Superman Through the Ages! Forum

What do you think? With the re-introduction of many elements of the Pre-Crisis Superman into the recent comics, should young Clark Kent's career as Superboy in Smallville be reintroduced as well?

Although I love the jettisoning of Byrne-era continuity in favor of reimagined Pre-Crisis stuff, I think that Superboy is something that needs to stay in the past. I'm not really in favor of lots of stories about Superman's youth in Smallville for the simple reason that most of those stories involve him using his powers in some way, making it harder to believe that no one ever figures out that Superman and Clark Kent are the same guy. Having a Superboy that protects Smallville, leaves town around the same time Clark does, then turns up in Metropolis around the same time that Clark does is just too much to swallow, especially if we're asked to believe that the extremely intelligent Lex Luthor lived in both places and never figured out Clark's secret.  Kal-El's years in Smallville should be mostly ambiguous. The tiny amount of "Clark in Smallville" material in Birthright is about right.

I liked the Superboy stories when I was a kid, and if DC ever publishes kid-oriented comics again then some new Superboy stories would be great.

It's iffy for me.  I can see plusses and minuses.

I think I end up being against the inclusion of a Superboy who runs around in the costume and then grows up to be Superman.  That doesn't quite work for me.  I have too much difficulty believing that "Superboy" is a name that anyone would come up with, for one thing.  And I like the idea that there is a Superboy, but he's inspired by Superman, not the other way around.

What works best for me is a scenario sort of like what's depicted on Smallville and in stories like Odyssey, where a young Clark Kent has adventures and helps people, but he isn't quite Superman (neither completely Superman nor completely a man yet).

To me it is the final nail in my refusal not to enthusiatically follow the post crisis drivel.  I have always loved Superboy and has been my personal favorite hero. I am 29 and learned to love comics by reading the old Legion digests at the grocery store introduced me into comics. What John Byrne did was destroy a legend and ruin DC for 20 years. It has to change, Superman has never been right since. It's time for Superboy. If they bring him back, that doesn't mean they have to get rid of the current one.

More than one hero lays claim to 'Green Lantern', 'The Atom', and certainly 'The Flash'.

Technically, two dogs are named 'Krypto' albeit only one is powered and the other is a Kon-El hating normal mutt.

We do have precedent for having more than one character named 'Superboy'.  We could differentiate between them as the Real Boy of Steel Deal (Kal-El) vs the wannabe (Kon-El).

I don't think it's necessarily a problem to have two Superboys.  Remember, Bruce Wayne was the first Robin back when he was a kid.  After he grew up and became Batman, he adopted new Robins as his sidekicks.  I don't see why it couldn't be the same thing with Superman and Superboy.  You know, kind of grooming/training his eventual replacement.

I'm not getting how you would have two at the same time.

I think that's where I stand as well. The concept of Superman being a teen-aged super-hero has its pros and cons. Some of the pros would be the connection to the Legion, having Superman encounter villains as a boy, and the coming of age stories. The cons would be no one noticing the Smallville connection and taking away the debut of Superman in Metropolis.

I'm undecided, but I do enjoy reading the stories over at Superboy Lives! (http://superman.nu/superboy-lives/)

I think DC's policy Post Crisis was to avoid other time eras as much as possible to avoid the inevitable continuity problems.  We no longer have Anthro, Shining Knight, Batlash, Sgt. Rock, etc.  The only other time period DC kept was the 30th/31st century LSH, and they're so far removed from mainstream DCU continuity that it's relatively easy to keep them around -- once the Superboy/Supergirl link was removed.

While I'd like to see the real Superboy return, I agree with DC's decision to stay away from other eras.  A Superboy series would tie the hands of both the Superboy creators and the Superman teams.

Daybreaker, I'm not clear what you're asking here, but I'm going to assume that it's in reference to my post above.  Perhaps you could clarify?

I was responding to Captain Kal, who seemed to be responding to an argument that there could be confusion if two different characters named "Superboy" were to exist in the same universe.  I responded that I didn't see a problem with Superman having been Superboy when he was a boy, and then a new kid came along after Superman switched over to his adult moniker and started using the old Superboy name, much like Batman and Robin.

So they're not really "at the same time" in the chronology of the stories themselves, but they are "at the same time" in that we would simultaneously be reading  stories about a young Clark Kent Superboy and also reading separate stories about a second Superboy (Kon?) that take place later when Superman is a man.

Anyway, the subject of this thread is, "Should Superboy be brought back?"

So where's the poll?

I don't know where the poll is.

Let me suggest something of a compromise here regarding my last post.

Perhaps an ongoing Superboy series featuring Superman as a youth is a bad idea for continuity reasons.

But a limited miniseries like MOS, the Smallville years, Metropolis years, etc. but featuring Superboy would work.  That way, we get a young Superman as a boy back but his stories don't threaten to muck-up Superman's books and vice versa.  We could leave a loophole open for him to be a Legionnaire so that his future adventures wouldn't impinge on his adult history.  The only thing we'd know for certain is Superboy wouldn't die or be altered into unrecognizability in the LSH before he returns to our time to become Superman.

I think in many ways for the kind of stories you want to get out of this idea, Supergirl (as in Kara) would actually work better for it.  Even right down to having the occasional adventure with the LSH.

I mean you can get some fun stories with Superboy but if you make it part of Supermans actual story, it can kinda hurt things.  I think thats why as originally concieved the Superboy idea wasn't meant to be canon or continuity. It was just fun running with the idea that if Superman had his powers as a kid, what would that have been like?

..and even though I have at times enjoyed the character ideally I don't think Kon-El should exist. Conceptually its dumb on the level of what it would be like having Ben Reilly still running around as the Scarlet Spider.  Besides Superman doesn't really need a Captain Marvel Jr.  The "family" should be Superman, Supergirl, and Krypto.

I think if there is any character who should be in line for taking Supermans role, it should be Kara.

Yeah, I actually like the idea of Superman getting a sidekick more than I like the idea of Superman having a clone that he rarely talks to.

And really, Superman should have more sidekicks.  In a way, most of the heroic population of the DCU are all his sidekicks, except for a few that are Batman's.

I would go along with the Smallville type situation.  No costume, limited powers, operating undercover.  It's better than the previous situation.  Liked the Legion, but was never a big Superboy fan.

OK, how's this:  Clark uses his powers in secret with no costume when he's in Smallville; but when he goes into the future to be with the Legion, he operates openly with the Superboy costume.

Actually I think Kon-el is the best solution possible, we can have a superboy series without having to worry about the impact on the superman comics, and he could still be the inspriation for the legion and he could join them when he's not with the TT's, wearing the superboy outfit, just because it's the right thing to do.

I think my only problem with that idea is that Kon-El just doesn't seem that inspirational.

Yeah, Kon-El just feels like an X-Man with the serial number filed off and slapped into an 'S'-symbol t-shirt. Superboy is important to the mythology, and I think Kal should've started out as a teenager. Superboy could really tap into that once and future king kind of feel for Superman, as well as financially draw into some of that Harry Potter appeal. C'mon, it's great storytelling and sound business sense. Who are you to resist it eh? You bring back Krypto you can at least bring back the real Boy of Tomorrow. You can even keep Kon-El in the continuity, just as Superboy II.

 C'mon. . . :D

 -Def.

I can buy the idea of Kal-El not wearing a costume in Smallville and operating in secret and then wearing a costume in the future.  They do a memory thing in which he forgets his future as Superman.  It works for me.

That's a really cool idea.

I feel like there's something wrong with that idea, but I can't quite put my finger on what, so I guess I'll say that I like it.  :)

I kind of like the idea, too.

But what I think is wrong with it is we have no compelling reason for Kal to be costumed in the future while not in the past.  It seems forced and contrived somehow that he mysteriously chooses not to be Superboy in his own time.

It's more consistent and easier to swallow that he's costumed as Superboy in the past and the future.

It's a tough call.  The problem is it's been established that he doesn't have a career as Superboy growing up as a teenager.  In some ways, a Superboy series where he doesn't wear a costume appeals to me.
It would be a way of keeping the Legion cannon somewhat intact as well.  Their history recoginized his deeds in the past, but in the future, where the Legionnaires all wear colorful costumes, he adopts one as well.  When he returns to Smallville in the past he forgets about his future adventures. The Legion only summons him for meetings once a month or so.

I don't see why he would have to forget his future adventures.  Couldn't he, along with us readers, remember (him) being Superboy in the future?  So perhaps it could be a two-way street:  The Legion was inspired by him, but he's also inspired and motivated to do the Good Work and wear a neat costume by what he sees of the future.

Just as long as he doesn't invent any transparent aluminum or something along the way.

I know that this doesn't really answer the question of whether or not Superboy should be brought back, but what about him just calling himself Superman in the 31st century?