Superboy: Who's your favourite?

[stephens2177]

YJ season two outfit or tron suit,but i like your idea of kryotonian nanotech armor,same as kal and kara.

[Sacred Knight]

I hope they don't use that costume. It just looks like they're trying too hard to make Superboy edgy and cool. I'd rather just go with something like the Young Justice Season 2 costume.

I just hope if he gets a new costume it has the fingerless gloves. I love that look on him. I also really hope they do something with that barcode S tattoo. I like the idea of him not willingly wearing the S for a while yet it constantly being there as a reminder anyway as a permanent marker.

Any actual Kryptonian articles of clothing I'd like to hold off on. I think there's a lot to play up on with the whole Kryptonian clone thing so him being somewhat at odds with Kal and Kara because of that rift. I'm not saying make him angsty, just with no real cares to associate himself with Krypton and the El family considering the shady past of clones on the planet.

[AdamYJ]

There is just something about that leather jacket.
Kesel's Superboy is the sh*t!!!

I've been thinking. People rag on the leather jacket, but I liked it. The things is that super-heroes tend to play off of symbolism in their looks and dress. Going back to the 1950s, the leather motorcycle jacket was kind of an easily recognizable symbol for a teenage rebel or tough guy. Time's passed, but it's still kind of got that "James Dean/Marlon Brando" thing attached to it. So, since Superboy was going to be played as someone who wasn't quite the boy scout Superman was at the time, a little more impetuous and a little more hot-headed, they gave him a leather jacket.

[Sacred Knight]

I liked Superboy's leather jacket, and I liked Wonder Woman's jacket in the Odyssey arc. I think the look gets ragged on way too much just because it happened to be overused a couple decades ago.

[MajorHoy]

I liked Superboy's leather jacket, and I liked Wonder Woman's jacket in the Odyssey arc. I think the look gets ragged on way too much just because it happened to be overused a couple decades ago.

Probably also gets ragged on by people who don't own leather jackets (especially by people who aren't willing to spend the money for one).

[The Frozen Reptile]

I like Kal-El best; I think whoever thought up this concept in 1944 was brilliant, as it vastly opened up the types of stories and experiences he had from a different perspective (that of a super-powerful adolescent boy.) Plus we got to see what nostalgia meant (from 20 years previous) from people in the 50's and 60's. Note that World War II is never mentioned in the older Superboy stories (form the Silver Age; he would have grown up then on the farm.)

[stephens2177]

i think the fact that DC has kept a suoerboy around that isnt clark ,and even more a clone with a different personality,look,origin,and powers is amazing to me.DC loves their silver age,so kon being here is a great achievement in itself.

[Mr. Holmes]

i think the fact that DC has kept a suoerboy around that isnt clark ,and even more a clone with a different personality,look,origin,and powers is amazing to me.DC loves their silver age,so kon being here is a great achievement in itself.

Well Clark already has an identity that's the most recognizable superhero of all times, so it isn't that impressive that there is someone else in the Superboy role.

[Lexrules]

I never thought Conner / Kon would have lasted this long after The Return of Superman. The character really grew on me after a while and more so in recent years up until the reboot.

[stephens2177]

Well Clark already has an identity that's the most recognizable superhero of all times, so it isn't that impressive that there is someone else in the Superboy role.

hi neo i would think you would be amazed to kon has lasted this long when no other SUPER offshoot character,like matrix could do it. i mean some ppl are only going to be ok with a full blood kryptonian with supermans exact powers,but SB has done it,he is a brash,mixed species,TK wielding kid.

i think nudcu SB has consciously controlled TK as a window for his latent kryptonian physical powers to emerge,so he isnt completely dependent on a power he cant depend on every second of the day.

[starsonfire]

I have always loved Kon El and always will!

[C-Dot]

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

The "Secret Files 80-Page Giant" issue. At Cadmus, Mickey Cannon asked "Doesn't add up. If the kid's the closest they could get to Superman, how come they didn't give him the other super powers? X-Ray and heat vision, superhearing….those things should have been easy to add genetically". Serling Roquette revealed that she did a scan of Superboy's DNA and said "it shows optical and auricular modifications to Superboy's DNA. Designed to manifest as he grows older. Much as it's theorized Superman's powers did." Black Zero later told him that they were made to be genetically like Superman and to “wait a few years” for heat vision. If you remember Cadmus’ Bizarro Superboy, he had all of the Kryptonian powers replicated & no tactile telekinesis but unstable from using human cells to stabilize imitated Kryptonian DNA (Titans said human DNA was used to stabilize Kryptonian DNA, but Bizarro Superboy was living proof that it couldn't be done). Cadmus took what they learned from the first try and added to Kon when it came to the 13th try. He was a solar battery so releasing that energy like Superman did was plausible.

Tactile telekinesis gave him strength/flight/invulnerability based on what they theorized about Superman's aura, but he had other things done to be Superman as well. They just took human DNA and radically changed it to be Superman's genetic equivalent to the point that it wasn’t regular human DNA anymore....only they didn't realize they made him more powerful. Black Zero (powerful enough to take over realities) and adult Superboy was a sign of what was to come from him. He wasn’t Kryptonian but based on one.

[NotSuper]

The Silver Age Superboy, easily.

In regards to Kon, I really liked the idea that his "dads" were Superman and Lex Luthor. It's always been evident to me that Lex is jealous of Superman and that's why he wants to destroy him--but a part of him also wants to BE Superman. It kind of reminds me of how the pre-Crisis Luthor was a big Superboy fan until the two became enemies--he's ALWAYS been obsessed with Kal, rather worshiping him or hating him.

There's also a nice psycho-sexual thing to the idea of Lex wanting to have a child with his arch-enemy. It was never really explored, though (I consider Kal considering Kon his "brother" to be a cop-out that's used to keep potentially interesting stories from being told).

[Mecegirl]

There is only so much we can say about the dude's fashion sense but his personalty more than made up for it.

[C-Dot]

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.

She didn't want to be in Superman's shadow and wanted her own path. Hence the comment. They didn't say "Superman's kid cousin" for simplicity at all. That's how she felt that she was being perceived as. There's a big difference.

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

The points of the quote are the ideas they had and the brainstorming session that had the Superboy idea. The mandate was flexible in some respects because that didn't stop Zod, Faora, Quex-Ul, Zero Hour Clark Kent Superboy, alternate universe Super characters, Pre-Crisis Kara Zor-El, Ultraman, the idea of Cyborg Superman having Superman's DNA, and on and on from showing up in stories. They could have done whatever with the character and chose the route they took just like they did with Cyborg Superman. And it obviously had to do with the story being told among other things.

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?

No because of two points.

A: Cyborg Superman wasn't advertised as "clone of Superman". He claimed to actually be Superman, had Superman's actual DNA to validate his claim (Emil Hamilton, who knew Superman's DNA, thought he was Clark based on that alone), and masqueraded as him.

B: He wasn't Superman because he was human Hank Henshaw turned electronic being and his body was made up of Kryptonian man and Kryptonian machine parts via Superman's original rocket (with machine in control). He was a clone when it came to powers/DNA, but wasn't Superman at all so he would not be the real Clark or Superman.

The storyline was "which one was the real Superman returned from the grave?" and cloning is one way of bringing back the dead (See: Jurassic Park). Each Superman had a claim based on four things. Cloning, "Soul in another man's body", resurrected with different outlook, and resurrected by technology. If Steel had Superman's actual soul like the psychic said, he would be the rightful Superman and all the others would be imposters. If the Eradicator = 'the real Superman back from the dead with a new attitude", he would be Superman resurrected. If Cyborg Superman = the real Superman with cybernetic parts, he would be Superman resurrected. And if Superboy = an actual replicated clone of Superman, he would be Superman resurrected. None of these were right and the real Superman returned. Making Superboy an actual clone made the other Supermen's stories pointless since he would not be a pretender (like Luthor thought he was when he learned Superboy wasn't Superman's clone in his first story.)

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.

But it's not about the "Superman world' though. Westfield has a place in Superboy's world for many reasons. One is that he was actually involved in the creation of the character. Two is that he has motive and reason for creating him. His organization Project Cadmus has a legit impact on the Superboy world (and stretching to the Superman realm). Project Cadmus was important enough in the aforementioned mythos for it to be shown in other media (see: Director Mickey Cannon in DC Universe Online). Westfield was the head of it so he's important in that regard.

It can be said that General Lane "had no impact in the Superman world" until a writer made him a focus in Superman. So why is it that Westfield (and Amanda Spence by association) can't be treated in that same respect when he actually has a place in the character's mythology? Luthor has his hands in multiple character origins in Superman (Metallo, Parasite, Bizarro, etc). He has his place in Superman's world and in the DCU at large, but not in Superboy's world for many reasons. It's like Joe Chill or Tony Zucco replaced by the Joker and Two Face in the movies.