Talk:Superboy (Kal-El)

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I started the talk page by adding the WP Superman tag.Spiderboy12 03:06, 2 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Rewrite December 2007

I heavily rewrote Superboy (Kal-El) because I felt the article could use a more in-depth examination of Superboy's publishing history and a longer summary of his fictional life. I also included a summary of the main writers and artists who have worked on Superboy, along with the editors they worked under.

Note that I tried to incorporate what was already included in the article. An editor recently added a list of Superboy's "first encounters", and you'll find most of them listed in the text since I agree that backdating first meetings with Superman's friends, allies and foes is a major motif in the Silver and Bronze Age Superboy stories.

I invite analysis, critique and certainly if someone wants, edits. I have some concern that parts of the biography are repetitive of the publishing history, and perhaps overall is a bit long (though certainly not long compared to Superboy (Kon-El) or a number of other characters whose Wikipedia entries mostly consist of long biographies). Spiderboy12 (talk) 03:10, 19 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This article needs the B-Class checklist filled in to remain a B-Class article for the Comics WikiProject. If the checklist is not filled in by 7th August this article will be re-assessed as C-Class. The checklist should be filled out referencing the guidance given at

I suggest to merge the articles (Superboy (Kal-El) and Superman (Earth-One)! Because the two characters are the same and have the same story and not need separate articles. HyperBroad (talk) 18:24, 20 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I oppose the merger idea. Unlike other comic book characters, Superman's adventures as a kid were chronicled both separately from and simultaneously as his adventures as Superman. Indeed, the Superboy feature has an independent, nearly fifty-year history apart from the Superman feature. This article is as much about the Superboy feature and the comic book series (three of which were named Superboy in whole or part) it appeared in as it is about the character itself. Specifically, note that the "Fictional Character Biography" (which does concern the Earth-One Superboy) only takes up about one-third of the article. There is much more space devoted to "Publication History" and "Writers and Artists", which focus on the history of the Superboy feature and on the people involved in creating it. The three small sections at the end of the article also are not specifically concerned with the character of the Earth-One Superboy.

I could perhaps see a (brief) discussion about how the Earth-One Superman's history as Superboy (in both his own time and with the LSH) distinguish him from other versions of Superman, particularly the Earth-Two Superman. But Superboy (Kal-El) as a character is NOT unique to Earth-One, and since the character's publication history is distinct both from that of Superman and the second Superboy, Superboy (Kon-El), the character merits a distinct article.Spiderboy12 (talk) 06:42, 21 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I also oppose. With all the ret-cons and changes, not to mention his unique publishing history and the unusual copyright situation, Superboy does merit a separate article. Nutiketaiel (talk) 15:08, 21 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Now that Superman: Secret Origin is explicitly reintroducing Superboy into the current Superman's past, even if only as a member of the Legion, and we've added a section here regarding the upcoming miniseries, the difference between Superboy (Kal-El) and the Earth-1 Superman is even more obvious. Do we have consensus against merger, so that we can remove the suggested-merge tag? Spiderboy12 (talk) 19:53, 5 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I deleted the merge tag for several reasons. For what little discussion there was 8-9 months ago, the consensus was against merger. Moreover, in the new Adventure Comics #1 and Superman Secret Files 2009, both released last week, the teenage Kal-El is referred to as Superboy (in Adventure, on the first page of the Legion feature, and in Secret Files, in Krypto's bio). Thus, the current Superman, who is NOT (at least, not exactly) the Earth-1 Superman, now "officially" has a past career as Superboy. That makes this Wikipedia article about Superboy (Kal-El) more than just the young Earth-1 Superman. Spiderboy12 (talk) 21:25, 16 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

not quite sure how Superboy -or- Superman had powers in space, when their/his powers depended on being near Earth's yellow sun- was this resolved anywhere? Would be good to have a pointer. Schissel | Sound the Note! 02:27, 6 December 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 2 external links on

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/20071201031013/http://www.trexfiles.com/superboy_0727.pdf to http://www.trexfiles.com/superboy_0727.pdf
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/20071012012132/http://newsarama.com:80/DC/Superman/SuperboyCompl.htm to http://www.newsarama.com/DC/Superman/SuperboyCompl.htm

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