Did fans in general *ever* perceive Superboy as separate from Superman?

[Tzigone]

I mean, did fans ever perceive the stories as taking place in separate continuities? I understand that they did exist separately for a good while. Eventually that changed. But did very many people think of that way?

Originally, seeing young Clark delivering good with a horse and wagon was kinda surreal to me. I mean, Superman starts in an era when there are more cars than horses (and in a city, which makes a difference). And it was in the midst of an era of heavy change (which in retrospect we sort of think of culminating in or immediately after WWII in the United States) and 20 years could make a heck of difference. In reading the old Superboy comics, though (and I've only read a limited number), I don't always get sense of time. Sometimes the stories seem set further back, and sometimes the characters seem to be wearing contemporary fashions. Similar issues with appliances.

I have to admit, the idea that they would have ever thought fans would generally treat Superboy as not a (retconned) part of the past of the Superman they were also reading seems strange. I may try to find old letter pages, but those are so late in Superboy's existence. Odd, really, since I don't think of anyone would have ever had any thinking-them-the-same issues with Earth 2 Superman, even if they kinda were originally the same (even if I'm not fond of dividing out Earth Two and One versions of characters by taking part of Golden Age and saying it's a different person when I thought of those as either early installment weirdness or still part of the characters' histories).

I don't suppose there are any fan-pages out there that track the era-specific-indications in different issues of Superboy stories, are there? Could be kinda fun.

[Man_of_Tomorrow]

Superboy was young superman until COIE.

From then on Superboy was a Clark Kent from a pocket universe (because Byrne threw that away and legion didn't make sense anymore) . And from 1994 Superboy was synonymous with Conner.

So for a good chunk Superman was Superboy. And that was reinforced with cartoons like LoSH. I don't think the general public knows either Conner or Jon.

[Adekis]

Yeah, I remember hearing that originally Superboy wasn't quite in continuity with the older Superman, even though he was a younger Clark Kent.

If I had to guess, I'd say it probably changed because the idea of keeping those two versions of the same character separate just doesn't come naturally, but that's just speculation.

[Tzigone]

Yeah, I remember hearing that originally Superboy wasn't quite in continuity with the older Superman, even though he was a younger Clark Kent.

I understood it to last quite a while (until 1960s, at least). With things like Lex present in Smallville in Superboy while not having that history with Superman in Superman comics of the same time. Haven't read those, so can't really say. I mean, I have read some Superboy stories, but before Lex was brought in.

[superduperman]

I don't think they ever established that they were in different universes officially. Superboy was created in 1945. In 1948 Superman #53 did an origin re-telling that didn't mention Superboy. So the assumption was that they didn't take place in the same universe. Keep in mind, continuity didn't really exist back then so I don't think anybody cared. The famous 1973 origin? It was based on this one. I think they did another origin retelling in 1951 that DID mention Superboy so it sounds like it was just a discrepancy. Keep in mind they also did a story in 1959 where Superman was being hunted as a fugitive and did a re-telling of his origin that didn't mention Superboy either so make of that what you will. Comics back then were kids reading material one month, fish wrapping the next.

[seismic-2]

When I was reading the comics in the late 1950s and early 1960s I had no issue at all with the claim that Superboy's adventures were those of the same character who would grow up to be Superman. After all, that's why Lana Lang was featured in one series as Superboy's girlfriend and in the other series as Superman's old flame. Of course, back then comics were read primarily by 10-year-olds, and readers in that age group aren't especially nit-picky about historical details or continuity. After all, it was expected that there would be pretty much a complete turn-over in readership every few years, so long-tern continuity was irrelevant (and even a bad idea).

[Jim Kelly]

I would guess that it would be unclear to some readers. By the 1960s, there was enough crossover between the Superboy and the Superman stories, so you understood. However, the timeframe of the Superboy stories was a bit wonky. It was a bit like the timeframe for Little Lulu or Nancy. It was supposed to be in the time before Superman, before 1938, however there could be modern conveniences like TVs. So it was old-timey but when the stories happened was fuzzy. In 1971 they changed the timeframe so the Superboy stories were supposed to be 15 years behind the times. This doesn't happen in the 1978 movie, as it seems to be circa 1955 in Smallville when Clark is a teen. And I don't think the comics did a good job of sticking to this rule--plus it just was weird to have Superboy stories set in the late 1960s and beyond. Smallville always seemed like a place that was in a distant Rockwellian past.

[Ascended]

I wasn't around for it, but my understanding is that it was about as close to being in continuity as things usually got back then, which is to say not much. Some characters and/or events would crop up in both books or what have you, and they were the same continuity as far as that goes, but as I understand it there were also things that were contradicted too.

I think the intent was that this was Superman, the guy in the Action Comics book, as a kid. But nobody paid as much attention to whether "Superboy story #567" matched up with "Action Comics story #7732"

[Kuwagaton]

To be conservative I'd imagine at least from the mid sixties to eighties, most people who knew of the two lines understood that it was supposed to be the same guy but "thirteen years" younger.

But growing up between tv airings of Superman vs Adventures of Superboy, and then the 90s comics, they weren't actually the same character to me.

[seismic-2]

[Jim Kelly]

All the Superboy stories I read when I was a boy had a box on the splashpage that said "The Adventures of Superman When He Was a Boy."

[superduperman]

My understanding is that he didn't get his own title until 1949. Which means that he was running in More Fun or Adventures or whatever other obscure title kids who read Superman might not have been reading at the time. So it makes some sense to not include his Superboy history in a late forties retelling of his origin if those books weren't selling well or weren't well known or just weren't available everywhere. But once he got is own title sitting on the shelf next to Superman, it makes a little more sense to sort of acknowledge the other exists at least.

[seismic-2]

My understanding is that he didn't get his own title until 1949. Which means that he was running in More Fun or Adventures or whatever other obscure title kids who read Superman might not have been reading at the time. So it makes some sense to not include his Superboy history in a late forties retelling of his origin if those books weren't selling well or weren't well known or just weren't available everywhere. But once he got is own title sitting on the shelf next to Superman, it makes a little more sense to sort of acknowledge the other exists at least.

Superboy's first appearance was in More Fun #101 (Feb. 1945), in a story by Siegel and Shuster. I haven't read that story, by my understanding was that it was merely a story about Superman when he was growing up, and there was never any doubt that Superboy and Superman were the same person. The cover of Superboy #1 (Mar. 1949) is shown in post #10 above, and on the cover Superman makes it clear that this book is about his adventures as a boy.

[bat39]

I think by the time the Silver Age was underway, Superboy was firmly cemented as as part of Superman's backstory 'in continuity' (to the extent that continuity was starting to exist).

By modern standards, I suppose you could argue that Superman was 'soft-rebooted' throughout the 50's, so any discrepancies between Superboy and the earliest Superman stories were no longer a problem (they actually weren't anyway because, again, no one was really keeping score when it came to continuity).

That said, it'd be really interesting to know what Siegal and Shuster's thoughts were when it came to Superboy. They created the character, who pretty explicitly contradicted their original conception of Superman putting on the suit as an adult. Did they view Superboy as a 'prequel' of sorts to their Superman stories? Or as a kind of alternate take on the Superman mythos?

Fun fact: If Superboy was part of current continuity (and he may well be, who knows?), his era would likely be the late 90's!

[superduperman]

I think by the time the Silver Age was underway, Superboy was firmly cemented as as part of Superman's backstory 'in continuity' (to the extent that continuity was starting to exist).

By modern standards, I suppose you could argue that Superman was 'soft-rebooted' throughout the 50's, so any discrepancies between Superboy and the earliest Superman stories were no longer a problem (they actually weren't anyway because, again, no one was really keeping score when it came to continuity).

That said, it'd be really interesting to know what Siegal and Shuster's thoughts were when it came to Superboy. They created the character, who pretty explicitly contradicted their original conception of Superman putting on the suit as an adult. Did they view Superboy as a 'prequel' of sorts to their Superman stories? Or as a kind of alternate take on the Superman mythos?

Fun fact: If Superboy was part of current continuity (and he may well be, who knows?), his era would likely be the late 90's!

Superboy is, in fact, part of his current origin. What we know of as continuity didn't exist until about the mid-fifties. If that. Krypto was the first ongoing character to be acknowledged in both Superboy and Superman books. Seigel had a Superboy concept in his mind early on but the one that DC eventually ran with was not his. He had nothing to do with it and, in fact, sued DC to get the rights to the character back in the late forties. DC basically came up with the character while Seigel went off to war.