Amac Productions

Technically, Superboy turned 25 last year, but I was in the hospital and unable to celebrate. If you want to be technical about it.

However, Superboy soft rebooted itself after season one failed miserably. They recast the role and made a huge deal out of the new guy taking over, so much so, that even Gerard Christopher himself didn’t know he was starting in season two, not one. Go figure.

In a way, that means season two is the start of the show. Which makes this year, 25 years since Gerard Christopher took over the role, and made Superboy syndication show a hit.

I’m sure there’s an argument to be made here, but well, I was hit with a car, and unable to celebrate last year. Just let me have this okay.

Any who, Superboy is a little show that ran in syndication in the late 80s, early 90s.

It changed actors for Superboy and settings a lot, but the show was praised, and well loved by fans.

In fact, the only reason you may not have heard about this show is due to the licensing issue due to the Salkinds lawsuit over the rights to Superman/Superboy. Due to this, the show was never rerun, and the release of the DVD’s didn’t happen until the late 2000s and were quite expensive.

Which in all honesty, sucks.

The Salkinds were interested in making more TV movies to show Superboy turning into Superman and so on. Logically, they tried to keep the rights to what they had and be allowed to create more.

However, ABC was in the middle of pitching a Superman series that would later become Lois & Clark, The New Adventures of Superman. Ultimately, the legal battle did little to help them. They were unable to continue their project, and their show was never rerun nor released to the proper fanfare.

This show is kind of awesome in the worst way.

And it fell into the cracks because of the lawsuit.

Unlike Lois & Clark or Smallville both of which I watched on reruns as a kid. Though I was around for Smallville’s debut and subsequent years on TV. I watched it every night on reruns as well through ABC Family.

However, until a few years ago, I never heard of Superboy.

Once I did, I needed to see it.

Which lead me to discovering the lawsuit. And that no one really has the rights to the show, so it streams exactly nowhere.

Annoyed, I ordered the very expensive DVDs and hoped this show would be worth it.

If the first season had arrived at my house first, I can’t say I would have been pleased. The first season does suffer a lot of pitfalls.

While I’m not sure that was enough to warrant getting rid of the guy playing Superboy, it was enough for me to want the show revamped.

Also, I didn’t watch the series in order. I watched season three first because that’s what arrived first and then one. I did my best to keep an open mind as I watched the first season, but ultimately the storytelling, direction, and characters all felt aimless. Like the show had no idea what it set out to accomplish.

It had moments of greatness, like Mxy’s arrival. But overall, it was very tedious.

But then, the show gets a firm grip on what it wants, changes two stars, adds in a new character, removes an old one, and decides to embrace the comic book craziness.

The show never attempts to hide it’s terrible props like when we meet Metallo. Whose suit is arguably laughable at best, but it works because he’s genuinely a threat to Superboy.

He feels like he’s been robbed of a good life and Superboy is the latest of things standing in his way of having everything he believes he deserves. While Superboy is just attempting to hold up the peace in the world.

However, the thing that makes this show great, is the best decision they could have made.

They recast Lex Luthor.

And redesigned him into the original comic book version.

Originally, Lex Luthor is a mad scientist, bent on taking over the world, and killing Superman. Those are his ultimate goals in the comic. However, John Bryne rewrote Superman’s world turning Clark into the main personality, making Superman the mask, and turning Lex Luthor into a billionaire taking the world over with money. Instead of the mad scientist component, which is the version of the comic we see in Lois & Clark, The New Adventures of Superman.

For the first true time, Lex Luthor is a mad unhinged psycho who’s only goal in the world is to make Superboy miserable and then very dead.

He does not care how he achieves this.

Sometimes, it means he’s willing to sacrifice the entire world. Sometimes he forcibly swaps bodies with Superboy. Sometimes, he leaves his universe altogether to cause havoc elsewhere.

In one of the greatest episodes, Superboy and Luthor are trapped in an old mine with kryptonite from another scheme of Lex trying to kill him. During the encounter, Superboy is forced to convince Luthor to work together to get out.

At first, the crazed man refuses as he’s about to get what he’s always wanted – Superboy’s death.

However, he soon comes to the realization that he will also die. Forcing them to work together until the very last second, when Luthor turns on Superboy. As everyone always knew he would. But it’s compelling nonetheless as these two highly intelligent beings come together for a common goal.

Discussing not only their relationship but how different things would be if Luthor were not crazy or Superboy not so good.

The episode is made great by both actors and how each character stays true to themselves in this precarious moment.

Another favorite episode of mine actually doesn’t involve any villains directly.

Instead, because Clark Kent has been running off on the job a lot or seemingly unreliable, his boss has had enough. So he gives him a journal broken down into 15-minute increments throughout the day. His boss wants a detailed account of how his day goes so he can know what Clark is up to all day long.

Clark complies.

Now, some people would say to lie, but Clark is affronted by the thought of outright lying to anyone. Even to keep his secret identity.

Instead, Clark finds creative ways to tell the truth.

Like, when he saved a little old lady from getting hit by a bus. He wrote that he helped a little old lady cross the street.

The episode is hilarious and wonderful as Clark is forced to make it through is day without revealing himself while also telling the truth. Something he does so well at the end of the episode his boss tells him to get a life.

Another episode involves everyone being trapped in a hold-up. Clark does reveal himself to be Superboy, scaring one of the robbers. But because when everyone else comes in, Clark is tied up, and claiming innocence while the robber is a blubbering mess, no one listens to him.

The series is crazy and chaotic and very comic book like with weird villains in strange outfits doing weird shit. But ultimately, the show tackles real issues.

Murder, who am I, racial issues, and so on.

It’s not perfect and it needed a better budget, but Gerard Christopher sells every minute of Superboy.

And fun fact, he actually won the role a second time. He was cast instead of Dean Cain to play Superman in Lois & Clark. He was let go when they realized he had played Superboy, not wanting the two series to be connected. But, I would have been super interested in seeing his version of Superman paired with Lois Lane.

It would have been glorious.

He is a fantastic actor and I wish I could have seen more of his excellent portrayal of Clark Kent/Superboy/Superman!

If you’ve never seen the series, it is more than worth a watch! Check it out! You won’t regret it!

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