Superboy: Who's your favourite?

[stephens2177]

i like both looks (tron and 2nd season YJ) and i wouldnt want to lose either,just dont know how they could keep both.

the name conner kent should be ALL SBs idea to call himself,why? because he has kals genetic memories,and the name Kent should be somewhere in there.

question-what would kons fingerprints look like,he is a clone,but a mixed clone.

i hope this nuSB doesnt have the whiney angst over lex being his daddy,more i would like him to be like "its my responsibility to bring him down"

[Ice Wolf]

My problem with John's Superboy is that the retcons were just completely unnecessary, he had more then enough story options for Superboy in learning to control his developing powers, trying to maintain a secret identity, learning to live in a small town etc. Remember before Superman placed him with the Kents, Kon had pretty much lived independently and he had never really had to hide who and what he was, in fact he pretty much did the opposite and was quite extroverted.

In my opinion if you cant work out how to do your story without altering the history of the character it probably isn't a story worth doing or a story for that character, I see a difference between revealing new information about a characters past and just changing it to suit your current story. The Luthor stuff, the altering of what Kon was, the fact that stuff was on file, the codewords which had been specifically stated to have not worked was just lazy writing.

[Ice Wolf]

i like both looks (tron and 2nd season YJ) and i wouldnt want to lose either,just dont know how they could keep both.

the name conner kent should be ALL SBs idea to call himself,why? because he has kals genetic memories,and the name Kent should be somewhere in there.

question-what would kons fingerprints look like,he is a clone,but a mixed clone.

i hope this nuSB doesnt have the whiney angst over lex being his daddy,more i would like him to be like "its my responsibility to bring him down"

His fingerprints would be unique just like everyone else's even identical twins, they are developmental not genetic although certain genetic conditions can cause them not to develop.

[marshal99]

[Ziggy Stardust]

Kesel's version was fun, but I have to give this one to the Superboy I knew as a kid:

This is mine as well.

[stephens2177]

should clark as a boy be apart of this poll really? the rest of the choices are actually the same character,just changed up to piss off fans.
i mean shouldnt this poll be

kesel
johns
tiny titans/superman family adventures
smallville
nudcu
YJ show and comic

????

[Spiderboy12]

Yes, Clark as a boy should be on the list. That's where the idea of Superboy originated. If you did a similar listing for Supergirl, would you separate out the versions that weren't Kara Zor-El? The same principle works here.

Personally, I'd add options for at least the Superboy TV show (plus comic) and the Young Justice cartoon (plus comic), and I'm dubious that I'd separate "The Kid" (1993-2003) from "Conner Kent" (2003-2011). Possibly the Tiny Titans version, but I don't think the Smallville version of Conner has really gotten enough play to be included here (at least not yet).

However, I might consider adding Smallville's other "super-boy". If a teenaged Kent kid living in Smallville who performs super-feats (saving lives, fighting the bad guys, even partnering occasionally with other super-heroes) doesn't define the concept of "Superboy", in or out of costume, I'm not sure what does. And teenaged Clark Kent from Smallville is also a comic book character. The comic book series Smallville ran 11 issues in 2003-2004, following a one-shot special in 2002.

[stephens2177]

ice wolf started this thread,he is a big kesel SB fan(not as big as me though lol),he needs to tell us his intent with this thread,was it to choose your favorite superboy out of every conceivable intrepration or was it to find out which SB/kon-el/conner kent is the most popular.there is only four choices and three of them are considered the same character,thats why i ask.if he wanted it to be about all superboys why not add all those other superboys the poster ahead of mesuggested.looks like he threw in clark as superboy just to round out the poll,but his main intent was to find out what ppl thought of the modern superboy,or SB,and have discussion over it.

[MajorHoy]

ice wolf started this thread,he is a big kesel SB fan(not as big as me though lol),he needs to tell us his intent with this thread,was it to choose your favorite superboy out of every conceivable intrepration or was it to find out which SB/kon-el/conner kent is the most popular.there is only four choices and three of them are considered the same character,thats why i ask.if he wanted it to be about all superboys why not add all those other superboys the poster ahead of mesuggested.looks like he threw in clark as superboy just to round out the poll,but his main intent was to find out what ppl thought of the modern superboy,or SB,and have discussion over it.

Actually, it seems like he selected all the main ones from regular DC Universe continuity (aside from the Superboy from Earth-Prime).

The ones from TV shows and other outside sources don't necessarily have anything to do with the DC Universe as it's presented in the main comic book stories.

[Ice Wolf]

Actually, it seems like he selected all the main ones from regular DC Universe continuity (aside from the Superboy from Earth-Prime).

The ones from TV shows and other outside sources don't necessarily have anything to do with the DC Universe as it's presented in the main comic book stories.

Correct, just the mainstream DC Universe comic book Superboys

I've seperated Kesel and Johns versions because whilst the were intended to be the same character they have significantly different origins.

I could probably have seperated Pre-Crisis Superboy up as well but I don't have as much experience with the character to know if there were any significant continuity changes to it.

DCnu is seperated as again it is a different continuity. I'm just having a little fun by contending it is really Match, think about it what would Match (the original not the degenerating TT one) be like if he started developing a conscience?

[C-Dot]

Correct, just the mainstream DC Universe comic book Superboys

I've seperated Kesel and Johns versions because whilst the were intended to be the same character they have significantly different origins.

I could probably have seperated Pre-Crisis Superboy up as well but I don't have as much experience with the character to know if there were any significant continuity changes to it.

DCnu is seperated as again it is a different continuity. I'm just having a little fun by contending it is really Match, think about it what would Match (the original not the degenerating TT one) be like if he started developing a conscience?

Pre-Crisis Clark was Superboy first so it makes perfect sense. Plus if you're counting the DCnu version in a new continuity, why not the kid who started it all in the first continuity? You did the poll right. SB Prime could have been added or any other alt one, but *shrug*. Kesel Kon had alt versions too (remember both Elseworlds Superboys and the Legion of Superboys?)

The Kesel and Johns versions are different in more than just origin though. Personality, powers, background, character, and even species. One was 100% human because Superman couldn't be cloned at all (still human when he grew up and all alt versions were human) while the other is a hybrid just because (they never even bothered to explain how he was Superman's clone all of a sudden at the beginning of Titans. Even the Cadmus files were wrong.). One had no Kryptonian powers and had telekinesis because of that while the other did. One didn't have a single code word in his head and other did. And so on and so on. From reading both Titans and Reign/Superboy/Etc., Kesel's original Kon-El is not Johns "Conner Kent" and "Conner Kent" isn't Kon-El. Johns may have intended it to be the same, but the books said otherwise and none of it syncs with each other.

And yeah, you're right about nu being more Match than anything else.

[Ice Wolf]

Pre-Crisis Clark was Superboy first so it makes perfect sense. Plus if you're counting the DCnu version in a new continuity, why not the kid who started it all in the first continuity? You did the poll right. SB Prime could have been added or any other alt one, but *shrug*. Kesel Kon had alt versions too (remember both Elseworlds Superboys and the Legion of Superboys?)

Yeah I could have added alts but I was just going for the mains because when you start adding alts where do you stop?

The Kesel and Johns versions are different in more than just origin though. Personality, powers, background, character, and even species. One was 100% human because Superman couldn't be cloned at all (still human when he grew up and all alt versions were human) while the other is a hybrid just because (they never even bothered to explain how he was Superman's clone all of a sudden at the beginning of Titans. Even the Cadmus files were wrong.). One had no Kryptonian powers and had telekinesis because of that while the other did. One didn't have a single code word in his head and other did. And so on and so on. From reading both Titans and Reign/Superboy/Etc., Kesel's original Kon-El is not Johns "Conner Kent" and "Conner Kent" isn't Kon-El. Johns may have intended it to be the same, but the books said otherwise and none of it syncs with each other.

I agree with all this but for the no Kryptonian powers, Kon did have Kryptonian powers they just hadn't developed yet, both Black Zero and Superboy during Sins of Youth had at least the vision and hearing powers, so Kon developing the additional powers during the Teen Titans run wouldn't have been inconsistent, seeing as he was ageing again after Superboy #74

And yeah, you're right about nu being more Match than anything else.

It just makes so much sense.

[Superlad93]

Supergirl said "Don't take this the wrong way, but I've found a place where I can make a difference. Where I'm more than Superman's kid cousin" as she's more than just associated with Superman. Supergirl is the same character from “Superman The Animated Series” just like Superman: Kara In-ze from planet Argo and not an El.



It's a message board. You can object, agree, comment, whatever on something or what someone says. No one said anything to you, but you sid something in response to something said to me. I can’t do the same with what you said? I’m not posting in all caps or “!!!!!!!” or raging. I disagreed and I’m very calm.

Anyone can like or dislike anything. But to make a generalization on what’s “more accessible” and paint a pic with no basis is a whole other thing. You and a few paint the pic of “what was originally done is dense and hard to comprehend” when it wasn’t and that one has a stronger tie to Superman than the other when that’s not true. Not based on opinion but on the fact that the character gained a lot of popularity from the story. And as far as Johns Superboy being “simplistic”, you have a hybrid “clone” of two people with a constantly revised origin versus a clone of just one with straightforward story. And now we have a clone with three people in the mix versus a clone of two people versus a clone of one.



Karl Kesel: "A few weeks after I took the assignment, there was a Superman summit where we figured out how to bring him back from the dead. I thought it would be nice if each of the Supermen somehow reflected the titles of their books. I remembered that the tagline from the old Superboy comic was ‘the adventures of Superman when he was a boy' and I thought Superboy should be the character in Adventures. I thought no one would go for it, but at the summit, we had a huge list of all the possible ways Superman could come back and Superboy was one of them. I really stomped to get it. I'm really happy that penciller Tom Grummett and I ended up with this Superman because he's a really fun character."

They could have made him a straight up clone but didn't. Number one, and the one a few seem to forget, is because it would defeat the purpose of the "Reign of the Supermen" story as none of the Supermen were Superman resurrected. He was presented as a "clone of Superman" to lay claim to being Superman resurrected, not to actually be a clone. That was his "angle". If he actually was a clone of Superman as he advertised, there would be no question as to who the true resurrected Superman was out of the four. That is why it was pointed out in the book that it was a misconception that he was Superman's clone. Every other Superman had the misconception that they were Superman brought back with their own supporters, but had more to their individual stories. Being hung up on "he's a clone of Superman" is just ignoring what was actually going on and done in the book.

I didn't say she wasn't the same character I said that, that aspect of the character was down played for simplicity sake. In the same episode that you cited the could have taken a trip down memory lane and cited how she is not actually his cousin. That episode after all was the when she left for the future.

Also what your Karl Kesel quot said nothing for me to think that the mandate had absolutely nothing to do with Superboy.

And didn't you say cyborg Superman was basically a clone? Wouldn't he be the default winner as to who was Superman? The fact that he looked the way he did really put that into question and if Superboy were given Superman's DNA then the way he looked would bring that into question as well right?

Lastly I think I over reacted to the way you worded it. Almost as if I was just plan wrong for thinking like that. I'll concede that it would be possible to make that your way simple but I really don't think the actually man that Superboy was cloned from (Westfield) would be the right choice for most people, just because he really has no real impact on the Superman would. But maybe just being a Lex clone would be a bit much if you ask me.

[Thor-Ul]

I liked more the way Kesel managed Kon-el. It was a different take on a known name.

[stephens2177]

ok you know how i keep asking for TTK on the YJ show for SB,well howabout this ,somewhere i read or saw that every genomorph is supposed to have mental powers of some kind,add that to human dna interacting with kryptonian dna,and BAM you got either A mutated kryptonian dna that leans toward mental powers,or B a totally seperate extra power from being a genomorph and having the two species dna spliced together.what do you think?