“Man, I thought the kick-Superboy-out stories ended in the Silver Age.”
Superman Adventures #26
DC Comics (December, 1998)
“Yesterday’s Man Of Tomorrow”
WRITER: Mark Millar
PENCILER: Aluir Amancio
INKER: Terry Austin
COLORIST: Marie Severin
SEPARATIONS: Zylonol
LETTERER: Lois Buhalis
ASSISTANT EDITOR: Frank Berrios
EDITOR: Mike McAvennie
Realizing he has a free pass in the fourth dimension (aka time-travel) Mxyzptlk travels back to a time teenaged Clark Kent is considering becoming a Superboy. He fakes a future in which Superman is a tyrannical monster (the Injustice universe?) and that Lana is in a forced marriage with him. Not wanting to turn evil, Clark agrees to move to the moon and cut ties with others. In the present day Mxyzptlk finds not only that life is boring without Superman to challenge him but bad things happened to Lois, Jimmy, and the Kent, and even he feels bad. So he decides to just mess with teen Clark, but the boy isn’t having any of it. so Mxyzptlk just undoes everything and it all goes back to normal, Clark’s memory erased, but Pa saw him flying off in his costume. However, he thinks it was a dream, and he has an idea how Clark can protect his identity.
What they got right: It’s a good concept, and well executed. Mxyzptlk is always fun to watch (although why he would abandon a hottie like Gzptlnz I’ll never understand…did she come from the comics?) and this is a unique plan for him. There’s also the little touches, like the pedestal Mxyzptlk puts “Superboy” on comes from “Pedestals Are Us: when you gotta stand for something”, and even this little imp is sad to see what happens to Clark’s friends without Superman around.
What they got wrong: I like the nod to the original costume (complete with S and in Joe Shuster’s style if not taken from one of his images) but why make Mxyzptlk responsible for the costume? It raises the usual time-travel theories. Or as Wally would say…
Recommendation: A great Superman/Mxyzptlk story. Track this one down.
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