SUPERMAN JR. How they could overlook this guy, Superman's only legitimate claim to a kid sidekick (not counting Supergirl, although let's face it, Clark pretty much abandoned that jailbait in some one-horse town and hightailed it back to the big city)? Superman Jr. was the son of a scientist who gave the kid super-powers before up and keeling over. Then Superman adopted him and, like all good adoptive parents, changed the kid's name. Now do you miss your dead daddy? Oh, and later, Superman Jr. died. I bet there's an acre of upturned earth behind the Fortress of Solitude containing the unmarked graves of dozens of Superboys and Supergirls
It's always hard to know if he's kidding or not, but I've certainly never heard of this character. Anyone?
Well, he existed. Origin wasn't what he thought it was, nor the ending, either.
He was the son of a scientist who lived in an isolated area and seeing a huge celestial body hurtling towards earth, thought it was the end of the world, and he sent his son into space a la Jor-El in a space ship. Superboy (who he was so isolated he had never heard of) saved the world by pushing the celestial body to one side. The shock of what he had done caused the scientist to die of a heart attack, but not before he got a promise from then-Superboy to find his infant son and take care of him. Of course, he couldn't---space is too big.
The kid travelled through a swarm of glowing meteors, which gave him super-powers. He built his own home on an uninhabited world, but later came back to Earth in the same spacecraft, when Superman had grown and he was a teenager. His powers were roughly equal to Superman/boy's.
He was a blonde kid, and his costume had differing colors from Sueprman's---orange was in it, for instance---and Superman, keeping his word to his father, adopted the kid, even setting up a new secret id to look after him in a small town---
One catch. Superman found his powers deserting him, one by one. It turns out the spaceship also came in touch with a super-POISON in its spaceflight, one that could even effect Superman---that was robbing him of his powers. Luckily, the worried Superman talked in his sleep, and in the hotel room they were sleeping in (separate beds, okay?) Superman Jr. heard what was happening. He used his super-vision to spot one particular meteor of an alloy he recognized, and tricked Superman into getting up there with it and him---but it turned out the alloy was a CONDUCTOR of super-powers. That if Superman held one end of it, and Superman Jr. held the other end, Superman Jr.'s powers flowed into Superman.
I LOVE compressed storytelling. This would have been a twelve-issue series these days, rather than twelve pages....
Superman Jr. did NOT die, although he did lose his powers, and evidently felt safe enough to go out on his own. (He looked at least sixteen, certainly old enough to take care of himself.) He never appeared again...which WAS a shame...
I would have loved to have Superman Jr. and Super-Menace and several others make repeat appearances.
Tell your source to get their facts striaght. There is enough misinformation on the internet.---Al, who did this all from memory.
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