Next up for the month is the Boy of Steel: Superboy. Yes,
you read that right. While Clark Kent was once Superboy, the name has been
passed around a bit. Right now, Jonathan Kent, Clark’s and Lois’s son, is Superboy.
Another one held title for years, though, and his name was Conner ‘Kon-El’
Kent. Well, he didn’t have a name until a few years later. I think folk just
called him “Superboy,” which was something he didn’t like at first. We all know
how teenagers can be and Superboy was no different.
His first appearance was in The Adventures of Superman #500.
He was a clone created by Cadmus just in case Superman “gave up the ghost,”
which he did in “The Death of Superman.” Superboy was one of the four
replacement Supermen from“The Reign of the Supermen.” He tried to keep
Metropolis safe until the original, genuine Superman returned. After that, he
was spun off into his own title, Superboy, and it lasted for years.
He’s been a part of teams like Young Justice and the Teen Titans.
Like most heroes, he got retooled during DC’s New 52 phase. To put it kindly,
what the ########!@$^@%#^@%#^#^##### happened? That’s all I’ll say on that
matter since I still don’t get what was up with those decisions. He also made it
to TV shows like Young Justice and Smallville.
He was also kind of homaged on the WB’s Legion of Super Heroes cartoon. Lately,
he’s been seen in the new DCAU movie, The Death of Superman.
Today’s issue will be coming from his series from the 90’s.
Superboy #8 was written by the MVP of the month, Karl Kesel. Yeah, he’s been
showing up here this month. The pencils are handled by Tom Grummett. Doug
Hazlewood and Dan Davis handled the inks. This issue directly ties in to an event
I covered years ago: Zero Hour. So, what happens when Superboy meets… Superboy?
Find out below!
Superboy #8
Writer: Karl Kesel
Pencils: Tom Grummett
Inks: Doug Hazelwood and Dan Davis
Colors: Tom McCraw
Letters: Starkings/Comicraft
Editor: Frank Pittarese
“Big Trouble in Smallville”
We start out with Superboy escorting an Air Force craft carrying
Dubbilex, one of his supporting characters. We also got Krypto, a small dog that Bibbo once owned, he doesn’t
like the Boy of Steel much. Suddenly, they run into a thunderstorm (probably
caused by Parallax’s time meddling) and the plane is damaged. While Superboy
does his thing, the original Superboy (I’ll call Young Clark) appears out of nowhere
and unknowingly helps the plane land. Since the plane will need repairs, Superboy
decides to go into town.
As for Young Clark, he goes to where his family used to live
and already notices that things aren’t right. He changes into his civilian
clothes and runs into the Lana from the present day. He’s shocked by her age
and even more surprised when he finds out that she’s married to Pete Ross. He
runs off into town and Lana catches up with him. Lana then notices that stuff
in the town looks different. Elsewhere, Superboy’s in town with the locals when
he notices young Clark. The two meet and Young Clark thinks that Superboy is
behind the time-foolery. They fight with Young Clark overpowering Superboy. As
Young Clark races off to Kent Farm, Lana tells Superboy to catch up with him
since he’s confused.
They both reach Kent Farm and their fight starts again. Things
come to a halt when Superboy realizes that things are different here. He then realizes
that he’s the anomaly and the two Superboys converse. Before he vanishes, Superboy
promises to Young Clark that he’ll try to fix things. As Young Clark vanishes,
the Kents come out to see what happened and they meet Superboy for the first
time. The issue ends with Superboy meeting with Dubbilex, getting the message
from Superman about New York (Seen in Zero Hour #4), and racing off to New York.
…………………………………...
I thought that this was an entertaining issue. It was nice
to see two Superboys meet and end on good terms. We didn’t get that with Infinite
Crisis since Superboy-Prime was such a whiner. Superboy was characterized as he
was at this time. He was a teenager who liked the glory and was into “babes.”
He was a good hero deep down, though. It was also cool that he got to interact
with some of Superman’s cast like Lana and the Kents. I liked how the original Superboy was handled.
He shows up and is confused by all of the changes that’s happened. I also liked
how they interacted and saw their talk at the end as a “passing of the torch”
ceremony.
Hmm... nice. Who knew he'd be living with them in a few years?
The artwork was good for the most part. Tom Grummett is one
who was able to make Conner’s 90’s suit look really good. He just does it all
good and has the action scenes pop and the quiet scenes work. I will say that
the artwork did look a little weird towards the end. I think that’s when Dan
Davis steps in and he’s okay with his inks. His faces for the Superboys look weird. I’m
more of a Grummett/Hazelwood guy anyway. Other than some art and some dialogue
choices, this was a good issue. It’s not anything great or epic. It’s a tie-in
issue that does it’s job and that’s all it needed to do.
Well, that’s all I got for the Boy of Steel. I’ve always
liked Superboy from the beginning. I saw some not liking his attitude, but it
just screamed cool to me. He may not be the best hero, but he’s not a bad one
either. Even though he’s much different on the TV show, Young Justice, that
version of Conner is also cool. Hopefully, he can make his return to the comics
and I’m not talking about that future version either. Well, it’s time to move
on to the other major replacement from this era. Until then, Peace, God Bless,
and try to talk to your doppelgangers. Don’t do what Superboy-PRIME did.
That's not a cabbage, is it... ew.
NEXT TIME: “JOHN HENRY WAS A STEEL-DRIVING MAN…”
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