Superboy pre crisis recommendations

[comicstar100]

As a kid I grew up on the post Crisis reboot. The idea of a young Clark as Superboy wasn't part of my canon. But as a teen I also loved the Smallville series which was about a young Clark. I've started to get interested in reading about the adventures of young Clark Kent as Superboy. What stories do you recommend?

[seismic-2]

I grew up reading them, and frankly just about all of them were pretty ridiculous. I even thought so at the time, when I was a kid, and I would certainly think so now. A big chunk of them were about the ridiculous contrivances he kept using to "disguise" his secret identity from Lana Lang, even though she was convinced that Clark was Superboy, so it didn't really do all that much good. He would just have to go through all the motions again in the next issue.

[Jim Kelly]

I also read these growing up. While they might be ridiculous, I don't think I felt that way at the time I was reading them. Maybe later, as I went through my adolescence, I looked down my nose at them. But that would've been tinged with the memory of how much joy I got from them as a kid (I was probably the most nostalgic in my teens, mourning the loss of innocence).

I think the Superboy comics can be divided into six or seven editorial reigns. There's the early run (1943 - 1953) under Whitney Ellsworth/Jack Schiff, which goes from MORE FUN COMICS to ADVENTURE COMICS and then the launch of SUPERBOY (1949)--where Superboy seems younger and not as powerful. There's when Mort Weisinger took over ADVENTURE and SUPERBOY (1954 - 1967)--which expands a lot of the mythology--in fact many elements of Superman myth are introduced in these comics and the Legion of Super-Heroes takes over ADVENTURE. That's followed by Murray Boltinoff becoming editor on SUPERBOY (1968 - 1976), when the comics get a refresh and this phases into the Legion taking over SUPERBOY. Next comes another run in ADVENTURE COMICS (1977)--this time under Paul Levitz--and then a run in SUPERMAN FAMILY (1979)--edited by E. Nelson Bridwell/Julius Schwartz. Superboy left that book for his own solo comic, THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SUPERBOY (1980 - 1984), edited by Schwartz.

The really loopy stories are during the Weisinger run. But again these built a lot of the world of Superman, so all that surrealism generated important lore.

Having read/re-read the whole run of THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SUPERBOY this past year, I have a lot of respect for it. It uses what was established by Schiff, Weisinger and Boltinoff, but it's more thought out. Having already had those stories, the writers can look at all that and organize it to create fleshed out characters and ongoing subplots. It still exists in the larger-than-life world of Earth-One Superman, but it's much more focused with a modern sensibility.

[Johnny Thunders!]

I absolutely love Superboy and the Pre Crisis Legion of Superheroes. I think the influence of Superboy is felt all the way from Spiderman to Invincible.

I would highly recommend the Jim Shooter era of Legion of Superheroes.
Here is a great Youtube channel of great cartoonists discussing one issue from that era.

https://youtu.be/9rTSW75XiV0

[K7P5V]

For what it's worth, I'll always enjoy Legion of Super-Heroes #280 when Superboy rejoins the team...





Also, check out this totally awesome cameo! Mind-Totally-Blown (LOL):

[DABellWrites]

Honestly, that's really hard to say for pre-Crisis Superman. The miles vary for many people. Jim Kelly really has the right idea, if you ask me. Don't look at the individual comics, but the era the stories were written in.