Superboy (comic book)

Superboy
Superboy vol. 1, #1 (Mar-Apr, 1949). Superman invites the readers to explore the new title. Art by Wayne Boring.
Publication information
Schedule	(vol 1) Bi-monthly (1-28, 193-206) 8 times a year (29-125, 207-219) 9 times a year (126-176) Monthly (177-192, 220-230) (The New Adventures of... & vol 3-4) Monthly (vol 2) Monthly (1-19) Bi-monthly (20-22)
Format	Ongoing series
Number of issues	(vol 1): 230, 1 Annual (The New Adventures of...): 54 (vol 2): 22 (vol 3): 102 (including issues numbered 0 and 1000000), 4 Annuals (vol 4): 11 (vol 5): 1
Main character(s)	(vol 1 & The New Adventures of...) Clark Kent/Kal-El (vol 2) Clark Kent based on Superboy television series (vol 3-5) Kon-El/Conner Kent
Creative team
Writer(s)	(vol 1) Otto Binder E. Nelson Bridwell (vol 2) Cary Bates (vol 3) Karl Kesel (vol 4) Jeff Lemire (vol 5) Scott Lobdell
Penciller(s)	(vol 1) John Sikela Al Plastino George Papp Bob Brown Dave Cockrum Mike Grell (vol 2) Kurt Schaffenberger (vol 3) Tom Grummett (vol 4) Pier Gallo (vol 5) RB Silva
Inker(s)	(vol 1) Bob Wiacek Jack Abel

Superboy is the name of several comic book series published by DC Comics, featuring characters of the same name. The first three titles feature the original Superboy, the legendary hero Superman as a boy. Later series feature the second Superboy, who is a partial clone of the original Superman.

Publication history

Volume 1 (1949-1977)

The first series featured the original Superboy, a teenage incarnation of the Man of Steel. It began publication in 1949, four years after the character's debut in More Fun Comics #101 (January 1945). The majority of the stories were set in the rural town of Smallville during the character's youth. The supporting cast included Superboy's adoptive parents Jonathan and Martha Kent, his over-inquisitive classmate and neighbor Lana Lang, best friend Pete Ross (who was secretly aware of Superboy's true identity as Clark Kent), Police Chief Parker, and the super-powered canine Krypto. With the exception of a teenage Lex Luthor, who was a frequent foe of the Boy of Steel, almost none of the featured villains appeared more than once.

Beginning in the early 1960s, several stories featured appearances by the futuristic Legion of Super-Heroes. The Legion starred in their own backup feature starting with #172 (March 1971). With issue #197 (September 1973), the Legion became permanent co-stars, and the cover logo became "Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes" while the title of the book itself remained Superboy. With #222 (December 1976), the cover logo became "Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes" and the book's title itself followed with #231 (September 1977). Starting with #259 (January 1980), the title was changed to Legion of Super-Heroes (volume 2), and the Boy of Steel left the team and the book. Though Superboy later rejoined, he made only occasional appearances in the series that once bore his name, and the series remained a Legion book until its last issue, Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes #354 (December 1987).

For much of this period, DC also published Superboy tales in Adventure Comics, which began featuring the Boy of Steel regularly in issue #103 (April 1946).

The New Adventures of Superboy (1980-1984)

New Adventures of Superboy #1 (Jan. 1980): Superboy (Kal-El) and his supporting cast: Chief Parker, Lana Lang, Pete Ross, and Martha & Jonathan Kent. Art by Kurt Schaffenberger and Dick Giordano.

The second series was actually titled The New Adventures of Superboy. It was launched to provide readers with monthly Smallville-based Superboy tales, which largely disappeared after the Legion became co-stars of the original Superboy title. The series continued monthly publication for a total of 54 issues, with virtually all issues being pencilled by longtime Lois Lane artist Kurt Schaffenberger.

Superboy Spectacular #1 (cover dated March 1980) was DC's first direct sales-only title.^[1][2]

Briefly, the series also included a back-up feature, Dial H for Hero (which originated in House of Mystery in 1966).

Volume 2: Superboy: The Comic Book (1990-1992)

The third series (Volume 2) is different from other Superman or Superboy titles in that it is set in the continuity of the Superboy television series, as opposed to the regular DC Universe. Its intent was to explore some of the unseen tales and events that the TV series could not. The series originally carried the cover title Superboy: The Comic Book, although the title in the indicia was simply Superboy. After issue #11, the series changed its cover title to The Adventures of Superboy, a change reflected in the indicia beginning with #18. The series remained in publication for 22 issues.

Volume 3 (1994-2002)

After the Crisis on Infinite Earths limited series, the original Superboy was erased from mainstream DC continuity, with Superman beginning his superhero career as an adult in his early twenties. In 1993, DC Comics began Reign of the Supermen, the third arc of its Death of Superman storyline. The prelude to this arc, Adventures of Superman #500 (June 1993), introduced a new Superboy. A hybrid clone of Superman and a human male, the character (eventually named "Kon-El") was given his own title (Volume 3), which ran for 102 issues (including #0 and #1,000,000). For a portion of this period, Kon-El also appeared in the companion title Superboy and the Ravers, which ran for 19 issues.

Volume 4 (2010-2011)

A new Superboy series starring Kon-El debuted in November 2010, initially written by Jeff Lemire and with art by Pier Gallo.^[3] In this series, Kon-El, living under the secret identity of Conner Kent, lives with Martha Kent and Krypto in Smallville, the town he protects as the second Superboy.

It was announced by DC comics that all of their series will come to an end and be relaunched in September 2011, and with this announcement, Superboy will end with issue 11.^[4]

Volume 5 (2011-Current)

As part of the DC Comics company wide relaunch in September 2011, Superboy began with a new issue number 1.^[5] This new series is written by Scott Lobdell and has art by RB Silva and Rob Lean. The solicit lists that this new series will feature Superboy grown from a combination of Kryptonian and human DNA and be a clone that has become a weapon.

See also

• Adventure Comics
• Superboy and the Ravers
• Smallville#Comic books - tie-in to the Smallville television series

Notes

1. ^ Superboy Spectacular #1 at the Grand Comics Database
2. ^ "In a further effort to find new distribution, a Superboy Spectacular was produced for Random House's in-school book club program and offered to comic shops but not newsstands." Levitz, Paul 75 Years of DC Comics The Art of Modern Mythmaking Taschen America, LLC 2010 ISBN 9783836519816 p. 454
3. ^ Rogers, Vaneta (May 14, 2010). "LEMIRE on SUPERBOY: "The Best of Two Worlds"". Newsarama. http://www.newsarama.com/comics/Superboy-Lemire-Interview-100514.html. Retrieved May 14, 2010. 
4. ^ DC Comics Co Publishers. "A Note from the DC Comics Co-Publishers: We Hate Secrets". http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2011/06/01/a-note-from-the-dc-comics-co-publishers-we-hate-secrets/. Retrieved 27 June 2011. 
5. ^ Hyde, David. "September's Superman Solicits". http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2011/06/13/septembers-superman-solicits/. Retrieved 27 June 2011. 

References

• Superboy (1949) at the Grand Comics Database
• Superboy (1949) at the Comic Book DB
• The New Adventures of Superboy at the Grand Comics Database
• The New Adventures of Superboy) at the Comic Book DB
• Superboy (1990) at the Grand Comics Database
• Superboy (1990) at the Comic Book DB
• Superboy (1994) at the Grand Comics Database
• Superboy (1994) at the Comic Book DB

External links

• Superboy comics at the DC Database Project