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Post by Cei-U! on Mar 29, 2023 14:31:29 GMT -5
Krypto was also included in the Aurora Superboy model kit of the mid-'60s.
Cei-U!
I summon the Testors paints!
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Post by zaku on Mar 29, 2023 15:22:28 GMT -5
So Superboy let Nazis doing their thing? And what was his justification? I don't think you quite understood what Cei-U said. In short, the Superboy comic was published starting in 1945 (when WWII ended) but the character was set in the 1930s. The character remained in that setting until 1970, when DC moved Superboy from the '30s to the '50s, skipping the 40s entirely. And regarding the stories set in the '30s, it's a big decade, and the Nazis didn't really get rolling until September of nineteen thirty-NINE. So as far as what Superboy did about Nazis... well, not much. But there wasn't much to do. Yes, I know what he said. I was just joking.  But it's interesting that they never gave an official explanation for why Superboy didn't intervene in WWII. They could have come up with an explanation like the Spear of Destiny, which had prevented its Earth-2 counterpart from stopping Hitler. |
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Post by Graphic Autist on Mar 29, 2023 15:28:53 GMT -5
I always liked Superboy and Krypto. At least I did up to 1986…
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Post by MDG on Mar 29, 2023 16:35:31 GMT -5
I don't think you quite understood what Cei-U said. In short, the Superboy comic was published starting in 1945 (when WWII ended) but the character was set in the 1930s. The character remained in that setting until 1970, when DC moved Superboy from the '30s to the '50s, skipping the 40s entirely. And regarding the stories set in the '30s, it's a big decade, and the Nazis didn't really get rolling until September of nineteen thirty-NINE. So as far as what Superboy did about Nazis... well, not much. But there wasn't much to do. Yes, I know what he said. I was just joking. But it's interesting that they never gave an official explanation for why Superboy didn't intervene in WWII. They could have come up with an explanation like the Spear of Destiny, which had prevented its Earth-2 counterpart from stopping Hitler. The reason given for why Superman didn;t do anything to stop Hitler in the 40s was because "our boys don;t need any help." |
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Post by mikelmidnight on Mar 30, 2023 15:08:03 GMT -5
There were a couple of Superboy stories which explicitly mentioned the War. My headcanon is that the Superboy counterpart these stories referred to simply wasn't as powerful as some of the other versions, and had his hands full just being a local Smallville hero.
Superboy is blackmailed by the Invisible Empire, alien invaders who can disassemble their atomic structure and plate themselves onto any object, and who have disassembled the molecules of everyone in Smallville. The aliens threaten to keep the people of Smallville in this state unless Superboy brings them the Earth's leaders for them to occupy. Superboy tricks them into accepting robotized wax dummies of the world's leaders (Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Winston Churchill, Josef Stalin, Hirohito, and Vidkun Quisling) as new body-homes and, after they bring back the people of Smallville, has a robot Anton Mesmer hypnotize them into eternal sleep. One last alien remains, but Superboy manages to imprison him. [Superboy #153]
An adult Lex Luthor terrorizes the great cities of the world (including London, which is holding war games in case Hitler decides to attack) with a Superboy robot of his own creation, which the world believes is the real Superboy, or multiple Superboy robots. The military forces of various nations destroy Superboy's robots, but Luthor, posing as "Dr. Rothul", offers his resource of refined Kryptonite to the American military-for a price. Superboy sends his Clark Kent robot, disguised as an alien super-hero named Voltran, against Luthor's Superboy robot, destroying it and exposing a cache of Kryptonite within it. Luthor reveals himself, and Superboy, out of range of the Kryptonite, captures him. [Superboy #59]
To ensure that Superboy does not interfere with the plan of Nazi world conquest, Adolf Hitler initiates a covert operation in Smallville. Nazi spies mine the entire sewer system of Smallville, blow up the power station, and attempt to blackmail him into leaving Earth or facing the destruction of the whole town. Superboy and a robot Jonathan Kent finally defuse the mines and capture the spies.[Superboy #163]
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Post by Duragizer on Mar 30, 2023 18:44:16 GMT -5
No. Superboy is #2 in my Top 3 least favourite late Golden Age/Silver Age additions to the Superman mythos, in between planet-juggling Kryptonians and super pets.
A teenage Clark Kent having superheroic escapades in secret is one thing (I like Smallville in theory, not execution). But he shouldn't don the tights or call himself Super-anything until he's into adulthood, IMO.
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Post by zaku on Mar 31, 2023 5:49:13 GMT -5
There were a couple of Superboy stories which explicitly mentioned the War. My headcanon is that the Superboy counterpart these stories referred to simply wasn't as powerful as some of the other versions, and had his hands full just being a local Smallville hero. Superboy is blackmailed by the Invisible Empire, alien invaders who can disassemble their atomic structure and plate themselves onto any object, and who have disassembled the molecules of everyone in Smallville. The aliens threaten to keep the people of Smallville in this state unless Superboy brings them the Earth's leaders for them to occupy. Superboy tricks them into accepting robotized wax dummies of the world's leaders (Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Winston Churchill, Josef Stalin, Hirohito, and Vidkun Quisling) as new body-homes and, after they bring back the people of Smallville, has a robot Anton Mesmer hypnotize them into eternal sleep. One last alien remains, but Superboy manages to imprison him. [Superboy #153]
An adult Lex Luthor terrorizes the great cities of the world (including London, which is holding war games in case Hitler decides to attack) with a Superboy robot of his own creation, which the world believes is the real Superboy, or multiple Superboy robots. The military forces of various nations destroy Superboy's robots, but Luthor, posing as "Dr. Rothul", offers his resource of refined Kryptonite to the American military-for a price. Superboy sends his Clark Kent robot, disguised as an alien super-hero named Voltran, against Luthor's Superboy robot, destroying it and exposing a cache of Kryptonite within it. Luthor reveals himself, and Superboy, out of range of the Kryptonite, captures him. [Superboy #59]
To ensure that Superboy does not interfere with the plan of Nazi world conquest, Adolf Hitler initiates a covert operation in Smallville. Nazi spies mine the entire sewer system of Smallville, blow up the power station, and attempt to blackmail him into leaving Earth or facing the destruction of the whole town. Superboy and a robot Jonathan Kent finally defuse the mines and capture the spies.[Superboy #163]Very very interesting, thank you!!! I really believe that Superboy #168 (not #163, little correction) is the only story explicitly set on Earth-1 involving superheroes and Nazis! (I know there were supposedly superheroes on Earth-1 during WWII. But I don't remember any stories with them having anything to do with the Nazis! Maybe The Shadow, if you decide he's part of the DC universe). |
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Post by Cei-U! on Mar 31, 2023 6:41:04 GMT -5
Very very interesting, thank you!!! I really believe that Superboy #168 (not #163, little correction) is the only story explicitly set on Earth-1 involving superheroes and Nazis! (I know there were supposedly superheroes on Earth-1 during WWII. But I don't remember any stories with them having anything to do with the Nazis! Maybe The Shadow, if you decide he's part of the DC universe). Characters said to precede Superboy on Earth-One include Zatara, Robotman, Manhunter, Air Wave, The Guardian, and The Boy Commandos, all of whom fought Nazi and/or Japanese villains at least once.
Cei-U! I summon the Home Front heroes!
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Post by zaku on Apr 1, 2023 5:36:52 GMT -5
Very very interesting, thank you!!! I really believe that Superboy #168 (not #163, little correction) is the only story explicitly set on Earth-1 involving superheroes and Nazis! (I know there were supposedly superheroes on Earth-1 during WWII. But I don't remember any stories with them having anything to do with the Nazis! Maybe The Shadow, if you decide he's part of the DC universe). Characters said to precede Superboy on Earth-One include Zatara, Robotman, Manhunter, Air Wave, The Guardian, and The Boy Commandos, all of whom fought Nazi and/or Japanese villains at least once.
Cei-U! I summon the Home Front heroes!
As usual you are right and I had to explain myself better. The ones you named are almost all Golden Age characters whose adventures it was decided, after the concept of parallel Earths was introduced, were to take place on Earth-1. I meant adventures that were explicitly set on Earth-1 (so after the introduction of Multiple Earths) dealing with superheroes and Nazis  . But probably the characters you mentioned maybe have adventures written in later times set during the Second World War. |
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Post by Cei-U! on Apr 1, 2023 5:52:48 GMT -5
Characters said to precede Superboy on Earth-One include Zatara, Robotman, Manhunter, Air Wave, The Guardian, and The Boy Commandos, all of whom fought Nazi and/or Japanese villains at least once.
Cei-U! I summon the Home Front heroes!
As usual you are right and I had to explain myself better. The ones you named are almost all Golden Age characters whose adventures it was decided, after the concept of parallel Earths was introduced, were to take place on Earth-1. I meant adventures that were explicitly set on Earth-1 (so after the introduction of Multiple Earths) dealing with superheroes and Nazis . But probably the characters you mentioned maybe have adventures written in later times set during the Second World War. Ag, I see. To the best of my knowledge, none of those heroes were shown fighting Nazis in a story explicitly set on Earth-One (though one can assume the E! Boy Commandos did, right?).
Cei-U! I summon the clarification!
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Post by zaku on Apr 1, 2023 6:17:17 GMT -5
As usual you are right and I had to explain myself better. The ones you named are almost all Golden Age characters whose adventures it was decided, after the concept of parallel Earths was introduced, were to take place on Earth-1. I meant adventures that were explicitly set on Earth-1 (so after the introduction of Multiple Earths) dealing with superheroes and Nazis . But probably the characters you mentioned maybe have adventures written in later times set during the Second World War. Ag, I see. To the best of my knowledge, none of those heroes were shown fighting Nazis in a story explicitly set on Earth-One (though one can assume the E! Boy Commandos did, right?).
Cei-U! I summon the clarification!
A little bit of fun trivia. While I was googling information on this topic, I discovered that Commander Steel ended up on Earth-1 from Earth-2 in the '42. But since there were no masked superheroes on the former at the time, he simply decided to... not being one (and fighting Nazis)! Bizarre reasoning if you ask me...  |
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Post by Cei-U! on Apr 1, 2023 6:45:37 GMT -5
That story reflects Roy Thomas' intention to eventually reveal that all of the Earth-One heroes (except The shadow) active in the 1940s emigrated from Earth-Two, a revelation made irrelevant by the Crisis on Infinite Earths. The problem with that plan was that at least two of those heroes were related to other heroes native to E! (Larry "Air Wave" Jordan to Hal "Green Lantern" Jordan and Jim "Guardian" Harper to Roy "Speedy" Harper). Maybe it's just as well the Crisis spoiled Roy's plans, as it spared us the undoubtedly convoluted continuity fixes Mr. T would've concocted to explain those discrepancies.
Cei-U!
I summon the close call!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2023 7:06:48 GMT -5
No. Superboy is #2 in my Top 3 least favourite late Golden Age/Silver Age additions to the Superman mythos, in between planet-juggling Kryptonians and super pets. A teenage Clark Kent having superheroic escapades in secret is one thing (I like Smallville in theory, not execution). But he shouldn't don the tights or call himself Super-anything until he's into adulthood, IMO. When I do a poll here, nothing frustrates me more than to see a 50/50 result. I want to know what people are thinking, and it’s good to see both sides of the argument. It appears that more people are in favour of Superboy not being part of the mythos, Byrne’s reboot or not. I honestly have no idea what current DC canon is. 30,000 DC reboots since 1986 will do that to a guy. Same with Supergirl. Or Batman’s dad. I feel I can’t answer questions from non-fans if they ask about those things. That doesn’t happen often, occasionally someone who has only come to DC via the DCEU might ask me something (one friend picked up Byrne’s MOS). But I feel I can answer questions about Marvel without having to think about it. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 1, 2023 7:25:59 GMT -5
The DC war books were said to be Earth-1, so the Nazis were getting their butts kicked by Sgt Rock, the Haunted Tank, M'lle Marie, the Losers, Gravedigger, Unknown Soldier, Creature Commandos, etc. So, the few mystery men who were retroactively assigned to Earth-1 weren't needed. For the most part, they kept the war characters in their own world, except for team-up books, like Brave & The Bold and DC Comics Presents. My personal feeling is that superheroes should only fight super-Nazis, because regular soldiers can handle a regular battlefield.
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Post by zaku on Apr 1, 2023 7:50:58 GMT -5
No. Superboy is #2 in my Top 3 least favourite late Golden Age/Silver Age additions to the Superman mythos, in between planet-juggling Kryptonians and super pets. A teenage Clark Kent having superheroic escapades in secret is one thing (I like Smallville in theory, not execution). But he shouldn't don the tights or call himself Super-anything until he's into adulthood, IMO. When I do a poll here, nothing frustrates me more than to see a 50/50 result. I want to know what people are thinking, and it’s good to see both sides of the argument. It appears that more people are in favour of Superboy not being part of the mythos, Byrne’s reboot or not. I honestly have no idea what current DC canon is. 30,000 DC reboots since 1986 will do that to a guy. Same with Supergirl. Or Batman’s dad. I feel I can’t answer questions from non-fans if they ask about those things. That doesn’t happen often, occasionally someone who has only come to DC via the DCEU might ask me something (one friend picked up Byrne’s MOS). But I feel I can answer questions about Marvel without having to think about it. The official DC policy on the matter, after Doomsday Clock and Dark Knights Metal, is that everything happened. So in theory, the original (pre-Crisis) Superboy's stories happend on Earth-1985. In the current Dc continuity (from Wikipedia) following Infinite Crisis, Superman did not begin his public superhero career until adulthood. However, as a teenager he joined the Legion of Super-Heroes, and used the name "Superboy" while visiting the 31st century. Thus, most of Kal-El's pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths stories with the Legion were once again considered canonical. In addition, Clark wore his Superboy outfit when he works as a clandestine superhero in and around Smallville. |
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But it's interesting that they never gave an official explanation for why Superboy didn't intervene in WWII. They could have come up with an explanation like the Spear of Destiny, which had prevented its Earth-2 counterpart from stopping Hitler.
. But probably the characters you mentioned maybe have adventures written in later times set during the Second World War.
