superman & superboy?

Question

are they the same person? are they both clark kent?

Answer 1

There have been several different Supermen, and several different Superboys. When Superman was first introduced in 1938, he was a man, and there had never been a Superboy.

At a later time, the publishers wanted to make the character more apealing to younger kids, so they published "the adventures of Superman when he was a boy." Since he was introduced full grown in 1938, that meant that he had to grow up in the late 20's/ early 30's. That was a very depressing time in American history. He was Clark Kent, because he would grow up to be Superman, who was Clark Kent.

Later on (in the 1960's) when the company was re-introducing a lot of older characters and updating them, they brought back the Flash and Green Lantern, etc. To keep them from being too old as heroes, they made them different people. But to not just drop all the old stories, they made Earth 1 and Earth 2, with Earth 1 being the more modern Earth and Earth 2 the older Earth. So there were stories where the 'original' (Golden Age) Flash and the modern (Silver Age) Flash would team up. Same thing goes for the Green Lanterns, etc.

They called these team-up stories 'Crises'; as in "Crisis on Earth 1", "Crisis on Earth 2" and they usually heralded a major event, like the death of one character and the introduction of another.

So there was a Superman of Earth 1 and a Superman of Earth 2. Superman of Earth 2 was the original Kal-L, who was never Superboy and could not actually fly, just leap an eighth of a mile, and a bursting shell could penetrate his skin, and his secret identity was Clark Kent, as it had been all along.

Superman of Earth 1 was Kal-El, who had been Superboy and whose powers had grown to the ridiculous point over the years. His secret identity was Clark Kent, as it had been all along.

Then, during the Crisis on Infinite Earths (CoIE), Supergirl was killed. To take Superman's mind off his grief, and to give him something to do, they introduced the Superboy of yet another Earth-- Earth Prime. He trained Superboy and worked with him. (Superboy's name was Clark Kent, but since they never had to be together in their secret identities, it didn't really matter.)

CoIE gave the company the chance to eliminate a lot of continuity loose ends, and to depower characters like Superman who were just SO powerful that it was hard to write challenging stories for them any more. He could push planets out of their orbits and blow out supernovas with his super breath.

So, Superman was re-started, and there had never been a Superboy on Earth 1, anymore! [This was because they wanted to get rid of the need for a Superbaby and all the difficulty (impossibility) of keeping such a thing secret.]

So, Superman's powers did not manifest until he was almost 18, and by then he had well developed table manners so baby Clark wouldn't go flying downtown to take cookies from the supermarker whenever he wanted them, and a moral conscience so teenaged Clark Kent didn't just use his powers to get all the girls. So he was never Superboy, again.

In the 1990's Superman was killed and brought back. While he was killed, several 'other' Supermen were introduced, to keep us guessing which one was the 'real' one. (i.e., to sell more comics.) One of these was Superboy. He was a clone of Superman, with some other DNA mixed in, so he wasn't as powerful. but he is still developing.

There has been STILL ANOTHER Superboy in recent days, in something called Infinite Crisis (supposedly the 'last' in a long line of Crisis series) who went bad, killed a lot of people and was imprisoned on the other side of some kind of barrier, and whose attempts to get out have shaken the continuity and caused retroactive changes, as need be, when the editors decide.

I feel bad about them sullying the noble Superman/Superboy name this way, but they own it and I don't. So, what can you do?

As far as I know, there is now only one Superman (Earth 1 and Earth 2 merged during CoIE) who is called Clark Kent, and one Superboy, the clone who is now called Connor Kent or Kon-El. Whew! I hope I got all that right.

22 NOV 06, 1326 hrs, GMT.

Answer 2

Superman And Superboy

Answer 3

They are the same person. Recently, DC made both Superman and Superboy 2 different people. When Superman was dead Project Cadmus which is a government genetics organization created Superboy who is a clone of Superman during the Death and Return of Superman storyline.

He does have his DNA and also Lex Luthor's DNA that was later revealed. Superboy was known as Conner Kent, a distant cousin of Clark Kent and also called Kon-El. He was recently killed in the Infinite Crisis mini-series.

Answer 4

I know this may be wrong, since I have not followed DC in a long time. They did an upheavale since then to bring continuity into the DC universe that already existed at Marvel. In the pre upheaval DC, Clark Kent is Superboy, who, for reasons unknown to me, travels into the future where he joins the Legion of Superheroes for a while before returning to the present day as an adult Superman. Why? I Don't Know. He's on Third. And I don't give a darn!

Answer 5

I Haven's seen the first 3 actors in action, but if what I have seen, Christopher Reeves is the best Don't forget Dean Cain in the new adventures of superman

Answer 6

um... depends on which superboy you mean... i am behind in my DC reading, but i know in the 90's at least there was a superboy introduced (after the death of superman) and given his own title that was at first said to be a clone of superman, but later turned out not to be.... so if that is the superboy you mean, then no, it isnt clark kent...

Answer 7

No they are not
Superman is obviously Clark kent
but superboy,well he was made using Lex Luthor and Clark kent's genes

Answer 8

I beleive so but whatever happen to Krypto?

Answer 9

Pretty good arguments.

Answer 10

as far as i know they are