Comic Review #55: Superboy Annual #2 (1995)

 

I did say that I wouldn't talk about Superman or Batman but I didn't say I wouldn't talk about one of the side characters! Ha! No seriously I looked at the list of comics that didn't feature Batman or Superman through the Year One lists and this honestly looked like it was the best of the lot. So I went with this one. Seriously though when you take out the Batman comics and the Superman comics there were only like 5 or 6 annuals. None of the descriptions from the wikia sounded that interesting and I saw this story had some things in it that I like so that's pretty much why I picked this one.

Superboy as a concept goes allllllllll the way back to the 1940s. 1949 I believe. So the tail end of the 1940s. That Superboy was just the stories of the young Superman. Not a totally different character. for about 36 years until 1985 they made like fifty seven trillion Superboy stories. He had his own series AND he was in Adventure Comics. After Crisis of Infinite Earths, the continuty changed to make it so that Superman had never been a Superboy. This kinda messed up the Legion of Super-Heroes but I'll get into that more whenever I cover a Legion story. However during the story The Death and Return of Superman we got a new Superboy a clone of Superman. He has the DNA of Superman and another character that was a mystery for a while. We will find out that in this issue!!

This comic was written by the married (at the time) team of Karl and Barbera Kesel. This I think is the second time I've talked about a lady creator on this blog! Well third because Power Pack had two lady creators! I don't really have much to say except that I really do enjoy the few stories I've read by her. I've also enjoyed the few stories of Karl Kesel. They are very talented people. It's just superhero comics are kind of a sausage fest and it's interesting to see when the ladies pop up. There are a good number of them but the dudes way outweigh them by like 20 times. I wish I had more to say about their stories and them as people but I can't really find much information about them. Unlike say Steve Ditko or Jack Kirby or that STANLEY LEE feller. Anyway these are two talented people and I wish I knew more about them so that this paragraph wouldn't be so terrible.

This comic starts out with Superboy flying with another kid. This kid turns out to be a Make A Wish kid but they have a different name for it in the comic. Superboy picks up his girlfriend Tana, a reporter who was in the middle of a live broadcast. I bet that made her boss very happy. Anyway she realizes something about Superboy but that will just have to wait. Superboy goes back to his house and his little puppy dog Krypto. Krypto was something they got rid of in the Crisis story because it was too silly to have 8,000 survivors of Krypton. Still they end up bringing all of them back because people love those characters. I mean they still haven't brought back the PRANKSTER OF KRYPTON but I guess I'm the only one who cares about that character.

Dubbliex an alien friend of Superboy is in telepathic discussion with Guardian when something happened. Dubbliex tells Superboy this and they go to Project Cadmus. Guardian was a golden age hero that they brought back for this era of Superman comics. This also brings back the Newsboy Legion created by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon in the 1940s. Guardian was a part of that comic so why not have some clones of the Newsboy Legion running around this place too. These characters are very amusing and I enjoy the ridiculous kid gangs that Jack Kirby loved making. I've even talked about one of them before! Anyway they find a bunch of Superboy clones. The ones that didn't work before this one. These clones are pretty fun looking. I want stories with all of them. They are in those cool ass stasis pods you see in like every sci fi story ever. 

Of course there's a problem and one of the Superboy clones escape. The one that looks just like Superboy. If you know Superman you know where this is going. It happens to be BIZZARO SUPERBOY. I love Bizzaro but he was another concept that they very rarely used during this era. It was also a special surprise when they went with Bizzaro. He's not as ridiculous as he was in the Silver and Bronze Age but he's still undeniably the Bizzaro we know and love. He and Superboy have a fight to prove who the real deal is, until Superboy tricks him into helping him save the Guardian, The Newsboy Legion, this Apokolips lady that Superboy wants to kiss despite still having a girlfriend and a weird Jack Kirby like creature called Angry Charlie. Superboy and Dubbliex save them all and Bizzaro Superboy ends up getting hurt during the fracas.  Superboy finally finds out that his clone father was Paul Westfield, the jerk who ran Project Cadmus. I don't know what happened to the character but I think he died. This would be retconned to be LEX LUTHOR as the clone father. 

Superboy ends up talking to Superman about his clone father not being a great guy. This is a great little discussion and Superman helps Superboy feel better about all of this. Superboy goes home to find a SURPRISE PARTY waiting for him. It must be hard to surprise Superboy due to X-Ray vision and Superpowers and all that but these people found a way. It's a really nice way to end this great little comic book. I totally want to check out more issues of this series. Another series to add to the giant list of comic series I want to read. 

FINAL VERDICT: A very fun enjoyable comic that keeps the characters story going WHILE returning to his roots. I don't know how the rest of the Year One comics from 1995 work out but this is the best of the three I've read! This version of Superboy is a very fun character and I can't wait to read more of his adventures!