Review: Superboy: The Man of Tomorrow trade paperback (DC Comics)

Fans know that “the Kid” Superboy, later Conner Kent, debuted in 1993, and would be ubiquitous in DC Comics for 18 years, through to the New 52 relaunch in 2011. If indeed the New 52 Superboy wasn’t quite Conner Kent, at least he still appeared in some form; the real dark times for Conner fans would begin with DC Rebirth in 2016 through to the new Young Justice series in 2019, when it more or less seemed Conner Kent just didn’t exist.

All of which is to say that if Kenny Porter and Jahnoy Lindsay’s Superboy: The Man of Tomorrow does not necessarily herald a bold new era for Conner Kent, the fact that we’ve got a Conner Kent miniseries at all is something to celebrate. Comparisons must be made to Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, both stories of Super-sidekicks seeking purpose in space, though King’s is high literature while Porter’s is boilerplate superhero fare. But if there is nothing earth-shattering for Superboy here, there’s nothing problematic, either.

Lindsay’s art is assuredly distinctive, and to an extent the book feels marketed wrong — if DC had released a 140-page original graphic novel by Porter with art all the way through by Lindsay, and starring Conner no less, it’d probably have arrived with more fanfare. As it is, the casual reader could as easily give this a pass, though Conner Kent fans will be happy to see the character get a spotlight.

[Review contains spoilers]

There’s an interesting conceit throughout Man of Tomorrow, that specifically Superboy has jaunted off from Earth with barely a lifeline, for the intent purpose of finding some trouble he can solve on his own. In the aforementioned Supergirl: Woman of Steel, Kara is out in space and is invited to help; similarly in King’s Superman: Up in the Sky, Superman’s alerted to a child kidnapped to space. But there’s something transactional about what Superboy does (which comes back to haunt him over the course of the book); essentially his vocation is professional super-solver of problems, and so he strands himself in danger all the better to be heroic in handling it.

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What we’re meant to understand over the course of the book is that in seeking to differentiate himself among the stars, Superboy is not really finding himself a new purpose but rather running away from the hard work of finding himself a new purpose on Earth. That seems mildly specious; I’m not sure that rejoining the rapidly ballooning “Supers” is necessarily the better solution to Superboy’s problem, but indeed Porter has to put the toys back in the box in the end. Similarly, Superboy takes much blame for sticking his nose into and worsening a conflict, causing some deaths, though I tend to think those are more on the book’s antagonists than they are on him.

In between, what we have is a dutifully classic Superboy story, for better or worse. This is a leather-jacket-and-fade-haircut Superboy, by appearance closer to the Karl Kesel/Tom Grummett depiction than the later Geoff Johns/Mike McKone one. He’s quippy, and makes rash decisions, and indeed under Lindsay’s pen he is particularly fresh-faced and wide-eyed. To a great extent what Porter offers is a story of the 1990s Superboy even more so than Brian Michael Bendis' recent Young Justice reunion. That’s an almost magical window into the past, though it’s a fair criticism that this might be seen as a regression for the character.

I was impressed that, for a book that was part of DC’s 2022 Round Robin bracket, Porter did the work to tie things into the here-and-now — the cohesiveness (and costume branding) of the Super-family; Superman’s recent adventures on Warworld. There’s also references to Superboy-Prime and, blink and you’ll miss it, a flashback image of Tana Moon’s death. Following Superboy’s original series, Tana’s nearly never been mentioned, such that Porter’s reaching back to the history of the character far more than any other of Superboy’s writers have.

The end of Superboy’s penultimate chapter is impressive; I’d rather forgotten about the duplicate Superboy clone the book established earlier, and when Superboy’s frenemy Travv’s metal spine goes crawling Terminator-like to embed itself in the clone, that’s creepy and shocking indeed. But it was about that time I’d also been wondering exactly what Superboy would do with its sixth issue since Travv seemed defeated in the fifth, and the answer is that Superboy and Travv would ultimately just fight some more. In this way, Superboy feels a few pages longer than it needs to be, the demands of filling up six issues doing this book a disservice.

Again, Lindsay really defines this book with his youthful Superboy Conner Kent, perpetual grin on his face. I appreciated the variety of weird aliens, too, from the volcano-headed one that I recognized from The Green Lantern to the space-suit topped by a goldfish in a goldfish bowl. Among Superboy’s Cosmoteers allies, Lindsay does a good job differentiating body types instead of everyone fitting to the same mold.

Travv — aka the Cyborg Superboy — joins Conner Kent’s rogues gallery now, and it wouldn’t surprise me if another writer rooting around for members of a Super-family Revenge Squad doesn’t bring him back some time. In that way, maybe Kenny Porter and Jahnoy Lindsay’s Superboy: The Man of Tomorrow won’t forever shuffle off to limbo. Again, I don’t think this is a book that will spark any sort of new attention for the Boy of Steel, but equally better something than nothing at all.

[Includes original covers, character designs. The copious variant covers are not included.]

Rating 2.25