Superboy

[The Overlord]

What do you think of the various Superboy incarnations that have appeared over the decades?

I have to admit, I do not like Clark wearing a costume and fighting crime in Smallville as a kidr, because it really strains credibility that people would not put two and two together and figure out Clark is Superman, if Superboy was active in Smallville before Clark came to Metropolis. I think Clark using his powers to foil some crimes in Smallville in a more subtle way works, but I think Clark becoming Superman should be a bit of journey, rather then him donning a costume as a young lad.

I kinda like the young clone Superboy, Kon-El.

Superboy Prime is a bad character, it seems the writers are trying to troll the fans with this character and he is annoying because of that.

I think young Jonathan Kent has some potential.

[Sacred Knight]

I don't like Clark wearing the costume and fighting crime in Smailville publicly, but I DO like the idea that he went on various adventures with the Legion as a kid. There he can superhero about, and the credibility questions between the Superboy history in Smallville and his Metropolis history as Superman goes away. You just write it like no one knew. And even then a costume isn't wholly necessary either. I don't care if he wore a costume or even went by the name Superboy (however, once again taking the idea that his adventures would be strictly with the Legion, there would be some basis to them giving him a costume and a codename that would be similar to what he would eventually wear and go by in his own future). Basically the premise just needed to be tweaked to make more sense to a readership whose taste for camp was limited and who wanted a little bit more reasonable a suspension of disbelief. Getting rid of the history though was overkill and one of the more gigantic mistakes the post-Crisis made, and needs to be reinstituted if it isn't already.


As for Kon-El, love the character. He took some time to grow on me when he first showed up, but his spoiled, renegade behavior had a nice contrast to the way Clark was when he himself grew up. As he grew into his own hero he became a classic in his own right. The DCU is currently lesser without him around.

Superboy Prime is basically a joke now. I can't take any story serious that would use him outside of something purely comedic. The idea of him originally was interesting, and if they went back to that I wouldn't mind seeing him again. But beyond that I hope he stays gone.

Not a fan of Jon Kent. I don't like the way he was shoehorned into continuity just so he could be a 10 year old playmate for Damian, don't like that his existence got Kon put on the shelf (it didn't have to, but it did nonetheless so while I mostly blame the silly unnecessary edict, that bitterness can't help but also glom onto the source of the trouble), and I hated how he virtually dominated one of the Superman titles for nearly two years. DC has a lot of work to make me give a damn about him, but bringing Kon back would be a nice olive branch (if they cared about catering to me and me in particular, which of course they don't, I am speaking extemporaneously).

[Restingvoice]

I like almost all of them. The New 52 ones are victims of an overly complicated backstory and publication order, but I don't hate them as a character. I also like when fan artists depict all of them existing in the same universe like they're brothers. Sorta like the Superfamily version of the Robins
There's Conner Kent, the macho cocky one who's a little bit of perv towards girls but gay for Tim.
The New 52 Kon-El, the contemplative but clueless one who doesn't know how the world works and end up robbing a bank to get money
There's Jonathan Lane Kent, who killed everyone but then went on a redemption path.
Then there's the smallest Jon Samuel Kent, the hyper-powered barn kitten who accidentally burned a real kitten.
Add the Robins and you'd get a sitcom.
Do it, DC.

I'm undecided on Superboy Clark Kent and only know Superboy-Prime as a meme.

[KC]

I really like Clark as Superboy. Clark acts differently to Superman, so nobody would think that they are the same person.

I am indifferent to Kon-El. I don't really care about him and like most characters created in the 90's, I will never care about him.

I really like Jon. I like the idea of giving Superman a son and I think a lot of good story opportunities have opened up because of his existence.

[Blue22]

The only ones I've really cared about are Conner and Jon. Jon in particular has really grown on me. There's no doubt in my mind that he was made specifically so Supes could have his own Damian, but I don't really care. It works. He's adorable and everything you'd expect Superman's son (and a foil to Damian) would be. The only downside is the idea that his existence gives DC less incentive to bring Conner back. I honestly can't choose between them, which is why I'm hoping we won't have to.

Conner was an awesome character before the New 52 got their hands on him. I'm still holding out hope that he, Cassie, and Bart are returned to their former glory. Kon just might need a new code name...unless they share the Superboy name like how Wally and Barry share the Flash name.

[Sacred Knight]

Conner was awesome before Johns got a hold of him. Screwups with him happened well before the New 52. Half-lex, lame "costume", Clark-lite, ultra angsty...all of that went completely against what the character was supposed to be about. Okay, you could sell me on the Lex thing, but it was only done to change his personality into something unrecognizable in the first place. Had it been done with better intentions maybe I'd have liked it better. I'm not against him maturing by any stretch, but that wasn't maturation, that was just a completely different character. His personality got at least a little better after he returned to life. Mainly in that he wasn't as broody and emo anymore, but the other big problems still existed and were never fixed before the reboot happened. New 52...it had its own problems. They tried to repair something badly damaged but just ended up breaking it further.

[Blue22]

I...I actually loved Johns' take on all four of the Young Justice members he carried over to Teen Titans. Especially Conner and Bart. But I'm also aware I'm one of the only people who considers that entire run their favorite era of the Titans :P

[Superlad93]

*I go back and forth with Clark as Superboy before becoming Superman, but I usually end up feeling like it has to be there in some form because there's a level of charm and Clark-ness to the whole idea.

*Superboy Prime is a really cool idea that I continue to like.

*Conner was my actual introduction to comics. I maintain that Johns getting Lex involved genetically was a great call. I also fully acknowledge that it may just have been the single biggest waste of a great idea in the Superman myth. Speaking purely in regards to his concept--or rather what he's become conceptually--the name Superboy is largely incidental. In regrades to character: he's got a fairly unique role what with being created with a goal of succession in mind. There's this fork in the road quality to him that asks the question of free will, and it's fascinating given the idea that a relinquishing of free will might mean becoming Superman.

*Love me some Jon Kent. I marvel at the balls of his simplicity. He just IS Superman's son, and there's no "but." That's rare in any form of fiction. Even though there's a very real aspect about him that's played like Small Superman, it's amazingly not to his determent, and he comes with the simple yet effective twist of simply being raised by Lois and Superman himself thus shifting how his world works and the scope of it while adding in caveats to the whole thing. He's unlike Conner because he wasn't created to one day be Superman. He simply grew up in a world that had Superman in it, fell in love with the concept like any of us did/would, and then found out that Superman was his dad and he had the powers. Wanting to be Superboy, and someday Superman, is 100% his choice, and that's a pretty special way to go about a it.

And as far as the whole Jon is keeping Conner from coming back thing? The more I think about it, the less I see it that way. Conner is gone/in rehab because his New 52 version ambitious flop that got his book canned. Even the limited references to him seem to him are far and few in between, and never direct. Johns himself more or less disavowed the version. Jon using the seems more like an incidental rehabilitation of the brand while creating a new character rather than some spiteful switch.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I'm more into Connor and Jon as Superboy than Clark. That era tends to take more of a prequel feel so its not that interesting to go that in deep to me.

Superboy-prime is a character idea i like but I'm not sure i wanna see him that often.

[Sacred Knight]

I...I actually loved Johns' take on all four of the Young Justice members he carried over to Teen Titans. Especially Conner and Bart. But I'm also aware I'm one of the only people who considers that entire run their favorite era of the Titans :P

Please don't take my strong opinions to mean I look down on yours though. Its a touchy subject for me and I tend to take any opportunity to vent about it, haha. You're certainly not the only one who holds a differing opinion though. Hell the characters were still popular after the change, so obviously not everyone disliked it, at least not as much as I do. I don't think you're as alone there as you think you are. Even I think there were some great things about the title as a whole. I just wasn't a fan of this particular change.

And as far as the whole Jon is keeping Conner from coming back thing? The more I think about it, the less I see it that way. Conner is gone/in rehab because his New 52 version ambitious flop that got his book canned. Even the limited references to him seem to him are far and few in between, and never direct. Johns himself more or less disavowed the version. Jon using the seems more like an incidental rehabilitation of the brand while creating a new character rather than some spiteful switch.

We'll just have to agree to disagree on that one. His New 52 book bombed, but so did other ideas and they jumped right back into things with Rebirth and some changes. The degree of which the character was ruined is also pretty exaggerated. There was indeed the whole Jon Lane Kent thing, but at the end of the day, when the book ended, it was Conner back in the role. I've never understood how its not pie to just reinsert his pre-N52 roots like what happened to a lot of other characters. At the absolute most, I could somewhat see the wisdom of waiting till Superman Reborn to do it, to firmly re-establish Superman's old history first, but even then they still doubled down and left him as the one glaring omission from the continuity. And I mean, they didn't feel the need to play this long game with Supergirl. Her history was majorly different in the New 52 too. And while I think her numbers were better in the New 52, they weren't great either. In fact there's still things that contradict with her and Superman's histories since hers is still basically New 52 based and Superman was put back to his pre-FP self. They didn't even feel the need to bother shoring up things there and were still fine to chug along with her. On the other hand, the other side of the story is just too coincidental. New kid, who came about in somewhat controversial fashion, inherited the name, and now Conner's gone. I just don't buy it was because his last book was bad. Characters have bad books all the time, and while you'll get canceled, you don't usually get erased from continuity for it. At absolute worst a bad idea can get a character killed. But even then its usually character of a lesser status and longevity than Kon-El.

I mean, do I think he'll come back eventually? Probably. And I don't think they ever truly considered keeping him gone for too incredibly long. But I'll never believe the motivation for the wait was for his best interests as a character. Just doesn't add up to me.

[jamgut]

With the recent discussion regarding Doomsday Clock and a potential Legion return, I've been thinking along the same lines as Sacred Knight in regards to Superboy and the Legion. Allowing Clark participate to Legion adventures as a teen while not becoming "super" until he's older in the contemporary timeline, seems like it a good solution for all. There's a reason why the Adventure Comics of the '60s always had Superboy on the cover.

The subsequent Superboys really don't hold much interest for me, probably because their existence seems to be a reason not to have a Clark-Superboy.

[MajorHoy]

What do you think of the various Superboy incarnations that have appeared over the decades?

I have to admit, I do not like Clark wearing a costume and fighting crime in Smallville as a kidr, because it really strains credibility that people would not put two and two together and figure out Clark is Superman, if Superboy was active in Smallville before Clark came to Metropolis. I think Clark using his powers to foil some crimes in Smallville in a more subtle way works, but I think Clark becoming Superman should be a bit of journey, rather then him donning a costume as a young lad.

Y'see, I have a different take on Clark as Superboy because that's what I grew up on all those years before CoIE. I have no problem with it.

Superboy Prime is a bad character, it seems the writers are trying to troll the fans with this character and he is annoying because of that.

Conner was awesome before Johns got a hold of him.

Same thing Sacred Knight said about Conner as Superboy could also be said about Superboy-Prime. Originally, Superboy-Prime was the Superboy from Earth-Prime, introduced during CoIE.



At the end of CoIE, he helped saved the universe, but his version of Earth was gone forever. He had stayed behind with the Golden Age Superman to finish the fight with the Anti-Monitor, and they, along with Golden Age Lois Lane and Alex Luthor (originally from Earth-3) left for an alternate dimension.

And then we got Infinite Crisis.

[Sacred Knight]

Man did Infinite Crisis completely destroy a beautiful thing. What bothers me the most is that I didn't even fully realize it at the time. I mean, by the time of Infinite Crisis of course I was quite away of pre-Crisis history, the old multiverse, and all that jazz. I wasn't as ignorant as I was as a kid, I had done the research by then. But still...it was just research. Second-hand info. I knew it, but I didn't experience it. So IC didn't bother me originally. It was only after, when I actually read the stuff instead of just synopses and cliffs notes, that I realized how messed up and disrespected these characters were made to be in that story. Honestly, while I think that right now Doomsday Clock is a pretty big vanity story, I think Infinite Crisis was the biggest one of all. Look at the character assassination and literal assassination of characters just to put one's personal stamp on things.

[Kuwagaton]

Kon-el went from being my favorite character to imo, having the most bland concept, looks, personality, generic powers, and past history. Like all the 90s Kirby-Remix stuff was scrubbed out. I'd have felt a lot better about the change if he didn't seem like the wrong kind of self absorbed: Superboy just wasn't the guy in his feelings like that. Similarly, I think Prime got kind of weird whereas DCP #87 was my favorite Superboy story not written by Dorfman or Bates.

Well, pre-crisis anyway. I actually watched the Superboy TV show a lot as a kid and the tie-in comics were pretty rad. They were able to distill the Boy-exclusive elements since it was out of continuity. It's a lot easier for me to like Clark as Superboy without Superman on the horizon.

[Miles To Go]

Man did Infinite Crisis completely destroy a beautiful thing. What bothers me the most is that I didn't even fully realize it at the time. I mean, by the time of Infinite Crisis of course I was quite away of pre-Crisis history, the old multiverse, and all that jazz. I wasn't as ignorant as I was as a kid, I had done the research by then. But still...it was just research. Second-hand info. I knew it, but I didn't experience it. So IC didn't bother me originally. It was only after, when I actually read the stuff instead of just synopses and cliffs notes, that I realized how messed up and disrespected these characters were made to be in that story. Honestly, while I think that right now Doomsday Clock is a pretty big vanity story, I think Infinite Crisis was the biggest one of all. Look at the character assassination and literal assassination of characters just to put one's personal stamp on things.

It's lasting legacy is making Superboy Prime an "our guy" meme. Let that sink in.