Superboy is a prime example of a comic book character that only works in the era and contintuity where they were created.
I’m not talking about adaptations, like the Young Justice animated series. I’m talking this version of Superboy specifically because he was brought back into the mainstream DC continuity a few years ago and I’m not sure that works.
Full disclosure…I loved this Superboy from the moment I “met” him in the pages of Adventures of Superman #501. (I am aware his first appearance was in Adventures of Superman #500, but it was a very brief first appearance, so the next issue is where I officially met the character.) Yes, his costume was and is very nineties and I thought that back in the nineties when things were suppoed to be very nineties. He had that teenaged attitude that was so popular at the time. He had interesting and colorful villains. He had a great supporting cast. Yeah, his relationship with Tana was always problematic but that was more socially acceptable at the time so it didn’t seem like a big deal.
(But seriously…that relationship doesn’t feel right anymore. I don’t blame the writers and artists. It’s just how my views have evolved over the decades.)
Superboy getting his own ongoing made perfect sense and he definitely had a fanbase because his ongoing lasted 100 issues (not counting annuals, the zero issue, and the one million issue) and he was part of both Young Justice and Teen Titans. He was a vital part of the DCU from 1993 to 2006 and proved popular enough to bring back from the dead in 2009 and then getting another ongoing series right before Flashpoint and the New 52 and I followed him the entire time.
To be fair, there were eras I liked better than others. The first thirty issues had a few clunkers, but for the most part it was a fantastic read and showed not only The Kid’s growth as a character, but the growth of the other characters, like Dubbilex and Roxy. Roxy in particular went from being a shallow, “dumb blonde” that was used by her father as a prop to get Superboy to sign with him to a serious minded woman that was trying to do something meaningful with her life. Ron Marz’s run was okay, but not very memorable, which I feel bad for writing, but it is was it is.
When Kesel and Grummett came back the series got a shot in the arm. Not only did it lean heavily into the Kirby side of the DCU with a Kamandi inspired storyline and Superboy moving back to Cadmus, but it was one of the few titles to actually tie into the Hypertime concept that came out of The Kingdom event.
(I will admit the fact that the first ever letter…well, e-mail, I had printed in a comic was in Superboy #61. It was a big deal for me at the time.)
During the first few years of the 2000’s Superboy, and the DCU as a whole, started to show some wear and tear, which is natural for an ongoing series/shared universe. While Superboy got a Kryptonian name (Kon-El) and started having a better relatsionship with Superman, his series struggled during its last few years. Serialized storytelling only works if changes are made every decade or so because the ideas that are explored only have so much life in them. Every run of comics has a shelf life and it was apparent towards the end of the 1993 Superboy series that the creators at the time had taken the character as far as they could.
It isn’t anyone’s fault. It’s just life.
This is why the revamp in 2003 worked as well as it did. Yes, Geoff Johns darkened Superboy a bit by revealing that the other part of his genetic make-up came from Lex Luthor and that whole storyline, which ran right to his death in Infinite Crisis took some of the fun out of the character, but it was well written and executed. It was exciting and despite the previously mentioned emphasis on how dark things could get for super-heroes, that era between 2003 and 2006 was a legitamately exciting time for Superboy in particular and the DCU as a whole. He even got another name…Conner Kent, and for a very brief period he was living with the Kents, which had a potential that the series never fully explored.
After his death and ressurection things were never the same for Conner. His Pre-Flashpoint ongoing was interesting and things were getting back on track and then The New 52 happened. Despite having certain superficial similarities to Conner, the New 52 Superboy never amounted to anything. Like the Supergirl of that era he bounced around from creative team to creative team and status quo to status quo and when his full origin was revealed (he was the clone of a future son of Superman and Lois) he felt more like a nineties era X-Men character than a 2010’s DC character.
Then Conner came back in the pages of Brian Michael Bendis’ Young Justice series and since then his presence in the mainstream DCU has felt…weird. It’s not that I don’t like seeing him. I do, but it’s kind of like running into an old friend from high school. There’s a feeling of familiarity and nostalgia, but things in your life have moved on and maybe that friendship belongs in the past and not the present.
And that’s how I feel about Conner. It’s great seeing him. I love that he still has some life in him, but seperate from the era and continuity that birthed him it just feels off. For one thing the mantle of Superboy had moved to Superman and Lois’s son Jonathan and even though that’s not an issue anymore the Super Family feels a bit crowded these days. I feel bad even writing that because part of me feels like the more the merrier, but there isn’t as much comic book real estate like there was in the nineties and early 2000’s. It’s nice that he’s around and it was nice that he got a mini-series last year, but I cant shake the feeling that Conner is a character that is served better trapped in amber.
I could be wrong and I’m sure opinions vary.
None of those feelings take away from the affection I feel for Conner. He was part of the single most popular and important Superman story ever and came along at just the right time. I love the original, leather jacket look. It just makes me happy. And I was glad to see him in live action on Smallville and in the Titans series as well as in animated form in the Young Justice series and The Reign of the Supermen film from 2019. As I mentioned earlier he feels like one of those good friends from high school that I bump into on Facebook.
And I’m okay with that.
Tomorrow…Reign of Tomorrow Week ends with Steel!
More to follow…