#superboy

For Day-17 of Inktober 2019, I drew Superboy. Hope ya like it! :D

secretversecomics:

Gumroad: gumroad.com/sexyversecomics

Jessica Cruz joins the cruise as she’s approached by a cute boy willing to keep her company! Who is it and will he be too much to handle for her?

Thanks to the great support we got this month there’s two bonus pages! Here’s the first and the second will be up in a week!

Another book that I think was bought by/for my brother Ken. I was not much of a fan of SUPERBOY AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES at this point. As I’ve expressed previously, like other titles outside of the Julie Schwartz stable, it felt different to me in a way that I didn’t really care for. I’d go back to it from time to time for years, but it really wasn’t until the turn of the decade that I’d become a regular reader.

During this period, a number of different people were contributing stories to S&LSH. This particular issue was written entirely by Paul Levitz, who would go on to have a long history helming the series. But at this point, he was just a kid starting out, not really all that much older than I was. This particular scan is worth talking about, as it illustrates just how crappy the printing of comic books was at this point, due in part to the change from metal to plastic printing plates. Look at those credits–you virtually can’t make them out. Depending on where a particular book was in the print run of a given title, this sort of mush was a frequent occurrence throughout the 1970s.

This issue opens up with an angry Superboy disrupting the swearing-in ceremony of new Legion leader Wildfire. Turns out that the Boy of Steel was actually the top vote-getter, but given that he spent most of his time in his native 20th Century, he was ruled ineligible for the job, which went to Wildfire as teh number two candidate. (You’d have thought they’d have worked out the rules for eligibility BEFORE Superboy ran his campaign.) Either way, Superboy is uncharacteristically unhappy about it–and if you’re up on your Legion history, you can guess why and how this tale wraps up.

Anyway, Superboy storms off, and the Legion shortly after responds to an attack by the Resource Raiders, mysterious aliens who have been stealing the natural resources of planets throughout the U.P. Wildfire leads the team into action, but when he goes to employ his own energy powers, Superboy blocks his blast and commandeers control of the team. The Boy of Steel reveals that Wildfire’s discharge would have destroyed the very dam they were trying to defend. But subsequently, the Legionnaires compare notes and learn that there was no evidence of the explosive powder Superboy pointed out before he made his appearance. Curious.

That night, a shadowy figure visits the Hall of Legionnaires intent on stealing the spare Wildfire costume stored there. Wildfire himself interrupts the burglar, who is of course Superboy himself. They two fight it out–and it’s unclear whether the solitary figure that emerges from the scuffle is Wildfire himself or Superboy clad in his costume. This figure leads the Legion on a counterattack of the Resource Raiders (and dodges questions about how he knew where to find them in orbit without telescopic vision) and fights physically like Superboy before getting blown to smithereens by the enemy.

Superboy appears moments later, and while wrapping up the Raiders, reveals that it was truly Wildfire who was felled. The Legion’s computer had predicted that the new leader would be killed in his first major battle (shades of the death of Lightning Lad a decade earlier) and so Superboy tried to force his way into the role, assuming he’d be the toughest to kill. But the computer had made a mistake, assuming that Superboy would win the election (as he did) and that he’d be killed by the Kryptonite in the blast. As a dis-corporate energy being, Wildfire is just fine, and the two heroes patch up their differences.

S&LSH was still running back-up stories at this point, despite the fact that this sheer size of the Legion demanded longer stories. So the rest of the issue was devoted to a 6-page short in which Princess Projectra, Sun Boy and Timber Wolf simulate a demonic attack on an intergalactic starliner so as to lure out a superstitious serial killer without revealing their identities, as they’re also secretly body-guarding a diplomatic envoy whose presence cannot be revealed. It’s a nice, tight little tale, of the sort that you don’t much see in comics anymore.

I didn’t get it when I was a kid, but then I was only nine years old when I first bought this issue of DC SUPER-STARS. But it contains perhaps the most wrong-headed and casually offensive Superman story of the Bronze Age. Somebody–a lot of somebodies–were asleep at the switch when they approved this one. So let’s investigate this classic tale in which a robot teacher from Krypton arranges for Superboy to rape a mesmerized girl and thereafter feel no remorse about it.

It must be said that this was a good-looking story, with the classic art team of Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson once again reunited. With the Legion of Super-Heroes having established residence in Superboy’s own comic, this was also pretty clearly a trial balloon to see if new solo Superboy adventures might be sale-able. Given that the Boy of Steel soon afterwards became the lead feature once again in ADVENTURE COMICS, I’m betting that the answer turned out to be yes.

The story opens with a modern day Clark Kent and Jimmy Olsen on a flight, during which Jimmy refers to their stewardess as “really prime”, an icky outlier  for what is to come. But the event triggers a memory in Clark’s mind, and his thoughts drift back to years earlier, when he lived in Smallville as Superboy. At the time, there had been a raft of sightings of a Flying Saucer that had the citizens in turmoil. But Ma and Pa Kent notice that their super-son seems more infatuated than usual in Lana Lang–and he is a High School kid by this time, so that’s normal. What isn’t normal is that, as class is about to start at Smallville High, the mysterious Saucer appears and destroys a statue of Superboy.

Superboy pursues the elusive Flying Saucer, and it gives him a good run for his money. But using his brains, he’s able to disable the ship and destroy it–learning in the process that its pilot was Jor-El’s teaching robot from Krypton. This robot had appeared earlier in a Superboy story reprinted in the back of this issue, and was sent to Earth by Jor-El to test Superboy at various points to make sure that he was able to use his powers responsibly. Now the teacher from Krypton is back to administer a new round of tests, as Superboy is on the cusp of manhood.

Becoming Clark Kent again and returning to Smallville High in time for that evening’s big dance, it becomes apparent that Lana isn’t the subject of Clark’s newfound infatuation–rather, that honor belongs to Misty, the most popular girl in school, who suddenly approaches Clark and asks him to dance, to the astonishment of the rest of the class.  But Misty tells Clark not to worry about everybody else and what they think–just in time for the Teacher to appear, reveal Clark’s true identity as Superboy, and start a big destructive fight. Fortunately, though, this fight is all an illusion, another test for the Boy of Steel, and one that he passes. 

I need to show these next two pages together, as it illustrates how subtly and cleverly writer Cary Bates got this next plot point past the Comics Code, who would never have gone for it. That evening, taking Clark back to her home (where her parents are away), Misty reveals that she’s worked out that Clark is Superboy. The two passionately embrace–and then the next page switches to Ma and Pa the next morning commenting on the fact that Clark hasn’t been home all night. This is clearly meant to invite a reading-between-the-lines in which Superboy has lost his virginity with Misty that evening. And, indeed, the couple is inseparable in the next few days

And now we get to the meat of the matter. A few days later, Superboy intervenes when a trio of apelike beings rampage across Smallville. They’re meant to be the new star attractions in J. J. Farnum’s traveling circus, but Superboy realizes that Farnum has captured these critters to put them on display, and so he connives to release them back into the wild. This is another test on the part of his Teacher, as there will be times when Superboy will be called upon to make moral decisions apart from the laws of man. Then, suddenly, Misty is there with them, and one of the now-freed creatures hurls a rock that strikes her in the head, killing her instantly.

Superboy files into a rage, but exercises restraint and does not kill the creature that killed his young love. This, of course is the Teacher’s final test, to make sure that Superboy’s code against killing was ingrained enough to prevent such a thing. But now we get down to the nitty-gritty. Not only isn’t Misty really dead, but she isn’t even Misty at all. The Teacher explains that he selected a girl based on a computer calculation designed to locate the perfect physical match for Superboy’s desires. He then implanted her with a false memory and personality such that Superboy would fall in love with her. And then, of course, have sex–thus setting up this final test. Now that it’s done. the Teacher will restore Misty to her normal identity and life (from which she’s been missing for what must be weeks, and with no memory of this violation) And for all that he’s upset about this revelation (and demands to be called “a man” by the robo-pimp who set this whole thing up), Superboy doesn’t spare a single thought for this poor girl and what’s been done to her and what she’s gone through. The tale wraps up back in the present, where we see that the “really prime” stewardess is, in fact, Misty herself, seemingly none the worse for wear. But I think we all know better. There really is no excuse for this story and its events–it’s atrocious.

As mentioned earlier, the back-up story is a reprint of the earlier story featuring the Teacher from Krypton, in which he sows up from space to test Superboy’s mastery of his powers and his cleverness. If the Boy of Steel fails, he must give up his heroic role forever. And fail he does, ultimately, and agrees to the Teacher’s sentence-which is, of course, the final test. Having proven himself, Superboy bids the Teacher goodbye as the robot departs for deep space, no doubt to begin organizing his sex trafficking ring for their next encounter. Yuck.

SUPERMAN/BATMAN #26

SUPERMAN/BATMAN #7

som YJ because I need more of these three in my life

matsketches:

Tim somehow lost his mask in the middle of a mission, so Kon borrowed him his sunglasses to protect his secret identity

in related news, Superboy is now lying unconscious and will be out of commission for the rest of the fight

You’ve inspired me op

They panicked a bit before they came up with sunglasses

Venting and pie

Mar’i had a fight with her dad so she flew over to her cousin Jack’s house to vent.

Apart of the clone baby au explanation here

Bonus Conner under cut:

Conner needs his pie validated. Your hurting his pride Tim.

SUPERMAN: SON OF KAL-EL (2021—) #10 Variant Cover by SIMONE DI MEO

A superboy painting for you all. This was pretty quick and messy but fun all the same :)