FW Team-Up: Superman and Superboy

Bass and Siskoid’s coverage of DC Comics Presents continues with issue #14 (October 1979) by Paul Levitz, Dick Dillin and Dick Giordano, starring Superman and Superboy! It’s “Judge, Jury… and No Justice”.

Listen to the Team-Up below, or subscribe to FW Team-Up on Apple or Spotify!

Relevant images and further credits at: FW Team-Up Supplemental

This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK!

Subscribe via iTunes as part of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK.

And thanks for leaving a comment!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

14 responses to “FW Team-Up: Superman and Superboy”

  1. Why was this story reprinted so many times? Maybe…Paul Levitz? All kidding aside, he never seemed to take advantage of his position by keeping his work in print. Just the novelty of Superman and Superboy “teaming up”, I guess. I had the original, and the digest reprint of this, and the Superman in the 70s book too.

    Adding to the plot holes: I haven’t read every Bronze Age Superman story, but I believe the reason there was less Krytponite was in the famous “Kryptonite Nevermore” issue of Superman #233 (with the Neal Adams cover where Supes is breaking the Krytponite chains), where all the Kryptonite on Earth was turned to lead. So Lex’s old Kryptonite stash in Smallville should be lead. New Kryptonite continued to fall to Earth, but this is old store stock Kryptonite. Or lead. But maybe that explains why Superman could save himself? Maybe it was at least partially lead?

    Also, how did Superboy NOT treat Pete differently in the past after this? “One day my best friend will grow up and hate me and try to kill me”. I’m sorry, that’s going to make things a BIT awkward. Plus, wouldn’t he now know that Pete at one point knew Clark was Superboy/Man? This wasn’t too well thought out, was it?

    Fun episode about a bonkers issue. You guys were more than fair.

    Reply

  2. Dream Girl changed Lightning Lass to Light Lass in one of her first appearances which is probably worse than if Brainiac 5 did it. Brainiac 5 was probably busy building Computo thinking 3 is an unlucky number.

    Reply

  3. eh i dont think this story makes any less sense than Superboy and luthor both being famous yet what ever “coming of Superman” story works

    Reply

  5. Ok a super boy team up.
    How about having something happen when superboy . Goes to visit his pals the legion of super heroes . But do some time disruption. Super boy gets time displaced .
    And ends up in the limbo universe home of the silver hawks .
    Where super boy teams up .
    With three random silver hawks
    1. Flash back (the green silver hawk who can time travel )
    2: condor (the private eye of the sliver hawks world )
    3. Blue grass (the only silver hawk who can’t fly by him self because he’s the pilot of the mirage the silver hawks space ship .)
    And they have team up with super to monstar and a young lex Luther who have teamed up then send super boy and Luther home the trip home erasing both memories of this alternate dimension.
    Also due to the rules of limbo
    Luther is given modified version of his armor suit to survive
    And Superman essentially become a Silverhawk version of Superman temporarily to survive in this universe, giving us another alternate version of Super Boy as he becomes the boy of silver at least for this story both return to normal when they get back to Smallville

    Reply

  6. Again, good podcast episode on a bad comic. I won’t repeat what I said last time, but Superman is the character that always finds a way. To leave his best friend’s son stranded on another planet is just unacceptable. He would not have rested until he figured something out. Especially Bronze Age Superman – it could have been the most convoluted answer in the world, but the ending should have been Pete reunited with his son. Having him “go crazy” was just a cop out. Sigh.

    Superboy team up? Surprised no one said Superboy and Invincible.

    1
    Reply

  7. I keep thinking there was a “good” Superman/Superboy teamup I read as a kid, but it was probably the Batman/Superboy teamup. We get scenes of Batman working with an inexperienced Superboy and Superman quickly flying away from Smallville and his parents. But I also might be mixing this up with the issues around the same time where Superman and Superboy switch brains in a random time traveling mishap. Maybe my brain has been switched with an older version of myself?

    Reply

    1. It wasn’t that two-parter from the New Adventures of Superboy in which the Superboy of Earth One cross time and space in order to give the Golden Age Clark some training, was it?

      Reply

  9. I think of the team-up series as existing in their own continuity for the headliner, while the story can have lingering effects for the guest star. Which makes this story feel different, like Pete Ross turning on Superman “should” matter to his continuity and be a plot point for his other titles to explore. Regardless of the “feel” on which character drives this story, there should be more emotional consequences to Superman. Nowadays, I think that would happen. But the bronze age was a simpler time.

    For Superboy team-ups, I was thinking of Captain Marvel Jr, and some quick googling found an “imaginary” house ad by Ramona Fradon of this very concept, and it is great!

    Another angle on teaming him with an older character could be Cable of all people. But he’s also from a very different future than the Legion, and Cable didn’t get a chance to be a young hero, so lots of friction between them. But then I do wonder what Superboy would think of Kamandi’s future world as well?

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *