Superboy

Superboy is the name of several American comic book series published by DC Comics, featuring characters of the same name. The first three Superboy titles feature the original Superboy, the underaged version of the legendary hero Superman. Later series feature the second Superboy, who is a partial clone of Superman. Publication history Volume 1 (1949-1977) The first series featured the original Superboy, a teenage incarnation of the Man of Steel. It began publication in 1949, four years after the character's debut in More Fun Comics #101 (January 1945). The majority of the stories were set in the rural town of Smallville during the character's youth, including tales of his toddlerhood. Comics historian Les Daniels noted that "Many early Superboy stories seemed devoted to extolling the virtues of life in America's small towns, and covers made Smallville look like a dreamworld where few problems existed...Indeed, the early Superboy might fairly be called the Saturday Evening Post of comic books." The supporting cast included Superboy's adoptive parents Jonathan and Martha Kent, his over-inquisitive classmate and neighbor Lana Lang, best friend Pete Ross who was secretly aware of Superboy's true identity as Clark Kent, Smallville Police Chief Parker, and the super-powered canine Krypto. With the exception of a teenage Lex Luthor, who was a frequent foe of the Boy of Steel, almost none of the featured villains appeared more than once. Fuzzy, the Krypto Mouse, a character who appeared in a single story in Superboy #65 (June 1958), inspired a similar character created by writer Art Baltazar in 2012. Bizarro debuted in Superboy #68 (Oct. 1958). For much of this period, DC also published Superboy tales in Adventure Comics, which began featuring the Boy of Steel regularly in issue #103 (April 1946). In 1962, Superboy was the second best selling comic book in the United States, surpassed only by Superman in sales. The Legion of Super-Heroes starred in their own backup feature starting with #172 (March 1971). Nick Cardy was the cover artist for Superboy for issues #182–198 and 200–206. Dave Cockrum began drawing the Legion feature with issue #184 (April 1972), again increasing the team's popularity. Wildfire made his first appearance as ERG-1 in the Legion back-up feature in issue #195.