Superman Through the Ages! Forum

First, scans for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v39/bmovie_buff/?action=view&current=Superman284-017.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v39/bmovie_buff/?action=view&current=Superman284-018.jpg

They weren't even malfunctioning from the pollution in Earth's atmoshphere yet, were they?

It just doesn't jibe well with the overall compassion that I contribute to Superman/Superboy. God knows even when he was just leaving Smallville, those robots and others (The robot from the Robinson Crusoe of space, for instance) had saved his life by sacrificing their own.

Coulden't he of stuck them on a remote planet in some obscure part of the universe? Even if he felt they were too dangerous to do something like that with (God knows they were hijacked once and he had a bunch of them beating him around) coulden't he of simply deactivated them and left them as husks?

I know the qualifcation of life is debatable, but, like I said, I just think he should of done something else with his robots than fly them into the sun to their doom.

While some Superman robots did manage to get true AI, most of them were just toys really.

http://superman.nu/wiki/index.php/Category:Superman_Robots

Even in the 60's more than one showed, by his lonesome, independent thought, genuine emotion, decison making skills...

Pretty elaborate toys.

Hell, again, in the Silver Age, a Superman robot professed it's love for Lois when Superman was off in space to see whether or not Lois would love his master if he became powerless. Did this all by himself.

Superman needs to respect his robots, darn it!  :lol:

All the ones with AI are listed there, btw if you know of any more (pre-crisis) by all means add them :D

However most stories had idiot drones mindless going about their way and even being destroyed. One story Superman tried to save a Sub which was stuck, however a piece of red K was also next to it, so Superman sent one of his robots to try and do the deed, but was destroyed due to the pressure. Superman, despite knowing that he could have his powers taken away or some other effect that could kill him thanks to Red K, went ahead and saved the Sub anyway. Th effects had him growing his hair and nails at an alarming rate.

Yeah, thinking on it, the robots he had when he was an adult at least went awry on him quite a bit. Plot devices, baby!  :lol:

Russell, do you know what issue those two scans are from?  Looks like a cool story.

:s:

What was the issue and date of the story first posted?

I have to admit that I don't like the way its written, the "c'mon, we are going on a mission" approach seems a little sad...

The stories from Superman #284, one of my favorites.

The Superboy robot that got away kept making itself better over the years, protecting Smallville in secret, which was great.

It seemed even more powerful than Superman, actually. Threw him right out of our solar system and everything. :lol:

Thanks...

A high Bronze Ager... :wink:

Thanks Russell, I'll have to look it up for site consideration.  The story might have been written in order to try to explain why Superman didn't have any Superboy robots around.

:s:

No problem. :)

:( poor Superboy robot... I am guessing this was one of those great tragic Superman tales.

I really would like to read this story as well

I'll host the entire issue and post it here if that's allowed.  :)

Can you post the links to each page like you did above?

In order to be modem friendly to those without high speed.

I could do that. I'll try to have the comic hosted and put up on here, in this thread, by tonight.

Is it allowed and all that though? Don't want to step on anyones toes.

Those robots are so much better than the ones Hawkman destroyed with a mace in JLA 200.

Sure, go for it! :s:

oh and welcome to the boards! :D

Hey, thanks. This is day one and I'm already enjoying myself quite a bit. :)

I'll have the comic up within the hour, guys. :)

Okay, here it is. Enjoy.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v39/bmovie_buff/Folder%202/Superman%20284/?action=view&current=Superman284-001.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v39/bmovie_buff/Folder%202/Superman%20284/?action=view&current=Superman284-003.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v39/bmovie_buff/Folder%202/Superman%20284/?action=view&current=Superman284-004.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v39/bmovie_buff/Folder%202/Superman%20284/?action=view&current=Superman284-005.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v39/bmovie_buff/Folder%202/Superman%20284/?action=view&current=Superman284-006.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v39/bmovie_buff/Folder%202/Superman%20284/?action=view&current=Superman284-007.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v39/bmovie_buff/Folder%202/Superman%20284/?action=view&current=Superman284-008.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v39/bmovie_buff/Folder%202/Superman%20284/?action=view&current=Superman284-009.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v39/bmovie_buff/Folder%202/Superman%20284/?action=view&current=Superman284-010.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v39/bmovie_buff/Folder%202/Superman%20284/?action=view&current=Superman284-011.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v39/bmovie_buff/Folder%202/Superman%20284/?action=view&current=Superman284-012.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v39/bmovie_buff/Folder%202/Superman%20284/?action=view&current=Superman284-013.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v39/bmovie_buff/Folder%202/Superman%20284/?action=view&current=Superman284-014.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v39/bmovie_buff/Folder%202/Superman%20284/?action=view&current=Superman284-015.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v39/bmovie_buff/Folder%202/Superman%20284/?action=view&current=Superman284-016.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v39/bmovie_buff/Folder%202/Superman%20284/?action=view&current=Superman284-017.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v39/bmovie_buff/Folder%202/Superman%20284/?action=view&current=Superman284-018.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v39/bmovie_buff/Folder%202/Superman%20284/?action=view&current=Superman284-019.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v39/bmovie_buff/Folder%202/Superman%20284/?action=view&current=Superman284-020.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v39/bmovie_buff/Folder%202/Superman%20284/?action=view&current=Superman284-021.jpg

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v39/bmovie_buff/Folder%202/Superman%20284/?action=view&current=Superman284-022.jpg
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v39/bmovie_buff/Folder%202/Superman%20284/?action=view&current=Superman284-023.jpg
[/i]

An interesting story, thanks for posting it! 8)

Since Superboy probably had to dismantle his robots and re-build them as he was growing up (if only to show growth), I still wonder why he couldn't just take them apart and explain why, he could even say some of their components would live on as Superman robots...at the very least he could have used the spare parts rather than obliterating them...

But then, that's not so exciting a story, huh? :wink:

No problem.

And I do get what you're saying. :)

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, I just don't like the panel with Superboy promising them a final mission and then flying them to their demise, though I guess it is a purpose and I suppose many would volunteer to do it for that purpose...maybe they did "understand", it just reads like they are being tricked...

He could of just shut them all off and thrown them in a giant sack and dragged them into the sun. But nooooo. :lol:

Hey, MEL, could you do me a favor and check out some of my new threads in the Superman forum? I'd appreciate it. :)

The only thing sadder is that you could get 100 pages of pure Superman fun for 60 cents at one time.

Too rich for my blood, now 25 cents for an 80 Page Giant, that's a value... 8)

It seems that the "pollution effect" needs to be added to the robot's entry...

Personally I never liked the idea of Superboy/Superman having robots.

Among other reasons I think it is too easy a way out for him to conceal his Clark Kent identity, instead of using clever deceptions.

In any case, if Lois or anybody else who suspected his true alter ego discovered he had identical robots it would be extremely difficult for Superboy/Superman to prove that he wasn't Clark. If they saw Superboy/Superman and Clark together they would just assume (correctly) one was a robot.

I'm sure I've read Silver Age stories where the existence of Superman robots was not exactly hidden from the public.

As they say in the classics: "It seemed like a good idea at the time".

I think one of the best things Julie Schwartz did when he took over the Superman comic was to immediately get rid of them.

Read the scanned-in story; interesting, though a few nitpicks came to mind:

- Guessing the story was written to explain how Smallville managed to survive without misfortunes without Superboy around. Though would think the lack of crimes would stem more from the comic book cliche of major crimes showing up when superheroes show up (I just assumed the crooks all stuck with Metropolis for whatever reason after Superboy left, and the various visiting aliens/super-types/etc. all honed in on there instead of Smallville)... ;-)

- Wouldn't someone have mentioned this odd mysterious capturing of criminals to Clark/Superman at some point during one of his various visits to Smallville in either identity in various previous stories?

- Pretty sure there's been examples of crimes being committed/disasters occuring in Smallville in stories published before this one (examples, anyone? All I can think of is the mid-50's "Superboy's last day in Smallville" story where we see Smallville's buildling a newer and bigger jail), or of the police moving into action instead of sitting around doing nothing like the Maytag repairman (which I'd think would also prompt some sort of response from Superman...).

Guess I'd have bought into it more if it were just the natural disasters and *some* crimes (vs *all* crimes) being thwarted by the Superboy robot----particularly the natural disasters (if Smallville's experiencing *earthquakes* of all things, would think that stupid robot would be too busy dealing with all the various accidents/natural disasters/etc. we've seen in Superboy stories to have a lot of time to render the police as useless as Chief Wiggum... :-) ).

Re: the idea of Superman robots in general, I wasn't bothered by their existence, but can see why they probably wanted to write them out of the comics in the 70's (a much lower dependence on secret-identity stories in that era, among other reasons)... still, guess they weren't that "Super" if pollution caused 'em to shut down (guess on a journalist's salary, coming up with funds for quality parts is difficult!) ;-)

Wasn't there a 60's story where another Superboy robot survived somehow for years after Superman destroyed his old robots? All I recall is a scene of Superman wrecking various old Superboy robots (by hand) and the story's end (where he upgrades the leftover Superboy robot into a Superman robot). Anyone recall what the plot was?

I can't recall the plot, but I do remember him wrecking his robots by hand in a scene that was pretty familiar...

Ech. Can't place the comic though.

I remember that, too.  So the story idea wasn't exactly new.

True, Superboy had a rather cold attitude towards his robots.  Probably because he didn't think of them as artificial intelligence but machines who would follow orders and little else.