Superman Through the Ages! Forum

Easily the Two part Elsewhere Annual story from a few years ago.  Sorry forgot the issue numbers

any story where he's shirtless ;)

My favorite is Hypertension.Because we get to see what SB might look like grown-up,and get to see powers we didnt know he had.
I also like the Sins of Youth story for the same reason.

Was Hypertension ever released as a TPB if not why not?!?

Sadly it hasn't been released. Not much of an overall demand for Superboy trades, though with the current peak of interest Teen Titans is generating, who knows?

 -Def.

In terms of the Post-Crisis Superboy, I'd have to say the whole Hypertension story arc was my favorite.

It's odd, but I can't really remember a lot of pre-Crisis Superboy stories. I remember reading a couple, I just can't remember specific titles. There was one where Clark ran away to the Old West. . .and another creepy one where he was gradually turning into a robot until his skin turned blue. That was pretty cool.

 Say what you will of the Byrne epoch, I did like Legion #37, featuring the final tale of the pre-Crisis Superboy. Time Trapper plots and confusion abounded, but it was still a decent story.

 As for the post-Crisis era, I can't say to have followed the Superboy title with any regularity, so a particular story doesn't come to mind. I peeked in on Hypertension, but only on the titles that featured the Kal-El Superboy. Of course, with his appearances in titles like Titans and the Legion, my interest in the Kid as a character more than a placeholder for a copyright grows little by little. Lets hope they can keep bringing the heat in those books.

 -Def.

Pre -Crisis :

IMHO the best Superboy story was "Don't Call me Superboy"

Here's some info, if you can find a copy you won't regret it.

DC Super-Stars No. 12
February 1977
Cover: Superboy vs. a “Bigfoot” with a spacecraft in the background //Curt Swan / Murphy Anderson (signed)
Story: “Don’t Call Me Superboy” (21 pages)
Editor: Paul Levitz
Writer: Cary Bates
Penciller: Curt Swan
Inker: Murphy Anderson
Colorist: Carl Gafford
Guest Starring : The robot teacher from Krypton (last appearance in ADVENTURE COMICS #240)
Intro: Misty, three Bigfeet, J. J. Farnum (only appearance for all)
Synopsis: Jor-El’s robot teacher returns to Smallville to test Superboy four more times, now that he is “on the edge of manhood”.




Spoiler Alert



Spoiler Alert: if you're already curious and want to read the story stop here, if you don't mind knowing the end read on ...


Spoiler Alert




Unknown to him, the teacher has selected a girl named Misty and given her through hypnosis all the personality traits Superboy is attracted to, so that Clark Kent would fall in love with her.  Superboy passes all the tests, including the hardest one--sparing a Bigfoot creature’s life, when he thinks the creature has killed Misty.  The teacher reveals that Misty is still unharmed, and removes her memories of her sojourn in Smallville before returning her to her home town and departing himself.  When the robot teacher says that his pupil is worthy of being called Superboy, the hero snaps, “Don’t call me Superboy!  After what I’ve been through--I deserve to be called a man!”
 Years later, as an adult, Clark Kent is passing over Smallville in a plane, and sees that his stewardess is a grown-up Misty.

Hi



Is there such a thing as a post-Crisis Superboy?

IpComics

Yes and no, it can be a bit confusing.

Post-Crisis, Clark Kent/Kal-El did not adopt the "Super" name and costume until he was an adult.  So in that sense, there is no such thing as a post-Crisis Superboy.  However, as a teenager, he did go around as a Super powered behind-the-scenes helper, so he was "kind of" a Superboy, just no name or costume.  As far as I know, there have been very few tales of this era, perhaps just Birthright which only covers the later pre-Superman years.

However, there is another post-Crisis character who uses the Superboy name.  He was introduced back in the 1990s as an adolescent boy with Superpowers who was believed to be a clone of Superman and who was created by the Project (post-Crisis, now called the "Cadmus Project.")  It was later revealed that he wasn't a clone of Superman, but of some other person (or people?) and who had powers introduced into his DNA by the Project when he was created.  I'm really not sure of the details as I didn't follow it closely.  So in that sense, yes there is a post-Crisis Superboy.

My favorite post-Crisis "Superboy" tales are:

 1) The issue(s) where the post-Crisis Superboy meets the pre-Crisis Superboy:
(http://superman.nu/superboy-lives/images/not.GIF)

(That was early on in his original title if I recall correctly.  Can't remember if it was a lead-in to Zero Hour, or to Hypertension.  Actually, didn't he appear twice?  Maybe for both of these serieses.)

2) The Jeph Loeb issue (http://superman.nu/superman-comics/about/superman155/) that was  basically a big conversation between the post-Crisis Superboy and Superman:
(http://superman.nu/superman-comics/about/superman155/cover-mid.jpg) (http://superman.nu/superman-comics/about/superman155/).

Then, to add to the confusion, there was also a comic book tie-in series with the Superboy TV show (http://superman.nu/fos/thescreen/superboy/).  This had to take place outside the newly established post-Crisis DCU, since in the new DCU, there never was a Clark-as-Superboy.  Some of these issues are pretty good, with creators who had been thrown off the Superman titles for being "obselete" but were shuffled off to this obscure tie-in title with the low readership.  People like Cary Bates and Curt Swan.  My favorite issue of this series is The Last Superboy (http://superman.nu/tales3/last/) because it ties in the superboy TV show continuity with the post-Crisis Byrne continuity, saying that there may not have been a Clark-as-Superboy in the DCU, but there was one in Clark's imagination.  So although the new DCU never had a Superboy, at least Superman himself fondly remembers those "Superboy" stories of his youth along with the rest of us.

There was also the Pocket Universe Superboy - but I'd better stop now, I think I feel another Crisis coming on.



That's because the stories aren't about Superman when he was a boy.  If they were, there'd be a lot of interest!  It's time to bring back the young Clark/Kal as Superboy.

For sentimental reasons, my fave pre-Crisis Superboy story is "Father's Day on Planet Krypton" which I first read in a coverless Giant Superman #232, 1971.  This story has some of favorite Superboy/Superman story ingrdients including nostalgia, Krypton ephemera, and giant statues!

I wonder, is it in the database?

Fave post-crisis?  Suberboy One Million!  OMAC, the One-Millionth-Actual-Clone of Superboy!

Great issues! SUPERMAN 155 is one of my favourite post-Crisis stories.

My favourite pre-Crisis Superboy story is the origin of Bizarro.
I like a story realeased in 1972, too, which features Superboy in jail. He asks himself if he can help the prisoners to live better.

This is the cover:

(http://www.supermanhomepage.com/images/comic-covers/Pre-Crisis-Covers/superboy-covers/1972/sboy186.jpg)

The "Zero Hour"-tie-in "Kal-El meets Kon-El Superboy" story was in "Superboy" (recent series) #8. One of my favorite Superboy stories as well, despite utterly loathing "Zero Hour"...

Kal-El Superboy (the same alternate-timeline-displaced one from the issue above) showed up again later in the 90's Superboy run, when Kon-El visited his pre-Crisis-Smallville world via Hypertime (we also get to see pre-Crisis-style Ma and Pa Kent and Krypto show up). The two Superboys remember their last meeting and exchange notes on identities (with Ma hoping Kon won't tell anyone about learning Kal-El Superboy was Clark Kent). The two SBs then team up against the story's villain...

Pre-Crisis, favorite Superboy stories include:

"Superboy Meets Superboy---Almost!"/"Superboy's Mystery Mission": From the early 80's comics run, it was Bob Rozakis' update on "Superman's Mission For President Kennedy"; here, a 10-year-old Superboy meets JFK.

"New Adventures of Superboy" #50: Superboy heads off to college, meets his roommates, and stops a gang war between gangs from Metropolis and Gotham City. Amusing spot: Vegas taking bets on which city Superboy was planning to move to (Metropolis and Gotham City were dead-even oddswise :-) ).

The origin of Lex Luthor.

The death of Ma and Pa Kent.

The first appearance of Krypto.

"Superboy's Last Day In Smallville".

"Superman: the Secret Years": Rozakis' 1985 miniseries telling (his version of) how Superboy became Superman (and willingly ignoring the "professor and his lie detector"/"social worker" versions).

Can you tell me something about this story, please?
I know two different versions of this event...
1) An university professor wants to know if Clark is really Superboy, so he use a machine to find out the truth. Clark says that he is not Superboy and the machine detects that he is telling the truth, because now he is Superman!
2) Into an early '70s issue there is a story which features Superboy's early days at Metropolis University. He use his powers to "play" with his friends, and a woman says to him that he must be a man, not a boy. When she dies, he for respect change his name in Superboy.

My Favorite Superboy story is The Legion of Super-Traitors!

That story has it all: the 1st ever Legion of Super-Pets story, 1st ever Comet the Superhorse, Supergirl, Legion of Superheroes, Superboy Robots, Phantom Zone Villians and of course evil flying alien brains of death!

I love Superman: The Secret Years. But I've always enjoyed Superboy stories. Basically, it tells of his first meeting with Lori Lemaris, a college roommate that he had from Smallville who found out his secret identity, and some other good stuff. I think the miniseries was 4 issues.

Those are the first two versions, yep...

"The Secret Years" was a four-issue 1985 miniseries written by Bob Rozakis, and tells of Superboy's junior year in college, covering his college roommates (the same guys from the other 80's "In-Between Years" flashbacks), dating Lori Lemaris, a new friend Clark's made, and of Luthor's latest scheme. Events stemming from what befalls Clark's roommates, his battle with Luthor, and several other events leads Clark to finally decide to change his name to "Superman" out of maturity/no longer feeling like a boy (which, since he's mentioned as being 21 in this miniseries, I'd hope wasn't the case! :-) ).

I never got to read the early 70's "social worker" story, but did read the professor/lie detector one. Rozakis, in the first issue, mentions/summarizes the previous stories telling of Clark's college-age adventures, and mentions how his series ignores the "lie detector" and "social worker" versions (there's a picture of a few panels from each of those issues shown) of how he changed his name.

Since it came so late in the game, though (there's house ads for "Crisis" in the book), not surprised not many fans seem to remember this series (even despite the Frank Miller covers on all of the issues), vs. the "lie detector" bit (which, as Rozakis noted, felt a bit too much like just another "secret identity-dodging" tale to me for such an important event...though I do think Rozakis could've still fit it into the miniseries somehow...).

Someday, I'll buy this miniseries. In Italy it wasn't published...
I knew that it exists, but I missed a lot of details... Thank you for the explanations!

Pre-Crisis Favorites: "Superboy's Darkest Secret" and any adventures with Pete Ross, including the one where Pete got the powers.

Post-Crisis:  I don't have ANY favorites.  I MISS Superboy terribly
and have nothing but CONTEMPT for DC for what they did.  The
clone Superboy is an insult and an obscenity to the memory of the
original.[/u]

Welcome to the boards   :)

Some great first posts this week!  Welcome all!

Claire Kent, Alias Super-Sister! ( http://www.tgfa.org/comics/superman/superman.htm ) Very funny!

"The Game of Kriss-Kross Krypton" first published in this issue...I read it as a backstory in the issue where the Time Trapper uses Glorith to transfer the Legion into babies...

It was goofy, and had Superboy enacting mysteriously some of the moves from a board game he was playing with Lana...I admit, I loved a different era, I liked his interaction with an attractive girl playing a game and being a hero as well...

Sigh...THOSE days are gone... 8)

(http:// http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=13840&zoom=4 )