To quote Clark Kent, from “Superboy’s Lost Identity” by Otto Binder, George Papp and Chic Stone--in SUPERBOY No. 144 (January ’68)--“this deal smells like a plot to me.”
The ‘60s were a really confusing time for everyone--and this confusion appears in both high art and low art. People collectively seemed to be going through some kind of psychological trauma with no easy solution. That might explain why the Weisinger era comics were so full of complicated plots that turned everything inside out, so you were left not knowing what was real anymore.
I won’t even try to sum up all the weird contortions of logic that Superboy must endure before he finally gets relief--when everything is explained. And maybe that relief is the point--the vicarious thrill that everybody needed and couldn’t get in real life. Maybe going through this David Lynch trauma was just so we could feel better once it all stopped.
In the end, after playing the part of an ersatz
Hyperboy on Earth, Superboy is taken to the planet Trombus, by Mom and Dad Quentin, where he meets the real Hyperboy--their son Kirk--and his Hyperdog, Klypso. The Hyper-Family escaped their doomed planet in a rocket ship and under Trombus’ red sun they have super-powers. Kirk’s younger brain made him more super than his parents, so he’s the leader of the Hyper-Family.