Adventure Comics #6

Superboy: The Boy of Steel Part Five

Geoff Johns Writer
Francis Manapul Artist
Brian Buccellato Colorist
Steve Wands Letterer
Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato Covers
Sean Ryan Associate Editor
Brian Cunningham Editor
Special thanks to Richard Zajac

Our main cover shows a rather goofy, Saturday-morning-cartoon-esque image of Superboy and Krypto being chased by a Tyrannosaurus rex. It's bright, it's colorful, it's fun, it's delightful. And it actually is a scene from this comic. Amid the never-ending Blackest Night saga, it's quite refreshing to see a boy and his dog having adventures with dinosaurs.

I took this image of the variant cover from dc.fandom.com. I'll never enjoy these multi-panel covers, but this does give us a more complete picture of the story inside. It's not just a fun adventure about a boy and his dog. It's also a rather dark story about Lex Luthor.

Our story picks up with Superboy having a very unusual encounter with Luthor. Long story short, Lex has decided to cure his invalid sister just to prove he can. So he sends Superboy back in time, to Bizarro world and Atlantis to acquire the exotic ingredients needed for Lena's cure. But immediately after curing Lena, Lex administers a second shot that returns her to a drooling woman confined to a wheelchair.

Superboy is naturally furious with this, and become even more enraged with Lex's explanation for his actions: "Lex giveth — and Lex taketh away. I proved what I could do. And the secret stays with me until Superman is dead." Superboy throws Lex through the window for his evil and cruelty, but then Brainiac suddenly shows up and attacks Superboy. Krypto jumps in to help, and Brainiac and Luthor promptly teleport away.

Later, Superboy meets at a campfire with his best friends — Bart, Tim and Cassie, all in costume — to tell them about this traumatizing event. Bart's first question is about Lena's daughter, Lori, who brought Superboy into this whole mess. Kon thinks Lori is going to be OK, and he thanks Tim for calling in the Wayne Foundation to care for Lena. Kon then pulls out the secret journal he's been keeping to record his thoughts on which "dad" he was most like — Superman or Lex Luthor. But now, Kon realizes that because of his heart, he'll never be like Luthor and he doesn't need a journal or lab test to tell him that anymore. He then tosses the journal into the fire, and these four long-time friends share a quiet, contemplative moment.

Geoff Johns insisted on opening up the new Adventure Comics with a five-part Superboy story. But Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds took a very long time to wrap up, which meant by the time Adventure Comics came out, Johns' massive, company-wide event, Blackest Night, had already started. And to make matters even more awkward, continuity-wise, DC shoe-horned that Superboy-Prime Blackest Night story into the middle of this Superboy story. You kind of get whiplash reading these comics in publication order.

But putting all that aside, this was a good Superboy story. I am a huge fan of Manapul and Buccellato, and it's great seeing Superboy get back into the swing of things. And the ending with Luthor was a shocking, disgusting display of true evil. Nothing as grand as trying to take over the entire Earth, but just as awful and repulsive. My only regret with this story was that Manapul didn't get to draw Bart, Tim and Cassie more.

There weren't any new ads, but I will point out there were five full pages devoted to Mass Effect 2. The DC Nation page talks about five lucky students from the Harvey Milk High School, who won a tour of the DC offices.

Next time, we'll return to the doom and gloom of Blackest Night: The Flash #2.