"Don't Mess With The S": Superboy (Kesel/Grummett)

[C-Dot]

That would be this guy.....



On February of 1994, the "Reign of Tomorrow" kicked off with books that spun off of the events of the "Reign of The Supermen" event in Superman comics.



One of the books continued the adventures of the brand new Superboy, originally featured as the "Superman" in "The Adventures of Superman" from #500-#506. A teen hero designed as the next generation of Superman using human cloning, he was created by Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett and earned the name "Superboy" as well as "Kon-El".



Last year was the anniversary of The Death of Superman event. This year is the anniversary of the Superboy series that ran for multiple years.

This thread is not only to talk original Kon-El, but to talk about his supporting cast (and there were a lot of memorable characters), the teams (Ravers, Team Superman, and of course Young Justice with Robin and Impulse), the villains, the powers (he namedropped it on occasion), the loves (the kid was a hormonal problem), moments, observations, stuff you enjoyed, stuff you wanted to see, stuff you missed, and much more.

[C-Dot]

The Boy of Steel



Name: Superboy
Real Name: Kon-El (formerly just Superboy)
Also known as: Experiment 13 (Cadmus), "Superman", Kid, S.B.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black



Residences:
-Project Cadmus (originally of Lab 13, Restricted Area)
-Honolulu, Hawaii (isle of Oahu)
-Metropolis (344 Clinton St., Apartment 3-B in Midtown & Calvin Gardens Apartments.)
-Smallville, Kansas (Kent Farm)

Parents: None (clones don’t have any parents).
Family: Several including Dubbilex, Tana Moon, Roxy Leech, Rex Leech and many others.
Relatives: A lookalike "big brother" with the S. An evil twin cloned from him. A couple of clones created with the same DNA. One million Superboys from the future cloned from him. Several alternate universe versions of himself. Etc.



"Created to replace Superman, Superboy is the closest human equivalent to a Kryptonian that Cadmus scientists could create. His tactile telekinesis approximates superstrength, flight, invulnerability, as well as granting him a number of unique abilities such as disassembing objects with a single touch. The Kryptonian duplication was carried out in such scrupulous detail that the kid is also susceptible to Kryptonite radiation. It is theorized that he is a solar battery like Superman and may have other abilities that he was intended to grow into."

Books: The Adventures of Superman #500-506, Superboy 0-100, Superboy & The Ravers #1-19, Superboy Plus #1-2, Superboy & Risk: Double Shot, Superboy Annuals #1-4, Superboy & Robin: World’s Finest WF3 #1-2, Young Justice, appearances in several Superman related books, and several other DC books for more than a decade.

[Duke]

[C-Dot]

I remember the cycle that they gave him (even though he could fly).





The figure wasn't bad at all.

[C-Dot]

The Reign of Supermen

Karl Kesel on how Superboy came to be:

I have to say, when I wrote up my ideas for the way to bring back Superman, when I wrote down the idea of there being four different Supermen, my idea at the time was each book could have a Superman in it that reflected the history of the book.

So I thought, “Action Comics should probably have a very Shuster and Siegel-esque Superman. There’s something very primal about Action Comics, and maybe that Superman can only leap an eighth of a mile.” That was my initial idea. I thought the book that’s called Superman should have the real Superman, and I wasn’t sure what Man of Steel should be – maybe a robot, [or] something like that – but when I sat down to figure out what Adventures of Superman should be, the book that I was going to be writing, I [thought], "What kind of different Superman fits that title?" and I remembered the old tag line, "The adventures of Superman when he was a boy." I said, "That’s it! That should be Superboy."

Obviously, none of those things happened except the Superboy idea, but that was my approach, and that’s how I ended up with an idea of Superboy. I would say in the Superman summit, it might’ve been Louise Simonson [who] first said the idea when we were just throwing out ideas of different kinds of Superman. I think she was the one who mentioned a Superboy, but I successfully argued that he should be in my book, and I’m very glad I did. I think Weezie’s and Bog’s character Steel was equally as good, so I think we both did really well.

Sketch by Karl Kesel

Well, I certainly wanted a more modern character, yeah. I wanted someone who had a little more attitude. I have always enjoyed humor in my stories, so I wanted someone with a sense of humor, and there just seemed to be a certain arrogance built into a teenage boy who’s walking around saying he’s the clone of Superman. There seems to be a certain arrogance there [that] just seemed to fit the character really well.

[dupersuper]

[img]http://api.ning.com/files/vFAm*z4a9VQn**lDdZFwMyc*kMuYLefa8c9LdGTJ277MJ41Bp3 jWFH1JVNOarlLHN0jqFx72-*qqGgAUNpTBDSNc5UG1DZJp/SuperboyOneMillionPage17and18.jpg[/img]

[stephens2177]

C-DOT good looking out for a Superboy thread(even if you are the third to do it lol).I'd rather have all 3 of them merged, but whatever.

[C-Dot]

The Origin



"Please understand son. Superman was dead. We at Cadmus felt that the world needed a Superman. And we thought that it was within our power. We obtained Superman's body. But the usual cloning techniques were useless on his alien physiology. We could genetically alter a clone to look like Superman. But we needed to simulate Superman's powers. Or most of them." – Adventures of Superman #506

Told in "Funeral For A Friend', Project Cadmus tried to claim the bodies of Superman and Doomsday by government authority after the events of "The Death of Superman'. When the plan was thwarted by one Lex Luthor (who went over their heads to Washington), Cadmus stole Superman's body from the tomb and tried to clone it to create a replacement for Superman. The body was fully invincible even in death so no direct clone could be made.

"I wish you luck, gentlemen. You’ll need plenty of it just to obtain the required tissue samples from Superman! It appears that—even now—his body is still quite thoroughly invulnerable!" – Action Comics #686

Cadmus then tried to get Superman's DNA code with a scan to make a Superman from scratch, but the full data was lost to them (told in "The Guardians of Metropolis" story) and the body was later taken by Supergirl under the orders of Lex Luthor (after Lois Lane revealed that Cadmus had the body). Director Paul Westfield ordered the creation of a clone by other means. A team of Cadmus scientists took a sample of human cellstock, cloning it while radically changing it into the complete genetic equivalent of Kryptonian that advanced human science could create (based on their research of Superman's body), and created a Superman of their own.



The end result after 13 tries was the being known as Experiment S-13. Experiment 13 was aged to full grown teen in less than a week and made to be identical in appearance to Superman. He was given knowledge that grew as he aged and was told that he was a clone of Superman, but displayed powers different from the Man of Steel in the Adventures of Superman book. Cadmus tried to program the clone with codewords to control him (as they did another creation in "The Guardians of Metropolis"), but his strong mind refused all mental programming. Superboy was prepped for training, but he would escape Cadmus (due to Newsboy Legion, clones of the directors of Cadmus, releasing him) and rest was....well....


From Adventures of Superman #500: The debut of Superboy

Adventures of Superman #506 revealed where Kon-El came from and why his powers were different. Superboy #0 gave a detailed recap of his creation. Superboy Annual #2 revealed who he was cloned from and the other 12 attempts to create him.

[C-Dot]

The Powers



"A promising discovery was a strange aura that surrounded Superman's body. We translated that aura into a telekinetic field. That's how you can fly or deflect any solid object the instant that it touches you." -Adventures of Superman #506

If you read a Superboy comic before, you know what "tactile telekinesis' is.....because he would always name drop it 24-7.

Originally, SB thought his powers were different because Cadmus made changes and didn't understand Superman's DNA. But he was Superman with a telekinetic field instead of a Kryptonian aura. Tactile Telekinesis came from the time Cadmus scanned Superman's body all the way back in "The Guardians of Metropolis" in Funeral For A Friend. When they scanned it, an "aura" was discovered around Superman by the scientists. They theorized that it explained why Superman was invulnerable, could fly, had super strength, and super speed. Cadmus, responsible for powerful telekinetic beings such as the clone Dubbilex, genetically engineered Superboy with a telekinetic force field that worked on the same principles as Superman's aura. With it, he has strength, speed, flight, and invulnerability (vulnerable to energy attack, but changed as he grew into his powers).

But he could do a lot of things that Superman couldn't do....



-Mentally control any solid object he or his field touched.
-Expand and contract his force field
-Break apart or put together complex objects like machines, weapons, etc.
-Project his field to create force wave attacks
-Extend his telekinetic field to other people.
-Telekinetically freeze people (latter ability)

And other things under a yellow or red sun.

[C-Dot]

The Powers (Continued)

"Use your heat vision!" - Superboy One Million


From Superboy #0, in which Professor Hamilton examines the Kid.

Since Superboy was released before his aging was complete, he didn't possess any vision powers. But it hinted and revealed that due to being made to be just like Superman, Superboy was designed with vision and hearing powers that manifested as he grew older just like his predecessor.

"As for heat vision, that was one of the last powers Superman developed. And we were created to be as much like him as possible. Wait a few years." - Superboy #62

The first time that he used heat vision and hearing powers was when he was aged to adult during Sins of Youth in Superboy #74 and Superman Jr. Superboy Sr. The first time he displayed heat vision as a kid was when he used a magic gauntlet that boosted his abilities in Superboy #68.



Along with his powers, he was later trained in hand to hand combat by the Guardian, the head of security at Project Cadmus.



(Not the real Justice League, but still)

[C-Dot]

Etc.

Being a genetic recreation of Superman, he shared certain traits & weaknesses with Superman. As Prof. Hamliton guessed correctly all the way back in Superboy #0, Superboy was a solar battery like Superman and a certain rock could affect him. Superman's #1 weakness applied to Superboy.....Kryptonite made him sick. He was also vulnerable to magic.



As discovered by Robin in World's Finest:WF 3.

Superboy also had weaknesses with his own unique powers. While his tactile telekinetic field provided him with invulnerability, he had trouble deflecting energy such as fire and lasers. He discovered this back in Adventures of Superman.


And used by Metallo in World's Finest WF3 too.

But as he grew into his powers, he would have more resiliency to energy attacks. And at full grown age, he would grow to be even more powerful.....

[C-Dot]

Kon-El

Superboy's name was originally just "Superboy". He had no secret ID, no cover story, and didn't want one (though he would eventually adopt the name "Carl" in Smallville based on his first attempt at a secret ID). People who knew him personally called him either "Kid" or "S.B.". But in Superboy #59, he would be given a real name. One that links him to Superman as a member of the House of El and also carried on a tradition that Superman's family started.



Kon-El was a young Kryptonian teen who was a member of a second House of El. Kon's ancestor, a nameless soldier, saved the life of Superman's ancestor Van-L from the clone terrorist group Black Zero. In gratitude, he was adopted into the House of El and he would in turn start the second House of El. Kon-El was held in high regard by his cousin Jor-El and embraced emotion, something that was frowned upon on Krypton. He checked on his cousin and would be the last member of the House of El that Jor-El talked with before the planet exploded.

Superboy would look into the lives of both Kon-El and his ancestor through the Krypton history banks at the Fortress of Solitude. After viewing and living their lives, Superman would give his reasons for showing this to Superboy. The first was to show Krypton's abuse of cloning practices and enlist Superboy's help in stopping any questionable cloning practices on Earth. The second was about family and showing Kon-El's life to Superboy for a certain purpose......



To say that Superboy embraced it would be an understatement.

[C-Dot]

The Costumes

The Original.



The first costume, made up

-Superboy's Cadmus costume (without the cape)
-Black leather jacket (originally taken from a Cadmus employee. Later jackets would have Superboy's yellow S insignia)
-Earring (Trivia: The reason for Superboy's ear being pierced was because Cadmus tagged him as Experiement S-13)
-Belts.



For a while, he was given special goggles by Dr. Emil Hamilton at S.T.A.R. Labs Hawaii that gave him heat vision and other abilities....


From Superboy #0

[C-Dot]

The Costumes (Continued)

Legion of Superheroes costume.



Presented to Superboy by Triad and designed by Ferro Lad in Superboy #45, this costume was originally worn by Superboy in the series Kingdom Come and was created by Alex Ross.



The implication in Kingdom Come is that at some point they will leave our modern era behind for a more settled society of superhumans in the future. Designing these costumes was a real joy, combining the modern Legion aesthetic with the classic Silver Age outfits of Superboy and Supergirl. Superboy's current "mod" hairstyle is grown out like Superman's recent 'do, but pulled back to give a sense of the original Boy of Steel's clean-cut look.

[Kid A]

The only Superboy worth a damn.