Superboy #106

SUPERBOY #106 (1963)
“The Great Superboy Hoax!”
by Edmond Hamilton & George Papp
cover by Curt Swan

Still down the rabbit hole that is Virus X. I guess Hamilton must’ve been proud of Superman #156, because one year later a similar storyline shows up on Superboy.
Also, stay tuned after the Virus X story is done, because the second story is just bonkers.

We begin with Pete Ross being scooped out by Superboy… only it turns out to be one of his robots, and a badly damaged one.

The robot takes Pete to a planetoid where Superboy is in absolute agony, complete with a dying Krypto (!!!) and a bunch of even more damaged robots.

If that wasn’t gut-wrenching enough, Superboy reveals that he’s the latest victim of Virus X.
Also I guess the Red Cross also had a Krypton branch.

But why the battlefield of damaged robots? Because of an ambush by the Superboy Revenge Squad, seen in a rather worrisome flashback.

The Superboy Revenge Squad, by the way, will eventually graduate into the Superman Revenge Squad and will be a persistent annoyance.
They’re mostly used when a story is not important enough to include Brainiac and are, quite frankly, incredibly forgettable (though they were used in a few good stories).

Often we don’t even SEE these aliens, but here they are from a different Superboy story:

Back to the story, Superboy summoned Pete because his plan in is make Pete his replacement!!!

Even if you didn’t pick the major spoiler on the cover, the fact that Superboy is willing to give Pete his super-powers but NOT to reveal his secret identity should tell you how this is going to play out.
And I guess that the fact that Superboy’s last will and testament is given by a phonograph (!!!) should also tell you something, but I’m too busy finding it hilarious to figure out exactly WHAT.

The reveal that this is just a hoax would’ve been great if only, again, it wasn’t SPOILED ON THE COVER.

There’s a lot to unpack regarding his plot.
The idea that he’s planning for a successor in case he’s killed is a genius move, and quite sad when you realize this is just a teenager.
The fact that his choice is to throw all of this at Pete is a little problematic. I get what he’s going for, testing Pete with an emergency, but wouldn’t it be a better choice to TRAIN Pete!?!?

What’s worse, the idea of making Pete the new Superboy hinges on the fact that Superboy having the means to give superpowers to someone else.
So far he’s just using a serum to give Pete powers for “a few days”, with the idea that he’ll eventually find a way to make it permanent.
But, again: why not train Pete for a few days at a time, so that he’ll be competent by the time Superboy has perfected the serum!?

Not to mention the fact that Superboy is making Pete grieve the loss of his best friend.
Even Pa Kent questions the morality of this, but Superboy has a very utilitarian view of the situation.

And there’s also the elephant in the room: why isn’t the Legion of Super-Heroes involved in ANY of this!? This issue has a cover date of July 1963, the same of Adventure Comics #310 (also written by Hamilton!).
At the time, the Legion had an active membership of SIXTEEN superheroes… but I guess Superboy didn’t think any one of them could take his place. Obviously it couldn’t be Supergirl without absolutely breaking history, but really? Nobody else?

Back to the story, I should probably mention that while Virus X is mentioned… it’s all part of the hoax.

I guess Superboy forgot to tell Pete to keep his identity a secret, since he immediately reveals it to his rarely seen parents (did they ever show up again?).
Then again, Superboy’s parents DO know his identity.

Having superpower sure does have its advantages.
Also I guess Pete is doing all sorts of chores, unless his mother needs “hours” to do the dishes.

Turns out Pete is rather good as being Superboy!

There’s only a problem: he doesn’t have X-Ray vision. Or so he says… how else is he able to see inside the Kent store from the other side of the town!?!?

All of this could’ve been avoided if only Superboy had told Pete his secret identity. It really goes to show how paranoid he is about that, when he trust Peter with superpowers but NOT his identity!!!

His other powers seem to work just fine.

Not only Pete is grieving the death of his friend, he’s also struggling on how he’s going to tell the Kents that Clark is dead and has been replaced by a robot.

The Kents then delivery toys to the local orphanage, and it’s a rare acknowledgment that Clark Kent IS known to have been adopted.

That’s something that gets lots in other continuities, and I’m of two minds about this.

On one hand, I really like the idea that Clark being adopted is common knowledge and not a bad thing… if there’s too much insistence of keeping it secret, you run the risk of giving the message that being adopted is something to be ashamed of.
On the other hand, if nobody knows where baby Clark came from before the orphanage, you open the door to revealing his secret.

I tend to side on the idea of keeping the adoption public knowledge, but just barely.

Pete then gets the idea to give Superboy a monument. Wait, you mean he just left Superboy and Krypto to die on that planet without going back to bury them!?!?

Today we DO know how the Egyptians build the Pyramids, by the way; although we’re still figuring out some details, we figured out most of it.

Naturally it takes Super-Pete a lot less time to build the Superboy Pyramid… and just in time for the Phantom Zone criminals to show up!

And now, ladies and gentlemen, is when the story goes SUDDEN KRYPTONITE PYRAMID!!!

Aaaand it turns out the super-serum has a mean streak since NOW it decides to stop working.

However PETE does have a way to fix all of this… the Clark Kent robot, which saves Superboy AND his secret identity thanks to an infodump.

Sure it was absolutely necessary to avoid telling Pete your secret identity, Supes.

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Historical significance: 0/10
Virus X doesn’t really factor into the story; it could’ve been anything. And of course Pete never becomes Superboy’s replacement.

Silver Age-ness: 9/10
It was honestly lower considering Pete does a remarkable job… but then out of nowhere he transmutes a pyramid into Kryptonite!!!

 Does it stand the test of time? 4/10
A wasted opportunity. At this point there is basically no reason to keep Superboy from revealing his identity to Pete, other than tradition… he’s proven COUNTLESS times he can be trusted.
I don’t think anyone was seriously fooled into thinking that Superboy was dying… after all he CAN’T die before he becomes Superman… but the first few pages do such a stellar job to establish the tension, it’s quite a shame it’s thrown away.
Also, while I do appreciate Pete being superbly competent as a replacement… avoiding the stereotype of “only Superman can handle having superpowers” that pops up in the early Siver Age… the fact that he’s THIS good makes you question: why doesn’t Superboy give him temporary powers more often?

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“The Lair of Brainiac!”
by Jerry Siegel & Curt Swan

Moving on to the second story, it’s about Superboy exploring his memories of when he was a baby.

After re-living some memories of playing as a baby, Superboy recalls that SUDDEN BIRD!!!

The robot bird takes young Kal-El to a spaceship, where he’s brought to see BRAINIAC.

This breaks A LOT of continuity!!!
Superman will meet Brainiac in Action Comics #242, where he most definitely doesn’t recognize him.

“Superbaby” has apparently forgotten it because of repeated exposure to Kryptonite… but since Superboy learns about it this issue, what’s HIS excuse!?

There is, however, something interesting to explore. Apart from the frequent changes to the name of Brainiac’s power (originally it was Byrak, then changed to Yod, and eventually settled as Colu).
But the not about Brainiac having a 200 year lifespan also helps to establish Brainiac 5 as his descendent, otherwise having only 5 generations in 1,000 years would be too few.
Brainiac 5, by the way, had already been introduced two years earlier in Action Comics #276.

Also, Brainiac’s deal is shrinking cities: what does he want with Krypton here? Because’s already taken Kandor by now: according to Superman #141, Superman wasn’t even BORN when Brainiac stole Kandor. So he must’ve visited Krypton to steal Kandor, then a few years later he went back… because he wants Jor-El to give him a 21Y-Ronatort™ as ransom.

Or his 21Y-Runatort™, because NEXT PANEL it’s spelled differently!!!

And yes, of course Superbaby gets powers in this story, because why not.
*gurgle*

Yep. Apparently Brainiac has known for DECADES that yellow sunlight gives Kryptonians superpowers, and not ONCE he’s taken advantage of owning an entire city of these guys.

The ship that Superbaby threw into space JUST HAPPENS to reach Earth, and Superbaby uses his telescopic vision FOR THE FIRST TIME… and you’re not ready for this: he JUST HAPPENS to immediately spot his future adoptive father!!!

OH COME ON!!!

There’s convenient coincidences, there’s Silver Age coincidences, and then there’s being INSULTINGLY RIDICULOUS!!!!

Superbaby playing with some uranium causes an explosion (!!!!) and we learn that Brainiac has known for DECADES that yellow sunlight makes clothes indestructible and never did anything with it, despite owning an entire Kryptonian city.

Brainiac is so fed up with Superbaby that he decides to shrink him into nothingness thanks to his Shrinking Ray™… but instead ending up transforming into a giant version of Superbaby.
A Super-Man, if you will.

We’re sorry, Comics Archeology is currently experiencing an aneurysm because of sheer stupidity in the plot. Please try again later.

So… THAT just happened. Any thoughts?

Yeah that’s about right.

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Historical significance: -5/10
As a reminder, a negative score for this category is reserved from when a story absolutely breaks the established canon. I don’t think I need to say more.

 Silver Age-ness: 4∞/10

Does it stand the test of time? ಠ_ಠ/10
As a reminder, a negative score for this category is reserved for stories with horrible messages or damaging characterization. This story is too stupid to quality AND to warrant a real score.