Superboy: The Greatest Team-Up Stories Ever Told

The Greatest Stories Ever Told

by Otto Binder, Bill Finger, Jerry Siegel

Superboy, the hero who would grow up to become Superman, battles evil alongside some of the world's greatest heroes and others in this exciting new collection. In this volume, the teen hero teams up with Supergirl, Robin, Jimmy Olsen and Bruce Wayne, and faces a young Lex Luthor.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 20, 2010

About the author

Otto Oscar Binder. Used these alternate names: Eando Binder (together with his brother Earl Binder -E and O Binder-), John Coleridge, Gordon A. Giles, Will Garth, Ian Francis Turek, Ione Frances Turek and Otto O. Binder.

Reviews

[tony dillard jr · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love DC's 'Greatest Stories Ever Told' series. They featured classics of the silver and bronze age of comics. A big reminder of my childhood, they were great money savers on my wallet as well since the originals would be astronomical for me to collect.

The Superboy books were a lot of fun. They were designed for kids. But the adult readers of Superman really took to the series as it offered glimpses into Clark Kent's childhood. As a result, fans started seeing early connections between the Boy of Steel. Fans just couldn't get enough. Over time, just about every adulthood acquaintance that Clark Kent/Superman would encounter. And this book is chock full of them!

Jimmy Olsen. Lori LeMaris. Robin, The Boy Wonder. Supergirl. Green Arrow and Green Lantern as teenaged versions of themselves. Witness Clark Kent, cub reporter in his very first run-in with Perry White.

There's the classic origin story of how Superboy met a boy genius named Lex Luthor. When a fire breaks out in Lex's lab, Superboy rushes in to save him. As a result of the whole mishap, Lex loses his hair and that's how a personal vendetta against the Man of Steel is born!

This collection boasts a dozen amazing team-ups. I won't spoil all the surprises. But if you are looking for DC Comics Presents #87 in which Superman of Earth-1 meets Superboy Prime for the very first time, I am sorry to disappoint. It's an essential team-up that explains why the Superboy of the New Adventures of Superboy had a different looking set of parents and other confusing things. Probably because of all of the back-story needed is why this quintessential Superboy team-up is missing from the collection.

Don't worry. I actually have the issue in my collection. IT WASN'T that expensive to obtain.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a nice little nostalgic read. It was kind of funny to see how they worked other favorite characters (Robin, Aquaman, Green Lantern, etc.) into the stories so that they could team up with Superboy. However, I can safely say that I much prefer how Superboy is tackled nowadays--namely when he's a clone, like in the animated TV show "Young Justice," or when he's actually Superman's son, like in DC Universe Rebirth. It just makes more sense to me that Clark Kent would have kept his powers hidden and would have had to learn how both they, and he, himself, fit into this world before actually becoming a superhero. Still, at the time this was written, these adventure's from Superboy's youth provided for fun what-ifs, and if you're looking for a light read that is also an enjoyable snapshot into the older comics, then this is a solid choice.

[Graham · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fairly dry especially compared with the Jimmy Olsen collection

[Nicolas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've got a soft spot for the classics. I like this retro Superboy era and who doesn't love a good team up. It was a little funny how often they dipped into the time travel and subsequent amnesia well, but I can overlook it I suppose. I thought the team up stories with Aquaboy and Batlad (aka The Executioner)were the standouts, mostly because they weren't time travel or imaginary stories but rather just early team ups between these iconic characters. I felt like the young Bruce Wayne in this story was much more dark and angry than Batman typically was in that era. I also was intrigued to learn that there was some precedence for some things that happened on the TV series Smallville. Such as Jimmy Olsen, Oliver Queen/Green Arrow and Aquaman in Smallville. Also that idea of Lex living in Smallville and starting out as a friend of Superboy had it's origin in this time. Overall, a fun collection. I wouldn't mind reading more.

We covered classic Superboy in our end of year episode of Comic Book Coffee Break: https://previously-on-x-men.libsyn.co...

[Duncan · Rating 3 out of 5]

with a selection of stories spanning a period of twenty years. this collection follows of the adventures of superboy from the silver age to the bronze age of comics. most of the DC greats are here such as robin, supergirl, green lantern, aquaman and Green Arrow. the latter is my fave of the bunch. I recall reading it in a superboy annual round my aunties when I was younger. the earlier stories are the best as the have they epitomise the wonderful joy of the silver age perfectly. the seventies and eighties stories are OK but lack the charm and naïveté of the sixties strips. a particular favourite is lots of people dressing up as superboy using wigs and costumes and (*spoiler alert) a great moment where superboy dresses up Jimmy Olsen's dad as superman using die from berries and pliant bark to make the replica costume. there is also a recurring theme with the enigmatically named mineral. amnesium... which pretty much does what it says on the label. many adventures with the guest protagonist getting a whiff of this stuff and forgetting they ever met the boy of steel. daft? certainly! implausible? definitely! fun? incredibly!! :)

[Jean-Pierre Vidrine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though the stories in this collection are apocryphal in current DC continuity (or maybe not with that Hypertime thing), they are some the most enjoyable comics for fans of team-ups. Witness the incident that made Lex Luthor the villain he is. See Robin travel back in time to meet Superman when he was a boy. Read the once long-awaited and now long sought after team of Superboy and the young (and really angry) Bruce Wayne. Then there's the story of Clark's trip to California where he befriends a fearless young man named Harold . . . I'll not say anything more. Those are just some of the team-ups in this book which made me feel like a young fanboy again. It was like discovering comic book history for the fist time.