Conner Kent makes his solo series debut in this week’s Superboy: The Man of Tomorrow #1. Fans may remember this book as the DC Comics 2022 Round Robin contest winner. When originally announced, this was set to be a six-issue limited series, but it’s unclear after being delayed until now if that will remain the case. Superboy #1 seeks to find a place for Conner in the ever-growing line of Superman adjacent books, but does it succeed?
SPOILERS AHEAD for Superboy: The Man of Tomorrow #1!
We open on a normal day in Metropolis with a superpowered villain causing havoc in the streets. Superboy intervenes to save the day, but with unfortunately minimal fanfare of his arrival. Conner has appeared across the other Superman books at this point, but putting him on page one, panel one doesn’t sell his return as a big moment. Instead, there’s just another Kryptonian here, and soon enough his fellow Super-family members join the fray. This steals Conner’s thunder and even he recognizes this town isn’t big enough for all these Kryptonians. After a quick pep talk with Ma and Pa Kent, Superboy bounds across space to find his own path.
What ensues is an interplanetary Superboy romp complete with aliens, Dominators, and clones galore. I appreciate that the issue quickly realizes Earth has become too cramped with Superman’s extended family. So having Superboy patrolling space seems like a promising direction, despite being a similar move from the recent Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. Alongside this, the issue does minimal work to endear us to Conner or explain where he’s coming from to new readers. We don’t reckon with his clone past at all, and the series seems to want to move beyond this, but where it’s going is unclear.
The artwork served the story fine enough. The action sequences portray some weighty punches and the lettering sells the varied onomatopoeia. It’s fun to see Conner back in his classic ’90s costume – it goes to show some things never go out of style. My one complaint was Conner’s face often looked too adolescent, especially compared to his recent appearances in Action Comics.
I came away from this debut mildly amused. The story made for a light, breezy read, but the final page tease didn’t grab me for next month. I wish I felt more attached to this series, but besides the nostalgia factor, I didn’t find much to latch onto. For fans of Conner, I’m sure his return here will be a welcome addition to the ever-expanding Superman line. I think at this point, DC is aiming for a Superman book for everyone. This one just didn’t happen to be for me.
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