Also, I know that billboard gets wrecked, a
lot. Maybe this one doesn't set out to be a villain, and we would see him a hero somewhere else anyway: From 1980,
the New Adventures of Superboy #3, "The New Super-Star of Smallville!" Written by Cary Bates, pencils by Kurt Schaffenberger, inks by Todd Klein and Dave Hunt.
This story doesn't start in the nebulous heyday of Superboy's youth; but in the "present" of 1980; as Joseph Silver throws a shoe through his TV during Clark Kent's broadcast, claiming Kent was no better than he was. Silver had been a classmate of his in Smallville, described in the yearbook as "Mr. Inferiority Complex." While he had gone on to a doctorate and his own dream research center, he was "a
colorless personality" and had more than his fair share of self-loathing. But, if his personality traits were locked down in high school, he had a method to improve his lot, with his "
Dreamicon" machine.
In the past, after Superboy saves the lead singer of the "Doodles" from a lightning strike, Clark Kent returns to gym class, to find Joey Silver had fainted: he often seemed to be as frail and timid as Clark pretended to be. But, after a bully clobbers Clark with a medicine ball, Joey steps up and manhandles the bullies across the room! Then he claims not to recall it later, which Clark confirms by checking his heartbeat. The astral form of future-Silver is pleased with his progress, though. The next day, as Superboy performs an exhibition for charity at the county fair, he notices a lack of girls in the audience; only to find them in line at a kissing booth--for Joey Silver?
Silver makes another surprise appearance, in a new costume, at the Doodles concert. Superboy draws him away from the show with super-breath, since he can recognize him with super-vision; but Silver is somehow able to launch the Boy of Steel into space! Silver then removes and hides his costume, and while his past self has no memory of what had happened, future-Silver's plan was proceeding apace: to make himself the most famous and popular person Smallville ever produced! And if he had to threaten Clark Kent to make that happen, oh well...to be continued!
I'm only buying
New Adventures of Superboy from the quarter bins, but I seem to get the set-up issues first. Silver's nom-de-plume of "Astralad" isn't mentioned until the next issue box, and
Joseph Silver would not go on to become a recurring part of Superboy's rogues' gallery; but some version of him or his alter ego appeared as "
Astral Mage" in Alan Davis's
Justice League: Another Nail #2. Since the premise of that Elseworlds is "What If the Kents didn't find Kal-El?" it seems to give credence to the idea that Joseph would've been better off without Clark Kent or Superman! I do tend to doubt that, though: we've seen Superboy punch a couple hundred asteroids/meteors from hitting earth, the planet would look like Swiss cheese without him. Still, I'd love to know why Davis used the character: I suspect he needed a relatively neutral seat-filler; but I could be wrong.
I can see him using the Astralad persona to give himself the self-confidence he lacked & eventually using that to fix himself into a better adjusted person. Of course on the other hand, Superboy/Clark or not, he'd have still grown up as he was & just as bitter, just fixating on someone else who became a public success outside of Smallville. Probably just wind up as someone else's problem eventually.
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