Adventures With Superboy-Prime

Looking in on Superboy-Prime (the Superboy from an alternate world called Earth-Prime where super heroes were characters in comic book, taken away after the end of the Crisis On Infinite Earths, only to return, with a psychopathic rage and murdering many heroes including Titans and Bloodlines heroes)....here, in Adventure Comics #4 and #5 (January and February, 2010, with covers by Jerry Ordway, with variants by Francis Manapul as #507 and #508)...

...this Clark Kent was forced to face some of those he killed, brought back as Black Lanterns, with Alexander Luthor Jr. leading the charge (and these stories might also have been his step towards redemption).

Plus back up stories with the Black Witch (Mysa, the former White Witch of the Legion of Super-Heroes), and Superboy/Kon-El as well.

Adventure Comics #4 and #507 (January, 2010)

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Adventure Comics #5 and #508 (February, 2010)

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Superman And Superboy Switch

Time for another Super Blog Team-Up.  This time around, focusing on time travel!

Remember those fanciful days as a child when you wished you live your life as your adult self...or, the days of being an adult, that you could back to those fanciful days as a child?

Well, Clark Kent doesn't have to wonder about such things, as Superman and Superboy experienced a little mind switch one time when they were both travelling in time, and got to live each others life for a time...

...and, time to see how this happened!

A Mind-Switch In Time!

Starting off with Superman #380 (February, 1983, with a Ross Andru/Dick Giordano cover, and a story by Cary Bates, Curt Swan and Dave Hunt), where Superman is heading back in time (way back to the days of the cavemen) on a request from Professor Lang (and thinking of his days back in Smallville as he heads back).  Meanwhile (well, as much as it can be in a time travel story), Superboy is saying goodbye to Ma and Pa Kent in Smallville as he heads into the future to a meeting with the Legion of Super-Heroes.  

In the time stream, they both see a phenomenon they never encountered, and both being possessed of Kryptonian might (and ego), think they can just fly through it and be fine.  Well, not so much, as they both go through, they "meet" (and turn phantom, as a rule of time travel involving Kryptonians is that they can't exist in a time they are in), and Superman is sent back to his time in Metropolis after the almost collision, as Superboy is sent back to his Smallville.  Both are shaken up, but Superman seems shocked he ended up in Metropolis...until he sees his reflection and sees he is older, a Superboy in a Superman's body!  

After dealing with a few problems, Clark somehow ends up at the Daily Planet after an encounter with Lois Lane (which she sees Superman as oddly distant and standoffish....not knowing of his body switch), where he decides to get the lay of the land as Clark Kent.  Meanwhile, the Daily Planet staff has been dealing with a new hero, Euphor, who makes people bad feelings go away.  The young Clark in older Clark's body meets the modern Lana Lang (whom he is so totally attracted to) and the two go on, as Euphor spends more time in Metropolis absorbing the bad feelings of the city.

The Day That Lasted Forever

The New Adventures Of Superboy #38 (February, 1983, with a story by Paul Kupperberg and Kurt Schaffenberger, with a cover by Ross Andru and Mike DeCarlo) picks up the story from the Superman in Superboy's body point of view, where Clark ends up back in old Smallville after a little time establishment, with Superboy lamenting how he can't help the young Lex Luthor at Thanksgiving.  Then, Superboy heads into the time stream, and everything changes...

With Superman (in Superboy's body) now in old Smallville, Clark realizes he doesn't want to go back to Metropolis as a boy, so he decides to go back to his (at Superman's time) empty farm house...where he finds Ma and Pa Kent!  Stunned, the experienced Superman goes along with it as guests arrive (a young Pete Ross and Lana Lang) for Thanksgiving.  Meanwhile, in the main town, Chief Parker has a problem to deal with...an escaped Lex Luthor on the loose, who seems to have no fear of Superboy arriving.  Back at the Kent home, Superboy starts his day, heads to the prison, then to travel in time (again?)...yes, Superman in Superboy's body has been trapped in a 24 hour period, unable to move forward (as Luthor had planned, and tells Chief Parker).

But, then how does Superboy show up to stop Luthor?  Well, it's a solution only a Superman would know (that he could just keep going back in time to the beginning, which meets up with the end of time, and continue to go back from there).  Having solved the Luthor problem (with a little extra anger, as Superman knows the vile deeds Luthor will commit in the future), Clark is still faced with the problem of how to get back to his time in his own body!  

 

Whose Super-Life Is It, Anyway?

Back to the future (at least from Superboy's point of view), with Superman #381 (March, 1983, cover by Gil Kane, story by Bates/Swan/Hunt), where the boy in the man's body goes home to Smallville to recover (finding the house empty, and having his parents death while he was still Superboy revealed to him by the home's caretaker, the former Chief Parker).  Meanwhile, back in Metropolis, Euphor heads to an on camera interview at WGBS while a motorcycle rider near him seems to get a bike upgrade and a suit of armor!  

At WGBS (also the home of the Daily Planet), Lois tells Jimmy Olsen that she feels something is off with Superman, and it fills her with dread.  Euphor shows up and says he'll take away her pain, but Lois storms off, wanting to deal with it herself.  Euphor goes on camera with Lana Lang, and tells the people of Metropolis of his powers, and promises to drain their sorrow and anger from them (which he does), giving the city a feeling of contentment and happiness (and hopefully higher ratings for the show).  Superboy in Superman's body is dealing with the knowledge of his parents death when that motorcycle rider attacks a Superman statue, with Clark showing up to stop Mace Malloy, who doesn't know where his powers came from.  

Meanwhile, back at WGBS, Lois confides her feelings of losing Superman to Lana, who tells her not to worry.  Clark shows up and he and Lana go to prepare for a newscast (but young Clark's mind is still distracted by what to him is the now grown up Lana.  Euphor finds the newscast, and realizes he is shedding power due to all he has absorbed, and puts an ad in the Daily Planet to draw people unhappy with Superman to the park.  

Perry White assigns Lois to cover the story in the park, with Lois agreeing, as she also feels unhappy with Superman now.  Superman goes to check on Lana, still having a Superboy's feelings towards her, but she rejects him as their time has long been over, and SuperMAN should be thinking about Lois.  In the park, Euphor empowers three Superman haters who manifest abilities based on their Superman hate, with Superman arriving to try to stop them.  He does, but the energy in them consumes their bodies.  This becomes a problem as Euphor gets a new recruit, Lois Lane, who manifest the energy as a witch to attack Superman (and, Superboy wonders how to stop her without killing her....).

Where Trouble Goes -- Euphor Follows

Superboy (in Superman's body) is still dealing with Euphor in Superman #382 (April, 1983, story by Cary Bates, Curt Swan and Dave Hunt, and a Gil Kane cover) and his newest recruit...Lois Lane!  Superboy (in Superman's body) lures her away from the park (as Euphor solidifies his hold on more Metropolis citizens).  Having gotten Lois unconscious, Clark hopes her powers will fade as he's secreted her to the Fortress of Solitude.  When Lois wakes up, Superboy explains he's the mind now in Superman's body (which explains why he was cold to her.  The duo get closer as an alarm goes off signaling trouble in Metropolis.  

At WGBS, Morgan Edge is angry about the station giving Euphor more time, until Euphor hits him with his power, and goes on live again, detailing his origins of how he found Mr. Mystic at a street fair, and that magician revealed the source of his power to the boy, and how he could do the same drawing people's negative emotions to use as he wished.  Euphor then proceeds to draw even more from Metropolis' citizens, with Superboy and Lois watching at the Fortress, realizing that this will leave Metropolis as a home of drained people.  Superboy doesn't know how to handle this, but Lois figures the Superman in Superboy's body is also working on a solution, and likely would be waiting on the other side of the temporal storm to repeat the accident which switched their minds in the first place.  

Grateful, Superboy takes off into the time stream as Euphor's powers grow.  Superboy and Superman meet up at the anomoly and are successful in reversing its effects, with the now fully Superman headed home to deal with Euphor (and Superboy safe in Smallville, with no memory of his time in Metropolis).  Superman finds Lois at the Fortress, who fills him in on the menace of Euphor.  Superman goes to Metropolis to confront him, and takes him into the time stream, where Superman goes back to witness the destruction of Krypton (making Superman very sad).  Euphor tries to absorb Superman's sadness but it is too much, and he overloads (with Superman having brought him back to Metropolis, allowing the city residents to get their feelings back, and Superman to go back to life as normal).

Quite an adventure for Superman and Superboy!

If you still have time...

...be sure to check out the rest of the Super Blog Team-Up family's work on time travel, as you can see by the links below...

...or look for the hashtag SBTU!

Between The Pages Blog - When Scooby-Doo met the Flintstones and the Jetsons

The Telltale Mind - Time and Time Again - The Man Who Lived Forever!

Asterisk54 - Squirrel Girl Meets Time Travel

The Source Material Comics Podcast - TIMEQUAKE! (What If...?!)

 - Part One Fantastic Five

 - Part Two Avengers

 - Part Three Wolverine

 - Part Four Thor

 - Part Five Watcher

Superhero Satellite - Hex Communications

Lois Lane Adventures

Thinking on Superman's past, the time when he was a boy in Smallville...you wouldn't think of Lois Lane.  

Yet, oddly enough, even though Superboy's time then was more spent with Lana Lang, still Lois Lane did end up in SuperBOY's life a little bit!

How Clark Kent Met Lois Lane

In Adventure Comics #128 (May, 1948) with a cover by Win Mortimer, and story by Bill Finger, Al Wenzel and George Roussos, here is where Clark and Lois first met.  Clark had begun to write for his school newspaper, and won a contest to be a cub reporter for the Daily Planet in Metropolis for a week.  There, he met another winner, a young girl from the midwest, Lois Lane.  

The two became involved in a competition to get a story printed (and for an ice cream), and, Lois, wandering into trouble, needed to be saved by Superboy, allowing her the time to get the story, so she got two scoops!

For completeness' sake, including this cover to Adventure Comics #211 (April, 1955) by Win Mortimer, but Lois is only in this one in a dream as an adult, and one flashback to the story above.  

Lois is  also in a few Superboy issues, but....those will be tales for another day.

Superboy Meets Lois Lane!

Superboy and Lois met again in Adventure Comics #261 (June, 1959) with a story by Otto Binder and George Papp, under a Curt Swan and Stan Kaye cover.  Here, Lois comes to Camp Hiawatha, which is near Smallville, with hopes of meeting Superboy.  She ends up with Lana Lang as a roommate (who is infatuated with Superboy).  Clark is also staying at the camp on the boys' side, and comes across the girls whose lunch attracted a bear.  

Changing into Superboy, he saves the girls and talks to Lois and Lana, where Lana is convinced Superboy is one of the boys at the lake.  Lois joins with Lana, but to prevent Lana from finding out Superboy's identity.  The two have some interesting adventures, with Clark thinking fast on how to preserve his identity (including calling on Krypto).  Lois even earns an acceptance to a dance.  Lana, furious, thinks of exposing Superboy to Kryptonite to find out his identity, but decides against it.  For that, Superboy accepts her invitation to the dance too!  But, Superboy is shrewd, he ends up going with neither girl, as he saw that during their time in the forest, the two were exposed to poison ivy, so they both can't go!

From these simple beginnings, a romance blossomed, and if you want to read the stories, look to these issues for reprints!

Remembering Artist Neal Adams On Father's Day

Remembering artist Neal Adams on his birthday (June 15, 1941 - April 28, 2022) and also acknowledging today is Father's Day....so, here are a couple of Superboy covers featuring Superboy with his Kryptonian parents (Jor-El and Lara) and his Earth parents (Jonathan and Martha Kent), showing that Superboy does indeed need his father (and mother too!).  

Superboy #158 (July, 1969) and Superboy #161 (December, 1969)

Superboy Knows Football

Superboy shows he knows what to do on a football field, as shown in Adventure Comics #143 (August, 1949) with cover by John Sikela and Ed Dobrotka and Adventure Comics #207 (December, 1954) with cover by Curt Swan and Ray Burnley.

But, all that still doesn't impress Smallville's Lana Lang, as shown by this cover to Adventure Comics #170 (November, 1951) with cover by Win Mortimer.

Super Cowboy

Superboy takes to the rodeo, becoming a Super-Cowboy in Adventure Comics #132 (September, 1948) under a cover by Win Mortimer...

...but why?

Here's the tale...

Superboy - Super-Cowboy!

In this story by Bill Finger and Al Wenzel, Clark Kent's math teacher, Edwin Sayers, inherits what he thinks is a ranch, and takes his class out west to enjoy it.  Getting there, they find it not all it was promised to be, so Clark goes into action as Superboy, fixing it up and bringing in horses...all the while uncovering dirty deeds by Edwin's new neighbor, Ben Torpe, who was illegally syphoning oil from the area.

 

Happy Fathers Day Superboy

It can be a little rough for anyone that's lost a father on Father's Day, and Superboy is no exception, wanting to see dad one more time.

But, he had two occasions where the ghost of Jor-El visited him (sadly, not a real ghost, but trickery by dastardly villains, in Superboy #20 of June-July, 1962 by with cover by Win Mortimer, and this villain in Superboy #78 of January, 1960, with cover by Curt Swan and Stan Kaye).

Happy Mother's Day With Robin

Robin (Damian Wayne) was trying to be a good friend to Superboy (Jon Kent), as their dads, Batman and Superman are friends, but things got problematic when Damian's mother, Talia Al Ghul came around....trying to kill reporter Lois Lane (who was Jon' mother).

Oh, how difficult Mother's Day can be for some, as shown in the Parent Trap, in Super Sons #13 and #14 (April and May, 2018), first cover by Giuseppe Camuncoli and second cover by Jorge Jimenez (with both variant covers by Dustin Nguyen, with stories by Peter J. Tomasi, Carlo Barberi and Art Thibert.

Happy Father's Day Superboy 2023

Two super covers featuring Pa Kent showing us (and Superboy) how super he really is, as, along with being Father's Day, today is the day that Kal-El's rocket landed on Earth, where he was found by Jonathan and Martha Kent, who took him into their Smallville home, named him Clark Kent, and eventually shaped the boy who would become....Superman!

These two issues have two different ideas of how super Pa Kent is.  In Adventure Comics #224 (May, 1956, cover by Curt Swan and Stan Kaye), Jonathan is struck by lightning and only thinks he is super, while in Adventure Comics #289 (October, 1961, also cover by Swan/Kaye), it is a more nefarious plot by one of the men here.

Still, Pa Kent is always super!

Early Legion Of Super-Heroes Weddings

Even though the Legion of Super-Heroes was an early example of science fiction in comics when it started its series in Adventure Comics, it also pioneered more interaction between its rather large cast of characters in the 30th Century, as the boys and girls of the future team started to pair off.  

Here, we show two budding romances of the early Legion era, the couples of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl, along with Ultra Boy and Phantom Girl.

Lighting Lad (Garth Ranzz of Winath) and Saturn Girl (Imra Ardeen of Titan) were two of the three founders of the Legion of Super-Heroes, their feelings for each other grew during an early run of stories in Adventure Comics, dealing with Lightning Lad dying for Saturn Girl, then her working with the other Legion members to bring him back (main stories reprinted in Adventure Comics #403 of March-April, 1971), while Ultra Boy (Jo Nah of Rimbor) and Phantom Girl (Tinya Wazzo of Bgztl) came together based mostly on one tale, when Ultra Boy was accused of a crime in Adventure Comics #316 (January, 1964), and Phantom Girl was his only advocate.

But, now to the main story...

The Weddings That Wrecked The Legion

This tale was featured in Adventure Comics #337 (October, 1965) by Edmond Hamilton and John Forte (with cover by Curt Swan and George Klein), with the newly elected leader, Brainiac 5, briefing the team about a new menace and his Plan-R to fight it (but Ultra Boy and Phantom Girl are too interested in each other to pay attention).  Brainiac 5 calls out the couple on this, with Saturn Girl rising to their defense, with Brainy turning on her, chiding her and Lighting Lad for similar behavior.  The couples go off, drawing closer, and both deciding to marry (though that will mean they will no longer be team members, as the Legion Constitution has a bylaw against married members).

Now short members, the team recruits, finding three new super powered youths (who are really members of the invading force trying to learn more of Plan-R).  Now in the Legion Clubhouse, the three enemy aliens find the plan, and head to their home...unaware the plan was a fake, and that this was all a plan by Brainiac 5 and Saturn Girl to find the invaders home, and defeat their plans.  The marriages weren't real, so the couples return to active membership, but wish that maybe they were real.

It would take a long time for the Legion to see any real team marriages, with Bouncing Boy marrying Duo Damsel (Triplicate Girl for half the Adventure Comics run) in Superboy #200 (January-February, 1974) and Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl getting married in the All New Collectors' Edition #C-55 (March, 1978), ending the rule against married Legion members.  Ultra Boy and Phantom Girl would have to wait decades more (as well as a few reboots) for their wedding, but love finds a way....

 

Celebrating The Super Heroic Joe Staton

Celebrating the birthday of artist Joe Staton (January 19, 1948) with a look to the future and the past...

...featuring the covers he drew (with inker Dick Giordano) for Superboy and the Legion Of Super-Heroes!

Superboy And The Legion Of Super-Heroes #247 and #248 (January and February, 1979)

Superboy And The Legion Of Super-Heroes #249 and #250 (March and April, 1979)

Superboy And The Legion Of Super-Heroes #251 (May, 1979)

A truly talented artist, with a long and varied career, as you can see here, and even a little Christmas spirit as well with this tale!

Welcome To The Future

Here we are in 2023!  

At one point, considered the future...

...and to welcome you to this future is Superboy and the Legion Of Super-Heroes, in this bit from the Super DC Calendar of 1976 by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano in their finest 1970s attire (or is that 2970s attire?)! 

Superboy's First Kryptonite

Back in the 1950s and 1960s, there was Kryptonite everywhere on Earth for Superman to encounter. 

But, one of those encounters had to be the first!

So, let's travel back to the time when Superman was a boy in Smallville, and let young Clark Kent tell the tale of his first encounter with green Kryptonite under this Curt Swan/Stan Kaye cover!

Superboy's Last Day

It was related in Adventure Comics #251 (August, 1958, by Otto Binder and George Papp), as a nostalgic Superboy related the tale of a day like any other day, as he worked on a geology project for school.  Pa Kent brought home a glowing green rock for Clark to see, yet, as Clark Kent suddenly developed his first illness when he came home, Pa forgot to tell him about it.  The illness would come and go as Superboy left the house, yet every time it came back even worse.  If not for one of Superboy's earliest robots (who was lead lined), Clark wouldn't have figured out it was the rock (which they would dub Kryptonite) that was causing his illness.

Oddly, the DC Calendar puts this event as happening on August 5th, yet, the calendar on the Curt Swan/Murphy Anderson Superboy #165 (May-June, 1970) has it as August 4th (take it as the day Clark got sick to when he found out it was the rock...), with the Kryptonite flashback being set for "seven years earlier", around the time of Adventure Comics #170.

Happy Birthday Lana Lang

By the old DC calendar, today is the birthday of Lana Lang, one of the more famous residents of Smallville.

She first appeared in Superboy #10 (September-October, 1950) to be a thorn in young Clark Kent's side, trying to prove he was Superboy...

...then, when she was an adult (starting with Showcase #9 from July-August, 1957), she first officially met Lois Lane, making life difficult for her, proving a rival for her as a reporter, as Lana would soon join the ranks of the Daily Planet.  Lana would also be a rival for Lois, competing for Superman's affection.  

Though she would leave Smallville (and later, Metropolis) for a time, Lana would always come back, and kept a connection to both Clark, and even Lois over the years, even developing super powers of her own, usually Kryptonian variations, but, she did have her own super identity (and the one she used to be a reservist in the Legion of Super-Heroes, the Insect Queen).

From time to time, Lana would become interested in another boy or man with super powers (most notably, Vartox), but Lana's heart would return to Superman....

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