Superboy & Moorcock Comics
Stephen A Moore
was young, I just assumed that he was Clark Kent hanging out in the 30th
century for some reason. Is he a young version of Superman displaced in time?
Could somebody enlighten me? This has all sounded so interesting, I'm thinking
of trying out LSH.
I recently learned that there are comics based on M. Moorcocks books - Elric,
Corum, and Hawkmoon to be specific. Are these any good? Which company produced
them? Were there a lot?
Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks-
Steve Moore
Todd VerBeek, GWM
>All of this LSH discussion has me wondering who Superboy actually is. When I
>was young, I just assumed that he was Clark Kent hanging out in the 30th
>century for some reason. Is he a young version of Superman displaced in time?
>Could somebody enlighten me? This has all sounded so interesting, I'm thinking
>of trying out LSH.
Don't look for Superboy in the current LSH. Superboy (young Clark) was a
member a l-o-n-g time ago, but =that= Superboy no longer exists. (It's a long
story, that involves - in part - the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Read the FAQs.)
The current Superboy is a clone, engineered to mimic the abilities of Superman
back when Superman was dead. He has no "actual" identity.
Cheers, Todd
John Desmarais
: All of this LSH discussion has me wondering who Superboy actually is. When I
: century for some reason. Is he a young version of Superman displaced in time?
: Could somebody enlighten me? This has all sounded so interesting, I'm thinking
: of trying out LSH.
What you describe is basically "how it was before Crisis". That really was
a young Superman just kind of hanging-out with the super-teens in he 30th
century (back in those days Supes could travel thru time under his own
power).
: I recently learned that there are comics based on M. Moorcocks books - Elric,
: Corum, and Hawkmoon to be specific. Are these any good? Which company produced
: them? Were there a lot?
Pacific Comics published them until they went belly up. First (I think)
took over from there. Some were good, some weren't. Each mini-series
covered a novel. The better novels made good comics, the cheesy novels
didn't. P. Graig Russell did the art on the few the series, he has quite
the touch for Elric. Several were compiled into graphic novels which may be
easier to find.
: Any info would be greatly appreciated.
: Thanks-
: Steve Moore
--
*****************************************************************************
* John Desmarais - 804-868-6160 * I've never let school interfere *
* Yorktown, Virginia * with my education. **************
**************************************************************** Mark Twain *
* Never trust a Prophet who's always in a hurry. **************
Michael E. McKean
Originally, "Superboy" featured "The Adventures of Superman when he
was a boy." As a feature, Superboy debuted in MORE FUN COMICS #101
way back in 1945. It featured Clark Kent as a young boy (perhaps
as young as 8) living in the town of Smallville with his adoptive
parents Ma and Pa Kent. He had a secret, costumed heroic identity:
SUPERBOY! He fought crime and did good deeds--more a super Boy Scout
than anything else. Superboy moved over to ADVENTURE COMICS about
a year later and was the headlining feature in that comic until
the Legion took it over. He got his own mag SUPERBOY in 1949.
By this time, Superboy had grown some and was in his early teens.
He evenutally came to represented as perpetually 16 years old.
In the 1950's he picked up a girlfriend, Lana Lang, and a pet
super-dog, Krypto, who was also a survivor of Lana Lang. In 1958
Superboy met three young teenagers from the future, who introduced
themselves as the Legion of Super-Heroes: Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl,
and Lightning Boy (later Lightning Lad). This was the first
appearance of the Legion and of these three characters back
in ADVENTURE COMICS #247. In the next four years, the Legion made
frequent guest-starring appearances in the Superman family of
magazines, rapidly adding members, among them Supergirl, who
was not introduced herself until 1959.
By 1962, the Legion had about 16 members, and had so grown in
popularity that they were given their own feature in ADVENTURE
starting with issue #300. They were originally a backup feature
to Superboy, but eventually took over the leading spot until
Superboy was first reduced to reprints before his feature was
pushed out of the mag altogether. Superboy of course was a
member of the LSH and appeared so much a reader could wonder
if he spent any time in 20th century Smallville! He still kept
his own feature in his own mag, but even that eventually changed...
Because the LSH left ADVENTURE after #380. They were briefly a
backup feature in ACTION before moving over to SUPERBOY. History
repeated itself, and with #197 (in 1973) the Legion took over
SUPERBOY. The title was eventually changed to SUPERBOY AND THE
LSH and Superboy appeared in every issue. These were his main
adventures for several years; he apparently spent almost no time
in Smallville in the 20th century! He was featured briefly in
ADVENTURE again and then for awhile in SUPERMAN FAMILY. In
1980 Superboy left the Legion (#259) and the mag became LEGION
OF SUPER-HEROES. Superboy got his own magazine again (SUPERBOY
v2) which ran for 54 issues.
Shortly after his mag was cancelled came the Crisis on Infinite
Earths and the subsequent rewrite of Superman. I won't go into
detail on that. But if you read Superman now, you probably know that
he was never Superboy. Superboy was basically erased from
history. This presented a small problem for the LSH. Y'see,
Superboy was both the inspiration for the LSH and one of its
most important members. And the Legion was selling well--no one
was about to cancel it. So the folks at DC got together and
came up with a solution. They decided that the Legion Superboy
really did exist, but he came from a parallel universe known
as the Pocket Universe, created by the Legion foe the Time Trapper
for obscure reasons. The Legion, Superman (post-Crisis flavor),
and Superboy discovered this at about the same time. Then the LSH
and Superboy fought the Trapper and defeated him, but in the process
Superboy died (LSH v2 #38, 1987).
Well, this situation held for a couple years until the powers
that be at DC decided to destroy the Pocket Universe. The LSH creators
complied. Then DC decided to bring it back because by now
it was important to Superman's history (it's where Supergirl (post-
crisis flavor) came from and where Superman felt forced to kill
three Kryptonian villains who had razed the Pocket Universe's Earth).
So the Legion people brought it back again, which also meant bringing
Superboy back into the Legion for at least a brief time. All these
convolutions in Legion continuity is a major source of confusion
and one of the purported reasons for the complete reboot of the
Legion.
To confuse the situation a little further, there have been
essentially two more Superboys since the death of the first. The
star of SUPERBOY v3 (1990-92) was based upon the TV show of the
same name and featured a non-DCU Clark Kent attending Shuster
University in Florida. The star of SUPERBOY v4 (1994)
first appeared during the Reign of the Supermen storyline that
coincided with Superman's resurrection from the dead. Superboy II
is a clone, exactly of who is not clear. He has the power of
tactile telekinesis, which allows him to simulate many of
Superman's powers and gives him a few unique to him. He is
currently based in Honolulu and has no secret ID. To confuse
things a little bit more, in SUPERBOY v4 #8, due out next week,
he meets some guy in Smallville who looks alot like him...take
a wild guess as to who THAT is. This issue ties in to Zero Hour,
so some confusion should be expected.
Bye!
Mike
David T. Chappell
>All of this LSH discussion has me wondering who Superboy actually is. When I
>was young, I just assumed that he was Clark Kent hanging out in the 30th
>century for some reason. Is he a young version of Superman displaced in time?
>Could somebody enlighten me? This has all sounded so interesting, I'm thinking
>of trying out LSH.
Answer #1: Read the Superman FAQ. It's available via anonymous ftp on
ftp.dhhalden.no.
Answer #2: Look for my upcoming article "Who is Superboy?" in the next issue
of the Kryptonian Cybernet electronic fanzine.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ *****
David T. Chappell -- dav...@leland.stanford.edu
Stanford University -- Stanford International Mars Mission
Electrical Engineering Department -- Keeper of the Superman FAQ ** Team OS/2
Michael A. Chary
The adaptations of Moorcock's Eternal Champion cycle which I have
seen have disappointed me. One of the things I did at the con was
talk to Dark Horse about doing an adaptation of Mote in God's Eye.
(I don't own the rights, I just wanted to put the idea in their
"head" so to speak :)) They gave me a card, I am going to write
them, I do believe I will mention the Eternal Champion as well.
--
"You were clinically dead for six minutes -- what was it like on
the other side."
"There was an *INCREDIBLE* duty free shop, but I didn't have any money."
-Bizarro "Ipsa scientia potestas est." - Roger Bacon
Abhiji...@transarc.com
stm...@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Stephen A Moore) writes:
> I recently learned that there are comics based on M. Moorcocks books
> Elric, Corum, and Hawkmoon to be specific. Are these any good?
>Which company produced them? Were there a lot?
Pacific Comics produced a book series called 'Elric' which adapted the
Elric of Melnibone novel. Afterwards, First Comics picked up the
rights to the Elric novels. They produced adapatations for the next
few books. They also produced Hawkmoon adaptations (the first Hawkmoon
saga) and the first Corum storyline.
Elric also appeared in some issues of Epic Illustrated and a graphic
novel : The Dreaming City from Epic/Marvel. Beautiful P. Craig Russell
art.
Abhijit
Joel Finkle
>: I recently learned that there are comics based on M. Moorcocks books -
Elric,
>: Corum, and Hawkmoon to be specific. Are these any good? Which company
produced
>: them? Were there a lot?
>
>took over from there. Some were good, some weren't. Each mini-series
>covered a novel. The better novels made good comics, the cheesy novels
>didn't. P. Graig Russell did the art on the few the series, he has quite
>the touch for Elric. Several were compiled into graphic novels which may be
>easier to find.
Also:
Epic Magazine adapted one of the stories (I think the first section of
Weird of the White Wolf?), which then was *not* adapted by the
First teams, which occasionally included PCR.
Pacific adapted at least the first Elric book, then First did several
of them. These proved (limitedly) popular, so they also adapted
the first three or four of the Hawkmoon series, and the Corum
Swords trilogy (featuring art by Mike Mignola!), and the first
book of the second Corum trilogy, before they too suffered from
collapse.
Trident Comics created, with authorization from MM, "The Saga of the
Man-Elf", which featured the Jerry Cornelius cast. It was
faithful to the characters, and reasonably enjoyable. 5-part series.
--
Joel Finkle
Searle R&D
jjf...@skcla.monsanto.com
"And when I die don't bury me / in a box in a cemetery.
Out in the garden would be much better,
I could be pushin' up home grown tomatoes" -- Guy Clark, "Home Grown Tomatoes"