756 – Kryptonite Kid

Superboy #83 (July 1960) introduces a new Super-villain in the form of Kryptonite Kid. known in the future as Kryptonite Man. He starts out as a juvenile delinquent on the planet Blor, volunteers for a space mission, and is given powers by having his rocket pass through a “strange space cloud”: the ability to project […]

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754 – Superboy Meets Bruce Wayne

Remember that time Superboy met Oliver Queen and set him on the path to become Green Arrow? The plot is shamelessly copied in Adventure Comics #275 (June 1960) wherein Superboy reminisces about meeting Robin and then wonders if he’ll ever meet a young Bruce Wayne. Literally one panel later guess who shows up in Clark’s […]

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742 – Referencing Years Ago

In Action Comics #265 (April 1960), Supergirl exposes her existence to Smallville and Superman doesn’t want that to happen yet. So he digs up some old Gas Z “Amnesia Gas”, which he had once buried outside of Smallville as Superboy. What’s interesting here is not the over-use of amnesia-as-a-convenient-means-to-revert-to-the-status-quo, but the back-reference to earlier Superboy […]

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733 – Supergirl meets Superboy

DC continues to weave Supergirl throughout the Superboy family of books. In Superboy #80 (Feb 1960), Supergirl learns from Superman that he was lonely as a teenager without a playmate. Supergirl gets the bright idea to travel back in time to meet Superboy and play with him. What ensues is a cute story with the […]

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732 – Superboy Meets Lex

In Adventure Comics #271 (Feb 1960), Superboy meets a new kid in town: Lex Luthor. This is the first comic that uses his full name in the story (though it was mentioned in a previous letters column. Lex starts out as a really smart guy who is also a Superboy fan. He ends up saving […]

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719 – Super-Sister

In Superboy #78 (Nov 1959), Superboy encounters an alien girl and makes a misogynistic comment about female drivers. For payback, the girl transforms Clark into a girl. He calls himself “Claire Kent” and acts as “Super-Sister”, claiming she is Superboy’s sister. In the end, Clark learns his lesson because he knows what it’s like to […]

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708 – Beppo, the Super-Monkey

Beppo, the Super-Monkey makes his debut in Superboy #76 (August 1959). Unnamed in this first story, the monkey is one of Jor-El’s test animals that snuck aboard Kal-El’s rocket before it left Krypton. Young Clark eventually tricks the monkey to be chased out into space. Beppo will be back, and eventually joins up with other […]

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695 – Mysterio the Robot

In Jimmy Olsen #37 (April 1959), “Superman’s Super Rival” has Jimmy meeting a new boy-sized “hero” covered in lead-lined bandages and sporting superpowers like Superman. Superman is curious as to the identity of the new hero, who calls himself Mysterio, who appears to be trying to steal Jimmy’s loyalty away from Superman. It turns out […]

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687 – Rebello

In Superboy #72 (Feb 1959), Clark creates an extremely life-like robot, one that is nearly indistinguishable from the real Superboy, complete with its own wants and desires. Unfortunately it turns out to have one flaw: the robot is left-handed. So naturally rather than fix that bug, Superboy decides to destroy the robot for fear of […]

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680 – Superboy Meets Oliver Queen

About a half a year after Superboy met Robin, Superboy gets a chance to meet Oliver Queen, the future Green Arrow, in Adventure Comics #258 (January 1959). Superboy tries to invent a machine to look back into the past, but via an “atmospheric disturbance” it lets him see into the future, 1959 to be precise. […]

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