Type: Replacement
One of the replacement Supermen from the original Reign story line, the mysterious Superboy was the most media-savvy hero to come on the scene since Booster Gold. From the off, upfront about being a clone of the original rather than trying to pass himself off as the real thing (perhaps with some kind of ridiculous Teen Tony Stark story), he went on the press tour to establish his credentials. And yet, he still had secrets to keep. He might have been cloned from Superman's DNA, but he didn't QUITE have Superman's powers. Once outed though, his non-Kryptonian powers became something of a calling card. Is there anything more perfect for Superboy's outrageously public personality than TACTILE TELEKINESIS? This is a power specifically designed for showing off. Not only can you do neat and unusual tricks with it, but it also requires monthly explanations to remind readers of what it is and what it can do. YOU'RE NOT SEEING SUPER-STRENGTH, KIDS!After Reign, Superboy would go on to star in his own series, which did a lot better than Steel's, and like the original, would find himself part of a team with which he shared a by-line. Move over Legion, here come the Ravers. Ok, they never made the same kind of splash as the LSH, but they DID have a Dial H hero, and that kept me buying (for the same reason I did New Adventures of Superboy in the 80s). It took a while before Superboy would discover that he was also partly cloned from Lex Luthor and even longer before he would angst over it. Superboy, in those early days, didn't even feel the need to get himself a proper name. "Superboy" was on his social security card. But it didn't stop him from assembling his own supporting cast, in his own corner of the world. It was lovely to see a hero operate out of Hawaii, wasn't it?
Eventually, Superboy would get older, darker, find himself a t-shirt, die and come back, move out of Wonder Girl's room and into Clark's old one. But that's a story for another day...
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