Question about Ma and Pa Kent....?

Question

This has been bugging me for a bit. In Teen Titans #1 (vol 3), we see Superboy get dropped off by the Kents @ Smallville High. By the annual, they look very much like their younger counterparts in Smallville the series. Is this linked to Superboy-Prime punching that interdimensional wall?

Answer 1

Just like they were "de-aged" back in the 70's, DC has found a new way to make the Kents younger. so that Superman can have his parents even now that he is grown up and married. It eliminates a whole category of stories centering around Superman's intense guilts

First there is survivor guilt, being the only one from Krypton that survived.

Second, there was the guilt of not being able to save the Kents (originally, they died of some tropical disease he couldn't sure and suspot activity prevented him from being able to project them into the Phantom Zone because it interfered with the projector.)

Third, there is the guilt of hoodwingking and lying to the ones who care for him the most ("No of course I'm not Superman, Lois! Where did you ever get such a ridiculous idea...?") though they have largely done away with this in recent years.

They substituted the guilt of killing the three Phantom Zone criminals, and though his 'code against killing' remains, he seems to have survived that guilt awfully easily.

With Superman's powers, what else other than internal restraints-- conscience-- could stop him from becoming a monster and trying to take over the planet...?

The need for the Kents' approval seems to have acted as somewhat of a brake on that process.

18 NOV 06, 2342 hrs, GMT.

Answer 2

That could be a good possiblity because other DC writers have used that answer for the way that the past artists who originally messed up things after the Crisis of Infinite Earth series ie John Byrne who redid Superman and Doom Patrol. Then turn around and used the Superboy Prime excuse to fix the problem. So really the DP didn't die and Superman didn't have "cold and sterile" parents when John Byrne. It is an excuse to have the fans to buy more comics which it really boils down to. Aloha and Godspeed.