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In Defense of Superman's reaction to Superboy the clone
So I keep seeing people say "Clark reacted poorly to having a clone" or "Clark treated Conner poorly" or whatever. I know a lot of this comes from the animated properties, the Young Justice animated series in particular, or the New 52 where Scott Lobdell the king of turning everything to ash in the New 52 made Kon-El mean "abomination in the house of El" and like. I get it.
But I reject these writing decisions and stick very firmly by Post-Crisis. Because you know what? I'm tired of these takes on making Clark "Superman" Kent "more human" by taking away his compassion and love of humanity. He's capable of being petty and bitchy, as we'll see, but the most human thing about him is how much he loves and cares for people.
(Superman 1987 #81)
So anyway, the story starts with Superman being killed by Doomsday. Something like a month later, the power vaccuum of Superman being dead has opened up the chance for three new "Supermen" to come onto the scene: Cyborg Superman (half-man, half-machine), Man of Steel (man in an iron suit), and the "Last Son of Krypton" (A Kryptonian AI called the Eradicator who has a body based off of Superman's DNA). Things happen, and Cyborg Superman turns out to be evil, nukes Coast City (which will eventually cause Hal to "go evil" and die) and is working with Mongul to turn Earth into a new War World by destroying cities and replacing them with giant engines. Got all that? Good. It's only getting crazier from here.
Superboy enters the scene around the time as the other Supermen, proclaiming himself as a clone of Superman (and he wants to be called Superman, not Superboy, but I need the names to be less confusing for this post) and Cyborg Superman pretends to be working with Superboy only to capture him to try and use him for spare parts for the half living body he has.
The Eradicator brought Superman's body to the Fortress of Solitude for reasons and Superman got better (from dying? Yes. Ask no questions, for I have no answers) and has been unconscious and hearing about the events going on from reports in the Fortress. Unfortunately Superman's not doing too hot, no powers because he has no sun energy left after coming back to life.
By the time he's able to get back to Metropolsis, Superboy's broken himself free and is trying to get help stopping Cyborg Superman who everyone (except Lois Lane and Man of Steel) believe is a good guy trying to stop the Last Son of Krypton, who Cyborg Superman is pinning the destruction of Coast City on.
And this is where Superman meets Superboy, knowing that Superboy is the one claiming to be his clone, and starts acting weird to Superboy, right? Especially since he's the third of the new "Supermen" to have been using his DNA to try and replace him (Other 2 being Cyborg Superman and Last Son of Krypton). Like I'm sure that in these circumstances, being mostly dead, having no idea how he's not dead, finding out he's got three clones and one of them is trying to destroy the Earth and it's been so confusing that even Lois is rejecting him, it'd be understandable if he was rude to Superboy of the bat...
(Superman 1987 #81)
Oh. Uh. No. Superboy warns them that they're planning to destroy Metropolois next. Superman talks to Lois and then immediately goes off with Superboy and Man of Steel to stop Cyborg Superman and there must be some snide remarks along the way, especially with Superboy making non-stop jokes and pop-culture references...
(Adventures of Superman 1987 #504)
Okay. No to that too. Maybe something later after they've infiltrated the base, and nearly get burned to death by the launch of the nuke that's going to destroy Metropolis?
(Adventures of Superman 1987 #504)
Oh. No. Just worried about him not having made it to safety in time. Superboy jumped onto the missile and Superman sees that on a monitor and decides that he's going to have to leave stopping the missile to Superboy so that he and Man of Steel can stop Cyborg Superman and Mongul. I'm sure he says something off about Superboy being able to stop the missile, being that Clark hates being cloned so much and has such a bad knee jerk reaction...
(Action Comics 1938 #691)
(Give Clark a break for having trouble calling Conner Superman, since Clark's Superman and is still getting over mostly dead. Thank you.)
Anyway, maybe he's really just a mission focused guy and won't be rude while they're fighting a common enemy? Even if he hates clones so much?
(Superman 1987 #82)
Oh, well. I mean. That's just the Eradicator, who tried to kill Superman before he developed a human heart and understood why Superman loved the Earth, so obviously there's the pre-existing bad blood causing him to react so poorly to Eradicator. Obviously, he's going to stop playing nice with Superboy when the threat is dealt with...
(Superman 1987 #82)
Oh. Hm. Maybe he just needs a couple of weeks to process dying and coming back and the fact that he was cloned without his consent, and he'll treat Superboy poorly the next time they meet...
(Adventures of Superman 1987 #506)
Uh....
Anyway, context for those pages is that Superboy was just attacked by Cadmus Payback DN Aliens, and Superboy thinks Cadmus wants to destroy him since Superman's back and his only friend (Superboy is only 7 weeks old, at best) just left the city and he's having a crisis. The first one is after Superman saves Superboy from the Paybacks and Superboy throws them away with his powers that he doesn't understand, sending him spiraling even further.
Afterwards, Superboy has gone on a live interview exposing Cadmus and they send an agent to try and bring him in, and Superman comes in, saying that maybe they should go to Cadmus and Superboy freaks out and thinks Superman wants him dead.
Please take note of the Cadmus guy saying "I can't promise that" about Cadmus not hurting or taking Superboy in, and Superman's like "bitch, was I asking you? They're not going to touch him because I'm going to be there and protecting him."
Yeah. Superman's being really shitty to this poor kid fresh out of the cloning tank who is very confused and very scared and has expressed concern over powers he doesn't really understand multiple times around Superman. Yeah. That's totally what's happening. I'm sure he's just using Superboy to get information and won't actually be the first one stand up for the kid if Cadmus threatens Superboy...
(Adventures of Superman 1987 #506)
Well. Anyway. There's this thing where three-week old clone boy was taken advantage of and convinced to copyright the Superman name and logo for some guy looking to make a lot of money, and I'm sure Superman's just trying to butter up Superboy to get the rights to his name and family symbol back, and won't offer him any olive branches....
(Adventures of Superman 1987 #506)
Superboy doesn't react too well because, you know, he's....5-7 weeks old with the mind of a 16 year-old boy. He's had a very trying month and a half of being alive. But I'm sure after that rejection, that when Superboy flies off Superman won't want to have anything to do with the kid, no matter how quickly he comes around to the name...
(Adventures of Superman 1987 #506)
Ah, yes. Well, now that they've parted ways, and Superboy has left Metropolis to have his own life, Superman will never want to talk to or see the kid again and certainly won't be the first person to think that, gee, maybe this kid needs an actual name and go out of his way to find Superboy, bring him to the Fortress of Solitude, show him Kryptonian history, and offer him a place in the El family, or anything like that....
(Superboy 1994 #59)
Where was Clark when Conner having a terrible time and feeling down in the dumps about being stuck looking 16 forever and never growing up? Oh, he was right there, talking to Conner.
(Superboy 1994 #41) (Don't ask me why Superman is a fucking Tron-smurf, that's not the point right now and there's only so much comics bullshit I can deal with at one time before I implode)
...Sorry. Where did Clark treat Conner poorly again? Where was Conner begging Clark to take him in and raise him and Clark refused?
Oh, sorry, was it in a comic from later on where Kon-El is suddenly in his childhood home out of the blue after having a traumatic experience and just wanting to see his parents to process it and ends with Clark openly accepting Kon in his family home in the same issue? A one-issue resolved conflict?
(Superman 1987 #155)
And afterwards when Kon-El is having concerns about being in the right world again and being trusted by Kal-El, what does Clark do again? Tell him to buzz off and go away?
(Superboy 1994 #70)
Like, obviously, he's not perfect in his handling of Conner, and there's points we can criticize him on (asking the clone kid to help you spy on his only home after showing him how Krypton was destroyed because of clones comes to mind), but like...it's a weird situation, man. He meets Conner after having died and is trying to sort himself out and is also trying to keep just one part of his life secret and private, and he's not perfect. I think it's just...weird to stretch that out to Clark hating Conner for being a clone and not thinking of him as family when he so clearly does, but fumbles it a little bit.
The Comic Book Jungle: an Illustrated History of Jungle Comics (Golden Age Greats Vol 14, 1999), by Bill Black
The Comic Book Jungle is a 112-page special issue of the Femforce series authored by Bill Black and published by AC Comics, tracing a history of the 1940s jungle comic book genre, primarily featuring the iconic Golden Age jungle heroines: Sheena, Rulah, Judy of the Jungle, Cave Girl, Nyoka and Camilla. It contains several reprints of the original adventures illustrated by famous Golden Age artists such as Ralph Mayo and Matt Baker. It was published in 1999 and still available through online comics and book stores, but I’m not sure that it is still in actual print.
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