Friday, November 28, 2008

Ummm, hello... the return of Superboy?

They're talking about the new Superman origin story at Newsarama. What interests me is that not only are they going to restore Clark Kent's history as Superboy - with all that means from Legion continuity - but also just the fact that they're restoring Clark Kent as Superboy to begin with.

The heirs of Jerry Siegel currently have a lawsuit pending with Time Warner and DC Comics over the rights to the Superboy character. For a while we didn't see any Superboy at all: Conner Kent was killed (for how long, remains to be seen), they referred to the Earth-Prime Superboy as "Superman Prime", and they didn't publish any comics with Superboy. But then they came out with some reprint volumes (Showcase, 1050 Years, etc.) with Superboy on the cover, and Superman Prime is being called Superboy Prime again. Now they're restoring the Superboy history wiped out in the Crisis and Byrne revamp, and they are blatantly calling him Superboy (as opposed to "Young Superman").

Now, the lawsuit involving Superboy has not been settled, and in fact has been scheduled for sometime after the resolution of the Action Comics suit in which the Siegels are seeking to recapture their rights to Superman, in a method authorized by Congress.

Click on the "Superboy lawsuit" tab at the top for all the other posts here on that topic, and read Jeff Trexler's posts at Newsarama for all of the details. When last we heard (Wizard World Chicago back in June), Dan DiDio hinted that they were somehow allowed to use Superboy again, but no details on that have emerged (and Jeff is the one doing all the legal journalistic work on this case).

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

At last, the return of Superboy--the REAL Superboy. Restoring him to the mythos is 22 years overdue. Here's hoping the new Adventure Comics will present new and familiar tales featuring the Boy of Steel, my favorite Legionnaire. Oh, John Byrne, is there nothing you can unravel that can't be resewn? MA

Murray said...

I'm not sure how much of Superboy we'll be seeing. Definitely, he'll be included with reference to the Legion, but I suspect that we may just see the character in the 31st century interacting with the Legion.

The article doesn't mention that we're going to be seeing Superboy in action in Smallville or that we'll be seeing any of those adventures retold.

I could be that we'll only see Superboy in the 31st century setting... and that he remains Clark Kent during his time in Smallville and doesn't appear as Superman until he shows up in Metropolis. I suspect that if he was active in Smallville as a boy, that he kept those actions secret.

Me said...

Connor has returned, as the new Nightwing, alongside Lana Lang's Flamebird.

Christian Zamora said...

I was so thrilled when I saw Superboy along with the Legion in that cover that of the upcoming Superman's new Secret Origin. I'm beyond thrilled. This would mean a return to what made the Legion what it is, plus it will restore Superman.

That darn law suit has lasted too long and I'm glad DC is doing this move.

Michael said...

Well, the lawsuit is definitely NOT over. If DC uses Superboy, they may end up having to make an accounting for him to the Siegels. With trademarks, it's use it or lose it, so I guess it's better to have half of something than all of nothing (thanks Jeff).

Mike A. said...

I'm with Murrfox; I think they'll go with something along the lines of the late, lamented animated series where the "Superboy" is only seen in his adventures with the Legion and not actually having public appearances in Smallville (which, honestly, I never understood how it was explained away that a superpowered youth just happened to spend all of his time in a small, podunk town instead of in a major metropolitan area, where the crime rate certainly would be higher). Also, there's that strange coincidence of "Superman" appearing in Metropolis and no longer appearing in Smallville RIGHT AFTER Clark Kent moved to Metropolis. :-)

Anonymous said...

Why would the Legion need a sample of Lex Luthor's hair?

For the DNA, maybe?

The just brought back Bart Allen in Legion of 3 Worlds.

Why not Connor as well?

He is a clone of Lex Luthor & Superman, isn't he?

And Saturn Girl did extensively probe his mind before they sent him
back in time.

I bet seeing Kon-El would really rattle Superboy-Primes cage.