Is Clark Kent/Superboy still legally radioactive?

[Bored at 3:00AM]

I know the legal shenanigans around Superboy have caused no end of creative headaches for DC, but I thought everything was sorted out.

Yet, they still seem to be avoiding the concept, despite occasionally acknowledging that Clark Kent was Superboy.

Even the great Superman of Smallville book didn't call him Superboy when it was clearly a story about Superman when he was a boy.

Is anyone aware of what's going on? I know there were rumors and rumblings afoot that many of the creative decisions made during the Post-Morrison New 52 era were designed to distance the character from the original Action Comics #1 version from 1938, which is why Lois was replaced with Wonder Woman as his love interest. But I have no idea if there's any truth to any of that.

I was under the impression that the current "With Permission of the Seigel Family" legal disclaimer was the final hurrah of the legal wrangling over the character.

However, given how underhanded the outright theft of Superboy was from Seigel, maybe the corporate lawyers have instructed DC to avoid using the character.

[Spiderboy12]

No.

Clark Kent appeared as Superboy and a member of the Legion in DC's Cybernetic Summer one-shot, released just this summer. A Superboy/Clark Kent robot also appeared in the story (he was the focus of the story, in fact).

[Yoda]

That case was resolved in I think 2013 or somewhere in DC/WB's favor. The family appealed it all the way up to the Ninth Circuit, but the court upheld the decision. It's effectively over and done with. It's possible they came to some resolution of things after the Ninth Circuit decision to prevent another lawsuit, but from all appearances it's over.

[manofsteel1979]

I don't think it's a case of the legal stuff being a roadblock. It's probably because the previous pre-AT&T regime at Warners/DC just wanted to distance themselves from Clark Kent being directly associated with the Superboy name as there has been a big push the last few years for that mantle firmly being Jon Kent's before his presumed ascension to being Superman in DiDio's 5G.

Now that DiDio's gone and AT&T is restructuring things,who knows what the future holds? They may be more amenable to the idea of Clark having once been Superboy and embracing a long history or they may continue to shy away from that and other perceived convolutions in order to push a more simplified view of the main DC I.Ps. Time will tell.

[Denirac]

I know the legal shenanigans around Superboy have caused no end of creative headaches for DC, but I thought everything was sorted out.

Yet, they still seem to be avoiding the concept, despite occasionally acknowledging that Clark Kent was Superboy.

Even the great Superman of Smallville book didn't call him Superboy when it was clearly a story about Superman when he was a boy.

Is anyone aware of what's going on? I know there were rumors and rumblings afoot that many of the creative decisions made during the Post-Morrison New 52 era were designed to distance the character from the original Action Comics #1 version from 1938, which is why Lois was replaced with Wonder Woman as his love interest. But I have no idea if there's any truth to any of that.

I was under the impression that the current "With Permission of the Seigel Family" legal disclaimer was the final hurrah of the legal wrangling over the character.

However, given how underhanded the outright theft of Superboy was from Seigel, maybe the corporate lawyers have instructed DC to avoid using the character.

No. They're quite able to use the name "Superboy" for Clark Kent. Prime's gone back to being called Superboy-Prime when at the time of the Legal Drama he had to be renamed Superman-Prime

[superduperman]

They were calling him Superboy as far back as at least Johns origin back in 2009. So we know they must have worked something out prior to 2013. I assume this is well and truly resolved now but another shyster lawyer could get their hooks in the Seigel's yet again and convince them to try to sue again.