around Smallville. He also joins the Legion of Super-Heroes
under the identity of Superboy. Later in the same issue, Clark finds Krypto after the dog arrives on Earth. Clark does not go public with his superhero identity until after he has grown up and moved to Metropolis. Superboy (Kal-El) appeared in Adventure Comics
from #12/#515 (Aug 2010) to #520 (Jan 2011) as a member of the Legion in the first story arc scripted by Paul Levitz
in that series since its revival in 2009.
had the initial responsibility for the artwork for the first couple years of the Superboy feature. Shuster himself pencilled the first story, and Shuster and artists from his studio pencilled and inked every story until 1947. The art graced stories written largely by Don Cameron, the author of the first Superboy story in More Fun Comics
#101.
One of the artists from the Shuster studio, John Sikela, started drawing Superboy stories in late 1946, and in 1949, when Superboy #1 debuted, Sikela became DC's primary artist on Superboy, and he remained the primary artist until he retired in 1958. A frequent collaborator was fellow Shuster shop alumni Ed Dobrotka. Curt Swan
, who would later dominate Superman artwork for nearly 30 years, first drew a Superboy story in Superboy #5 (1949) and would continue to draw Superboy stories, on and off, for twenty years. The primary Superman artist of the 1950s, Wayne Boring
, also contributed to Superboy.
Cameron was the primary Superboy writer for the first few years after the character's debut. One of the earliest additional writers was Superboy/Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel
, who wrote his first Superboy story in 1947 and would continue to contribute to the feature into the 1960s. Other early, notable Superboy writers included science fiction
writer Edmond Hamilton
and Batman
co-creator Bill Finger
. Finger left a permanent impression on the Superboy mythos when, in just the course of a few months, he introduced readers to Superbaby and Lana Lang, in stories illustrated by Curt Swan and John Sikela, respectively.
Editorial guidance for the earliest Superboy stories was provided by Jack Schiff, one of Detective Comics' major editors in their early years, and he continued editing Superboy until 1953, when Mort Weisinger
took over on both Superboy and Adventure Comics. Weisinger would later edit the entire Superman line. Over the course of the next few years, Weisinger brought in new writers and artists to work on Superboy. Perhaps the most significant new additions were writer Otto Binder
, former Fawcett Comics
and Marvel Family
scripter, who started writing Superboy stories in 1954, and artist Al Plastino
, who drew Superboy starting in 1957. Together, the two men wrote the story "The Legion of Super-Heroes" in Adventure Comics #247 (1958), giving birth to perhaps the most successful spinoff from the Superman family of comics. Three years earlier, Binder had also introduced Krypto in a story illustrated by Curt Swan.
When John Sikela retired in 1958, George Papp
took over the lead artistic chores. The co-creator of Green Arrow
(with Weisinger), one of Papp's stories involved Superboy meeting the young Green Arrow. Though Otto Binder handled the most Superboy stories, writers contributing to Superboy during the Weisinger years included E. Nelson Bridwell
, who also worked on Mad
and created many DC characters, such as the Inferior Five
, and Leo Dorfman.
In 1968, long-time DC editor Murray Boltinoff took over the editing chores on Superboy from Weisinger starting with issue #149. (By this time, Adventure Comics was no longer publishing original Superboy stories.) Stories published under his editorial guidance usually included credits, making writers and artists easier to track. Frank Robbins
, best known for his work (as both writer and artist) on Batman, began writing the Superboy strip with Boltinoff's debut as editor, and remained the primary scripter for three years. Penciler Bob Brown
began one issue later, and continued to pencil Superboy stories through the final Superboy feature in #197. Brown's pencils were inked by a number of artists, most notably Murphy Anderson
from 1970-1973, who was simultaneously inking Curt Swan's pencils on Superman. After Robbins left, Leo Dorfman returned as the writer for Superboy, with occasional scripts by Bridwell and, toward the end, Cary Bates
, later famous for his Superman stories. Boltinoff also made the editorial decision to switch the Legion backup feature from Action Comics
to Superboy in 1971, and later to make the Legion feature the sole feature in the comic.
When The New Adventures of Superboy debuted in late 1979 under the guidance of Superman comics editor Julius Schwartz
, Kurt Schaffenberger
, perhaps most famous for his Lois Lane
stories, became the main penciller, and contributed his artwork throughout the run of the series. Cary Bates returned to Superboy as the principal writer for the series for its first three years, with prolific DC writer Paul Kupperberg
taking the scripting chores for the last third of the run. Bridwell and Bob Rozakis
also contributed scripts. In addition, Rozakis wrote about Superboy's college years in the Superman backup series "Superman: The In-Between Years" in the early 1980s, with Schaffenberger providing the pencils; and the miniseries Superman: The Secret Years in 1984-1985, with Curt Swan providing the pencils and Schaffenberger, the inks.
The primary writer for the comic based on the Superboy
television series was John Francis Moore
, who also penned several screenplays for the TV series. Several other writers, including Kupperberg, also contributed. Experienced artist Jim Mooney
(known for his work on Supergirl
and Spider-Man
) and Curt Swan split the pencilling chores for most of the series. Canadian artist Ty Templeton
provided the majority of the inks.
, Krypton's most brilliant scientist and inventor, and his wife Lara. Finding evidence that the planet is about to be destroyed, Jor-El fails to convince the ruling Science Council, so he conducts tests with model rockets to enable his own family to escape. His tests meet with mixed success. In one experiment, Kal-El's pet dog Krypto is lost when a test rocket carrying Krypto is knocked off course by a meteor.
As Krypton's destruction approaches, Jor-El still has not built a rocket large enough to hold his family. With the planet coming apart beneath them, Jor-El and Lara put their two-year old son in a model rocket, launch it just minutes ahead of Krypton's destruction, and send Kal-El to the planet Earth. Found by Jonathan and Martha Kent, an older couple with no children of their own, the child is anonymously left at a Smallville orphanage. Some days later, the Kents successfully adopt the toddler. They name the boy Clark Kent, using Martha's maiden name for his first name.
As related in Superbaby stories published over a span of over 30 years, the Kents face tremendous challenges raising their new child, because young Clark gains his full suite of superpowers as soon as he lands on Earth. Six years before Clark becomes Superboy, the Kents have the difficult task of teaching Clark to control the use of his powers. This proves especially challenging because "Superbaby" is inclined to use his powers to act on childish whims, whims that take him around the world, into space, and even into the past. Through his adoptive parents' patient guidance and a great deal of luck, Clark keeps his identity secret and learns to control his powers. As Clark grows up, Jonathan and Martha further instruct Clark to use his powers responsibly for the benefit of others, rather than to his own reward or power.
The Kents spend their first years with Clark on the Kent family farm. Within a few years of adopting Clark, the Kents sell the farm and move to the town of Smallville proper. Using the money from the sale of the farm, the Kents open a general store, a family business to which Clark will contribute when he is older. The Kents live on 321 Maple Drive, and Clark attends school with his peers, including neighbor Lana Lang. To help conceal his identity, Clark adopts a mild-mannered demeanor and wears glasses.
On his eighth birthday, Clark dons an indestructible costume woven by Martha from the Kryptonian blankets that accompanied him on his journey to Earth. He becomes the costumed hero Superboy, the first superhero of Earth-One. Around the same time as his public debut, Superboy learns of his Kryptonian origin, and several weeks later, he gives reporter Perry White the exclusive story about his alien background. Though most of Superboy's early adventures occur in the vicinity of Smallville, he becomes famous for his superheroics around the globe. Superboy's status as both Smallville's hometown hero and as a national/global hero are reflected in the emergency-signal system that he establishes with Chief Parker of the Smallville Police and the President of the United States. As Superboy repeatedly ventures into interstellar space, his super-heroics also bring him fame on other worlds.
In Smallville, Superboy uses tunnels from the basement of the Kents' house and general store to make quick, concealed exits when Superboy is needed. Superboy also maintains a secret lab in the basement of the Kent house, where he builds Superboy and Clark Kent robots to cover for him when he is busy elsewhere or otherwise unavailable.
Clark's mild-mannered character gives him few friends as a boy, and makes him the target of bullies like Bash Bashford. For years, Clark's closest friend is his beautiful red-headed neighbor, Lana Lang. Despite their friendship, Lana is also a major nuisance in Clark's life because of her recurring suspicion that Clark is secretly Superboy. Through clever use of his super-powers and robot duplicates of himself (in both identities), Clark is always able to avoid the traps Lana sets for him in order to determine the truth. For all that Lana's antics annoy Clark, as a teenager, Lana becomes Superboy's main romantic interest, and remains so through his years in high school.
As Superboy, Kal-El is the first of Earth's superheroes. Despite the occasional appearance of heroes like Aquaboy and the Japanese hero Sunburst
, Superboy is the only superhero who has a well-known public profile until after he becomes Superman. Superboy's solitary status is reduced somewhat when he is reunited with Krypto, infant Kal-El's pet dog on Krypton. Krypto joins Superboy in many of his subsequent adventures as his canine partner, and also has many adventures of his own. Through his discovery of the Phantom Zone, Superboy later finds out he is not the lone humanoid survivor of Krypton.
, Saturn Girl
, and Lightning Lad
come into the past to recruit him for the thirtieth-century Legion of Super-Heroes does Superboy find a group of super-powered friends with whom he regularly interacts. Superboy's career in fact is the inspiration for the formation of the Legion. Throughout his teenage years, Superboy travels
to the future under his own power to join the Legion in fighting threats to Earth and the United Planets
, to which Earth belongs. Superboy becomes a core member of the Legion during two extended, full membership stints in the Legion, including two terms as Deputy Leader. Through the Legion, Superboy also regularly meets with his cousin Kara, Supergirl, but because of telepathic
hypnotism employed by Saturn Girl, Superboy never remembers Kara, or any other information relating to his future career as Superman or the future of his family and friends, when he returns to his normal, 20th-century era.
One of the youths who becomes a member of the Legion is Lar Gand
, a teenager whom Superboy first knows as Mon-El when he crash-lands on Earth in Superboy's era. The teenager, who has powers identical to Superboy, initially has amnesia
, and because he carries a message from Jor-El, Superboy believes him to be his big brother and dubs him Mon-El. When Mon-El is exposed to lead, his memory returns. He reveals that he is actually a Daxamite named Lar Gand, and for Daxamites, lead is more deadly than Kryptonite. To save his life, Superboy projects Mon-El into the Phantom Zone, where Mon-El would linger for a millennium before being freed by the Legion. In the Legion, the two teens remain close friends. The alternate Superboy from the Pocket Universe would die in Mon-El's arms.
Around the time Mon-El arrives on Earth, a boy named Pete Ross moves to Smallville. He quickly befriends Clark Kent, and the two boys are soon best friends. One night on a camping trip, Pete accidentally spies Clark changing into his Superboy outfit. Vowing to keep his knowledge a secret, Pete uses his knowledge to aid Superboy and on several occasions, save his life. Not until years after they have both grown up does Pete reveal his knowledge to Clark. Through the rest of his years in high school, Pete and Lana remain Clark's closest friends, and also share numerous adventures with Superboy both in the twentieth century and with the Legion in the thirtieth.
In Metropolis, Clark readily befriends the students who share his dorm suite, Tommy Lee, Dave Hammond and the alcoholic Ducky Ginsberg. Superboy soon reveals himself as the new guardian of Metropolis, ending a national guessing game about which city Superboy would call his new home. For Clark's first two years at Metropolis University, Lana is also a classmate, before she transfers to Hudson University.
In his junior year, Superboy again feels helpless when he isn't present to stop an automobile accident involving Ducky, caused by his own drunk driving. Ducky is paralyzed for life and thereafter uses a wheelchair. Ducky's place in the dorm is taken by Billy Kramer, a Smallville boy whom Clark befriends and decides to trust with his secret. Much as Superman would later do for Jimmy Olsen, Superboy gives Billy a supersonic whistle that he can use to call Superboy for help when needed. While he is befriending Billy, Clark becomes romantically involved with a wheelchair-using student named Lori Lemaris
. He eventually proposes to her, but Lori reveals she already learned his identity telepathically. She rejects his proposal because she is a mermaid from Atlantis.
Trapped in a burning building while attempting to save a life, Billy uses his supersonic whistle to call Superboy, but Superboy, preoccupied with saving a thousand people on a Pacific island from a tsunami, is unable to reach him in time. Upset by his inability to save his parents and friends, Superboy exiles himself until, three months later, Perry White, using Billy's whistle, calls him back into action to battle Lex Luthor. After defeating Luthor, Clark makes peace with his limitations and returns to Metropolis for his final year of college. Now 21, Kal-El starts calling himself Superman, 13 years after his debut as Superboy.
until he becomes Superman, so Superboy uses the Kent house in Smallville as a base. Superboy's well-stocked secret laboratory in the Kent basement is where he stores several devices invented by his Kryptonian father Jor-El
, including the Phantom Zone
projector. Though they are not as powerful as Superboy himself, Superboy's robot duplicates possess his powers, enabling them to make convincing substitutes for him when necessary. The Clark Kent robot performs the same function for Kal-El's other identity.
Superboy wears a Legion flight ring to signify his membership in the Legion of Super-Heroes, and for its communication function (allowing him to converse with other Legionnaires in the vacuum of outer space).
Ages of Comics. These included stories in which Bruce Wayne comes to live with the Kents after his parents are killed; baby Kal-El is raised by gorillas under the name "Karkan", in a tale that resembles the story of Tarzan
; and Kara Zor-El
comes to Earth years ahead of Kal-El, becoming Superwoman to his Superboy (portrayed in this story as a juvenile delinquent).
Kal-El has also appeared as Superboy in two popular Elseworlds
tales: Superboy's Legion
(2001), in which Kal is raised in the 31st century by R. J. Brande
and becomes a founding member of "Superboy's Legion", later known as the Legion of Super-Heroes
; and the Superman & Batman: Generations
series of stories, in which Superman gets his start as Superboy during the 1920s.
, the owner of DC Comics
, and the heirs of Jerry Siegel
. The Siegel estate claims that the original "Superboy" character published by DC Comics is an independent creation that used ideas from Jerry Siegel's original rejected pitch and was created without his consent. On April 4, 2006, Federal judge Ronald S. W. Lew issued a summary judgment
ruling that Jerry Siegel's heirs had the right to revoke their copyright assignment to Superboy and had successfully reclaimed the trademark to the name as of November 17, 2004. This legal battle is still ongoing.
(1988-1992), about Clark during his college days.
Many elements of the Superboy stories have also been incorporated into the TV series Smallville
(2001-2011), including characters such as Lana Lang and Pete Ross; the story arc of how close friends Clark Kent and Lex Luthor become bitter enemies; the motif of Clark first meeting many of Superman's friends and foes while still a teenager; and the town of Smallville itself.
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
. The name of Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
as a boy, Superboy has adventures that occur in the relative past to those of Superman and take place predominantly in his hometown of Smallville. Superboy is from the destroyed planet Krypton
Krypton (comics)
Krypton is a fictional planet in the DC Comics universe, and the native world of the super-heroes Superman and, in some tellings, Supergirl and Krypto the Superdog. Krypton has been portrayed consistently as having been destroyed just after Superman's flight from the planet, with exact details of...
, where he was born under the name Kal-El, and lives on Earth under the secret identity
Secret identity
A secret identity is an element of fiction wherein a character develops a separate persona , while keeping their true identity hidden. The character also may wear a disguise...
of mild-mannered student Clark Kent
Clark Kent
Clark Kent is a fictional character created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Appearing regularly in stories published by DC Comics, he debuted in Action Comics #1 and serves as the civilian and secret identity of the superhero Superman....
. Debuting in 1944, the character was in continuous publication for 40 years, developing a supporting cast and mythos
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
of his own, before DC Comics removed him from Superman's fictional history. In 2009, however, DC Comics partially restored Clark's teenage career as Superboy. Superboy or elements from his story have been adapted to other media, particularly television.
Publication history
The first pitch for a "Superboy" character was originally made by Superman co-creator Jerry SiegelJerry Siegel
Jerome "Jerry" Siegel , who also used pseudonyms including Joe Carter, Jerry Ess, and Herbert S...
(without fellow Superman co-creator Joe Shuster
Joe Shuster
Joseph "Joe" Shuster was a Canadian-born American comic book artist. He was best known for co-creating the DC Comics character Superman, with writer Jerry Siegel, first published in Action Comics #1...
) in November 1938. The idea was turned down by Detective Comics, Inc.
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
, and the publisher again rejected a second pitch by Siegel two years later.
After the appeal of kid superheroes had been demonstrated by the success of Robin, the Boy Wonder
Robin (comics)
Robin is the name of several fictional characters appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, originally created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson, as a junior counterpart to DC Comics superhero Batman...
and similar characters, Detective Comics reversed itself in late 1944 and started publishing a Superboy feature, in an effort to expand the Superman franchise by presenting a version of the character to whom younger readers could easily relate.
Superboy first appeared in More Fun Comics
More Fun Comics
More Fun Comics, originally titled New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine a.k.a. New Fun Comics, was a 1935-1947 American comic book anthology that introduced several major superhero characters and was the first American comic-book series to feature solely original material rather than reprints of...
#101 (January/February 1945, published in late 1944). Though Joe Shuster supplied the art, the Superboy feature was published without the input or approval of Jerry Siegel, who was serving in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. This fact increased an already-growing rift between the publisher and Siegel and Shuster.
After just seven issues of More Fun Comics, the Superboy feature moved to Adventure Comics
Adventure Comics
Adventure Comics was a comic book series published by DC Comics from 1935 to 1983 and then revamped from 2009 to 2011. In its first era, the series ran for 503 issues , making it the fifth-longest-running DC series, behind Detective Comics, Action Comics, Superman, and Batman...
, where he debuted in issue #103 (1946) as the cover and lead feature for the anthology
Anthology
An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
comic. In a period when the popularity of superheroes was generally in decline, the adventures of Superboy became increasingly popular.
Three years after the move to Adventure Comics, Superboy became only the sixth DC superhero to receive his own comic book when Superboy #1 debuted in 1949. Superboy became the first new superhero title to succeed since World War II.
The first Superboy story also updated the origin of Superman
Origin of Superman
The origin of Superman is the story that relates Superman's arrival on Earth and the beginnings of his career as a superhero. The story has been through many revisions through decades of publication in comic books and radio, television and film adaptations....
, and for the first time shows his father Jor-El as being aware that his son Kal-El would have powers on Earth that he does not have on Krypton. In this original story, years after his arrival on Earth, Clark Kent
Clark Kent
Clark Kent is a fictional character created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Appearing regularly in stories published by DC Comics, he debuted in Action Comics #1 and serves as the civilian and secret identity of the superhero Superman....
saves a man pinned under an automobile and subsequently decides to become the costumed hero Superboy. Clark appears to be around ten years old in this story, and in his first story in Adventure Comics, he actually celebrates his tenth birthday.
In the first couple years of the Superboy feature, Superboy remained a boy close to that age. The character gradually aged, however, and by the time Superboy #1 was published, Superboy was usually depicted as being in his early teens.
Billed as "The Adventures of Superman When He Was a Boy", Superboy stories in both Adventure Comics and Superboy treat him as essentially a junior version of Superman. To that end, he wears the Superman costume and his alter ego Clark Kent wears glasses as a disguise for his civilian identity. Superboy's powers are identical to those of Superman
Powers and abilities of Superman
The powers of DC Comics character Superman have changed a great deal since his introduction in the 1930s. The extent of his powers peaked during the 1970s and 1980s to the point where various writers found it difficult to create suitable challenges for the character...
, including enhanced strength, speed, vision, and hearing, plus flight and invulnerability.
Though clearly superhero stories, Superboy's earliest adventures shared features with non-superhero comics of the late 1940s. For example, the three stories published in Superboy #1 had elements of teen romance, juvenile delinquency, and teen humor. In the words of Robert Greenberger, "No costumed super-villains plagued Smallville."
Not only are the earliest Superboy stories free of supervillains, Superboy himself is essentially earthbound and remains in the story "present." Not until 1949 does Superboy take a trip the Moon, intercept a comet in outer space, and fly back in time to the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
.
Mythos and supporting cast
After the debut of the Superboy comic, Superboy's mythos and supporting cast expanded as well. His home town finally received a name, Smallville, in the second issue. The town's location was never specified, although it was usually placed close to MetropolisMetropolis (comics)
Metropolis is a fictional city that appears in comic books published by DC Comics, and is the home of Superman. Metropolis first appeared by name in Action Comics #16 ....
.
Superboy's foster parents, previously only Mr. and Mrs. Kent in their infrequent appearances in the Superboy feature, finally appeared on a cover (Superboy #3), began appearing more frequently in the stories, and received permanent first names, Jonathan in Adventure Comics #149 (1950) and Martha in Superboy #12 (1951).
Superboy #8 (1950) saw the first adventure of "Superbaby," a character which extends the "Junior Superman" concept to that of a super-powered toddler. The Superbaby stories are set in the time just after the Kents adopt Clark. Superboy #10 (1950) featured the first appearance of Lana Lang
Lana Lang
Lana Lang is a fictional supporting character in DC Comics' Superman series. Created by writer Bill Finger and artist John Sikela, the character first appears in Superboy #10...
, a character that would become a romantic foil for both Superboy and the grown-up Superman. Lana's debut also featured her first attempt to learn Superboy's secret identity.
In Adventure Comics #210 (1955), Superboy acquires a superdog, Krypto
Krypto
Krypto, also known as Krypto the Superdog, is a fictional character. He is Superman's pet dog in the various Superman comic books published by DC Comics. Krypto's first appearance was in a Superboy story in Adventure Comics #210 in March 1955...
, the first additional survivor of Krypton that he meets. Though Superboy regularly interacts with the Smallville police, Chief Douglas Parker
Chief Parker
Chief Douglas Parker is a supporting character in stories published by DC Comics featuring Superboy, the younger version of Superman. He first appeared in Adventure Comics #225 .-Pre-Crisis:...
, who first appears in Adventure Comics #225 (1956), is the first officer to become a regular supporting character.
Pete Ross
Pete Ross
Peter Joseph "Pete" Ross is a fictional character who appears in the Superman comic books published by DC Comics. He was introduced in Superboy #86 .-Pre-Crisis:...
first appears in Superboy #86 (1961) and quickly becomes Clark's best friend—and just four issues later, the guardian of his secret identity after accidentally finding it out while witnessing him changing into his costume. Bash Bashford, bully and a nemesis of Clark, became the last major addition to Clark's supporting cast with his debut in Superboy #157 (1969).
Perry White
Perry White is a fictional character who appears in the Superman comics. White is the Editor-in-Chief of the Metropolis newspaper the Daily Planet.White maintains very high ethical and journalistic standards...
in a 1947 story (Adventure Comics #120), and in the following year, meets Lois Lane
Lois Lane
Lois Lane is a fictional character, the primary love interest of Superman in the comic books of DC Comics. Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, she first appeared in Action Comics #1 ....
(Adventure Comics #128), years after the adult Clark Kent had first met his fellow Daily Planet
Daily Planet
The Daily Planet is a fictional broadsheet newspaper in the , appearing mostly in the stories of Superman. The building's original features were based upon the AT&T Huron Road Building in Cleveland, Ohio...
staffers in Superman stories. In a similar vein, Kal-El later meets toddler Jimmy Olsen
Jimmy Olsen
Jimmy Olsen is a fictional character who appears mainly in DC Comics’ Superman stories. Olsen is a young photojournalist working for the Daily Planet. He is close friends with Lois Lane, Clark Kent/Superman and Perry White...
(Adventure Comics #216, 1955) while still Superboy, as well as meeting a time traveling teenage Jimmy Olsen (Superboy #55, 1957).
Superman's first meetings with a number of his fellow superheroes were also backdated to his adolescence. Thus, Superboy meets Bruce Wayne (Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
) in World's Finest Comics #84 (1956) and on three subsequent occasions; Clark befriends short-term Smallville resident Oliver Queen (Green Arrow
Green Arrow
Green Arrow is a fictional superhero that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Mort Weisinger and George Papp, he first appeared in More Fun Comics #73 in November 1941. His secret identity is Oliver Queen, billionaire and former mayor of fictional Star City...
) in Adventure Comics #258 (1959); and Superboy teams up with Aquaboy (Aquaman
Aquaman
Aquaman is a fictional superhero who appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger, the character debuted in More Fun Comics #73 . Initially a backup feature in DC's anthology titles, Aquaman later starred in several volumes of a solo title...
) to fight polluters in Superboy #171 (1971).
Time period of Superboy stories
The story about the first team-up between Superboy and Aquaboy was also the first story that occurred in a "floating timelineFloating timeline
A Floating timeline is a device used in fiction, particularly in comics and animation, to explain why characters age little or not at all over a period of time - despite real-world markers like notable events, people and technology appearing in the works and correlating with the real world.A...
," with Superboy stories taking place perpetually 15 years or so behind the current year.
In the earliest stories, the time period in which Superboy's adventures were set was never clearly defined, with some adventures seemingly taking place in the same year the story was published. For example, in a 1952 story, Lana Lang participated in a "Miss Smallville of 1952" contest.
In the late 1950s, Superman comic editor Mort Weisinger
Mort Weisinger
Mortimer Weisinger was an American magazine and comic book editor best known for editing DC Comics' Superman during the mid-1950s to 1960s, in the Silver Age of comic books...
decided to place all of Superboy's adventures in an early-to-mid-1930s setting, in light of Superman's first comic appearance being in 1938. In 1970, the Superboy writing staff decided to "update" Superboy by setting his book always about 15 years behind Superman. This resulted in the 1970s stories featuring Superboy being set in the 1950s.
Starting with the debut in 1980 of a new Superboy comic, the Boy of Steel's era was moved up again, to take place in the late 1960s/early 1970s. This also explained Superman's shifting age within his own comic books.
Enemies of Superboy
In 1953, Mort WeisingerMort Weisinger
Mortimer Weisinger was an American magazine and comic book editor best known for editing DC Comics' Superman during the mid-1950s to 1960s, in the Silver Age of comic books...
became the editor of Superboy and Adventure Comics, and under his guidance, Superboy began to acquire a regular cast of supervillains. Some of these villains first made their appearance in the Superboy feature, and would later go on to plague Superman.
Superboy first meets another human survivor of Krypton, Klax-Ar, a villain who claims he destroyed the planet, in Superboy #67 (1958). One year later, both the Phantom Zone
Phantom Zone
The Phantom Zone is a fictional prison dimension featured in the Superman comic books and related media published by DC Comics. It first appeared in Adventure Comics #283 , and was created by Robert Bernstein and George Papp...
and its most infamous occupant, General Zod
General Zod
General Zod is a fictional character who appears in comic books published by DC Comics, a supervillain who is one of Superman's more-prominent enemies. The character first appeared in Adventure Comics #283 , and was created by Robert Bernstein and George Papp...
, make their first appearances in Adventure Comics #283 (1959), in a story that features Superboy accidentally trapping himself in the Phantom Zone after a cache of dangerous Kryptonian weapons arrives on Earth. Zod and other Phantom Zone villains would become recurring villains in Superboy stories, and go on to plague Superman.
The first Bizarro
Bizarro
Bizarro is a fictional character that appears in publications published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Otto Binder and artist George Papp as a "mirror image" of Superman and first appeared in Superboy #68...
, in Superboy #68 (1958), is an imperfect copy of Superboy; he appears in a story that utilizes the misunderstood monster trope
Trope (literature)
A literary trope is the usage of figurative language in literature, or a figure of speech in which words are used in a sense different from their literal meaning...
in a manner reminiscent of Frankenstein
Frankenstein
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...
.
The Kryptonite Kid
Kryptonite Man
The Kryptonite Man is the name of several supervillains who appears in stories published by DC Comics. The character first appeared as Kryptonite Kid in Superboy #83 The Kryptonite Man is the name of several supervillains who appears in stories published by DC Comics. The character first appeared...
and his dog, aliens who could project Green Kryptonite
Kryptonite
Kryptonite is a fictional material from the Superman mythos —the ore form of a radioactive element from Superman's home planet of Krypton. It is famous for being the ultimate physical weakness of Superman, and the word kryptonite has since become synonymous with an Achilles' heel —the one weakness...
radiation, start bedeviling Superboy and Krypto in 1960 (Superboy #83).
Superboy's cosmic heroics also earn him the enmity of an alien criminal task force, the Superboy Revenge Squad
Superman Revenge Squad
The Superman Revenge Squad is the name of two fictional organizations in the DC Comics universe. As their name suggests, they are enemies of Superman.-Pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths:...
starting in Superboy #94 (1961). Two months later, the Revenge Squad started showing up in Superman stories.
Some of Superman's established foes were also backdated to his days as Superboy. Mister Mxyzptlk
Mister Mxyzptlk
Mr. Mxyzptlk , sometimes called Mxy, is a fictional impish supervillain who appears in DC Comics' Superman comic books.He was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, and first appeared in Superman #30 . He is usually presented as a trickster, in the classical mythological sense, in that he enjoys...
, the magical imp from the Fifth Dimension who had been Superman's bane since 1944, begins plaguing Superboy in Superboy #78 (1960).
The most famous example is the young Lex Luthor
Lex Luthor
Lex Luthor is a fictional character, a supervillain who appears in comic books published by DC Comics, and the archenemy of Superman, although given his high status as a supervillain, he has also come into conflict with Batman and other superheroes in the DC Universe. Created by Jerry Siegel and...
. In a story in Adventure Comics #271 (1960) that purported to reveal the origin of the enmity between Luthor and Superman, Lex is revealed as a brilliant Smallville teen who is a friend of Superboy until Lex blames him for a lab fire that destroys a critical experiment and causes Lex to lose his hair.
Superman's first encounters with his mineral nemesis, Kryptonite
Kryptonite
Kryptonite is a fictional material from the Superman mythos —the ore form of a radioactive element from Superman's home planet of Krypton. It is famous for being the ultimate physical weakness of Superman, and the word kryptonite has since become synonymous with an Achilles' heel —the one weakness...
, were also backdated to his boyhood. The first Superboy story with Kryptonite, in Adventure Comics #171 (1951), followed the first Superman comic with Kryptonite by three years—and its use on the Superman radio show by eight years. Five years later, a Superbaby flashback in Adventure Comics #231 (1956) backdated Clark's first encounter with Kryptonite yet again.
Though Green Kryptonite, the type that can kill Superman, originally appeared in Superman stories, Red Kryptonite, whose temporary effects on Superman are unpredictable, made its first appearance in the Superboy story in Adventure Comics #252 (1958).
Legion of Super-Heroes
Unlike his adult self, Superboy inhabits a world that is (in his time) largely devoid of other superheroes. Superboy occasionally meets heroes from other worlds, such as "Mars Boy", through both his visits to their worlds and their visits to Earth. Kal-El even meets time-traveling teen heroes of the future, including RobinDick Grayson
Dick Grayson is a fictional superhero that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger and illustrator Jerry Robinson, he first appeared in Detective Comics #38 in April 1940....
and Supergirl
Supergirl (Kara Zor-El)
Kara Zor-El is a fictional character appearing in comic books published by DC Comics and related media, created by writer Otto Binder and designed by artist Al Plastino. As Supergirl, Kara Zor-El serves as the biological cousin and female counterpart to DC Comic's iconic superhero Superman, created...
. Mostly, though, Superboy lacks superheroic peers with whom he could regularly interact.
In 1958, a Superboy story called "The Legion of Super-Heroes" in Adventure Comics #247 changed all that. The story features three super-powered teenagers from the 30th century who offer Superboy membership in their superhero club, the Legion of Super-Heroes
Legion of Super-Heroes
The Legion of Super-Heroes is a fictional superhero team in the 30th and 31st centuries of the . The team first appears in Adventure Comics #247 , and was created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino....
. Although this was intended as a one-shot tale, the three future teens returned as guest stars in late 1959, and over the next three years, the Legion appeared periodically in Superboy, Supergirl (who also joined the Legion), and even Superman stories. The team membership also exploded from the initial three members to nearly twenty. Finally, the Legion got its own feature, starting in Adventure Comics #300 (1962), with Superboy usually, but not always, appearing as part of the team.
Superboy still appeared in nearly every Legion story through Adventure Comics #380 (1969). In the next issue, the Legion was replaced by Supergirl, while the Legion (usually without Superboy) took over Supergirl's spot as the backup in Action Comics. In 1971, the Legion moved over to Superboy as a semi-regular backup. History repeated itself as the Legion backup feature quickly became more popular than the title feature. Beginning with Superboy #197 (1973), the cover logo was changed to read Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes, and the Legion, including Superboy, took the lead spot in the comic.
The Superboy backup in #197 was the last original Superboy feature to appear in his own title. With the next issue, Superboy became an exclusively Legion of Super-Heroes title, with Superboy appearing in every issue as a Legion member. The series title remained Superboy through #230 (1977), after which the series became Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes from #231-258. With Legion of Super-Heroes (vol. 2) #259 (1980), an issue in which Superboy leaves the Legion, Superboy's name was ousted from the title altogether. Though he still sometimes appeared in the series that once bore his name, the series remained a Legion comic until its last issue, #354 (1987).
Later publishing history
After the Legion took over Superboy's own title, the Superboy feature itself was nearly moribund. For over three years, DC published no Superboy feature story. Then the strip was revived for a stand-alone story in DC Super-Stars #12 (1977). Several months later, the Superboy feature returned to a regular publication schedule when the strip returned to its second home. Superboy headlined Adventure Comics for issues #453-458 (1977-1978), and then moved to The Superman Family, appearing in issues #191-198 (1978-1979). Finally, in late 1979, DC Comics gave Superboy his own comic again. The release of The New Adventures of Superboy #1 (January 1980) coincided with Superboy's (temporary) departure from the Legion in The Legion of Super-Heroes #259, as well as the one-shot Superboy Spectacular #1.Much as Superboy's debut in Adventure Comics depicts Clark celebrating his tenth birthday, New Adventures of Superboy #1 features Clark celebrating his sixteenth birthday and includes a flashback to Clark's first days as Superboy at the time of his eighth birthday. Later issues of the series continue themes from Superboy's earlier runs in Adventure Comics and Superboy. For example, Superboy first meets a teenage Hal Jordan
Hal Jordan
Harold "Hal" Jordan is a DC Comics superhero known as Green Lantern, the first human shown to join the Green Lantern Corps and a founding member of the Justice League of America. Jordan is the second DC Comics character to adopt the Green Lantern moniker...
(Green Lantern
Green Lantern
The Green Lantern is the shared primary alias of several fictional characters, superheroes appearing in comic books published by DC Comics. The first Green Lantern was created by writer Bill Finger and artist Martin Nodell in All-American Comics #16 .Each Green Lantern possesses a power ring and...
); his Earth-Two
Earth-Two
Earth-Two is a fictional universe appearing in American comic book stories published by DC Comics. First appearing in The Flash #123 , Earth-Two was created to explain how Silver-Age versions of characters such as the Flash could appear in stories with their Golden Age counterparts...
counterpart, Clark Kent (Kal-L) as a teen; and Toby Manning (the villain Terra-Man
Terra-Man
Terra-Man is a fictional character and supervillain who appears in Superman stories published by DC Comics. Terra-Man first appeared in Superman #249, March 1972.-Pre-Crisis:...
) as a boy in the Old West, all years after his first "adult" meetings with them were published. In a backup feature entitled "Superboy's Secret Diaries'", the new series also explored Clark's first couple years as Superboy. Another milestone for young Clark was the introduction of Lisa Davis, a romantic interest who was attracted solely to Clark Kent, with no idea whatsoever of his secret identity (as opposed to Lana Lang's on-again, off-again suspicions of a Clark-Superboy connection); the two would appear as a couple until the series' end. The New Adventures of Superboy lasted 54 issues, with the final issue published in 1984.
Superboy's life in college following his high school graduation and the deaths of his adoptive parents was explored in a backup feature called "Superman: The In-Between Years" that appeared in Superman in the early 1980s. This backup feature was followed by a 1985 four-issue miniseries called Superman: The Secret Years that examines Superboy's junior year, and how he starts calling himself Superman.
Following Crisis on Infinite Earths
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Crisis on Infinite Earths is a 12-issue American comic book limited series and crossover event, produced by DC Comics in 1985 to simplify its then 50-year-old continuity...
(1985-1986), The Man of Steel (1986) modified Superman's backstory
Retcon
Retroactive continuity is the alteration of previously established facts in a fictional work. Retcons are done for many reasons, including the accommodation of sequels or further derivative works in a series, wherein newer authors or creators want to revise the in-story history to allow a course...
so that he no longer had a history as Superboy, and never donned a costume until after he finished college. Because of the importance of Superboy to the history of the Legion of Super-Heroes, the 1987 storyline "The Greatest Hero of Them All
The Greatest Hero of Them All
"The Greatest Hero of Them All" is a story arc that was published by DC Comics, and presented in Superman vol. 2, #8, Action Comics #591, and Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 3, #37–38 from August through September 1987. It was written by Paul Levitz and John Byrne, and pencilled by Byrne, Greg LaRocque...
" revealed that the Legion's Superboy came from a "pocket universe" created by the Legion foe the Time Trapper
Time Trapper
The Time Trapper is a fictional character, a supervillain in stories published by DC Comics. The Time Trapper's main enemies are the Legion of Super-Heroes...
, rather than the main DC Universe. This version of Superboy dies after saving his parallel Earth."The Greatest Hero of Them All". Legion of Super-Heroes (vol. 3) #37-38 (1987), Action Comics #591 (1987), Superman (vol. 2) #8 (1987)
Only one year after Superboy's comic-book "death", the live-action television series Superboy
Superboy (TV series)
Superboy is a half-hour live-action television series based on the fictional DC Comics comic book character Kal-El's early years as Superboy. The show ran from 1988–1992 in syndication...
began its four-year broadcast. In late 1989, DC Comics began publishing a new Superboy
Superboy: The Comic Book
Superboy is the name of several comic book series published by DC Comics, featuring characters of the same name. The first three titles feature the original Superboy, the legendary hero Superman as a boy...
comic book based on the TV series. As in the TV series, in the comic Clark Kent (Superboy) is in college, attending Shuster
Joe Shuster
Joseph "Joe" Shuster was a Canadian-born American comic book artist. He was best known for co-creating the DC Comics character Superman, with writer Jerry Siegel, first published in Action Comics #1...
University in Florida. The new Superboy comic lasted 22 issues and one special, ceasing publication in 1992, just about the time the TV series itself came to an end.
Superman: Secret Origin
In recent years, particularly since the limited series Infinite CrisisInfinite Crisis
Infinite Crisis is a 2005 - 2006 comic book storyline published by DC Comics, consisting of an eponymous, seven-issue comic book limited series written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Phil Jimenez, George Pérez, Ivan Reis, and Jerry Ordway, and a number of tie-in books...
concluded in 2006, Superman's backstory has been modified again, and many elements of Superboy's history have been restored to his biography. The limited series
Limited series
A limited series is a comic book series with a set number of installments. A limited series differs from an ongoing series in that the number of issues is determined before production and it differs from a one shot in that it is composed of multiple issues....
Superman: Secret Origin
Superman: Secret Origin
Superman: Secret Origin was a six-issue monthly American comic book limited series written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Gary Frank starring the DC Comics superhero Superman...
(2009-2010) fleshes out many of the details of Kal-El's revised backstory. The writer of the limited series, Geoff Johns
Geoff Johns
Geoff Johns is an American comic book writer, best known for his work for DC Comics, where he has been Chief Creative Officer since February 2010, in particular for characters such as Green Lantern, The Flash and Superman...
, describes the story as follows: "It goes from Clark's teenage years, through his first adventure with the Legion of Super-Heroes
Legion of Super-Heroes
The Legion of Super-Heroes is a fictional superhero team in the 30th and 31st centuries of the . The team first appears in Adventure Comics #247 , and was created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino....
and into his arrival and introduction to Metropolis
Metropolis (comics)
Metropolis is a fictional city that appears in comic books published by DC Comics, and is the home of Superman. Metropolis first appeared by name in Action Comics #16 ....
as Superman. We've included the first three covers with the interview and you can see a pretty big part of Clark Kent's history is being reintroduced as well - namely, Superboy. But with a bit of a twist."
The first issue of the miniseries depicts teenage Clark first suiting up shortly after learning that he is from Krypton. In the second issue, Clark performs rescues and other super-feats in costume, but keeps his activities secret, giving rise to the myth of a "super-boy" operating in and around Smallville. He also joins the Legion of Super-Heroes
Legion of Super-Heroes
The Legion of Super-Heroes is a fictional superhero team in the 30th and 31st centuries of the . The team first appears in Adventure Comics #247 , and was created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino....
under the identity of Superboy. Later in the same issue, Clark finds Krypto after the dog arrives on Earth. Clark does not go public with his superhero identity until after he has grown up and moved to Metropolis. Superboy (Kal-El) appeared in Adventure Comics
Adventure Comics
Adventure Comics was a comic book series published by DC Comics from 1935 to 1983 and then revamped from 2009 to 2011. In its first era, the series ran for 503 issues , making it the fifth-longest-running DC series, behind Detective Comics, Action Comics, Superman, and Batman...
from #12/#515 (Aug 2010) to #520 (Jan 2011) as a member of the Legion in the first story arc scripted by Paul Levitz
Paul Levitz
Paul Levitz is an American comic book writer, editor and executive. The president of DC Comics from 2002–2009, he has worked for the company for over 35 years in a wide variety of roles...
in that series since its revival in 2009.
Writers and artists
Superboy/Superman's co-creator Joe ShusterJoe Shuster
Joseph "Joe" Shuster was a Canadian-born American comic book artist. He was best known for co-creating the DC Comics character Superman, with writer Jerry Siegel, first published in Action Comics #1...
had the initial responsibility for the artwork for the first couple years of the Superboy feature. Shuster himself pencilled the first story, and Shuster and artists from his studio pencilled and inked every story until 1947. The art graced stories written largely by Don Cameron, the author of the first Superboy story in More Fun Comics
More Fun Comics
More Fun Comics, originally titled New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine a.k.a. New Fun Comics, was a 1935-1947 American comic book anthology that introduced several major superhero characters and was the first American comic-book series to feature solely original material rather than reprints of...
#101.
One of the artists from the Shuster studio, John Sikela, started drawing Superboy stories in late 1946, and in 1949, when Superboy #1 debuted, Sikela became DC's primary artist on Superboy, and he remained the primary artist until he retired in 1958. A frequent collaborator was fellow Shuster shop alumni Ed Dobrotka. Curt Swan
Curt Swan
Douglas Curtis Swan was an American comic book artist. The artist most associated with Superman during the period fans and historians call the Silver Age of comic books, Swan produced hundreds of covers and stories from the 1950s through the 1980s.-Early life and career:Curt Swan, whose Swedish...
, who would later dominate Superman artwork for nearly 30 years, first drew a Superboy story in Superboy #5 (1949) and would continue to draw Superboy stories, on and off, for twenty years. The primary Superman artist of the 1950s, Wayne Boring
Wayne Boring
Wayne Boring was an American comic book artist best known for his work on Superman from the late 1940s to 1950s. He occasionally used the pseudonym Jack Harmon....
, also contributed to Superboy.
Cameron was the primary Superboy writer for the first few years after the character's debut. One of the earliest additional writers was Superboy/Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel
Jerry Siegel
Jerome "Jerry" Siegel , who also used pseudonyms including Joe Carter, Jerry Ess, and Herbert S...
, who wrote his first Superboy story in 1947 and would continue to contribute to the feature into the 1960s. Other early, notable Superboy writers included science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
writer Edmond Hamilton
Edmond Hamilton
Edmond Moore Hamilton was an American author of science fiction stories and novels during the mid-twentieth century. Born in Youngstown, Ohio, he was raised there and in nearby New Castle, Pennsylvania...
and Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
co-creator Bill Finger
Bill Finger
William "Bill" Finger was an American comic strip and comic book writer best known as the uncredited co-creator, with Bob Kane, of the DC Comics character Batman, as well as the co-architect of the series' development...
. Finger left a permanent impression on the Superboy mythos when, in just the course of a few months, he introduced readers to Superbaby and Lana Lang, in stories illustrated by Curt Swan and John Sikela, respectively.
Editorial guidance for the earliest Superboy stories was provided by Jack Schiff, one of Detective Comics' major editors in their early years, and he continued editing Superboy until 1953, when Mort Weisinger
Mort Weisinger
Mortimer Weisinger was an American magazine and comic book editor best known for editing DC Comics' Superman during the mid-1950s to 1960s, in the Silver Age of comic books...
took over on both Superboy and Adventure Comics. Weisinger would later edit the entire Superman line. Over the course of the next few years, Weisinger brought in new writers and artists to work on Superboy. Perhaps the most significant new additions were writer Otto Binder
Otto Binder
Otto Oscar Binder was an American author of science fiction and non-fiction books and stories, and comic books...
, former Fawcett Comics
Fawcett Comics
Fawcett Comics, a division of Fawcett Publications, was one of several successful comic book publishers during the Golden Age of Comic Books in the 1940s...
and Marvel Family
Marvel Family
The Marvel Family is a group of fictional characters, a team of superheroes in the Fawcett Comics and DC Comics universes. Created in 1942 by writer Otto Binder and Fawcett artists C. C...
scripter, who started writing Superboy stories in 1954, and artist Al Plastino
Al Plastino
Al Plastino is an American comic book artist best known as one of the most prolific Superman artists of the 1950s, along with his DC Comics colleague Wayne Boring...
, who drew Superboy starting in 1957. Together, the two men wrote the story "The Legion of Super-Heroes" in Adventure Comics #247 (1958), giving birth to perhaps the most successful spinoff from the Superman family of comics. Three years earlier, Binder had also introduced Krypto in a story illustrated by Curt Swan.
When John Sikela retired in 1958, George Papp
George Papp
George Edward Papp was a U.S. comic book artist. Best known as one of the principal artists on the long-running Superboy feature for DC Comics, Papp also co-created the Green Arrow character with Mort Weisinger and co-created Congorilla along with writer Whitney Ellsworth.Papp began his comic...
took over the lead artistic chores. The co-creator of Green Arrow
Green Arrow
Green Arrow is a fictional superhero that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Mort Weisinger and George Papp, he first appeared in More Fun Comics #73 in November 1941. His secret identity is Oliver Queen, billionaire and former mayor of fictional Star City...
(with Weisinger), one of Papp's stories involved Superboy meeting the young Green Arrow. Though Otto Binder handled the most Superboy stories, writers contributing to Superboy during the Weisinger years included E. Nelson Bridwell
E. Nelson Bridwell
Edward Nelson Bridwell was a writer for Mad magazine and various comic books published by DC Comics. One of the writers for the Batman comic strip and Super Friends, he also wrote The Inferior Five, among other comics...
, who also worked on Mad
Mad (magazine)
Mad is an American humor magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952. Launched as a comic book before it became a magazine, it was widely imitated and influential, impacting not only satirical media but the entire cultural landscape of the 20th century.The last...
and created many DC characters, such as the Inferior Five
Inferior Five
The Inferior Five are a parody superhero team that premiered in the DC Comics title Showcase #62 . Created by E. Nelson Bridwell and Joe Orlando and Mike Esposito , the group was intended as a parody not only of the Fantastic Four, but of all the superhero teams whose members had such great...
, and Leo Dorfman.
In 1968, long-time DC editor Murray Boltinoff took over the editing chores on Superboy from Weisinger starting with issue #149. (By this time, Adventure Comics was no longer publishing original Superboy stories.) Stories published under his editorial guidance usually included credits, making writers and artists easier to track. Frank Robbins
Frank Robbins
Franklin "Frank" Robbins was a notable American comic book and comic strip artist and writer, as well as a prominent painter whose work appeared in museums including the Whitney Museum of American Art, where one of his paintings was featured in the 1955 Whitney Annual Exhibition of American...
, best known for his work (as both writer and artist) on Batman, began writing the Superboy strip with Boltinoff's debut as editor, and remained the primary scripter for three years. Penciler Bob Brown
Bob Brown (comics)
William Robert "Bob" Brown was an American comic book artist with an extensive career from the early 1940s through the 1970s. With writers Edmond Hamilton and Gardner Fox, Brown created the DC Comics hero Space Ranger, drawing the character's complete run from his debut in the try-out comic...
began one issue later, and continued to pencil Superboy stories through the final Superboy feature in #197. Brown's pencils were inked by a number of artists, most notably Murphy Anderson
Murphy Anderson
Murphy Anderson is an American comic book artist, known as one of the premier inkers of his era, who has worked for companies such as DC Comics for over fifty years, starting in the 1930s-'40s Golden Age of Comic Books...
from 1970-1973, who was simultaneously inking Curt Swan's pencils on Superman. After Robbins left, Leo Dorfman returned as the writer for Superboy, with occasional scripts by Bridwell and, toward the end, Cary Bates
Cary Bates
Cary Bates is an American comic book, animation television and film writer.-Biography:Bates began submitting ideas for comic book covers to DC Comics at the age of 13, and a number of them were bought and published, the first as the cover to Superman #167...
, later famous for his Superman stories. Boltinoff also made the editorial decision to switch the Legion backup feature from Action Comics
Action Comics
Action Comics is an American comic book series that introduced Superman, the first major superhero character as the term is popularly defined...
to Superboy in 1971, and later to make the Legion feature the sole feature in the comic.
When The New Adventures of Superboy debuted in late 1979 under the guidance of Superman comics editor Julius Schwartz
Julius Schwartz
Julius "Julie" Schwartz was a comic book and pulp magazine editor, and a science fiction agent and prominent fan. He was born in the Bronx, New York...
, Kurt Schaffenberger
Kurt Schaffenberger
Kurt Schaffenberger was an American comic book artist. Schaffenberger was best known for his work on Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family , as well as his work on the title Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane during the 1950s and 1960s.-Early career:Schaffenberger was born on a farm in the...
, perhaps most famous for his Lois Lane
Lois Lane
Lois Lane is a fictional character, the primary love interest of Superman in the comic books of DC Comics. Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, she first appeared in Action Comics #1 ....
stories, became the main penciller, and contributed his artwork throughout the run of the series. Cary Bates returned to Superboy as the principal writer for the series for its first three years, with prolific DC writer Paul Kupperberg
Paul Kupperberg
Paul Kupperberg is a former editor for DC Comics, and a prolific writer of comic books and newspaper strips.-Biography:Kupperberg entered the comics field from comics fandom, as had his brother, writer/artist Alan Kupperberg...
taking the scripting chores for the last third of the run. Bridwell and Bob Rozakis
Bob Rozakis
Robert "Bob" Rozakis is a comic book writer and editor known mainly for his work in the 1970s and 1980s at DC Comics, as the writer of Mazing Man and in his capacity as DC's "Answer Man".-Biography:...
also contributed scripts. In addition, Rozakis wrote about Superboy's college years in the Superman backup series "Superman: The In-Between Years" in the early 1980s, with Schaffenberger providing the pencils; and the miniseries Superman: The Secret Years in 1984-1985, with Curt Swan providing the pencils and Schaffenberger, the inks.
The primary writer for the comic based on the Superboy
Superboy (TV series)
Superboy is a half-hour live-action television series based on the fictional DC Comics comic book character Kal-El's early years as Superboy. The show ran from 1988–1992 in syndication...
television series was John Francis Moore
John Francis Moore (comics)
John Francis Moore is comic book writer known for stints as writer on such Marvel comics series as X-Force, X-Factor, Doom 2099 and X-Men 2099...
, who also penned several screenplays for the TV series. Several other writers, including Kupperberg, also contributed. Experienced artist Jim Mooney
Jim Mooney
James Noel "Jim" Mooney was an American comic book artist best known as a Marvel Comics inker and Spider-Man artist, and as the signature artist of DC Comics' Supergirl, both during what comics historians and fans call the Silver Age of comic books...
(known for his work on Supergirl
Supergirl (Kara Zor-El)
Kara Zor-El is a fictional character appearing in comic books published by DC Comics and related media, created by writer Otto Binder and designed by artist Al Plastino. As Supergirl, Kara Zor-El serves as the biological cousin and female counterpart to DC Comic's iconic superhero Superman, created...
and Spider-Man
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...
) and Curt Swan split the pencilling chores for most of the series. Canadian artist Ty Templeton
Ty Templeton
Ty Templeton is a popular Canadian comic book artist and writer who has drawn a number of popular mainstream titles, TV-associated titles and his own series.-Biography:Templeton was born on May 9, 1962...
provided the majority of the inks.
Fictional character biography
Like most "ageless" or slowly aging comic book characters published over a span of decades, Superboy's fictional history was repeatedly modified in the forty years between the first Superboy feature and the Crisis on Infinite Earths. The final chapter in the story of the pre-Crisis Superboy, the tale of how Superboy becomes Superman, was being rewritten in the miniseries Superman: The Secret Years even as the first issues of Crisis went on sale. The synopsis below summarizes Superboy's fictional biography as it stood after the conclusion of the miniseries.Kal-El comes to Earth
Superboy (Kal-El) is a native of the planet Krypton, the son of Jor-ElJor-El
Jor-El is a fictional character, an extraterrestrial in the . He was created by the writer Jerry Siegel and the artist Joe Shuster, and he first appeared in a newspaper comic strip in 1939 as Superman's biological father....
, Krypton's most brilliant scientist and inventor, and his wife Lara. Finding evidence that the planet is about to be destroyed, Jor-El fails to convince the ruling Science Council, so he conducts tests with model rockets to enable his own family to escape. His tests meet with mixed success. In one experiment, Kal-El's pet dog Krypto is lost when a test rocket carrying Krypto is knocked off course by a meteor.
As Krypton's destruction approaches, Jor-El still has not built a rocket large enough to hold his family. With the planet coming apart beneath them, Jor-El and Lara put their two-year old son in a model rocket, launch it just minutes ahead of Krypton's destruction, and send Kal-El to the planet Earth. Found by Jonathan and Martha Kent, an older couple with no children of their own, the child is anonymously left at a Smallville orphanage. Some days later, the Kents successfully adopt the toddler. They name the boy Clark Kent, using Martha's maiden name for his first name.
As related in Superbaby stories published over a span of over 30 years, the Kents face tremendous challenges raising their new child, because young Clark gains his full suite of superpowers as soon as he lands on Earth. Six years before Clark becomes Superboy, the Kents have the difficult task of teaching Clark to control the use of his powers. This proves especially challenging because "Superbaby" is inclined to use his powers to act on childish whims, whims that take him around the world, into space, and even into the past. Through his adoptive parents' patient guidance and a great deal of luck, Clark keeps his identity secret and learns to control his powers. As Clark grows up, Jonathan and Martha further instruct Clark to use his powers responsibly for the benefit of others, rather than to his own reward or power.
The Kents spend their first years with Clark on the Kent family farm. Within a few years of adopting Clark, the Kents sell the farm and move to the town of Smallville proper. Using the money from the sale of the farm, the Kents open a general store, a family business to which Clark will contribute when he is older. The Kents live on 321 Maple Drive, and Clark attends school with his peers, including neighbor Lana Lang. To help conceal his identity, Clark adopts a mild-mannered demeanor and wears glasses.
Clark becomes Superboy
In Smallville, Superboy uses tunnels from the basement of the Kents' house and general store to make quick, concealed exits when Superboy is needed. Superboy also maintains a secret lab in the basement of the Kent house, where he builds Superboy and Clark Kent robots to cover for him when he is busy elsewhere or otherwise unavailable.
Clark's mild-mannered character gives him few friends as a boy, and makes him the target of bullies like Bash Bashford. For years, Clark's closest friend is his beautiful red-headed neighbor, Lana Lang. Despite their friendship, Lana is also a major nuisance in Clark's life because of her recurring suspicion that Clark is secretly Superboy. Through clever use of his super-powers and robot duplicates of himself (in both identities), Clark is always able to avoid the traps Lana sets for him in order to determine the truth. For all that Lana's antics annoy Clark, as a teenager, Lana becomes Superboy's main romantic interest, and remains so through his years in high school.
As Superboy, Kal-El is the first of Earth's superheroes. Despite the occasional appearance of heroes like Aquaboy and the Japanese hero Sunburst
Sunburst (comics)
Sunburst is the name of two fictional Japanese superheroes published by DC Comics.-Takeo Sato:This Sunburst first appeared in New Adventures of Superboy #45 , and was created by Paul Kupperberg and Alex Saviuk. Takeo Sato gained the ability to turn solar energy into light or heat after inhaling...
, Superboy is the only superhero who has a well-known public profile until after he becomes Superman. Superboy's solitary status is reduced somewhat when he is reunited with Krypto, infant Kal-El's pet dog on Krypton. Krypto joins Superboy in many of his subsequent adventures as his canine partner, and also has many adventures of his own. Through his discovery of the Phantom Zone, Superboy later finds out he is not the lone humanoid survivor of Krypton.
Superboy joins the Legion
Though Superboy encounters few super-powered peers on Earth, he occasionally befriends teens living on other worlds that have superpowers. Not until Cosmic BoyCosmic Boy
Cosmic Boy is a fictional character, a comic book superhero in the 30th and 31st centuries of the DC Comics universe. He first appeared in Adventure Comics #247 . He is a founding member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, and was the original leader in all incarnations of the Legion...
, Saturn Girl
Saturn Girl
Saturn Girl is a fictional character appearing in DC comic books. A talented telepath from the 30th century, Imra first appeared in Adventure Comics #247 as a founding member of the Legion of Super-Heroes...
, and Lightning Lad
Garth Ranzz
Lightning Lad , also known as Live Wire, is a fictional character, a comic book superhero in the DC Comics universe. He has the superhuman ability to generate electricity, usually in the form of lightning bolts. He is a founding member of the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th and 31st centuries...
come into the past to recruit him for the thirtieth-century Legion of Super-Heroes does Superboy find a group of super-powered friends with whom he regularly interacts. Superboy's career in fact is the inspiration for the formation of the Legion. Throughout his teenage years, Superboy travels
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
to the future under his own power to join the Legion in fighting threats to Earth and the United Planets
United Planets
In the , the United Planets is a fictional governing body, traditionally depicted as active in the 30th and 31st century.-History of the published versions of the United Planets:...
, to which Earth belongs. Superboy becomes a core member of the Legion during two extended, full membership stints in the Legion, including two terms as Deputy Leader. Through the Legion, Superboy also regularly meets with his cousin Kara, Supergirl, but because of telepathic
Telepathy
Telepathy , is the induction of mental states from one mind to another. The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and has remained more popular than the more-correct expression thought-transference...
hypnotism employed by Saturn Girl, Superboy never remembers Kara, or any other information relating to his future career as Superman or the future of his family and friends, when he returns to his normal, 20th-century era.
One of the youths who becomes a member of the Legion is Lar Gand
Lar Gand
Lar Gand, known primarily as Mon-El , is a fictional character in DC Comics' universe who is associated with the Legion of Super-Heroes, Superboy, and Superman...
, a teenager whom Superboy first knows as Mon-El when he crash-lands on Earth in Superboy's era. The teenager, who has powers identical to Superboy, initially has amnesia
Amnesia
Amnesia is a condition in which one's memory is lost. The causes of amnesia have traditionally been divided into categories. Memory appears to be stored in several parts of the limbic system of the brain, and any condition that interferes with the function of this system can cause amnesia...
, and because he carries a message from Jor-El, Superboy believes him to be his big brother and dubs him Mon-El. When Mon-El is exposed to lead, his memory returns. He reveals that he is actually a Daxamite named Lar Gand, and for Daxamites, lead is more deadly than Kryptonite. To save his life, Superboy projects Mon-El into the Phantom Zone, where Mon-El would linger for a millennium before being freed by the Legion. In the Legion, the two teens remain close friends. The alternate Superboy from the Pocket Universe would die in Mon-El's arms.
Superboy meets Lex Luthor
Not long after he joins the Legion, Superboy's life is threatened when a Green Kryptonite meteor falls to Earth, but his life is saved by a Smallville farm boy named Lex Luthor, who also happens to be a science prodigy. The two boys become fast friends, and Superboy builds Lex a fully stocked laboratory to allow him to conduct his experiments. Lex uses the lab to search for a cure for Superboy's weakness to Kryptonite. Just after Lex discovers the cure, a fire breaks out in his lab. When Superboy puts out the fire, the antidote is destroyed, along with a protoplasmic life form that Lex created, and Lex also loses all his hair. Lex blames Superboy for destroying his experiment and his hair loss, accusing the Boy of Steel of jealousy over his brilliance. Lex swears that he will prove to the world that he is superior to Superboy. Lex does this by trying to implement a series of scientific quality-of-life improvements for Smallville's residents; however, each invention of Lex's winds up backfiring, requiring Superboy to intervene. This series of setbacks results in Lex dedicating his life to destroying Superboy. In the years that follow, Lex becomes Superboy's (and then Superman's) archfoe. Superboy soon acquires a small rogues gallery of recurring villains, including Lex.Around the time Mon-El arrives on Earth, a boy named Pete Ross moves to Smallville. He quickly befriends Clark Kent, and the two boys are soon best friends. One night on a camping trip, Pete accidentally spies Clark changing into his Superboy outfit. Vowing to keep his knowledge a secret, Pete uses his knowledge to aid Superboy and on several occasions, save his life. Not until years after they have both grown up does Pete reveal his knowledge to Clark. Through the rest of his years in high school, Pete and Lana remain Clark's closest friends, and also share numerous adventures with Superboy both in the twentieth century and with the Legion in the thirtieth.
Superboy becomes Superman
Shortly after his graduation from high school, Superboy takes his foster parents on a holiday in the Caribbean where they contract a rare tropical disease. Though Superboy tries valiantly to save Martha and Jonathan, nothing cures their illness. With Clark by her side, Martha passes away. Just before he dies, Jonathan makes Clark promise to use his powers only for good. In mourning, Clark buries his parents. Shortly thereafter, Superboy leaves Smallville, though not before throwing the townsfolk a giant farewell party that he tops off with a giant cake. Separately, Clark departs for Metropolis to attend Metropolis University.In Metropolis, Clark readily befriends the students who share his dorm suite, Tommy Lee, Dave Hammond and the alcoholic Ducky Ginsberg. Superboy soon reveals himself as the new guardian of Metropolis, ending a national guessing game about which city Superboy would call his new home. For Clark's first two years at Metropolis University, Lana is also a classmate, before she transfers to Hudson University.
In his junior year, Superboy again feels helpless when he isn't present to stop an automobile accident involving Ducky, caused by his own drunk driving. Ducky is paralyzed for life and thereafter uses a wheelchair. Ducky's place in the dorm is taken by Billy Kramer, a Smallville boy whom Clark befriends and decides to trust with his secret. Much as Superman would later do for Jimmy Olsen, Superboy gives Billy a supersonic whistle that he can use to call Superboy for help when needed. While he is befriending Billy, Clark becomes romantically involved with a wheelchair-using student named Lori Lemaris
Lori Lemaris
Lori Lemaris is a fictional character in DC Comics' Superman comic books. Lori is a mermaid from Tritonis, a city in the undersea lost continent of Atlantis.-Silver Age:...
. He eventually proposes to her, but Lori reveals she already learned his identity telepathically. She rejects his proposal because she is a mermaid from Atlantis.
Trapped in a burning building while attempting to save a life, Billy uses his supersonic whistle to call Superboy, but Superboy, preoccupied with saving a thousand people on a Pacific island from a tsunami, is unable to reach him in time. Upset by his inability to save his parents and friends, Superboy exiles himself until, three months later, Perry White, using Billy's whistle, calls him back into action to battle Lex Luthor. After defeating Luthor, Clark makes peace with his limitations and returns to Metropolis for his final year of college. Now 21, Kal-El starts calling himself Superman, 13 years after his debut as Superboy.
Post-Infinite Crisis
In current mainstream DC continuity, Superman does not begin his public superhero career until adulthood. However, as a teenager he joins the Legion of Super-Heroes, and used the name "Superboy" while visiting the 31st century. Thus, most of Kal-El's pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths stories with the Legion are once again considered canonical. In addition, Clark wears his Superboy outfit when he works as a clandestine superhero in and around Smallville.Powers, abilities, and equipment
Superboy has the same powers and abilities of Superman, including super strength, heat vision, x-ray vision, telescopic and microscopic vision, flight, invulnerability, and super-speed sufficient to travel through both interstellar space and time. Kal-El would not build his Fortress of SolitudeFortress of Solitude
The Fortress of Solitude is the occasional headquarters of Superman in DC Comics. Its predecessor, Superman's "Secret Citadel", first appeared in Superman #17, where it was said to be built into a mountain on the outskirts of Metropolis...
until he becomes Superman, so Superboy uses the Kent house in Smallville as a base. Superboy's well-stocked secret laboratory in the Kent basement is where he stores several devices invented by his Kryptonian father Jor-El
Jor-El
Jor-El is a fictional character, an extraterrestrial in the . He was created by the writer Jerry Siegel and the artist Joe Shuster, and he first appeared in a newspaper comic strip in 1939 as Superman's biological father....
, including the Phantom Zone
Phantom Zone
The Phantom Zone is a fictional prison dimension featured in the Superman comic books and related media published by DC Comics. It first appeared in Adventure Comics #283 , and was created by Robert Bernstein and George Papp...
projector. Though they are not as powerful as Superboy himself, Superboy's robot duplicates possess his powers, enabling them to make convincing substitutes for him when necessary. The Clark Kent robot performs the same function for Kal-El's other identity.
Superboy wears a Legion flight ring to signify his membership in the Legion of Super-Heroes, and for its communication function (allowing him to converse with other Legionnaires in the vacuum of outer space).
Other versions
Like Superman, Superboy appeared as a character in "imaginary stories" during the Silver and BronzeBronze Age of Comic Books
The Bronze Age of Comic Books is an informal name for a period in the history of mainstream American comic books usually said to run from 1970 to 1985. It follows the Silver Age of Comic Books....
Ages of Comics. These included stories in which Bruce Wayne comes to live with the Kents after his parents are killed; baby Kal-El is raised by gorillas under the name "Karkan", in a tale that resembles the story of Tarzan
Tarzan
Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...
; and Kara Zor-El
Supergirl (Kara Zor-El)
Kara Zor-El is a fictional character appearing in comic books published by DC Comics and related media, created by writer Otto Binder and designed by artist Al Plastino. As Supergirl, Kara Zor-El serves as the biological cousin and female counterpart to DC Comic's iconic superhero Superman, created...
comes to Earth years ahead of Kal-El, becoming Superwoman to his Superboy (portrayed in this story as a juvenile delinquent).
Kal-El has also appeared as Superboy in two popular Elseworlds
Elseworlds
Elseworlds is the publication imprint for a group of comic books produced by DC Comics that take place outside the company's canon. According to its tagline: "In Elseworlds, heroes are taken from their usual settings and put into strange times and places — some that have existed, and others...
tales: Superboy's Legion
Superboy's Legion
Superboy's Legion is a two-issue mini-series, published by DC Comics in 2001 under the Elseworlds banner. It was written and inked by Mark Farmer, with pencils by Alan Davis....
(2001), in which Kal is raised in the 31st century by R. J. Brande
R. J. Brande
Rene Jacques "R. J." Brande is a fictional DC Comics character in the 30th and 31st centuries with the Legion of Super-Heroes.-Pre-Crisis:Originally a Durlan named Ren Daggle, Brande was frozen in human form by the deadly Yorggian fever...
and becomes a founding member of "Superboy's Legion", later known as the Legion of Super-Heroes
Legion of Super-Heroes
The Legion of Super-Heroes is a fictional superhero team in the 30th and 31st centuries of the . The team first appears in Adventure Comics #247 , and was created by Otto Binder and Al Plastino....
; and the Superman & Batman: Generations
Superman & Batman: Generations
Superman & Batman: Generations is the umbrella title of three Elseworlds comic book limited series published by DC Comics in the United States, written and illustrated by John Byrne...
series of stories, in which Superman gets his start as Superboy during the 1920s.
Legal status
The Superboy character is currently the subject of a legal battle between Time WarnerTime Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
, the owner of DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
, and the heirs of Jerry Siegel
Jerry Siegel
Jerome "Jerry" Siegel , who also used pseudonyms including Joe Carter, Jerry Ess, and Herbert S...
. The Siegel estate claims that the original "Superboy" character published by DC Comics is an independent creation that used ideas from Jerry Siegel's original rejected pitch and was created without his consent. On April 4, 2006, Federal judge Ronald S. W. Lew issued a summary judgment
Summary judgment
In law, a summary judgment is a determination made by a court without a full trial. Such a judgment may be issued as to the merits of an entire case, or of specific issues in that case....
ruling that Jerry Siegel's heirs had the right to revoke their copyright assignment to Superboy and had successfully reclaimed the trademark to the name as of November 17, 2004. This legal battle is still ongoing.
In other media
Superboy has made the transition to television several times, most notably in the television series SuperboySuperboy (TV series)
Superboy is a half-hour live-action television series based on the fictional DC Comics comic book character Kal-El's early years as Superboy. The show ran from 1988–1992 in syndication...
(1988-1992), about Clark during his college days.
Many elements of the Superboy stories have also been incorporated into the TV series Smallville
Smallville
Smallville is the hometown of Superman in comic books published by DC Comics. While growing up in Smallville, the young Clark Kent attended Smallville High with best friends Lana Lang, Chloe Sullivan and Pete Ross...
(2001-2011), including characters such as Lana Lang and Pete Ross; the story arc of how close friends Clark Kent and Lex Luthor become bitter enemies; the motif of Clark first meeting many of Superman's friends and foes while still a teenager; and the town of Smallville itself.
External links
- Supermanica:Superboy Supermanica entry on the original Superboy.
- Index of the Earth-One Superboy's adventures by Dark Mark
- "Who Drew Superboy?" at "Who's Whose in the DC Universe?"
- The Superboy Index at "Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics"
- Pocket Universe Primer Details on the The Pocket Universe Superboy (Kal-El)