I have long suspected that Superboy’s real father was Captain Marvel Jr.
Created in 1941, the boy Marvel was starring in two titles by the time Superboy arrived in More Fun Comics No. 101 (Jan.–Feb. 1945).
Fawcett’s ability to finesse their leading superhero into other forms must have been apparent to DC Comics at the time, and Superboy was their successful, if not too logical, response.
After all, Superboy was Superman’s younger self, but earlier comics had already established that Clark Kent did not take up his superhero identity until he was an adult.
Whatever.
Their minds unhobbled by any foolish consistency, DC editors forged ahead with a character who has been around, in one form or another, for more than 80 years.
Yes, Captain Marvel Jr. is a separate character from Captain Marvel, while Superboy is Superman. But that’s a dramatic distinction, not a commercial one. I imagine the success of CMJ was a factor that made DC change its mind about publishing Superboy, a character concept Jerry Siegel proposed in the early 1940s. Siegel’s idea was a super-prankster, as I recall. DC’s editors made him a costumed boy superhero, just like CMJ.
Superboy had already moved from More Fun to take over as cover feature from the Sandman by Adventure Comics 136 (Jan. 1949).
Like many of his early exploits, My Pal Superboy was more low-key and restrained than Superman’s adventures. Writer Bill Woolfolk and artist Al Wenzel showed us Clark Kent’s concern for Joe Vance, a teenage boy with a criminal past whose schoolmates weren’t willing to give him a break. Things changed when Vance demonstrated his courage in an unsuccessful attempt to rescue another teenager from a burning lab. Luckily, the Boy of Tomorrow was around.
Superheroes created by Mort Weisinger filled out the issue. Aquaman rescues another teen gone wrong, swimmer Chuck Finn, whom criminals have forced to rob a riverboat. Green Arrow and Speedy corral a ghostwriter turned ghost-themed super criminal. And Johnny Quick transfers his super speed to three other people for a day so they can learn that superpowers shouldn’t be abused. How? By spinning fast enough to hypnotize them, giving them his speed formula 3×2(9Yz)4A, and ordering them to forget it after 24 hours.
The symbolic cover, also by Wenzel, shows Superboy racing a locomotive and something fairly new under the yellow sun — a jet plane.
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