Superboy 14 Preview / Discussion (Spoilers)

[House of Rao]

No that would be the best thing to happen to this series. Superboy being bi-sexual would be awesome. He is a clone so why wouldn't have have questions about sexuality. It just feels right.

That would be pretty horrible. Regardless if Kon is heterosexual or bisexual, people are going to fantasize about Kon being gay. Making him gay for no reason will only alienate fans.

[Mr. Holmes]

Actually it's pretty logical to make him bi, if we go by the original interpretation of the New 52 Superboy. Sexuality is something that gets cultivated growing up, and Superboy doesn't see things in a normal perspective because of his clone origin. He would have no reason to confine his sexuality to straight or gay.

[thwhtGuardian]

All the editor tags were really distracting, I mean you'd think they'd seriously want to streamline the issue to try and attract readers who were giving it a try because it was tied into the H'el on Earth story but that seemed to have slipped their mind. I don't think I'll bother picking up the next Superboy tie in chapter and hope that it isn't referenced too much in Superman and Supergirl.

[Desaad]

That would be pretty horrible. Regardless if Kon is heterosexual or bisexual, people are going to fantasize about Kon being gay. Making him gay for no reason will only alienate fans.

What kind of narrow minded fans are going to get alienated? And what constitutes 'no reason'.

This is not the same Superboy that we had before. He has a decidedly more removed, abstract sense of self and point of view.

I'm not one that subscribes to the idea that sexuality is 'learned', but there can't be any doubt that sexuality is at least influenced by cultural norms; it's not as though the ancient greeks just all HAPPENED to be bisexual, after all.

Conner being gay or bisexual is by no means a must, but I do think it's a completely natural outgrowth of his character to at the very least explore and experiment. That said, there is no reason fans of this Superboy should be alienated; it's as reasonable a sexual preference as any other, even if it is perhaps less statistically likely.

I wouldn't want anything too explicit in the comic because I'm not terribly interested in it, but a comment about exploring his sexuality seems very reasonable to me.

[stephens2177]

Warrior10 is a lil more fired up then he should be,but he is a solid SB fan,and his heart is in the right place.

Hey conway if you have any questions about superboy ask me,id be haply to help.

Oh and instead of being negative about kon being in so many directions/crossovers,i like to think positive,and say he is just in large demand he is everywhere.

[Robotman4]

@ Retro315 and other idiots that don't know a good Epic storyline when they see 1, or act like they haven't bought the issue.

It's obvious to me that you haven't been reading the SB in this DCNU, this storyline was good from Ravagers, Legion Lost to Superboy #14, some ppl that know nothing about good storylines like this when they see 1. I have to cut ths post shorter than the 1 I just tried to post because of the stupid ppl that run this site can't remember me, so i'll get to the more so points. The Superman family needs a powerful Murderous Sentient like H'el or win every fight or fans of any genre in comics would get sick of it. Did any1 NOTICE THAT H'EL and SB have Amost the SAME POWERSET. I bet most ppl were stupid enough not to notice that. H'El could also read what genes SB had and other heroes were built, but with 1 exception to SBs Gene pool.

H'EL said there is another alien gene that H'el didn't know of, and so H'El started to tear everything off from SB includeing his own flesh, and am very surprised that SB was still alive in the end. Also I think SB will Have H'Els same powerset and potency just because H'Els powers are too much the same as SBs, but SB doesn't know his own powerful he can get yet unless we get probably Legion Lost 15 and 16th issues of their comics. So those of u that cry about how stupid this story is, then just look in the mirror.

I picture him wearing an undersized Superman cape while violently typing this.

[House of Rao]

Actually it's pretty logical to make him bi, if we go by the original interpretation of the New 52 Superboy. Sexuality is something that gets cultivated growing up, and Superboy doesn't see things in a normal perspective because of his clone origin. He would have no reason to confine his sexuality to straight or gay.

Incorrect. He sees things differently because he is inexperienced, not because he is a clone. Being a clone doesn't have anything to do with it.

What kind of narrow minded fans are going to get alienated? And what constitutes 'no reason'.

This is not the same Superboy that we had before. He has a decidedly more removed, abstract sense of self and point of view.

I'm not one that subscribes to the idea that sexuality is 'learned', but there can't be any doubt that sexuality is at least influenced by cultural norms; it's not as though the ancient greeks just all HAPPENED to be bisexual, after all.

Conner being gay or bisexual is by no means a must, but I do think it's a completely natural outgrowth of his character to at the very least explore and experiment. That said, there is no reason fans of this Superboy should be alienated; it's as reasonable a sexual preference as any other, even if it is perhaps less statistically likely.

I wouldn't want anything too explicit in the comic because I'm not terribly interested in it, but a comment about exploring his sexuality seems very reasonable to me.

It's narrow minded to consider anyone narrow minded because they don't like something. No reason is without reason, obviously. Coming up with theories on to justify the huge change is not a reason. Him being friends with another homosexual male is not a reason. A male having a close bond with another male is not a reason. In fact, I'm actually offended that two men who bond over something have to be gay. It rules out the notion of platonic love and automatically has to be something romantic, or something sexual. I find two men who are close, a bromance, to be much more beautiful than any singular relationship.

SB reboot has nothing to do with how fans feel about him, new fans to the character is a different story. But for those who collected his past work those feelings don't go away. He has what aroudn 1300 appearances, and people will forget their feelings they built up for him over the past 20 years because he has been rebooted? No.

SB has been DC's posterboy for 'teen stud' since the 90s, he's been the alpha dog and ladies man. That has a certain pull. If you take that away people will be alienated. Open minded, narrow minded, or closed minded, if you don't like something you don't like something. Even if you accept homosexuality and hold no hate about it, if you are not attracted to that kind of thing, you will distance yourself from it. I won't stop reading SB if he becomes homosexual or bisexual. However I collect everything Superboy; good or bad. I collect the tie ins such as the Ravagers & Legion Lost. However if they took some of SB's major appeals away from me like that I would only limit myself only to the main entries and would not hang around for bad issues. The old SB isn't gone entirely, even with all his issues, the old SB flair is still there. As soon as he got on his own he had Dallas around his arm. He bonded and things got heated up with Wonder Girl, she who used to hate him now is pretty supportive of him. From Ravagers 6 it looks like something could be brewing with Caitlin and supposedly in SB Annual 01 he has a developing relationship with Rose where they are seen kissing on the cover. That's 4 girls on his love-radar and to suddenly throw in he's attracted to men with no prior build up would just piss me off. It's turning him gay just to be gay, not because it was in his character all along, or something he developed into.

[Mr. Holmes]

Incorrect. He sees things differently because he is inexperienced, not because he is a clone. Being a clone doesn't have anything to do with it.

I don't think you understand what I'm saying. Being a clone means he doesn't have the social experience of being raised. He's blank slate, and with his own abstract consciousness to observe social norms.

It's narrow minded to consider anyone narrow minded because they don't like something. No reason is without reason, obviously. Coming up with theories on to justify the huge change is not a reason. Him being friends with another homosexual male is not a reason. A male having a close bond with another male is not a reason. In fact, I'm actually offended that two men who bond over something have to be gay. It rules out the notion of platonic love and automatically has to be something romantic, or something sexual. I find two men who are close, a bromance, to be much more beautiful than any singular relationship.

SB reboot has nothing to do with how fans feel about him, new fans to the character is a different story. But for those who collected his past work those feelings don't go away. He has what aroudn 1300 appearances, and people will forget their feelings they built up for him over the past 20 years because he has been rebooted? No.

SB has been DC's posterboy for 'teen stud' since the 90s, he's been the alpha dog and ladies man. That has a certain pull. If you take that away people will be alienated. Open minded, narrow minded, or closed minded, if you don't like something you don't like something. Even if you accept homosexuality and hold no hate about it, if you are not attracted to that kind of thing, you will distance yourself from it. I won't stop reading SB if he becomes homosexual or bisexual. However I collect everything Superboy; good or bad. I collect the tie ins such as the Ravagers & Legion Lost. However if they took some of SB's major appeals away from me like that I would only limit myself only to the main entries and would not hang around for bad issues. The old SB isn't gone entirely, even with all his issues, the old SB flair is still there. As soon as he got on his own he had Dallas around his arm. He bonded and things got heated up with Wonder Girl, she who used to hate him now is pretty supportive of him. From Ravagers 6 it looks like something could be brewing with Caitlin and supposedly in SB Annual 01 he has a developing relationship with Rose where they are seen kissing on the cover. That's 4 girls on his love-radar and to suddenly throw in he's attracted to men with no prior build up would just piss me off. It's turning him gay just to be gay, not because it was in his character all along, or something he developed into.

The quicker you accept this Superboy as a new character the better.

[Kizmet]

For someone that picked this up just for the "H'El on Earth" crossover, it was a bit of a mess. Half the dialogue seemed to directly (and clunkily) reference other story lines, and there were editorial notes advertising at least 4 or 5 other series (earlier issues of Superboy, Teen Titans, Ravagers, the H'El setup in Superman, and of course don't forget to pick up next week's Supergirl!). No wonder this character is a mess when he's being pulled in so many different directions.

I'm a regular reader of "Superboy" and it was still a bit of a mess. We've got references to stuff that happened in "Legion Lost" #14-16... issues 15 & 16 haven't actually been published yet for any NuDC title... "Ravagers" #4-7... #7 isn't out yet, and the current arc in "Teen Titans", of which the last issue won't be out until later this month. This book references things that happen in 4 comics WHICH HAVE YET TO BE PUBLISHED!!! It's ridiculous!

This issue spoils the end of the current "Teen Titans" arc a week before it hit the shelves. I'm not certain what happened in "Legion Lost" 14, because I didn't know Superboy was going to be in it until I read this issue, so maybe that one might not have been a spoiler for regular readers of "Legion Lost", but for someone like me who is primarily reading "Superboy" this issue spoils a fairly major plot point in a book I didn't even know Superboy was going to be in. Ravagers #5 didn't point readers to "Legion Lost" #14, "Ragavers #6" didn't come out until this week (same as Superboy #14) so how is a person supposed to know that they ought to read LL #14 before reading Superboy #14?

And how could anyone possibly read the 4 issues referenced in this book that aren't published yet?

It's completely insane, referencing the end of multiple story-lines which aren't finished yet.

[Mr. Holmes]

Yeah if the H'El story is dependent on Superboy, this whole event is screwed. Hopefully Superman is self-contained.

[Flash Gordon]

If H'El on Earth is in fact dependent on SUPERBOY, I'm out.

[Sacred Knight]

I don't know why it would be. I mean yeah its a crossover but in the grand scheme of things these things usually focus most on its biggest player. IOW, Superman. Lobdell's going to be the lynchpin of this crossover, not Defalco.

[Mr. Holmes]

I wasn't sure if this was going to be a "Part One - Superboy, Part Two - Supergirl, etc." crossover or not.

[Volkditty]

I wasn't sure if this was going to be a "Part One - Superboy, Part Two - Supergirl, etc." crossover or not.

It is a more linear Superboy-->Supergirl-->Superman story order as opposed to the Batman-style crossovers where the story arc is just in Batman and the other Bat-family titles are just peripherally related stories. Only time will tell how tightly woven the story is across all three titles, though. At the moment I feel like nothing major or essential happened in Superboy #14.

[Conway]

It is a more linear Superboy-->Supergirl-->Superman story order as opposed to the Batman-style crossovers where the story arc is just in Batman and the other Bat-family titles are just peripherally related stories. Only time will tell how tightly woven the story is across all three titles, though. At the moment I feel like nothing major or essential happened in Superboy #14.

I feel like everything important must happen in other titles, wow that's a lot of editor notes.