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  1. #1
    Astonishing Member LordUltimus's Avatar
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    Default What's your opinion of teen Clark as Superboy?

    So what do you think about it? Should it be restored again? If so, how would you do it? Would he be a public figure, doing it in secret as a rumor like Johns set up, or just when he hangs out with the Legion?

  2. #2
    Extraordinary Member Zero Hunter's Avatar
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    Only when with the Legion. Never in the present.

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    OUTRAGEOUS!! Thor-Ul's Avatar
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    In the prensent only tshirt and jeans and a secret rumour. But he can hang with the Legion in a supersuit.
    i always has found weird why if Superman was the idea than started the superhero wave, why there was no a superhero wave if Superboy was a known figure.
    "Never assign to malice what is adequately explained by stupidity or ignorance."

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    Fantastic Member babybats's Avatar
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    I also think Legion. If not, it could be reimagined or turned into an Easter Egg. Like instead of being a legit Superboy, 4yo Clark used to run around the farm in a cape, pretending he could fly, and maybe he'd wear it into town and play superhero, helping old ladies cross the street and stuff, holding doors open. And people would play along, "Well if it isn't the mighty Superboy of Smallville! Harold, can you believe it? It's Superboy!" And when Lois calls him Superman for the first time it makes him smile.

  5. #5
    Ultimate Member SiegePerilous02's Avatar
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    He should be Superboy in Smallville, but not be that visible. He should be just a town secret/rumor. Much like in the New 52, he wouldn't have a full blown costume beyond the cape, and wear the t-shirt and jeans. But he would travel frequently to the future with the Legion in much more public adventures. He also wouldn't be able to fly without a Legion flight ring, which he can only wear in their timeline.

  6. #6
    Ultimate Member Sacred Knight's Avatar
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    I like it with the Legion. If he ever uses his super heroics in his present day Smallville though it should be incognito so the name "Superboy", to the public, is never a thing.
    "They can be a great people Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you. My only son." - Jor-El

  7. #7
    Ultimate Member Ascended's Avatar
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    I think Clark using his powers to do hero work as a teen, and his interaction with the Legion, are critical to getting Superman "right" (or rather, a "right" I agree with).

    However, I don't think we need the public, costumed hero like we got back in the Silver Age. I think the Smallville treatment, where Clark does this stuff on the sly and is nothing more than a rural folktale, is the way to go. No costume, no public displays.

    He can do this stuff in his regular street clothes, or if DC really feels like they have to, they can adopt Morrison's t-shirt and jeans "costume" with the cape and shield (though I'd rather not water down Morrison's New52 work by changing it up like that).
    "We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe."

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  8. #8
    Extraordinary Member superduperman's Avatar
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    This is going to sound strange coming from someone who is a fan of powers from day one but I don't necessarily want him to be a costumed Superboy. And I'm indifferent to the Legion at best and somewhat opposed to them at worst. I prefer the Smallville method where he helps in secret. Maybe it's a product of my upbringing. Things like the Donner movies and TV versions that I grew up with. But things like the Legion and a costumed career just don't fit in my ideal version of Superman. I also find that as I get older I want less baggage with my Superman. Maybe that's why I liked the New 52 version so much. It stripped a lot of that away.
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  9. #9
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    .My problem is that most heroes get their powers and then begin their heroic careers. You don't have any issue with why Barry Allen wasn't fighting supervillains in college because he wasn't superhuman then. But with Clark you have someone who was more powerful than 90% of today's heroes when he was still in middle school. It starts to make his debut as Superman look less impressive when you realize that what ever his first public feat is, it is something he could have done a week, month, year …. before.

    A Superboy career to me makes perfect sense since once Clark realized he has the power to help, it becomes harder to justify that he either does nothing or somehow only acts if he can do so surreptitiously. Or do we assume that if teen Clark heard about the California wildfires he'd be more worried about public exposure than the risk to human lives?

  10. #10
    Ultimate Member Sacred Knight's Avatar
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    Just to reiteratie on the Superboy name, I'm more than fine with the Legion calling him that, because they know what he'll be called in the future. I just don't think its a term that needs to be brought up in any shape or form in the 21st century until the day Lois first writes it as Superman.
    "They can be a great people Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you. My only son." - Jor-El

  11. #11
    Legendary Member daBronzeBomma's Avatar
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    My opinion on this keeps evolving.

    My very first exposure to Superman was the SUPER FRIENDS cartoon. Then the Christopher Reeve movies. Then the comics, shortly after Byrne left. So Clark being Superboy never seemed normal to me. I was, and still am, all about the big-time species-altering event that is the public debut of Superman in our time. I felt that Clark as Superboy in general would tremendously dilute that moment.

    The film MAN OF STEEL changed my perspective on this, probably for good.

    Clark HAS to be a costumed Superboy prior to being a costumed Superman. Not publicly in our time (go the SMALLVILLE route and have him help in secret with no real evidence of his existence).

    But definitely publicly in the Legion's time (which, since I strongly don't believe the future is already written and we are all busy going through the motions, is not the definitive future of the DCU, merely one of the better possible ones).

    Clark has to make the rookie mistakes he made in MOS, but he should do it learning with peers and in places that are unfazed by the use of superpowers.

    The Legion is extremely important, if for no other reason than it allows Clark to much more safely and naturally grow into the role of superhero.

    Superboy is the one who makes the dumb mistakes and learned from them. Destroy a city? Not figure out how to effectively lure opponents away from populated areas? Be faced with "impossible" choices between letting innocents be killed or do the kill yourself?

    That's all Superboy. With the Legion.

    Superman shouldn't make these kinds of mistakes in our time.

  12. #12
    Ultimate Member Ascended's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sacred Knight View Post
    Just to reiteratie on the Superboy name, I'm more than fine with the Legion calling him that, because they know what he'll be called in the future. I just don't think its a term that needs to be brought up in any shape or form in the 21st century until the day Lois first writes it as Superman.
    Agreed. Clark can be called Superboy (and wear the costume) with the Legion, but in the modern day he shouldn't do either of those things. He's just a good kid trying to help out, and doing it in a way that won't completely ruin his life and the lives of his parents. Even as a teen he's got the intelligence and power to avoid public notice.

    Quote Originally Posted by Jon Clark View Post
    A Superboy career to me makes perfect sense since once Clark realized he has the power to help, it becomes harder to justify that he either does nothing or somehow only acts if he can do so surreptitiously. Or do we assume that if teen Clark heard about the California wildfires he'd be more worried about public exposure than the risk to human lives?
    I think Clark picks option C: help out with the wildfires but not be caught doing it.

    Smallville laid out the perfect methodology for this and showed that you can indeed have Clark perform incredible, heroic feats without being in the public eye.

    Additionally I like the idea that young Clark was this urban myth; a folktale in the Midwest no more "real" than Bigfoot or ghosts or aliens. And then one day, after years of rumors and blurry, unfocused photographs, he makes a public debut. Now the whole world has to sit back and say "Well crap, that "super boy" was real.....what if all these other myths and legends are too?" The idea that Superman's debut forces us to re-evaluate what is, or could be, real is a huge part of the impact Superman carries into the future. He tells us that there are no limits, that our wildest imaginations could be right about everything, and that should inspire and galvanize the world into exploring more, asking more questions, pushing our understanding of the universe further and in new directions.
    "We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another, as if we were one single tribe."

    ~ Black Panther.

  13. #13
    Ultimate Member Sacred Knight's Avatar
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    I also liked the American Alien route where a lot of Smallville residents know Clark's secret, and keep it. A tight-knit community that will not betray even the deepest of secrets and strangest of circumstances regarding one of their own. I liked that angle. Clark wasn't out in the public eye in a costume doing feats as a teen, but he would help when he could, and the residents KNEW it, but kept it low-key on purpose and drew no extra attention to it.
    "They can be a great people Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you. My only son." - Jor-El

  14. #14
    Extraordinary Member superduperman's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sacred Knight View Post
    I also liked the American Alien route where a lot of Smallville residents know Clark's secret, and keep it. A tight-knit community that will not betray even the deepest of secrets and strangest of circumstances regarding one of their own. I liked that angle. Clark wasn't out in the public eye in a costume doing feats as a teen, but he would help when he could, and the residents KNEW it, but kept it low-key on purpose and drew no extra attention to it.
    This raises the question, who should be in on the secret? The family doctor, maybe. If needles can't break his skin, the doctor will want to know why. The police chief if Clark is truly helping to catch criminals. Past that I don't know that any of the residents need to know. In the Superboy comics, Smallville always came across like Mayberry. A place where bank robbers kept passing through just to see if they could knock off the place. Which made no sense considering it was the only small town in America with it's own super-hero. One would think criminals would avoid it like the plague.
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  15. #15
    Astonishing Member LordUltimus's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by superduperman View Post
    This raises the question, who should be in on the secret? The family doctor, maybe. If needles can't break his skin, the doctor will want to know why. The police chief if Clark is truly helping to catch criminals. Past that I don't know that any of the residents need to know. In the Superboy comics, Smallville always came across like Mayberry. A place where bank robbers kept passing through just to see if they could knock off the place. Which made no sense considering it was the only small town in America with it's own super-hero. One would think criminals would avoid it like the plague.
    I always wondered how Smallville remained a small town Pre-Crisis. Seems to me when the world's first and only superhero happens, there'd be a massive amount of people moving in so they could just get to see him.

    Ironically, him being Superboy post-Crisis would mean that wouldn't be such a big deal, since there're probably tons of superheroes that are basically tourist traps.

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