Superboy #1 (February 1994)

For decades, Superboy has been a part of the Superman mythos. The original Superboy was actually a teenage Clark Kent himself, first appearing in More Fun Comics #101 (January-February 1945). For about 40 years, DC would chronicle the adventures of the teenage Clark Kent's adventures before he became Superman. It was during his time as Superboy that other characters important to the Superman mythos would be introduced, including Lana Lang and Pete Ross. It also gave an origin to the enmity between the Man of Steel and Lex Luthor.

When the Crisis on Infinite Earths hit, one of the changes to the DCU's history that resulted from that event was that Clark Kent's adventures during the Silver and Bronze Ages of Comics as Superboy was removed from canon. In the post-Crisis DCU, Clark Kent started the superhero gig when he was already an adult. However, the idea of a teenage Superman never really went away.

The Death of Superman storyline in 1993 saw an opportunity for the creatives of the Superman books at the time to introduce a new take on the Boy of Steel. In Adventures of Superman #500 (June 1993), writer Karl Kesel and artist Tom Grummett introduced the Modern Age Superboy, a metahuman clone created by cloning experts Project Cadmus. The lone would literally be just known as "Superboy" due to his not getting a proper name for a time. Eventually, he would be given the Earth name Conner Kent, and the Kryptonian name Kon-El.

This Superboy would eventually go on to join Young Justice and the Teen Titans. Conner would survive the New 52 reboot, albeit with a new origin (created by the organization N.O.W.H.E.R.E., first introduced in the Doom Patrol book). Then DC Rebirth hit, and his history became a whole confusing mess.

Conner would go on to appear in media outside of comics. He would appear in Smallville portrayed by Jakob Davies, Connor Stanhope, and Lucas Grabeel. He would also appear in the live-action Titans series portrayed by Joshua Orbin. The character would also appear in cartoons. Conner was one of the main characters of the Young Justice series, voiced by Nolan North. He also appeared in the Reign of the Supermen animated film, voiced by Cameron Monaghan. While Conner did not appear in the Legion of Super-Heroes animated series, he was one of the inspirations for the character of Superman X, voiced by Yuri Lowenthal.

The comic I'm looking at here was actually the third Superboy title DC had published. The first one went from 1949 to 1977, which then got followed up by The New Adventures of Superboy which went from 1980-1984. The second Superboy series had lasted from 1989 to 1991, and it was a comic tie-in to the Superboy live-action TV series. All these series focused on the Clark Kent Superboy. This 1994 Superboy series was the first to focus on the future Kon-El. It would last until 2002. And with that out of the way, let's take a look at Superboy #1!

The cover is pretty good, albeit a bit basic. A Tom Grummett piece, it depicts our hero flying over Hawaii with the sun rising behind him. It's a very well-drawn piece, but there's not much I can say about it. It's just Superboy flying. That's it.

"Trouble in Paradise"
Writer: Karl Kesel
Penciler: Tom Grummett
Inker: Doug Hazelwood
Colorist: Tom McCraw
Letterer: Richard Starkings
Editor: Frank Pittarese
Executive Editor: Jenette Khan

The story begins with Superboy flying over the skies of Hawaii.

"Wheeeeeeeee!"

A villain named Sidearm is wreaking havoc on a beach, and he's got a girl hostage. He's holding a girl hostage, and is able to use his robotic arm to knock back the Boy of Steel in the form of a Mighty Backhand.

Superboy is able to use his "tactile telekinesis" (He has the power to telekinetically manipulate anything he touches) to give Sidearm some Mighty Sand to the Face, allowing the girl (named Roxy) to escape. She's there with her father Rex Leech and Dubbilex. Dubbilex is an artificial lifeform, created by the same people who created Superboy.

Sidearm tries to use his robotic weapon system to slice her open like a stuck pig, but Superboy is able to stop it, and use his power to disassemble the arm. The two continue to fight, but Sidearm is able to use his robotic arm to choke Superboy. The young metahuman takes to the air as the police arrive.

Meet Sam Makoa. Federal agent, Native Hawaiian, and not a fan of superheroes. It's here we learn that Rex Leech was here with Superboy as part of a "Supertour"...and the man is not the best with money, considering his history of debts. Hawaii was the last stop of the American leg of the tour. Rex sells Superboy merchandise, and he also stages a rescue for Superboy.

Sidearm happened to be in the area, and that's how we got here. And it's that this point Superboy and Sidearm crash into the ground.

"That'll hurt!"

They crash into a Navy base at Pearl Harbor, where Superboy is able to take down Sidearm. The Navy want to arrest the two, but Makoa takes custody of them. He points out to Superboy that Hawaii has no need for superheroes. I dunno, I think Sidearm showed that Hawaii having one wouldn't hurt. 100 feet below the Pearl Harbor Naval Base, the battle caused some havoc at an underground chamber.

We next shift scene to a bar in Honolulu's Chinatown. At a bar, a rather stunning redhead is enjoying a drink and watching Superboy layeth the smackethdown on Sidearm. She thinks Superboy is kind of cute...in a jailbait-y way. Yeah, keep in mind here, this Superboy looked a teenager, but was actually only about a few months old. He is a clone of Superman, after all.

A sailor who has had a few hundred too many asks the redhead to dance. The lady, named "Kay", gives him her duffel bag to hold...which ends up making him fall to the ground. What is in that bag? Oh, just the usual girl stuff: Clothes, beauty items, couple hundred pounds of weights. You know, the essentials for any lady. Kay shows that she is eager to meet the Boy of Steel.

We next look in at a police station in Honolulu. A mysterious item has arrived for Sam Makoa: a green cube. I would say that it's a bootleg Cosmic Cube, but this is the DC Universe. The Hawaiian G-Man knows exactly what this is: A calling card from a group called the Silicon Dragons.

When the Dragons send a message, they do it in style!

Makoa had been fighting the Dragons for a long time. Heck, the group developed a bit of respect for the man. But with Superboy now in town, they're going to escalate things. After all, he's was believed to be a Kryptonian. That's nothing to sneeze at, even in the post-Crisis DCU.

After the battle, Superboy is being interviewed by some media folks, who are wondering if he's going to be sticking around. He admits that he likes the islands, but he's going to be leaving soon. However, he may be finding himself staying around a while longer when an old friend of his reveals herself.

Superboy had last crossed paths with Miss Tana Moon back in Metropolis during the events of Action Comics #693 (November 1993), and the two had met in Adventures of Superman #501 (June 1993). She had just taken up a reporting job for KONA-TV, and she lives in Hawaii now.

This comic was pretty good. What it did very well was set up Superboy's new status quo for his series. He's going to operate out of Hawaii, we meet the supporting cast, we get some storylines set up, it does everything a first issue should do. We get a very good idea of Superboy's personality: confident, cocky, a bit girl-crazy, but no less a hero in his own way. It's a well-written first issue. Tom Grummett in my opinion is a criminally-underrated artist. He always turns in some very fine work. His characters are expressive, and he's a great storyteller. His work is always a joy to look at, and I think he deserves to be regarded as a great artist.

I know people like to bash the 90s when it comes to comics, and there are understandable reasons why. *coughRobLiefeldcough* But there were some good things going on comics-wise, you just had to look around a bit. And Superman's little corner of the DCU at the time was actually very good. Superboy's title was no exception. Early-90s Superman was enjoyable, and as I have said in the past, deserves a lot more love in my opinion.

If you want to read this for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2018 trade paperback Superboy Book 1: Trouble in Paradise. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, spread it around! Join me next time as we join the Amazing Amazon, Wonder Woman, as she undertakes her third labor...

Adventure Comics #247 (April 1958)

This just might be the oldest comic I have looked at on this blog so far. My personal favorite era of comics is the Bronze Age, generally considered the era of comics that went from around 1970 to 1984-86. However, many of comics' most popular characters started out in the previous Golden and Silver Ages of Comics. Among them are the Legion of Super-Heroes.

DC's resident defenders of the future have visited this blog before, in my reviews of Legion of Super-Heroes #290, Action Comics #858, Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #1, and Action Comics #859. I guess you could say I am a bit fond of this group. So, I figured that at some point, I had to look at their first appearance.

Adventure Comics was actually the second comic book series DC had ever published. The first issue was published in December 1935 as New Comics. With its twelfth issue in January 1937, it got renamed to New Adventure Comics. Issue #32 (November 1938) saw the word "New" be dropped from the title, and would remain under that name for the rest of its existence.

The original incarnation of Adventure Comics would last for nearly fifty years, the final issue (#503) being published in 1983. In 2009, the title would be revived. The new Adventure Comics started out with new numbering, but would eventually take up the numbering of the previous incarnation of the title. This incarnation of the series would end with issue #529 (October 2011) because of the reboot of the DC Universe that would be known as the New 52. It originally started out as a humor title, but eventually evolved into telling adventure stories, and then superheroes.

Adventure Comics introduced a lot of characters that would become mainstays of the DC Universe. In issue #12, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster introduced a prototype of Jor-El (Superman's father) as a science fiction detective. Justice Society members Sandman, Hourman, and Starman would debut in issues #40, #48, and #61. Characters like Green Arrow, Superboy, and Aquaman would consider the series their home for periods of time.

In fact, this issue has stories focusing on Green Arrow and Aquaman as well. I won't be looking at them here because...I do not have them. You see, the scans for this comes from the 2018 trade paperback The Silver Age: Legion of Super-Heroes Volume One. It's a collection of the Legion's early adventures, and while it does have the Legion story (naturally), it did not include the Green Arrow or Aquaman stories. It's understandable, as they're not the focus of the trade. Hopefully, they'll do an Adventure Comics collection that does keep everything. So, with that, let's look at Adventure Comics #247!

The cover is a Curt Swan and Stan Kaye piece, and it's become rather iconic. It's been homaged and parodied many times over the years. You have a shocked Superboy staring at an America's Got Talent-style judges' bench. Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, and Cosmic Boy voting "No". Cosmic Boy's dialogue is hilarious, as he says Superboy's powers are "too ordinary". Yeah, I get that Superboy's "Flying Brick" powerset is one of the archetypical superhero power sets, but he can do things you, Garth, and Imra can't do, Rokk. Heck, he doesn't need to touch you. He can just fly into space and heat laser your face from orbit.

"The Legion of Super-Heroes!"
Writer: Otto Binder
Penciler: Al Plastino
Inker: Al Plastino
Colorist: Unknown
Letterer: Unknown
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Executive Editor: Whitney Ellsworth

The story begins in Smallville, Kansas. A young Clark Kent, aka Superboy, is walking down the street. He's enjoying the beautiful sunny day in the idyllic little piece of Midwest America. A redheaded teenager greets him warmly with a "Hello there, Superboy!" Clark waves it off as a joke. When he gets home, the suspicious lad changes into Superboy and goes on patrol. As he flies, he noticed that the boy he met was new in town, and he somehow knew his secret identity. He'll have to investigate that.

As he flies, he meets another boy, this one with black hair. He greets him as Clark. A blonde girl asks him to give her regards to his parents, the Kents. Superboy is shocked. Was his secret identity leaked out?! How? Well, the three explains that to them, he's ancient history.

Meet Rokk "Cosmic Boy" Krinn, Imra "Saturn Girl" Ardeen, and Garth "Lightning Lad" Ranzz. Or "Lightning Boy" in this case. They're a trio of superpowered superhero teens from a thousand years in the future. And yeah, those costumes did not last very long. They wanted to meet Superboy and make him a special member of their club. Yeah, it's clearly not established that Superboy was their big inspiration yet.

They bring the future Metropolis Marvel to a spherical device known as a Time Bubble. The Bubble allows them to ride the timestream to wherever point in history they pleased. As such, Superboy gets to see the Smallville of 2958. Smallville has undergone a lot of changes. The ice cream parlor now has 9500 flavors, for instance. And the old Kent home has become a shrine.

In a school, a teacher educates his students about the Boy of Steel. He uses a robot duplicate of the young hero to demonstrate his heat vision by melting a block of steel (The comic says X-Ray vision, but I think that's a mistake). Cosmic Boy introduces the teacher to the real Superboy, who melts the block of steel himself.

The three Legionnaires take Superboy to their clubhouse, which looks like an upside-down rocket that was planted into the ground. There are already several Legionnaires in attendance.

Hey look, there's Brainiac 5 in the corner! To prove his worthiness to the club, Superboy must compete against three Legionnaires. Superboy thinks it will be easy, considering his wide array of powers, and each of the Legion generally only has one. The Legion's trouble-detecting TV picks up some trouble at sea. A dredge ship is having trouble finding a priceless statue that sank under the waves.

Superboy and Saturn Girl will see which one of them can dredge it up. Superboy thinks this'll be easy. With his speed and strength, he'll have that statue out before she arrives on her jetpack (The Legion didn't have their flight rings yet). However, some trouble slows the Kryptonian down. The Superboy robot from the teacher's earlier demonstration has run amok.

The Boy of Steel is able to get it to the school's science professor, who is able to shut down the robot so it can be repaired. With that problem solved, Superboy can head out to get that statue. Under the ocean, Saturn Girl uses her power of telepathy to do her best Aquaman impression and command a sea creature to retrieve the statue. Legion 1, Superboy 0.

Superboy returns to Legion HQ, offering no excuse for losing as he feels that telling the Legion about the runaway robot would be seen as a weak excuse. Dude, that is a valid excuse! You had to stop the robot!

Anyway, the Legion's little TV trouble-finder picks up another disaster: A rocket-liner has crashed into a forest. The crew and passengers are okay, but the burning rocket threatens to completely immolate the forest. Superboy and Cosmic Boy are going to handle this one...that is, if that ancient satellite didn't threaten to crash down on Earth.

He finds that it's an ancient Project Vanguard satellite...which the Boy of Steel dumps in a volcano. Dude, that thing was a relic of the early Space Race! Museums would have killed to have that thing! Anyway, Cosmic Boy uses his magnetic powers to make a flock of iron meteors come down in a lake. The large rocks of metal caused the lake to overflow into the forest, dousing the fire. Legion 2, Superboy 0.

Superboy has one last chance to win a contest with the Legion. He and Lightning Boy have to save a passenger ship heading to Mars. The ship's fuel tank sprung a leak, and they'll be stuck in space if they don't get alerted to it. Why not just call them? Well, space static. Yup, that's the excuse. However, Superboy seems to have developed a case of super-bad luck as a strange animal chose now to escape from the zoo.

Superboy can't spare the time to find the alien bird, as it's invisible. So, he has an idea. The young Smallville Sensation grabs a piece of iceberg, cooling the air around it. The bird's feathers start to frost, which allows Superboy to see the bird. Meanwhile, Lightning Boy has formed a message to the ship with electrical power.

You know, I don't think Lightning Lad has ever used his powers like this since. I mean, this potentially indicates that he can form constructs out of lightning like Green Lanterns can with the energy from their rings. That's pretty cool. Anyway, that's Legion 3, Superboy 0. Superboy still refuses to explain why he gets delayed. If I were him, I would get suspicious. I mean, having to deal with an emergency during one of these contests is fine, but all three?! Something funny is going on here...

Anyway, this means Superboy failed the tests, so Legion membership is not for him. Superboy takes it with a smile, as he believes the emergencies he had to deal with were excuses.

"I am so going to beat the snot out of these clowns..."

However, Saturn Girl has a surprise for him. You see, the contests were an initiation. The three Legionnaires used their powers to cause the disasters that kept Superboy from winning his contests. Saturn Girl used her telepathy to command the robot to go wild, Cosmic Boy used his magnetic powers to pull the satellite out of orbit, and Lightning Boy used his electrokinetic powers to create a hole in the dome keeping the invisible bird in the zoo.

More on this later. Cosmic Boy compliments Superboy for being a good sport, when another alarm goes off. There's a city in the South Pole, heated by a cosmic lamp on a tower...that is collapsing. Superboy takes care of it. First, he goes into space and gets a magnetic meteor. The meteor's magnetic field helps keep the tower stable so repair crews can straighten it. He then gets some salt and "seeds" the clouds with it, causing flashes of lightning that will help keep the city's dwellers warm until the lamp is repaired.

Wait...couldn't Superboy just straighten the lamp's tower itself? Well, he could, but he wanted to play a little joke on the Legion back. He saved South Pole City be imitating their powers...although I don't see how he could have duplicated Saturn Girl's, as Superboy is not a telepath. Impressed, the Legion gives him their highest honor: The Super-Hero Number One Award. The story ends with Superboy returning home to his time, showing off his award to his dad.

"I just potentially mucked up the timeline to show you this, Dad! I'm so proud!"

This story...was really not that good. I'm sorry. Yeah, I know it's the Legion's first appearance, and it's an important comic, but it's still not that great. The Legion do come off as rather jerkish to me. I feel like they hazed Superboy. I don't think that's what the creatives here intended, but execution-wise, it does come off like that.

There's plenty of what TV Tropes would call Early Installment Weirdness with this story, what with the three Legion founders' costumes, Garth Ranzz going by Lightning Boy instead of Lightning Lad, and Cosmic Boy's magnetic powers coming from his eyes. Not to mention the Legion using jetpacks to fly instead of their more iconic Flight Rings. The story feels like a hastily-slapped together first draft. I did want to praise the clever use of powers...but, yeah. It does feel contrived. The art is fine, I do think it does seem a bit stiff. But that's the Silver Age for you.

This was a rough start for the Legion, but readers at the time wanted to see more of these teenagers from the future. The Legion would go on to better-told adventures over the years. If you want to read this yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2018 trade paperback The Silver Age Legion of Super-Heroes, Volume One. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, spread it around! See you next time, where in celebration of the arrival of 2020, we take a look at an adventure of a unique incarnation of the Armored Avenger...