Superboy's foster parents' mystery.

[Kal-L]

Something tickled me for years; in some adventures, Superboy's foster parents are old people with white hair and glasses, they looked like a grand pa and a grand ma. (I know once they've been deaged, but they still had the same features)
But in some other adventures, they are younger, Pa Kent seems to be a young man and Martha is somewhat a brown haired sexy woman.
Here are the 2 ways we can see them:


Moreover, I have also noticed changes of this sort in different Superboy publications with Krypto, in some adventures, he's got long ears, and in some others he's got short and pointed ears.

Can somebody explain this mystery?

[Klar Ken T5477]

Yes. In the mid 60s IIRC Superboy' s parents became young due to an alien elixir.


from the GCD

As for Krypto, depends on the artist drawing him.

[Captain Kal]

More info ...

The aliens were marketing a TV show about Superboy.  The fans thought Superboy was a fictional TV show.  The demographics showed the fans preferred a younger look for the foster parents.

Since the Kents were real, at least in the DCU, to satisfy their fans and get better ratings, the aliens spiked the Kents' well-water with that youth serum.

It wore off soon after Clark graduated from high school so they were old again just before they died from the mysterious fever.

[Klar Ken T5477]

The fever that they contracted in the Caribbean on a pleasure cruise on a boat made by their son

[Kal-L]

OK; but the dog?

[DoctorZero]

Different mistakes made by various artists.

[Great Rao]

The aliens were marketing a TV show about Superboy.  The fans thought Superboy was a fictional TV show.  The demographics showed the fans preferred a younger look for the foster parents.

Great shades of Elvis! Those aliens must have come to Earth-Prime and started a TV show here!

[Captain Kal]

Heh Very Funny, Great Rao!

I just remembered some other missing details.

While this might have seemed to be a gift to the Kents, it was a dead giveaway that they weren't a normal family and would be a clue for others to poke around and eventually figure out Clark was Superboy.  When Superboy couldn't reverse the serum and the aliens didn't have an antidote, the Kents wore old-folks disguises long enough to stage a party with their old friends.  The lemonade spiked with the serum was served so all the guests were made young while Superboy sent a fake meteor past so everyone thought the meteor was what made them all young.  When the serum and meteor prop had done their work, the Kents doffed their disguises so they looked young with everyone else at the party.