Superboy - My New Favorite Hero

Literally exploding with power (and yes that is the Christmas tree in Times Square in the background...oops)

Back again, putting together another post for those reading! Anyways, the past few weeks I've been catching up on many of my favorite New 52 coming book runs. One that has really caught my attention over this period of time is Superboy. Now in the past, I've always wanted to read comic book runs of characters that seem really interesting and that I don't know much about. For example, I started reading Catwoman because I was interested in finding out about a really mysterious and enigmatic character. Superboy is similar to Catwoman in the way that I had no idea what Superboy really was. What makes him different from Superman and the other Kryptonians? What are his powers? How was he created? Over the course of reading Superboy I've found that he's easily my new favorite superhero.

Superboy's search to understand his origins lead to some really cool Kryptonian crossovers

So I guess the first question is: why Superboy? What makes him so awesome? Let's start with the basics. Before the New 52 reboot, Superboy had been established as a clone created with half Superman DNA and half of Lex Luthor's (Superman's arch nemesis) DNA. It's an incredibly lethal combination, Superman's power combined with the super genius brain of Lex Luthor. In the New 52 however, Superboy's human donor isn't known. What I really like about Superboy is that unlike Superman, he's flawed. Having half human DNA means that Superboy isn't invincible like Superman is. Actually, correction, Superboy has amazing telekinetic powers which he can use in a similar purpose. Bullets bounce off of Superman, meanwhile Superboy needs to have his telekinetic field (or T.K. field as it's dubbed in the comic books) up in order to block said bullets. It's not as if this is a crippling ability as Superboy is shown to have astronomical powers (at one point he loses control of his powers and creates a massive sinkhole that goes down to the Earth's core). The New 52 run is all about Superboy's struggle to control his own powers and realize the extent of them. Not to mention that he opens the story as a weapon for an organization with extremely questionable morals and motives. He's not the boy scout that Superman is (though the Superman DNA does prevail more often than not). At the beginning he struggles to control his powers because he doesn't fully understand how powerful he is. It's really cool seeing a superhero struggle rather than Superman whose invincible powers seem to make him incredibly overpowered and BORING. He's such a more complex character and the fact that the reader doesn't really know much more than the main character makes his storyline exceptionally compelling. But what I love most about Superboy is his absurd levels of power. Each issue he seems to understand more and more about himself, becoming more powerful in the process. Never to the point where he feels overpowered or boring. Each fight seems like a learning experience for him though that doesn't stop Superboy from exuding loads of confidence (sometimes cockiness) during them. He's certainly aware of how powerful he might be. Also his new suit is really really cool, the creative team for Superboy is really doing a great job making him his own awesome standalone character, not just Superman B.

Red Robin doesn't realize he's about to get his ass kicked...

Batman remains the king of DC comic book heroes but I think that Superboy is an incredibly underrated one. His storyline in the New 52 is really compelling and I'm excited to learn more about his origin and the full extent of his powers. I know that everyone loves the classic DC heroes like Superman and Batman, but DC is really doing a fantastic job with their lesser known heroes. I think runs like Catwoman and Superboy deserve lots of attention because they do a great job making these heroes accesible to newcomers and allowing them to step out of the shadows of their more famous DC cousins.