How many superheroes do you recall who is as powerful as, if not more powerful than, Superman? When you look throughout DC, Marvel, and everything else, there are not even a few.
However, a darker version of Kal-El lived in another reality, who was not only as powerful as Superman but also possessed a number of powers, including Kryptonite immunity and the ability to use magic. Yes, we are discussing Superboy, not Connor Kent.
We are talking about Clark Kent, who lived in a world where superheroes only existed in comic books until one of them appeared out of nowhere and kidnapped young Kal-El, or Superboy. People refer to him as Superboy-Prime, but we will refer to him just as Superboy, a young boy with more abilities than his namesake but less maturity than a five-year-old.
He was a fallen hero as well as the main figure in the Crisis of Infinite Earth event. In this video, we will look at his rise and fall as a superhero, as well as delve into what makes him so dangerous while also being so insane.
Superboy Origins
Superboy exists in a reality where heroes like Superman were fictional comic book characters. However, even in this reality, superpowers and metahumans were not alien. Much like the original storyline, this reality’s Kal-El was born on the planet Krypton to Jor-El and Lara. Krypton had been a fairly advanced planet in terms of technology and evolution, its people uber-strong and intelligent.
However, calamity struck when Jor-El discovered that the red sun of Krypton’s solar system was about to emit a solar flare that had the potential of engulfing Krypton, an event that would lead to its destruction and mass extinction. Jor-El brought this to the knowledge of his superiors, but the Kryptonian Science Council used the travesty to play politics instead of coming up with solutions.
Naturally, Jor-El took it upon himself to find a way out. Being the excellent scientist that he was, the Kryptonian labored day and night and created a device that could teleport living tissue weighing less than fifty pounds. He did show this device to the council, but Jor-El was a few disasters too late, and the extinction-level threat from the red sun had already begun to happen. Jor-El knew at that moment that Krypton was a lost cause, but his infant son wasn’t. So, Jor-El and Lara placed their only son inside their teleportation device and sent him on an intergalactic journey across the universe to reach Earth.
The First Comic Book Appearance in DC Comics Presents #87
On Earth, Jerry and Naomi Kent found little Kal-El in the forests, abandoned and alone. The New England couple didn’t waste a moment concluding that they were going to adopt the child and raise him as their own. Interestingly, the couple decided to name the kid Clark, meaning that his full name would be Clark Kent, which was also the name of Superman, a popular comic book superhero.
But unlike Superman, Clark didn’t have any superpowers, at least not yet. And, he would be teased by his friends, some would even call him Superboy. Years passed, and Clark lived like just another kid on the block, but everything changed on one fateful night when Clark and his friends went to a beach costume party. Clark had donned his namesake’s costume and reached Hampton Beach to witness Halley’s Comet passing by Earth.
In a strange turn of events, he witnessed a massive tsunami-sized wave rise from the calm ocean, threatening a small nearby village. But that was not it; he also saw a cosmic vortex open up in the sky, and through it came Superman, the real Superman. Clark knew in that moment that he was not an ordinary human, but a Kryptonian, who had the gifts of flight and super-strength. His Kryptonian heritage had kicked in, because of the combined effect of Halley’s Comet and a magnetic fluctuation of the moon.
How did He Go From A Hero To A Villain?
These events were basically the initial part of the mega DC event called the Crisis on Infinite Earths, which later led to another phenomenon called the Infinite Crisis. In the former, all the universes collapsed into one another, until only one Earth remained, which was called Earth 1. During the crisis event, Superboy fought alongside Superman from Earth 2 and Alexander Luthor from Earth 3, and together, they defeated Anti-Monitor, a supremely powerful being who controls the Anti-Matter Universe.
After the battle was done and the bad guy defeated, the three of them realized that Earth 1 was alien to them, a place where no one really knew them. Naturally, they decided to move to the paradise dimension, a place from where they could observe the activities on Earth 1. However, that was the end. The good superhero was yet to turn into an evil supervillain.
From the paradise dimension, they witness Earth’s superheroes exacerbating with each passing day, only to become darker and more violent. They just couldn’t bear events like Justice League erasing the memories of their enemies, including Batman’s. Angered at this grave loss of code and morality, Superboy and Alexander Luthor decided to set the course right, and undo the wrongs committed by the Justice League of Earth 1.
Superboy used his full might and punched the barrier that separated the different dimensions, and this caused ripples throughout the very fabric of reality. But from a storyline standpoint, this event was necessary for DC comics because it took care of the various continuity issues that had cropped up in the comics. I mean, Wonder Girl had multiple origins, and Hawkman had innumerable reincarnations.
Moving on, it wasn’t before long that Superboy had a drastic change of heart and started to believe that he and the others had saved the wrong Earth. He believed that Earth 2 was the one that should have existed and started walking on a path to bring it back into reality. In due course of time, Superboy had various confrontations with several superheroes from Earth 1, including Teen Titans. But he could be stopped only when Speed Force was used on him.
Although he stays imprisoned in the Speed Force for several years, he returns with a new armor that was based on that of Anti-Monitor. Interestingly enough, his return took place a few hours after he had been overpowered; this was because of the time dilation in Speed Force. In the end, it took the Guardians of the Universe to arrive on Earth and defeat him. Although the Guardians captured the young supervillain, they couldn’t hold him for long. He soon joined Sinestro and Cyborg Superman to attack Oa and the Green Lantern Corps.
In later story arcs, Superboy started a desperate search for his original reality, a search that would call for huge destruction, including an Earth, which he destroyed because of a quantum explosion. Apart from fighting Black Adam and Shazam, Superboy fought a very peculiar character, which was an older version of himself, also known as the Time Trapper, a superbeing, who lived at the very edge of time.
Exploring His Strengths And Weaknesses
Given that he’s a Kryptonian, and at that Kal-El from another reality, he’s supposed to have all the powers of real Superman. However, Superboy possesses a few powers that are above and beyond that of Superman. As I already mentioned, Superboy’s powers were lying dormant for the larger part of his childhood, and only came to the fore because of a physical anomaly. Nevertheless, among his most powerful abilities was the fact that he was immune to Kryptonite, while we all know how Superman reacts to the same.
The reasoning behind this is that Superboy’s Krypton was swallowed by the red sun of his planet, and naturally, there was no Kryptonite without Krypton. But even when other variants of naturally found Kryptonite were used against him, they had little to no effect. Apart from this, Superboy also possessed immunity from any and all forms of magic. Of course, we are not talking about one of Harry Potter’s spells, but more powerful magic such as Black Adam’s blasts.
Having said that, a continuous array of powerful magic focused on him for an extended duration of time might just do the trick. Another interesting immunity that Superboy possessed was immunity from mimicked attacks. What I mean is that if one mimicked his powers and attacked him with them, they’d have little to no impact on Superboy. Apart from these, Superboy was a skilled engineer and prison breaker.
This guy did, in fact, escape the Speed Force, and for those of you who don’t know what Speed Force is, well, it is the very force that keeps time moving forward. And this may sound like an underrated power, but he’s an expert combatant, and for someone who’s never had formal training in hand-to-hand combat, it’s definitely a great feat.
Despite these powers and special abilities, Superboy wasn’t one without weakness. In fact, he had many, some of which were similar to that of Superman’s such as a dependency on sunlight or solar energy. However, in Superboy’s case, it was pretty extreme. The lack of yellow solar energy and the presence of red solar energy left him drained of any and all powers. Interestingly enough, Superboy’s Kryptonite when it came to his X-ray vision was the element lead, anything made out of lead could block his vision.
I guess, he’d definitely make a pretty useless bomb detector. Nevertheless, Superboy’s primary weakness lay in his personality and character instead of his physical weaknesses. This guy became easily obsessed with things and was immensely single-minded, unwilling to see reason in any other cause, no matter how logical or rational that cause was. He had an acute vision when it came to cooperating with others, often letting go of alliances to achieve his personal agenda. I mean, he turned on Sinestro and several other supervillains.
Furthermore, this guy was anything but a leader because of his arrested maturity and mania. Superboy’s unintentional and intentional rampages led to many deaths in the DC universe, but not once was he mature enough to take responsibility for his actions. It often seemed like only a four-year-old could appreciate his tantrums and the things he did. Oftentimes, it was stupidity that led to his defeat.
For instance, the dude killed his future self and created a paradox in time, that led to him being dissolved into nothingness. If that’s not enough for you to understand how stupidly evil he was, get this, he killed the only person he ever loved, Laurie Lemon. It seems that Superboy shared many traits with Joffrey Baratheon from Game of Thrones, another sadistic idiot with immense power and no sense or sensibilities.
So, what’s the real deal with Superboy? It’s not very difficult to understand that the kid had several issues which are deep-seated in his troubled childhood. He was always bullied by his friends for being named Clark Kent. Imagine if one of us is named Natasha Romanoff or Bruce Wayne by our parents, it’ll be nice till a point, but after that, it’s just going to bite and haunt us.
Furthermore, Superboy left his family, friends, and his entire world without getting a chance to say goodbye. Someone like Bruce Wayne, who lost his parents early, turned into a masked vigilante, yes, he was a good guy, but not without flaws. But not everyone is Bruce Wayne or the real Superman, some of us hurt more under stress and do not know how to deal with it. A prime example would be Superboy, someone who had several sociopathic tendencies, including self-harm and injury. Yes, he scarred himself with the letter S. Let us know what you think of Superboy, was he truly evil, or merely a victim of difficult circumstances?