Superboy 1 Thoughts

Writer: Scott Lobdell
Artist: R.B. Silva

I miss wisecracking Superboy. The one with the leather jacket, sunglasses, and who lived in Hawaii not only to stay out of the spotlight of the Big S, but also because the place had all the gorgeous women. The two closest people he had his age were two cute girls and he had hilarious adventures and reacted, generally, in ways someone his age would actually react, making him a relate-able character for a youth like me. (Mind you, I first read this when I was 19.)

I miss that guy, and I miss his comic. Because that guy, isn't in this comic. One of the characters who was reboot the hardest, almost everything about Superboy has been completely chucked to make him more reader-friendly. Once created during the "Reign of the Supermen" plot line following Superman's death by Project Cadmus, the old Superboy was created a few years after Tim Drake (Robin) and like a couple years before Bart Allen (Impulse). He went on to be a founding member of Young Justice and later help form the final incarnation of the Teen Titans before the relaunch.

New Superboy, has none of that history. Created in the present of the DC relaunch's five year timeline, new Superboy is the first ever combination of human and Kryptonian DNA, and a creation of Project N.O.W.H.E.R.E. . He's never met any of the DC superhero population, so obviously he's never formed Young Justice (technically means it never existed) and was never a member of Teen Titans.

This new Superboy, from what we see of him, feels different from any version we've seen before. Smarter. More alien. It's an interesting read, with Lobdell making us sympathize with a boy who's spent his entire life inside of a lab, and has a fantastic cliffhanger that ties this book into Teen Titans.

I'm withholding my full opinion until I've read Teen Titans (comes out this week), but so far I'm into this book. The art's gorgeous and I love that a different WildStorm character was snuck in the pages of this. I can only hope she'll play a major role in the book as time goes on.