Superboy reboot?

[objectivewatcher2013]

After reading the horrendous Teen Titans #12 that Lobdell wrote, and how quickly it closed out Superboy's storyline, is it a possibility that it was done that way, so they could start over with a new Superboy?

[Sacred Knight]

God I hope so. If they want feel free to steal my idea which I've had for a year or so amended for the recent status quo:

This current Kon-El begins to fluctuate in and out of existence, a result of him being the product of some crazy timey-wimey stuff that no longer applies. Essentially he's dying, or ceasing to exist or ever have existed in other words. He'll be entirely forgotten. He makes his peace with his friends in the Titans, and Superman and Supergirl, and before he goes offers some wisdom he learned during his time with Oracle: the universe knows what its doing, when messed with it course-corrects. But the fact he was ever here at all means that a Superboy has a place in this world. He'll be seen again. He fades surrounded by his loved ones, and as he does so do their memories of him, and while they know they were all there for some sad reason, they can no longer remember and go there separate ways.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Phantom Zone rests the laboratory of Shay Veritas. Since being stuck in the Zone, she has managed to make her lab and those within it corporeal and thus continues her activities from this new, albeit quite solitary location. An alarm is raised and she quickly leaves to a secret room within the compound. In the room is a lone stasis chamber, with the vitals indicating that the specimen has suddenly gained brain activity. Shay peers into the chamber revealing a teenaged boy identical to Kal-El. "I knew you'd awaken, my son," she says. dun dun dunnnn TO BE CONTINUED.

Do eeeet nowww.

[Thor-Ul]

Whatever they do, better don't go with the "son of Superman" route. That is a better story for a parallel universe, but the last time it left a sour taste.

[Ceebiro]

I do feel that DC should reboot Superboy. Just admit they messed up and start afresh.

I also feel they should wipe the slate clean with the Titans.

[stephens2177]

Kon has always worked better with more of a human feel to him,this alien vibe DC has been pushing with all the SUPER has been totally the opposite of why we love these characters imo.one way or another the next kon needs to wear his emotions (no matter what they are) on his sleeve,and make him love being the hero.

The original kon was a human clone made to be SUPER,every other version (besides lobdells) has been a hybrid with Lex being one of his donors.what DC needs to do is combine these two ideas and stick to it.Geoff would have had a great soft reboot of kon in Teen Titans if he did two things.one being left his powers as TTK and not kryptonian,that way you keep what came before and was a huge part of who he was.kon was already a solar battery like kal,and most of the time his powers mimicked his anyway,so why change something just to change it.Kelly's run showed kon was on the brink of tapping into his TTK for new and powerful ways to use them.

Also Geoff "could" have just said kon was still all human,but the donor was lex and not westfield,that way he would have finally got what he wanted since his publishedback page letter in the Superboy book stating he thought kon was Lexs clone.by doing this you could more faithfully keep with kesels human origin,but add lex which most ppl who know of kon in anyway (smallville,young justice,etc) see him as having lex dna in him.slight tweaks would be all that was needed,and a new kon could more easily resemble all pasts kons that ppl really liked.

It's not hard to make a kon that most can not cringe at whenever his name is brought up (like they do with lobdells version).

[Adekis]

Sure it's possible.

I think the hard part is this: since 2011 there's been a certain amount of drive at DC to make sure Superman is young and cool. Four years later, that push is still there, probably even moreso. The Truth storyline has given us a Superman not too dissimilar from (for example) the Young Justice Superboy. Sure he's got more backstory and arguably less physical strength than the YJ Kon, but Kal is running around in a T-Shirt with an "S" on it, unable to fly, and showing some attitude. Personally, I like it a good deal! Though he sure could use his cape and old haircut back, my god.

Anyway, my point is that if I had to guess how DC would want to do a Superboy reboot, it wouldn't surprise me if they wanted to do it sort of like that. And Superboy should only ever be a literal clone.

[Superlad93]

Here's a thought I never see: what if Superboy were an actual little boy? Like what if he were a peer to Damian Wayne, and he was made to be 9-12? Why's that never a thought? We've had some really really fun child characters. The aforementioned Damian Wayne is a bunch of awesome packed into a tiny package. Franklin Richards is like the god of the Marvel U, and he just so happens to represent the great things about comics. Val Richards is arguably smarter than her dad and Doom, and she's an extremely fun character. Hit-girl, like Damian, is in that little 'adult badass' mold, but when written well she and he are two parts adorable and terrifying.

Also lets not forget about one of the most successful child characters ever, Superboy (Clark Kent). The idea of taking all of the fun and wonder of playing in the woods, stick fights, recess, odd jobs, and all that other childhood Americana, and then heightening and exaggerated it. He had all of the power of his adult self, but more room to stumble and fall and learn. It was the world of a child with all of a child's priorities, but seen and experienced through super eyes.

I think now more than ever there is a market for the super powered kid to show up. We're living in an age where children are playing on iPhones and tablets at the age of 3. What does that childhood look like heightened and exaggerated? New forms of parental disciplinary actions are being implemented and experimented with as opposed to the archaic ones of the 50's Superboy. Tolerance (in a broad sense) is the same as breathing to these kids. The internet is like a fundamental force to these kids. Cyber attacks/bullying, the idea of the secret identity made common place in our world. The world is a little smaller when the sum of all of our knowledge is held in a tiny square that children now operate. What does that generation look like when you heighten them?

I think there's a really interesting take on Kon-El, the clone of Superman, to be made if we thought along those lines and made him a kid. If the idea were a soft reboot then Sacred Knight's idea of universal course-correction is one that I think would be good.

[Sacred Knight]

I would be completely on board with repackaging Superboy as younger, around Damian's age. I'll admit though I never even thought of it till you brought it up right now but thinking about it, it could easily work and be quite fun.

[harashkupo]

I thought Aaron Krudor did an amazing job with the mess that had been made. That story could have been used as a nice foundation to build Superboy into a better character.

[Sacred Knight]

Kuder did do a good job. He made the book fun while rectifying the stupid two Superboy thing. Only thing his story didn't do though is fix the remaining Kon's origin, which remains another big must. I don't blame him though, he was only around for that one arc. The origin aside though, Kuder on Superboy's final run and then Superboy's guest spot on Supergirl really did the character some good. But then of course they handed him back off to Pfiffer on TT and he ignored all that to make him a monster again.

[Slaughter]

God I hope so. If they want feel free to steal my idea which I've had for a year or so amended for the recent status quo:

This current Kon-El begins to fluctuate in and out of existence, a result of him being the product of some crazy timey-wimey stuff that no longer applies. Essentially he's dying, or ceasing to exist or ever have existed in other words. He'll be entirely forgotten. He makes his peace with his friends in the Titans, and Superman and Supergirl, and before he goes offers some wisdom he learned during his time with Oracle: the universe knows what its doing, when messed with it course-corrects. But the fact he was ever here at all means that a Superboy has a place in this world. He'll be seen again. He fades surrounded by his loved ones, and as he does so do their memories of him, and while they know they were all there for some sad reason, they can no longer remember and go there separate ways.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Phantom Zone rests the laboratory of Shay Veritas. Since being stuck in the Zone, she has managed to make her lab and those within it corporeal and thus continues her activities from this new, albeit quite solitary location. An alarm is raised and she quickly leaves to a secret room within the compound. In the room is a lone stasis chamber, with the vitals indicating that the specimen has suddenly gained brain activity. Shay peers into the chamber revealing a teenaged boy identical to Kal-El. "I knew you'd awaken, my son," she says. dun dun dunnnn TO BE CONTINUED.

Do eeeet nowww.

That was a good idea, althrough I would have the end show Kon-El awakening somewhere in Cadmus, date "Shortly After Doomsday".
Appropriate soundtrack

[Ascended]

Here's a thought I never see: what if Superboy were an actual little boy? Like what if he were a peer to Damian Wayne, and he was made to be 9-12? Why's that never a thought? We've had some really really fun child characters. The aforementioned Damian Wayne is a bunch of awesome packed into a tiny package. Franklin Richards is like the god of the Marvel U, and he just so happens to represent the great things about comics. Val Richards is arguably smarter than her dad and Doom, and she's an extremely fun character. Hit-girl, like Damian, is in that little 'adult badass' mold, but when written well she and he are two parts adorable and terrifying.

Also lets not forget about one of the most successful child characters ever, Superboy (Clark Kent). The idea of taking all of the fun and wonder of playing in the woods, stick fights, recess, odd jobs, and all that other childhood Americana, and then heightening and exaggerated it. He had all of the power of his adult self, but more room to stumble and fall and learn. It was the world of a child with all of a child's priorities, but seen and experienced through super eyes.

I think now more than ever there is a market for the super powered kid to show up. We're living in an age where children are playing on iPhones and tablets at the age of 3. What does that childhood look like heightened and exaggerated? New forms of parental disciplinary actions are being implemented and experimented with as opposed to the archaic ones of the 50's Superboy. Tolerance (in a broad sense) is the same as breathing to these kids. The internet is like a fundamental force to these kids. Cyber attacks/bullying, the idea of the secret identity made common place in our world. The world is a little smaller when the sum of all of our knowledge is held in a tiny square that children now operate. What does that generation look like when you heighten them?

I think there's a really interesting take on Kon-El, the clone of Superman, to be made if we thought along those lines and made him a kid. If the idea were a soft reboot then Sacred Knight's idea of universal course-correction is one that I think would be good.

You brilliant mad genius.

[stephens2177]

Kuder wrote a good story while being given a bad situation,there was no way to fix the mountain of problems nu kon had.

I like a younger super kid,of course I remember Chris kent filling that pretty well,and I wouldn't mind seeing him again.


What I like to know is what specific traits you all think kon-El should have?

[objectivewatcher2013]

Kuder wrote a good story while being given a bad situation,there was no way to fix the mountain of problems nu kon had.

I like a younger super kid,of course I remember Chris kent filling that pretty well,and I wouldn't mind seeing him again.


What I like to know is what specific traits you all think kon-El should have?

I know that I'm gonna the minority on this, but I say bring Half Superman/Half Lex. Bring back the real Tim Drake. The real Cassie. And the real Bart Allen. You can revive not only Superboy, but the Teen Titans as well. Nothing else anybody is trying is working. Having him be a human clone is a 90's thing in which the rule was that Superman was to be the only Kryptonian. Well, that's been blown to smithereens, he needs to have something Kryptonian to him, or he needs to take that "S" of his chest. Because it's for the House of El. Yeah yeah, I know, I know, what about Steel lol? I don't think he wears the "S" anymore.

[Slaughter]

The Superman/Lex thing is not only a well of horribru angst (BAD! BAD! DON'T WANT THAT!), but is also incredibly gay. Excuse me if I would rather not have a Superman/Lex baby wandering around. Its brand-damage. Is that even possible? Where's the maternal mitochondria coming from?
If you want him to be half-Luthor, how about using Lex's sister as female donor, Lena?