Superboy

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Background

Powers and Abilities

Superboy has the standard Kryptonian power-set for Universe AZ 101.

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History

It all started with a monster and it almost ended with one. After Superman’s death at the hands of Doomsday on December 31 1999, his body and that of Doomsday were taken to the Cadmus Project where, after finding out that Superman’s wounds had closed, and being unable to obtain a genetic sample from his body it was attempted to scan his D.N.A. by microscope focused on his retinas.

While this was being attempted a second team was carefully collecting all of Superman’s blood that they could from Doomsday’s claws, teeth, and so forth.

Ultimately there wasn’t much but enough was gathered to begin an attempt at cloning. After the first team working from the retina scans suffered the Auron debacle and Supergirl II’s recovery of Superman’s body the team working from the blood samples became the primary unit. Eventually this team was able to begin growing a clone from the Kryptonian cells they had recovered.

During the growth period the clone was stuffed with various memory implants (including math, science, history, and movies) that matched up to his body’s biological age. When the Newsboy Legion discovered that Carl Packard was tying to implant code words that would enable Cadmus’s secret master (Lex Luthor) to control the clone once completed, they broke free the not -yet- fully- grown (approximate physical age 13) clone.

Aided by the Newsboy Legion, the clone escaped the Cadmus Project. The day of his escape is considered his birthday and that day in this universe was March 3 2000. When one of the Newsboys called him Superboy, the kid was extremely annoyed and declared that his name was Superman.

“Superman” then took off and headed towards Metropolis, where he ran into Sidearm, a criminal equipped with a couple of robot arms. Unaware that his powers were still undeveloped at the time, Superboy was counting on his super-vision powers to give him an edge in the battle.

As he could not make those powers kick in Sidearm almost brought the ’Metropolis Kid‘ to a quick demise. But he was able to use the powers he did have, which had been accelerated by concentrated solar bombardment while being grown, he was able to defeat Sidearm who after all was just a cybernetic thug.

The following morning he saved a young woman from being run over by a group of young street punks that had stolen a car. The news of that incident, unlike that of the Kid’s battle with Sidearm, quickly found its way to the media and joined a number of other reported Superman sightings.

Along with the appearance of Superboy, three other persons had taken on the S-shield and begun adventuring as Superman. Appearing shortly thereafter at the Daily Planet, Superboy soon met Tana Moon, an aspiring reporter. Her exclusive interview with the clone got her a job at GBS, and she and the kid became a consistent ratings getter.

While doing another publicity stunt for GBS, Supergirl showed up and invited him to join her and Lex Luthor for dinner. Infatuated by Supergirl he accepted.

At the dinner Luthor tried to convince Superboy that he would be in a better position at WLEX than at GBS, but it wasn’t until Supergirl mentioned that they would be working together every day that ’The Kid‘ was won over.
After the dinner he met up with Vinnie Edge and Tana at Clark Kent’s apartment. As Clark too was presumed dead during the Doomsday incident, Edge had arranged for Superboy to move into his now available apartment. Before Superboy had the chance to tell them about his new arrangement with Luthor, Edge introduced Superboy to his “close personal friend” Rex Leech (really just a second rate con- man) and Rex’s “daughter” Roxy whom he had blackmailed to “manage” Superboy’s affairs.

Before long thanks to Roxy’s blatantly sexual behavior Superboy ended up signing a contract with Rex who immediately got on with the business of trade marking the name of Superman for Edge. His first order of business was to stage a number of events around the city through Intergang and other connections.

One of these staged events caused the destruction of Hobsneck bridge. At this bridge Stinger brought Superboy to his knees. But when Supergirl unexpectedly showed up Stinger decided to leave as she was not part of his contract. Before leaving, however, he placed a series of explosive charges and blew up Hobsneck Bridge, burying the two heroes in the rubble.

Unsuprisingly the two survived and were able to save a great many lives. Shortly thereafter Coast City was destroyed and the being known as the “Last Son of Krypton” was blamed for it.

The Cyborg Superman requested that Superboy join him to “investigate” the crises at his side (really just wanted to get him close enough to kill easily). Superboy quickly left for Coast City where he met up with the Cyborg Superman and a GBS News team all of whom then went into the blast zone in search of the rogue Superman.

Just as the group was approaching the remains of Coast City the Cyborg used his heat vision to blow up the GBS helicopter killing everybody inside. Before Superboy had any time to react the Cyborg was over him and although he fought valiantly the Cyborg eventually brought him down.

While the Cyborg had Superboy restrained, he told him of his plans to destroy Earth and make it into another Warworld. While the Cyborg and Mongul were elsewhere planning their next move, Superboy managed to escape his restraints. Although exhausted The Kid managed to escape. Knowing that he couldn’t take on the bad guys himself and knowing that the JLA were in space on a wild goose chase he went back to Metropolis to find help.

After a flight home, Superboy found Steel, Supergirl, and the real Superman who had just arrived in Metropolis Sans powers. The four heroes headed to the former Coast City, Engine City, where they went up against the Cyborg, Mongul and their minions.

When the Cyborg launched an Engine City missile, headed for Metropolis, Superboy grabbed onto it and managed to deflect it just before impact and instead it blew up over the sea. Superboy barely survived the blast, but headed back to Engine City and assisted Superman, Steel, Supergirl, the Eradicator, and Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) in bringing down the Cyborg and Mongul.

They were victorious, and returned to Metropolis. Later at Superboy’s apartment, The Kid was taking a well deserved rest, until he was woken by Tana, who stopped by to let him know that she has quit GBS and is leaving Metropolis.

Some days later Superboy was attacked by a group of Payback D.N.Aliens from Cadmus and only the timely intervention of Superman saved the kid. Later the Guardian caught up with The Kid and assured him that Cadmus wasn’t trying to kill him.

Superman showed up and asked The Kid to give the Guardian the benefit of a doubt and go back to Cadmus and furthermore he promised Superboy that he wouldn’t be taken prisoner or harmed as he himself will go back with them to learn the truth about Superboy’s origin.

All three then went to Cadmus where they witnessed a fake recording that stated he is not really a clone of Superman and that his powers are connected to experiments involving Superman’s aura. Guardian then suggested that they have Dubbilex keeping tabs on him while acting as the projects goodwill ambassador.

Even later back at Superboy’s apartment, The Kid sold back the Superman trademark to the real Superman for a buck, who then allowed the SB to use the S-shield and the name Superboy if half the profits went to charity. After giving it a little thought he realized that maybe it isn’t such a bad name after all. At least it indicated that he’d be next in line.

After some thought Superboy decided to leave Metropolis and try to find his own place in the world. Before long Superboy found himself on an extended journey around the world. After stopping off in Hawaii to visit Valor, who is an assistant curator at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Superboy decided to remain there for a while.

Along for the ride was Dubbilex a non-human looking being from Cadmus. Not long after arriving in Hawaii, Superboy learned that Tana Moon, the TV reporter who had covered his adventures in Metropolis, was now living in Hawaii as well. The two have since become close friends.

In a relatively short time, Superboy encountered foes including Sidearm, Scavenger, King Shark, Silver Sword, Copperhead, and many others! He’d formed a confusing and dangerously flirtatious relationship with the Apokalipsian called Knockout, who would just as soon kiss him as kill him.

During his time in Hawaii he had a run in with Metallo and Poison Ivy where he fell under Ivy’s control, during this case Robin III was forced to use Kryptonite on him, no one was as surprised as he was that it worked. This incident was the first indication that the tape he had watched at Cadmus was a fake. For most of his time in Hawaii Superboy was home schooled by Dubbilex.

About a year after coming to Hawaii (early 2002) though an attack at his home by King Shark left Tana dead and after Superboy defeated King Shark he decided to leave. After leaving Hawaii Superboy travelled to Counter-Earth where he wandered for a few months. During this time in his life he had several run-ins with Gen13 and he and Freefall dated briefly.

Unfortunately Superboy soon fell ill (June 2002) and with no idea what was happening he contacted Superman. By the time Superman got to him it was clear he was experiencing the effects of the type 1 Legacy virus. After rushing him to the Xavier Institute Superboy was quarantined with several other people who had been infected. He, along with the others, was cured when Colossus sacrificed himself to cause the cure to become airborn.

Valor meanwhile had seen the effect that Tana’s death had on the kid and called Superman to ask if he could try to help him somehow. Superman approached Superboy and asked him to accompany him to the Fortress. After arriving at the Fortress Superman showed him around while surreptitiously having his robots scan his DNA, after hearing from them that the kid was Kryptonian, Superman showed him the results of the scan.

He then sat down with him and gave him an overview of the history of the El family after which he gave him the name Kon El and a “Fortress Key”. The effect on Superboy was phenomenal, restoring his spirit and giving him a renewed sense of purpose.

A month or so later Superboy, Supergirl II,&Steel III traveled into space to find Superman who had disappeared and been put on trial for the genocide of the Kryptonian race, his co-defendant was his elder brother Zan El. During these events Superboy discovered Superman’s earth name.

After returning to Earth Superboy confronted Superman about his name, realizing that he needed to be honest with this boy who was essentially his son, Superman took him to Smallville and introduced him to his parents. After Kon left Clark and his parents had a long talk and soon came to the conclusion that he needed a real life, to that end Clark, Jonathan, and Martha went to see Harry and Sarah Kent, Jonathan’s Brother and Sister-in-law, they had long since been told who Clark was and after being told about Kon were more than happy to take him in.

And so on March 3 2003 (listed as his 16^th birthday, though technically only his 3^rd) he became Connor Kent. Harry and Sarah moved with him back to Smallville and purchased the old Lang farm (long empty).

Shortly after moving to Smallville (August 2003) Connor joined Robin III, Wonder Girl II, Iron Lad, Asgardian,&Patriot in forming a new group of Teen Titans. They were soon joined by Impulse, Hulkling, Arrowette, Kid Lantern, Aquagirl II, Miss Martian, Bumblebee, Tim Hunter, Hawkgirl II, Stargirl, Jubilee and Spidergirl. At about the same time he changed his costume to a slightly less 90’s punk look (although he continued to wear sunglasses).

After two more years there came a day when everything he had worked for almost ended. Lex Luthor, who had never been happy that Kon had escaped him, managed to capture him and was able to manipulate his mind using tech that Brainiac had left behind.

Implanting a new personality in his mind Luthor caused him to believe that his name was Lucas Luthor. ”Lucas” then attacked the Teen Titans and injured several of them before they were able to subdue him, Miss Martian was able to use her telepathic powers to erase the “Lucas” identity and restore Connor but his guilt at the actions he had committed caused him to leave the team.

Returning to Kansas he abandoned his costume and simply attended school for a while as his friends and family sought him out to comfort him he eventually came to accept that they had forgiven him. Telling them that he would be there if they needed him he started acting as Superboy again although he didn’t wear a real costume during this time.

Finally in 2007 a pair of villains from other dimensions began a plot to alter time on a multiversal scale one of this pair was named Alexander Luthor and was a version of Lex, while the other, known as The Sovereign, was a 19 year old version of Kal El. These two quickly recruited other villains from several universes and for a time seemed unstoppable.

During the course of these events Superboy faced The Sovereign in combat and although he succeded in stopping his current actions he was unable to defeat him and was left critically injured. Several of Connor’s allies arrived soon after and were able to save his life. After Luthor and The Sovereign were defeated and his injuries had healed Connor returned to the Titans and began wearing a “classic” Superboy costume.

Today Connor has just turned 21 and the Titans are considering dropping the “Teen” part of the name. He still operates under the name Superboy (in this universe Clark was Superboy until he was 26) and he has recently proposed to Cassie.

Superboy has also earned the trust of heroes throughout the universe and timestream. He is a reserve member of the 30^th century’s Legion of Super-Heroes (along with several other Superboy’s such as Kal El, Kel El, and others and several Supergirl’s), He is one of the leaders of the Teen Titans.

Superboy has managed to survive a deadly clone plague, the meltdown of his genetic structure, fighting a clone of himself, as well as helping save Superman from capital punishment at the hands of the Intergalactic Tribunal, and was a key factor in breaking up the Silicon Dragons, a deadly hi-tech gang of criminals that held Hawaii in a grip of terror.

He has several times been involved in Multiversal events and was instrumental in resolving one of them.

Description

A young man of 21, Superboy has black hair and blue eyes (which seems to be a norm for El males). He wears his hair cut short but the trademark curl is very much in evidence. His costume is identical to Superman’s except that his belt buckle has a Legion of Super-Heroes logo on it (not that most people know what that is).

Personality

Brash, bold and impulsive, are words that could have described Connor at the beginning of his career but now, after everything he has gone through, he has become a stalwart hero and a responsible man. He is very much in love with Cassie Sandsmark (Wonder Girl II) and they are planning to move in together soon.

By Azrael.

Helper(s): Danielle Mendus’s Superboy WU and all helpers associated with it ; Adrian Tullberg.

Source of Character: Superboy, Superman Books, Young Justice.