Does Superman actually gain anything from having a "normal" childhood?

[Johnny Thunders!]

Sorry, I guess I misunderstood. But I think most superheroes lose aspects of their past if they're around long enough. Is it still the case that Reed Richards and Ben Grimm were in WW II together? Was Reed trying to beat the Commies to the Moon?

My observation is the the LSH always comes back, after a while, and they find a way to involve Clark/Superboy/Kal in the stories.

A sliding time scale with Superman would be a blessing, but they rip out Stories and character ideas with Superman. The Legion of Superheroes debut in a Superboy adventure, their part of his story but I have read so many justifications why Superman shouldn't even interact with the Legion. That's different than just changing dates. For me it's more like reading how the Sinister Six shouldn't be Spiderman villains or Galactus shouldn't interact with the FF. And I would go so far as to suggest it's like saying the Fantastic Four are better off without Reed. Ask any fan mourning their Superman, "Why they always taking away my Superman? And who's this guy?"

[Johnny Thunders!]

I guess I like multiple Universe Superman stories but I wish they'd embrace it, Roberson's Fortress of Solidarity.

[Ascended]

For me it depends on when he gets these powers and how much he gets. Like I personally think at 3 years old he's just a 3 year kid. At 8 or 10 maybe he's about as strong as an adult man. 12-15 he's like Cap America or Spider-man. Hearing and other powers kick in around past "oh really good ears, son" around 11.

As for things like the Legion I'd rather do it like "alien abduction". Make it more creepy than anything. These strange kids that no one has ever seen before roll into town when Clark's like 17, and they take him on the equivalent of an super acid trip. It just looks like they were basically studying a cave-boy because we don't humanize than after the "trip" starts. Clark's concept of time is warped and he has no idea how long he was out. Only down the line when Clark's in his mid 20s and they come to him again does he realize it wasn't as dream.

I just don't we desperately need reinforce "super" at every moment of the characters being. Blasphemous I know, but it just starts down that "super math", and "super weaving" road, I think.

It's a fine line to walk, certainly. And it has certainly gone very wrong at times.

I agree that not everything has to be some big huge "super" moment in Clark's life. But I do believe that the best parts of Superman are perfectly normal, small, human things expanded onto a superhuman scope. Something as simple of looking for the perfect birthday gift for Lois could be a trip across dimensions as Clark looks for a world where all of Lois' favorite singers got together to form a big super-group. A story about overcoming your fear of spiders (something as human and inane as I can imagine) might involve a big confrontation with the Spider Guild out in the Vega system where Clark, in the end, doesnt start throwing punches and starts a dialogue instead (in effect letting the spider go rather than stomping it into hell where it belongs). That seems to be where the character resonates the best; where his goals and attitudes reflect normal humanity, but on a bigger canvas. And you're right, that's hard to write. But it can, and has, and I believe should, be done.

So to that end, I do believe that his childhood should be equally unusual and fantastical. Not everything about his childhood, but then, its not. Despite all of Clark's....special....needs, he grew up with a loving, normal family in a typical American small town. Even when you can light things on fire with your eyeballs its hard to get more normal than that. So if a sleepover at a friend's house is actually a trip to the distant future for Clark, I say go for it. As long as there's a core of "normal" at the heart of it all, and young Clark returns to the standard problems of curfews and working up the courage to ask a girl out to a dance and acne and homework and figuring out where he fits into the world (all that standard teenaged BS), everything else is just (whimsical) details. You cant lose sight of the "normal" but normal is only one part of Clark's life, and downplaying that doesnt seem to have done him a lot of good. Even American Alien is based on Clark experiencing unusual things growing up.

Interesting take on the Legion, too. I like it. Someday Im gonna steal that idea from you, but I promise that I'll also introduce a new Legionnaire named Superlad to make up for it.

[Doctor Bifrost]

I agree that in the past that was the case but the point still remains that we don't see Aquaman suddenly discover the ability to breathe underwater at age 16 or something. It is something he is born with and grows up with. J'onn J'onnzz doesn't refer back to his childhood when he was stuck in one form and unable to read minds. So I don't get the need for Clark to be powerless. Less powerful sure but not powerless. Plus the power curve on Superman is even worse if you hild that 16 year-old Clark is at best Captain America level (so he can play football on "even footing") but by age 18 he is routinely outracing trains and leaping skyscrapers while a few years later is supporting the equivalent of the planet for a week or flying effortlessly to the edge of the universe.

You're right that we didn't see Aquaman develop his abilities (at least his ability to breathe water) over time. But if we had, it wouldn't have been some violation of the laws of biology. "He is a rare crossbreed of human and Atlantean, and such individuals develop the ability to breathe water after they hit puberty" would have been a perfectly valid science fiction/fantasy hypothesis.

So there's no "need" for Clark to be powerless when he's young, but there's no need for him not to be either. (How old does a Kryptonian have to be to process yellow sun radiation? How long does one need to be exposed, and does it vary by age?) It depends on what stories they want to tell. Even you don't want him to be fully powered as a 6-year-old - but in the old Superbaby stories he basically was, because that's the stories they wanted to tell in the early Silver Age. Which probably wouldn't (you'll excuse the expression) fly so well in the modern comic-book era.