THE "WHEN SUPERBOY MET CHARACTERS FROM HIS FUTURE SUPPORTING CAST" TOUR

In the pages of Fawcett Comics, a superhero named Captain Marvel made his debut in 1940. He quickly became the best-selling superhero across all comic publishers at the time. Riding on that success, Fawcett introduced a younger hero in 1942... Captain Marvel Jr. The new character became a hit in his own right, and within just a few months, he was regularly featured in three ongoing Fawcett titles. One of those, Captain Marvel Jr., ran for an impressive 118 issues.

Seeing how popular these younger heroes were, DC Comics decided to create a teenage version of their own biggest star, Superman.  But there was a challenge. Superman’s origin story said he was the only survivor of a destroyed planet, which didn’t leave room for another younger Kryptonian growing up on Earth.  The solution? They rewrote Superman's backstory and introduced the idea that he had actually started his heroic career as a young lad, going by the name Superboy. His first appearance as Superboy came in 1945, in More Fun Comics #101.

Over the years, writers began creating stories that showed young Superboy crossing paths with all sorts of characters who would later become part of Superman’s regular supporting cast. In this tour, we’ll take a look at some of those early, imaginative encounters!

The entries in this tour are in no particular order!  

1)
Superboy meets Perry White
Adventure Comics #120 (September 1947)
"Perry White Cub Reporter"

Superboy helps a young Perry White obtain his reporting job at the Daily Planet by setting him up with an interview with the Ringmaster and his crime circus.

2)
Superboy meets Green Arrow
Adventure Comics #258 (March 1959)
"Superboy Meets the Young Green Arrow"
While working on his time monitor (let's discuss this convenient plot device another time!), Superboy learns that there will be a future hero named Green Arrow, and he learns his identity as Oliver Queen. As fate would have it, a young Oliver Queen shows up the next day as a new student at Clark Kent's school.

Superboy attempts to steer Oliver towards his future destiny. But Oliver (in a borrowed Robin Hood outfit) decides that he'll never be much of an archer! (The story ends with no mention of how long Oliver attended school in Smallville.)

3) Superboy meets Batgirl Adventure Comics #453 (October 1977) "You Too Can Be a Super-Hero" Superboy is returning from an adventure in the 30th century with the Legion of Super-Heroes when he encounters a young girl having problems swimming at Camp Smallville. Later, the girl wishes she had powers like Superboy. Because Superboy had one of (Legion villain) Mordru's crystals with him, the crystal granted the girl powers, and she temporarily took the identity of Mighty Girl. Before the conclusion of the story, readers learn that this young girl is the future Batgirl, Barbara Gordon.

4) Superboy meets Jimmy Olsen Adventure Comics #216 (September 1955) "The Wizard City"

Before meeting Jimmy when joining the Daily Planet as Clark Kent, it turns out that Superman, as Superboy, met Jimmy Olsen when Jimmy was just a small child.

Professor Mark Olsen of the Smallville Natural History Museum is lost in Africa. Clark Kent meets Professor Olsen's wife and young son and promises that his friend Superboy will help him return to the United States. Upon the professor's return, it is revealed that the professor's son is none other than Jimmy Olsen, future "cub-reporter".

5) Superboy meets Green Lantern Adventures of Superboy #13 (January 1981) "Superboy's Wild Weekend Out West" Hal and Clark are both passengers on an airplane headed for Coast City when lightning hits the plane and sends it out of control. Hal (identifying himself originally as "Harold") keeps all the passengers calm, unaware that Clark is using his powers to help bring the plane back into a steady flight. The two hit it off and head for the beach for more continued adventures! At the end of the story, "Harold" lets Clark know they'll meet again.

6) Superboy meets Batman

Adventure Comics #275 (August 1960) "The Origin of the Superman - Batman Team" Superboy meets Batman Superboy #182 (February 1972) "The Forging of Young Batman" Honestly, an entire tour could be created for the sheer volume of times that Superman and Batman first met. But here, we'll look at two possible times that they first met as boys. Adventure Comics #275, Superboy uses his "time viewer" and sees himself, as Superman, working with Batman. He sees them sharing their secret identities with each other. Later, a young Bruce Wayne moves to Smallville. After some prodding from Lana Lang, Bruce assumes the identity of Flying Fox, and he partners with Superboy. Flying Fox eventually learns Superboy's identity, but he requests that Superboy remove that knowledge by hypnosis. Bruce and his parents eventually move back to Gotham City. The second time Superboy meets Bruce Wayne is in Superboy #182. Superboy learns of the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne. Superboy meets Bruce and assures him that it was not the Zodiac Killer who murdered his parents... a hypothesis that Bruce had erroneously reached.

7)
Superboy meets Supergirl
Superboy #80 (April 1960)
"Superboy Meets Supergirl!"

Superman laments to Supergirl how sad he was as a kid because he never had any super-powered friends to play with (which is a huge insult to every single member of the Legion of Super-Heroes!).

Feeling bad for him, Supergirl decides to travel back in time and play outer-space hide-and-seek with Superboy to brighten up his childhood. Luckily, after cheering him up, she makes use of the giant red flowers on the planet Albo—conveniently, they erase memories for exactly one Earth week. That way, Superboy won’t remember her visit and accidentally reveal that a "secret weapon" Supergirl is coming in the future.

(By the way, the red skirt shown on the cover is simply a coloring mistake.  Her skirt is the usual blue throughout the actual story.)

8)
Superboy meets Martian Manhunter
Martian Manhunter (vol. 2) #20 (July 2000)
"Revelations One: Strange Visitors"

This tale reveals that the Martian Manhunter was aware of the alien rocket that landed on Earth carrying baby Kal-El.

Manhunter kept tabs on Kal-El (now Clark Kent) as he grew up. During one particular period of time, Martian Manhunter adopted the identity of Josh Johnstone, and he worked as hired help on the Kent farm for a while, just to see how the alien child was adapting to his adoptive life and planet.

9)
Superboy meets Lois Lane
Adventure Comics #261 (June 1959)
"... Meets Lois Lane!"

Turns out that Superman met Lois Lane long before their first published adventure in Action Comics #1.

As a teen, Lois Lane decided to attend Camp Hiawatha, which was near Smallville... solely because it was rumored that Superboy was supposed to live in Smallville. She meets Lana Lang at this camp, and the two of them spend their entire camp visit trying to vie for Superboy's attention. In the end, they both get poison ivy!

10)
Superboy meets Aquaman
Superboy #171 (January 1971)
"Dark Strangler of the Seas!"

Superboy met a young sea-living boy who identified himself as "Aquaboy". The two address some man-made sea pollution and the evil people causing it, but in the end, affirm that addressing pollution will require more than the two of them.

11)
Superboy meets Lex Luthor
Superboy #59 (September 1957)
"Superboy Meets Amazing Man"
In DC Comics' Silver Age, Lex Luthor was retconned into being one of Superboy's childhood friends. But if you think their school years were the first time Kal-El and Lex Luthor met, you would be wrong!

Superboy first met Lex Luthor when Luthor pretended to be a hero named Amazing Man. After exposing Amazing Man as a fraud and getting him behind bars, Superboy learns that the villain's name is Luthor, and he ponders the fact that when Luthor gets out, he'll be Superman by then.

12)
Superboy meets Robin
Adventure Comics #253 (October 1958)
"... Meets Robin the Boy Wonder"

With the assistance of Professor Nichols and his time ray (you gotta love the Silver Age!), Robin sends himself back in time to help save Superman by visiting him when he was Superboy, and altering a string of events put in place by Lex Luthor that led to Superman's exposure to a kryptonite bomb in the present.

13) Superboy meets Superman Superboy #47 (March 1956) "Superboy Meets Superman" This tour is dedicated to Superboy's meetings with characters that would be part of his future as Superman. But what about when a young Superboy actually met his own future self?

This is the first story (of several) to have Superboy and Superman meet. Superboy decides to travel back in time to investigate some history about Metropolis. But due to an eclipse (Silver Age science... go with it), he ends up in the future rather than the past! One of the fun aspects of this story is that it leaves it up to the reader to decide if the adventure really happened or if it was all simply a dream that young Clark had.

14)
Superbaby meets Zatara
The New Adventures of Superboy #14
"A Mix Up in Magic"

Superboy meets Zatara
The New Adventures of Superboy #49
"Zatara's Magical Mystery Tour!"
Superboy met Zatara on two occasions in the pages of The New Adventures of Superboy. The first time (issue #14), Zatara sees Superbaby fly after one of his stage performances and mistakenly concludes that he accidentally imbued the baby with the power of flight. Using magic, he temporarily takes this ability away from baby Clark Kent. The second meeting (issue #49) again revolves around Zatara performing his stage act in Smallville and accidentally bringing a barbarian from another dimension to Earth. Superboy jumps in to help him defeat the invader.

15)
Superboy meets Superman of Earth-Two
The New Adventures of Superboy #15 
"Superboy Meets Clark Kent"
The New Adventures of Superboy #16
"The Superboy Training of Clark Kent"

Superboy is thrown back in time and across dimensions while battling a tornado!  He ends up on Earth-Two in the 1930s and meets his Earth-Two doppleganger.  The Earth-Two Clark Kent lives with his adoptive parents, John and Mary Kent.  The Earth-Two Clark Kent isn't yet aware of his super capabilities, so Superboy (Earth-One) sets out to train him.  Eventually, Earth-Two Clark Kent assists Earth-One Superboy in returning to his own time and world.

  

With 15 entries, our tour comes to its conclusion.  I hope you enjoyed this trip down Superboy's memory lane.  Please let me know if you remember any similar Superboy encounters that I may have missed!




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