FANBOY MODE: "Old" vs. "current" Superboy/"Smallville" stuff...

[Anthonynotes]

Well, here's my summary/listing of various details regarding the old Superboy and Smallville mythos, as per the new TV show "Smallville" apparently using/reinterpreting some old references from the comics. Will also indicate the "current" comics' status of said references where feasible/possible. All for when "Smallville" debuts this fall and for the edification of....um....guess just Mad Hatter and me. Uh....enjoy!

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The "Old" Superboy/"young Clark Kent" mythos:
- Kal-El was sent to Earth somewhere between a mere infant and 2-3 years of age (depending on who was writing), from an exploding Krypton that was quite the utopia (albeit with a garish Buck Rogers look) by loving parents Jor-El and Lara. (See: "Two Mice and a Baby" for what this "old" version of Krypton [right down to what Kal's rocket looked like] for details...).
[CURRENT COMICS: The loathsome and wretched "birthing matrix"/"sent as a fetus" stuff. No further comment. :-x ]

- After landing on Earth, Clark gained his powers instantaneously (upon exposure to our yellow sun), and gradually discovered what all his powers were over time. Depending on the writer, we saw some "Superbaby" stories of a 3-year-old Clark wreaking wacky/comedic havoc with his powers (see "Two Mice and a Baby")
[CURRENT COMICS: Clark doesn't gain his powers fully/discover them all until he's 16 or 18 years of age]

- At the age of 8, Clark is allowed by Ma and Pa Kent to embark on a career as Superboy, wearing a costume woven from the blankets that he was wrapped in when sent to Earth. Since the material came from Krypton, and any object from Krypton gained invulnerability under Earth's yellow sun, his costume itself was also invulnerable.
[CURRENT COMICS: Ma sews his costume from ordinary, uh, Spandex...and thus, it'll tear as easily as, um, Batman's, I guess...]

CLARK KENT: In the old comics, he adopted the disguise of glasses as a means of differentiating himself from his Superboy identity. He also pretended to act, well, "mild mannered" (or even outright "nerdy"/"wimpy") to do so. Usual Clark clothes consisted of a red sweater, jeans, and horn-rimmed glasses, with his hair combed back. Clark made it a point to abstain from school sports, feeling his powers would provide unfair competition for the other boys...
[CURRENT COMICS: the also-wretched-and-loathsome "Clark was a jock supreme in high school" stuff. :-x ]

MA and PA KENT: In the old comics, still his foster parents, and played an active role in giving support to Clark's superhero career as Superboy (pretty much the same as all those "Clark having dinner with the folks" scenes from S:TAS). In this continuity, they died after Clark had turned 18, when they were accidentially exposed to a deadly tropical virus (and Clark, for all his powers, wasn't able to do anything to save them).

For the first years of Clark's life, the Kents lived on a farm, but sold it, moved directly into Smallville itself, and bought a general store in Smallville when he started kindergarden. (I think I recall something about the "Smallville" TV show having the Kents own some sort of store, though it'd be doubtful it'd be a general store....) [CURRENT COMICS: Alive, of course, and never owned a general store/still owning a farm (both Byrne changes by the way, Hatter)....still quite supportive of their son's super-career.]

LANA LANG: Created in the early 50's, she was originally a red-headed teenaged version of Lois: a love interest for Clark/Superboy, and someone who often suspected Clark of being Superboy (at least in the 50's-60's stories; by the 70's, they seemed to have dropped the "secret id" obsession and settled for "where'd Clark disappear to?" bits). Lived in a house next door to the Kents. Father was Professor Lang, an archaeologist who kept bringing various artifacts (that'd wreak trouble). [CURRENT COMICS: Not sure if her dad's still an archaeologist/alive; now knows that Clark and Supes are one and the same.]

PETE ROSS: Clark Kent's best friend as a teeanger. Blonde-haired kid. As youths, Clark and Pete often went camping together, and on one night, Pete accidentially saw Clark change into Superboy while on such a trip. Pete never told anyone (including Clark) about this knowledge, though (being too much of a "pal" to do so), and tried to aid Clark in secret when he could...
[CURRENT COMICS: Pete married Lana, and doesn't know Clark is Supes.]

CHIEF PARKER: In the old and new comics, the Smallville chief of police (who played a bigger role in the old Superboy comics).

THE LEGION OF SUPERHEROES: A 30th century team of teeanged heroes, all founding their organization on the legendary status of Superboy. Travelling back in time to SMallville, they invited the Boy of Steel to join, and (thanks to Superboy's ability to travel through time under his own power) did so, joining them on many fan-favorite stories...they were such big fan-favorites, in fact, that they wound up taking over as the "lead feature" of Superboy's book by the early 70's (and continued to gain popularity...they're still quite popular with comics fans to this day, for their sci-fi bent/the personal lives of the Legionnaires/etc. :-)

Other characters in the old comics included various teachers, one-shot classmates of Clark and Lana's (including a Flash Thompson ripoff who liked to bully Clark), and a Professor Potter (a [very] wacky inventor who was Lana's uncle...doesn't exist in the current comics, but his closest analogue is Professor Hamilton).

Other artifacts of Superboy stories (none of which are found in the current books) included:
Robot duplicates of Superboy/Clark: used in case he needed to be, ahem, "two places at once" (to cover his secret ID, *not* to pull cheap spatial distortion gags :-)

A lab in the Kent house basement, with a tunnel leading from it to the woods (so that neighbors wouldn't spot Superboy flying in and out of the Kent house constantly)

Krypto would show up in some stories (was sent up as a test subject by Jor-El in the old stories, but couldn't be brought back; drifted eventually to Earth, where he was found by Superboy. Under the ground rules of "any life form from Krypton gains superpowers/a boost in intelligence under yellow sunlight" rule at the time, Krypto gained superpowers and Snoopy-level intelligence [thought balloons, usually sarcastic ones re: whatever the current situation involved]). [CURRENT COMICS: Krypto (sans thought balloons) recently apparently has made a comeback. If Barbara Streisand can do it, I guess so can Krypto ;-) ]

A "signal lamp": A specially-made-by-Superboy table lamp would be set to blink on and off in the Kent household when one of three individuals pressed a special button to signal that Supes was needed: Lana's father, Chief Parker, and the President of the United States (see my fanfic story "Brain's Mission For Pres. Reagan" to see its typical use)

Various alien invasions/etc. often struck Smallville (natch), but the town was also hit by a rather high number of bank robbers/gangsters... [CURRENT COMICS: with no Superboy career, Smallville's been mostly ignored by current writers, and is pretty much a dull place, usually used only for Ma and Pa-having-dinner-with-Clark scenes....]

Superboy changed his name to Superman sometime during college (around age 18 or 20 IIRC)...

Finally, Superboy was the only hero on Earth at his time; other heroes had yet to gain their powers (like the Flash) or were still in training (ol' Batsy, aka Bruce Wayne...of which a teenaged Bruce might be an interesting inclusion for a one-ep cameo on "Smallville"). There was one story that used a youthful version of Aquaman, but generally, Superboy was considered the Earth's sole and first superhero.

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I guess that's the basics of everything to Superboy's old stories; wonder if this'll be remotely useful for going into fanboy mode once "Smallville" hits the airwaves, or whether I'd have been better off saving it for pointless overanalytical complaints about that show :-)

-B.
That was...geeky.

[Sinople]

After John Byrne completely trashed Superman. I ceased caring what DC does with Superman. I'll probably check out Smallville. It sounds more interesting than anything I've heard about the Superman books in over a decade. But after Lois and Clark, I don't have great expectations.

[The Mad Hatter]

Wow, very illuminating. Thanks for the comparison, Brainatra. I wish I had time to give a decent in-depth reply/analysis (rassa frackin' job) but here's one thing that popped into my mind.

I think the fact that Superman was the first hero has also gone out the window. Near as I can understand it, DC considers that Superman now came _last_, as a final culmination of ultimate super power. Or have they backed away from that as well?

[Anthonynotes]

Originally posted by The Mad Hatter
Wow, very illuminating. Thanks for the comparison, Brainatra. I wish I had time to give a decent in-depth reply/analysis (rassa frackin' job) but here's one thing that popped into my mind.

I think the fact that Superman was the first hero has also gone out the window. Near as I can understand it, DC considers that Superman now came _last_, as a final culmination of ultimate super power. Or have they backed away from that as well?

Before the "Crisis On Infinite Earths", DC divided their comics mostly into two parallel Earths: comics they published between the late 30's and early 50's were assigned to "Earth-2", an alternate, parallel Earth where the JSA lived and Superman debuted in "Action Comics #1" in 1938 as an adult (and the world's first superhero), while 99% of their comics took place on the "real"/"our" world of Earth-1 (stories published between c.1955 to the mid-80's, where Superboy was the Earth's first hero and the JLA lived; this would probably include the era/version of Superman the general public thinks of when they think of the Man of Steel [the movies/TV shows aside]). Other parallel Earths were mentioned from time to time, but for the most part, these were the main two worlds used (and Earth-1 as the "real" comics world).

In "Crisis", all these Earths were collapsed into one thanks to altering the past, resulting in only one Earth (and no parallel Earths of any sort allowed...I know, I know). Thus, superheroes first appeared in the late 30's (the JSA-ers), but Superman wasn't one of them; since there was only one Superman, Supes doesn't debut until "10-12 years ago", as the first hero of the *modern* age of heroes...decades after the world had already been exposed to flying/superstrong/etc. characters for the first time. THis still stands as the current "fact"; any Superman-related comic (including the comic book "World's Finest Comics", which had featured Superman/Batman teamups for 30-40 years) that was printed before Byrne's 1986 reboot doesn't count in current continuity.
-B.

[DR. BELCH]

...although what I've never fathomed is why Brainiac is depicted as a human being in the comics--a whacked-out carny hypnotist who believes himself to be possessed by an alien entity and at one point is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor--but in the animated series a humanoid robot containing Krypton's computer brain--rather a god gone rogue. I may have asked this question before an eon ago, but it bears repeating...I have a feeling there's really no answer other than different writers taking liberties from continuity to continuity....

Jonathan Kent is still living...though he's slowed down a mite after a coronary about the same time Superman "died", and probably hired a hand to deal with the heavy work on the farm...unless he's one of thoise stubborn "heart-attack-be-d***ed-there's-a-harvest-to-be-done" types.

[The Mad Hatter]

Okay, that's where that perception of Supes as the ultimate evolution of super powered beings comes in. Gotcha. I didn't read DC much as a kid, actually... I was quite the Marvel zombie back then.

But if there aren't any other "Earths" allowed, how does DC explain all those "elseworlds" going around? Or do they?

Me, I'm just happy knowing that it's logistically impossible to put enduring superheroes in a specific "era" after a series goes on for decades. I accept that, and move on. Why tinker around in the past to make everything fit publishing schedules?

[Anthonynotes]

Belch's Brainiac Query:
Brainiac first came to be in a late-50's "Action Comics" Superman story. He was presented as a green-skinned robot who hailed from a computer-ran planet named Colu, and used all sorts of neat-o alientech to battle Supes (being evil and all).

After "Crisis"/Byrne came in, IIRC he was the one who changed Brainiac to being the human hypnotist stuff, for reasons that I chalk up to the same stupid gratuitous/pointless change-to-a-character reason that gave Lois brown hair (guess Byrne-sy wasn't a fan of brunettes)...though a recent comic story has converted Brainiac back to being a robot again IIRC.

The S:TAS took the old "Brainiac-as-a-robot" deal, and combined it with the current comics' "Eradicator" (a computer that ran Krypton a la S:TAS)...

>>>Okay, that's where that perception of Supes as the ultimate evolution of super powered beings comes in. Gotcha. I didn't read DC much as a kid, actually... I was quite the Marvel zombie back then. <<<

Of course, IIRC all the changes to Supes came about because DC wanted Superman to be more "Marvel-like", hence all the changes/Byrne (a Marvel writer) being brought on board/all the stories over the past decade-and-a-half with Supes acting whiny/angst-ridden instead of self-confident...


>>But if there aren't any other "Earths" allowed, how does DC explain all those "elseworlds" going around? Or do they?
<<

After "Crisis" and up to a few years ago, DC explicitly stated that there are no parallel Earths (and after the early-90s "Zero Hour", no alternate timelines either), while apparently allowing for a bunch of "alternate dimensions" (like Darkseid's Apokolips). The Elseworlds issue you cited was pretty much ignored. This rather anal-retentive stance (which ignores the fact that comics fans *like* alternate Earth stories, and that said types of stories are a sci-fi staple, and thus it seems silly to pretend the concept doesn't exist) was held over the DC Universe (DCU for short) until the "Kingdom Come" sequel "The Kingdom" was published a few years ago. There, Supes, Bats, and Wondy discover the existence of "Hypertime". Hypertime basically states that any alternate reality exists, "somewhere out there", is incredibly hard to get to (unlike the old parallel Earths), and also accounts for some retcons (with the description of how "it can sometimes allow divergent timelines to fold in on the past, resulting in something suddenly being 'remembered'"). Thus, any story published in a DC Comic is considered as being "true", including the old Earth-1/Earth-2/etc. comics, Superboy, the "Elseworlds", and so forth (no idea if this would extend to the A!/PatB books, though the JLA *did* cross over with the Looney Tunes awhile ago... :-)

Basically, this does what they *should've* done in "Crisis" in the first place (make up another Earth, make it really hard or impossible to get to from the others, and start over fresh on there w/Byrne-Superman/etc. etc.)...*sigh*...outside of a Flash story and a Superboy (the current version-meeting-the-old-one) story, hypertime hasn't been used much at all...*yet*....

>>Me, I'm just happy knowing that it's logistically impossible to put enduring superheroes in a specific "era" after a series goes on for decades. I accept that, and move on. Why tinker around in the past to make everything fit publishing schedules?

Well, the "sliding scale timeline" *is* a somewhat logical setup, since it assumes that since comics characters (like the Simpsons) don't age, as time moves forward, their pasts must move forward as well. Stuff that happens to them in the "present" (like some Superman story published 5 years ago in real-life time) just gets assumed as having happened "some time ago". The characters, of course, are free to have as many Christmases/presidential elections/etc. as they want under this setup (a la the "Simpsons")..thus, it allows one's characters to stay constantly "updated", have pasts relevent to the present (ex., Superboy [if he were still published] would be in the 1980's today, vs. the 1950's/late 1960's as he was when I was a kid), and sidesteps/explains such things like "Superman's Mission For President KEnnedy" *AND* "Superboy's Mission For PResident Kennedy" both being published by DC (the first one in the sixties, the second in the 80's)... though admittedly, imagining a teenaged Clark Kent in about 10 or so years from now who'll have grown up on, say, Nine Inch Nails and Nirvana seems kind of amusing... :-)

-B.

[Anthonynotes]

Just realized you were just saying that you realized superheroes can't be nailed down to one time period usually, after posting that pointless re-description of the "sliding scale timeline". Oops :-)

Though there are some characters that're shown as aging in real time, and are nailed down to a specific time-era (like "For Better or For Worse" aging in real time, or the Justice Society being rooted in WWII and thus aging in the present [despite having kids that're eternally 20-something])...

Then there's ignoring the issue outright (as seen in "Looney Tunes"/"Peanuts"/etc., where continuity doesn't matter much at all), and inserting some artificial means of aging within a strip (immortal characters, super-soldier-serum, etc.)...

-B.

[Sinople]

When Brianiac first appeared, he was a humanoid. But the name Brainiac was a trademark for a primitive computer device. Part of the settlement National made to use the name Brainiac was to make the charcter a living computer. The details are in a letter column in World's Finest sometime in 1964, I believe. Sorry I don't remember more, but my comics are in storage and I haven't read them in over a decade.

[Anthonynotes]

Originally posted by Sinople
When Brianiac first appeared, he was a humanoid. But the name Brainiac was a trademark for a primitive computer device. Part of the settlement National made to use the name Brainiac was to make the charcter a living computer. The details are in a letter column in World's Finest sometime in 1964, I believe. Sorry I don't remember more, but my comics are in storage and I haven't read them in over a decade.

I knew it was revealed after his first appearance that Brainy was a robot, but ddin't know there was a lawsuit involved (if anyone asks: "National" = "National Periodicals(?)", DC's pre-1970's official company name).

-B.

[Sinople]

Yeah, that's why there was such a long gap in appearances. and the abrupt change in Brainiac. I'm racking my brains, and should get off my duff and dig out my comic books from storage, to find the letter column.