Comic Book / Superboy (1994)

"Kon-El—! I have a name...I have a real name!"

DC Comics ongoing series following the teenage clone Superboy created by Project Cadmus during the The Death of Superman storyline. The series began in 1994 with writing by Karl Kesel and pencils by Tom Grummett, the same creative team that had originated the character in Adventures of Superman.

While travelling on a world tour with his unscrupulous agent Rex Leech, Rex's daughter Roxy, and fellow superpowered Cadmus clone Dubbilex acting as chaperone, Superboy arrives in Honolulu and ends up in a high-profile fight with a super-villain. After chatting with the admiring locals and reconnecting with Tana Moon, his love interest from The Death of Superman who had since moved back to Honolulu as a TV news reporter, Superboy decides to stay in Hawaii as the state's resident superhero.

Kesel and Grummett left the series after issue #30 – afterwards, writing duties were mainly taken up by Ron Marz and by Barbara Kesel, with various artists, including Ramon Bernado, Paul Ryan and Georges Jeanty. During this period, Superboy also starred in a second ongoing series Superboy and the Ravers.

With issue #50, Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett returned to the series while taking it in a new direction: Superboy leaves Hawaii to go back to work at Project Cadmus, now reformed and under new management. A whole new supporting cast at Cadmus was introduced, including new love interest Serling Roquette. Superboy was also at long last given a real name, Kon-El. Eventually, Kesel and Grummett departed the series again and a new creative team took over with issue #83, with writing by Joe Kelly & Eddie Berganza and pencils by Pasqual Ferry.

Superboy's association with Cadmus ended in the aftermath of the Our Worlds at War event, and the series was retooled again from issue #94 under the new creative team of writers Jimmy Palmiotti & Dan DiDio and artist John McCrea: Kon took up residence in the Suicide Slum area of Metropolis and mainly focused on tackling street-level crime. This did not last long as the series was cancelled in 2002 with issue #100, the last issue showing Kon going to live with the Kent family in Smallville.

While he continued to appear in team books such as Young Justice, Teen Titans and The Legion, Superboy did not regain his own solo series until more than eight years later, with Superboy (vol. 5). This was cut short by the New 52 reboot, which radically reinvented the character in the new continuity. The original version of Kon reappeared in tie-ins to Convergence and returned to the DCU in Young Justice (2019).

---

Superboy vol. 4 provides examples of:

#-K

• 13 Is Unlucky: While he's followed by quite a bit of chaos Experiment 13/S-13 is actually the luckiest of the attempted Superman clones as 01 through 12 were failed cloning attempts. There are a number of civilians who try to flee when they see him around though due to his Destructive Savior tendencies so at least early on others may feel being around him is bad luck.
• Afraid of Needles: Superboy is afraid of needles due to his past as an experimental subject and the fact that it means he has to consciously or has unconsciously lowered his TTK field leaving him vulnerable to allow a needle to go through his skin.
• Alien Abduction: Kon-El, Sterling Roquette and a couple other Cadmus workers get abducted by the extraterrestrial slaver Kossak while Cadmus is trying to despiser the workings of a small space craft revealed to have been stolen from him by an escaping slave before it crashed on earth.
• Alien Animals: Krypto from Earth-One is a dog from Krypton.
• Alien Hair: All sorts of varieties are shown among Kossak's slaves. There's feather-like hair, thin long tentacles/antenna bunched like hair, strange blue stuff that looks like flat bunches of grapes for one girl (which grows on her wrists and ankles in addition to on top of her head), and of course there are plenty of aliens that have no hair at all.
• All for Nothing: Amanda Spence, like most at first, thought that Superboy was the enhanced clone of her father, Dr. Paul Westfield, one of the scientists in charge of the cloning. She then decided to make Superboy's life miserable, feeling he was a disgrace to her father and his memory. This includes creating the more powerful and unstable second clone Match and gruesomely killing Superboy's love interest Tana Moon, a death her family blamed him for. Her vengeance was already badly misguided and hugely disproportionate, but when you add in that Westfield was retconned out as being the clone donor, it makes it this trope big time.
• Alliance of Alternates: Kon-El teams up with the other versions of Superboy Black Zero had captured to disable Black Zero, who is an evil alternate of the Superboys that were created at Cadmus. Not all of the alternate Superboys are alternate versions of Kon-El as some are young versions of Kal-El and one is a clone of an alternate Supergirl.
• Alternate Self: Lots during the Hyper-Tension arc:
  • A whole bunch of alternate Earth Superboys including Kal-El (Earth-One), Tarzan-like Karkan (Earth-183), sword wielding medieval Kon-El (Earth-395, from Superman: Kal), Supergrrl (Earth-1098, from Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl), western themed Kid Kon-El (Earth-18, from Justice Riders), OMAC-Superboy (from DC One Million), Robin-Superboy (wearing Tim Drake's costume in Kon's colours) and the unfortunate Hyperjacket wearing Superboy whose death kicked off the arc.
  • A redeemed version of Knockout from the same same world as the dead Kon-El.
  • A slew of alternate earth Doomsdays.
  • All of the Paul Westfields from every reality Black Zero has conquered since the corrupt immoral scientist who he was cloned from is the only man he trusts.
• Alternate Universe: Kon-El meets and teams up with the Kal-El version Superboy in several post-Crisis storylines, including "Zero Hour: Crisis in Time!" and "Hypertension." He also runs into a lot of alternate versions of himself and gets tossed through multiple universes as he's trying to figure out Black Zero's plan and how to stop him. He ends up teaming up with about 50 different Superboys to do so.
• Ambiguously Brown: Tana Moon, before it was revealed that she is native Hawaiian.
• Anti-Gravity: Knockout's specialized cell keeps her floating in zero gravity.
• Anxiety Dreams: Several issues start with a dream of Superboy's detailing something he's anxious about, usually with the situation becoming much worse in bizarre ways than what would actually occur which wakes him up.
• Artificial Animal People: The inhabitants of the Wild Land, basically the mainstream universe's counterparts to Kamandi's animal people, are eventually revealed to be born from a top-secret genetic research firm called Project Moreau, which informally named their creations "furries".
• Artificial Human: Kon-El and many others in Cadmus like the young Newsboys are all cloned humans created by the project.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Knockout's mode of operation, often attacking her "allies" just as indiscriminately as her "enemies".
• Attack Hello: Knockout thinks this is a completely reasonable way to greet the Kid when he returns home regardless of whether or not he has any reason to expect her to be there. She's hoping for a fight whenever she does so though.
• Bait-and-Switch Sentiment: Roxy misinterprets Superboy asking her to hang on to his Legion ring as something more even though he straight up tells her not to.
• Bait-and-Switch Time Skip: In one arc, Superboy wakes up on an island drugged and with longer hair after being hit by lightning and for several issues he and the other humans there think they've somehow been flung thousands of years into the future. It's later revealed to have been weeks for S.B. and no one arrived there through time travel, it's just cut off from civilization and the drugs distort their memories of their arrivals.
• Barefoot Captives: The slaves on the anthropomorphic animal's island do not wear shoes.
• Battle Amongst the Flames: Knockout and Superboy's fight as he tries to bring her to justice for two murders is in a burning base that's sinking into a volcano.
• Beach Episode: Many while Superboy lives on Hawaii.
• Beautiful Condemned Building: Superboy finds a derelict, abandoned and in need of repairs home on Maui that he quickly uses all his money to buy and then moves in with his very unenthusiastic manager and his manager's daughter who both think the place is a dump.
• Beautiful Slave Girl: The extraterrestrial slaver Kossak has a group of slaves he keeps separate from the rest that are all attractive humanoid young women forced to wear revealing outfits. The implications that they are Sex Slaves are rather heavy without it being outright stated. Only one of their ages at the time of their enslavement is known and she fits under Made a Slave and Go-Go Enslavement instead.
• "Be Quiet!" Nudge: Superboy's friend Hillary Chang tries elbowing him to keep him from getting himself in trouble during class but it doesn't work.
• The Berserker: Knockout lives for the fight and once she's fighting rarely differentiates between friend or foe.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: Match's response to Superboy's attempts to save him at the end of their first fight.
• Big Electric Switch: The switches for the containment fields at Cadmus are rather large, which makes it easy for one to get switched off by a thrown individual when the army is trying to round up a benign genetic experiment that was allowed to roam free at the facility under the previous overseers.
• Bits of Me Keep Passing Out: When Superboy is degenerating after escaping from Agenda he starts losing touch with parts of his body and can't tell how much power is being used by his TTK.
• Blessed with Suck: Superboy is not at all pleased to learn that he's been made effectively immortal by having his aging stopped.
• Blond, Brunette, Redhead: Superboy once had a Love Dodecahedron between Tana Moon (brunette), Roxy Leech (blonde) and Knockout (redhead).
• Blood Knight: Knockout, as befitting her background as one of the Female Furies.
• Blue Is Heroic: The titular hero Kon-El is associated with the color blue, which wraps around his torso and arms in his costumes.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Knockout loves a good fight and is usually quite cheery while fighting.
• Brain/Computer Interface: Kossak's slave ship is partially run/powered by a group of slaves who've been hooked into the ship's "mind bank".
• Breakout Villain: King Shark debuted in this series, but has greatly risen in popularity thanks to Secret Six and Suicide Squad, appearing on Harley Quinn's 2019 television series, and even graduating to live-action film.
  • To a minor extent with Knockout, who is the only other character to also debut here and then have some extra mileage afterward, also being in the cast of Secret Six and then in one of the DC Universe Animated Original Movies.
• Brought Down to Badass: When Superboy temporarily loses his powers he does not stop being a hero, he just uses gadgets instead.
• Bus Full of Innocents: Negative G tosses a full New York transit bus into the sky that Kon-El manages to catch on the roof of Guy Gardner's bar.
• Cannot Spit It Out: By the time Roxy finally tells Superboy about her feelings he's already dating Tana.
• Can't Tie His Tie: Roxy has to tie Superboy's tie for him when he tries to dress nice for a date with Tana since he never learned how to do so himself.
• Capture and Replicate: Agenda's mode of operation as they infiltrate and take over Cadmus.
• Car Fu: Knockout and Superboy destroy an unbelievable number of cars by using them to pummel villains with. Luckily he starts to do so less after Knockout is arrested since cars are even more expensive in Hawaii due to transportation costs.
• Car Meets House: Knockout tosses a car into police headquarters.
• Catapult Nightmare: Superboy often flings himself out of his hammock or chair as he wakes from the dreams that start some issues.
• Character Title: Superboy in Superboy.
• Chest Insignia: The S-Shield. When he allied himself with Knockout believing the accusation of her killing a cop to be incorrect Supergirl telekinetically ripped it from his chest (without damaging the underlying costume) because he wasn't behaving like someone who deserved to wear it.
• Chrome Champion: Silver Sword, a Hawaiian museum curator who was accidentally merged with a silvery experimental substance that responds to his mental commands and which he coats himself with to fly. He even thinks he's a hero, fighting for the preservation of native Hawaiian culture but he's actually an anti-villain in practice as he doesn't put much stock in existing Hawaiian culture and tends to forget about the people currently living there.
• Chronic Evidence Retention Syndrome: The scientist who created the Wild Men kept record of every little thing he did in Project Moreau and his derelict hidden laboratory is absolutely crammed full of records when Superboy, Guardian and Doctor Canus uncover it.
• Clones Are People, Too: Being a clone himself Superboy is a firm believer and is irritated that Match seems to feel clones just exist to do their creator's bidding.
• Clone Degeneration: Agenda's destructive experiments on Superboy in order to figure out how to make their own clone causes his body and powers to start degenerating.
• Cloning Body Parts/Walking Transplant: At the Fortress of Solitude Superman shows Superboy parts of Krypton's history including the clone banks. Superboy is very put off by the concept just like Kal-El figured he'd be.
• Clothing Damage: Superboy failing to properly protect his jacket with his TTK causes a running gag where the thing is constantly destroyed, his underlying costume is also damaged rather frequently.
• Collapsing Lair: Victor Volcanum's robots start taking apart his lair and causing it to burn and sink into the volcano where it was situated after confirming his death.
• Collector of the Strange: Scavenger's shtick, he collects magical and alien artifacts.
• Color Character: Silver Sword.
• Combat Tentacles: Quite a few mechanical ones show up in various villain lairs, as Agenda tech and on a space ship.
• The Comically Serious: Bats of course:
  "Why does the Honolulu SCU have this number?"
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: A model in Paris complains about Superboy rescuing her until he points out what she's doing at which point she apologizes.
• Containment Field: The monsters in Cadmus' monster alley are kept in their cells by force fields.
• Convection, Schmonvection: Superboy has trouble using his TTK field to protect against heat and ends up burning a jacket to a crisp in a volcano, as well as damaging his underlying costume and picking up some mild burns.
• Conveniently Interrupted Document: When Superboy uses his TTK to carve the name of his attacker into a nearby stone as he's falling unconscious at first it's thought he wrote the particularly useless "A man" until Tana sees it and immediately realizes he was trying to write Amanda, for Amanda Spence.
• Cool Helmet: Silver Sword's shiny silvery mahiole.
• Cool Shades: Kon is almost always wearing a pair and keeps an extra pair in his jacket, they're usually Round Hippie Shades but sometimes he experiments with other styles that are derivative of his usual.
• Cool Spaceship: The L.E.G.I.O.N. shows up at the house in a spiffy looking white spaceship which Superboy puts a dent in as it is descending towards his home since he didn't realize it was theirs .
• Cop Killer: Knockout offhandedly kills a cop during a fight.
• Cop Killer Manhunt: After Knockout kills a cop and Superboy is misled into thinking she's innocent the cops put together an impressive force to track down their two superpowered suspects.
• Confronting Your Imposter: When Match impersonates Superboy and infiltrates Young Justice and Cadmus Kon-El is eventually able to confront him. It actually goes quite poorly for Kon as his body is starting to try tearing itself apart at the molecular level due to a spell and he's only saved by Dabney Donovan's horrifying concoction that basically causes the Agenda clones to melt making Match flee.
• Contamination Situation: The anthropomorphic animals are drugging the humans that reach the island under the impression that failing to do so will cause a horrible disease to spread. They are horrified when they learn that humans are sentient creatures and they've been mislead into drugging them into a stupor and keeping them as slaves.
• Costume Copycat: The Kal-El Superboy initially accuses the future Kon-El (he hadn't gotten a name outside of "Superboy" yet) of such in their Zero Hour crossover meeting in issue #8, before learning the truth about what's going on. Later during the Hypertension arc Supergrrl accuses him of stealing her outfit and trying to infiltrate the Justice Society of her earth.
• Cower Power: Rex Leech cowers behind his daughter Roxy when threatened by Knockout.
• CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable:
  • Superboy is able to resuscitate Roxy using CPR after her heart stopped.
  • Averted for the Hypertime!Superboy who Wonder Woman tries to revive with CPR before Superman stops the Justice League's attempts to revive him when he shows up and sees just how much internal damage the body has.
• Creepy Physical: The Agenda scientists perform one on Superboy though he only wakes up after they're done, naked and strapped to an operating table with strange mechanical devices attached to him.
• Crossover: Rather often, with short storylines either starting or ending on other series or characters showing up for a few pages:
  • Batgirl (2000): Kon-El and Cass team up when he goes to Gotham to visit Tim.
  • Batman was among the heroes Roxy called when she was trying to find out if anyone knew where Superboy was during his disappearance, she was trying to get ahold of someone named Robin in S.B.'s phonebook.
  • Birds of Prey: Batman in turn clued Oracle into Superboy's disappearance and O contacted Roxy to let her know that she was searching for clues.
  • Green Lantern: Kyle shows up for two short storylines that weave through both of their books.
  • Jonah Hex helps deal with a group of Agenda's agents in Paris and again at Cadmus later on, though Superboy remains skeptical of his involvement since he did so by possessing a strange (former) model who goes by Hex.
  • Justice League of America: Martian Manhunter and Kyle Rayner talk to Roxy about Superboy's disappearance and the league has some more proper crossovers with the book later regarding hypertime.
  • Legion of Super-Heroes show up a number of times with storylines weaving through both books and induct Superboy as a member.
  • Robin: In #85 Kon goes to visit/pester Tim in Gotham when bored, though he ends up spending more time with Cass since she grabs him to help her look into a case.
  • Static, Rocket and the Blood Syndicate cross over with Superboy in the issue 7 "World's Collide" tie in where Superboy is transported to Dakota by Fred Bentson.
  • Steel is among the Superman family members who shows up trying to save Superboy after Agenda's experiment starts killing him and is among those contacted by Roxy when looking for clues into Superboy's disappearance. Since his daughter answers the phone Roxy doesn't realize she called the Metropolis hero.
  • Superboy and the Ravers: The time period of this series overlaps and plot threads from Superboy effect it as he's a main character within its pages.
  • Superman is among the heroes who try to help when The Kid's body is degrading due to Agenda's experiments. He also takes Superboy to the Fortress of Solitude for a chat and names him Kon-El in issue 59.
  • The Challengers of the Unknown help Kon defeat Dark Zero as they got lost traveling Hypertime and run into him while he's traversing Hypertime trying to find the killer of an alternate version of himself.
  • Hypetension is also a crossover with multiple previously published Elseworlds, with versions of Kon-El being added to Justice Riders, Superman: Kal, and Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl.
  • Young Justice: Takes place at the same time and as Superboy is one of the main characters in that series plot threads which affect both books abound, the Sins of Youth storyline plays out in both books and team shows up rather often in the later issues.
• Damsel in Distress: Yvonne finds herself reduced to a tied up hostage when she gets mixed up with Superboy's adventures outside of class.
• Darker and Edgier: Discussed and Defied after he (thinks) he failed to save Match when the Agenda base was destroyed.
• Dead Guy Junior: Kon-El was the name of a Kryptonian that died with the planet that Kal-El bestows on Superboy.
• Deadline News: Reporter Tana seems determined to get herself killed on the job but her relationship with Superboy means she gets rescued at the last minute every time it looks like she's about to succeed.
• Dead Person Impersonation: Kon-El briefly and unintentionally steps into the shoes of a dead alternate reality version of himself until he realizes that what's happening and corrects that world's Knockout, who had been dating the dead Superboy.
• Deflector Shields: Superboy and Match use their TTK to deflect bullets and other projectiles and Superboy figures out how to expand his field to include other people as long as he's touching them.
• Destructive Saviour: Superboy destroys so many cars and street tops that the people of Hawaii are not immediately concerned when he goes missing, thinking it might be a good thing for the islands. He was also kicked out of school after a fight on campus destroyed a good portion of it.
• Detention Episode: Superboy gets detention for failing to make up some studies and is accompanied by Robert who somehow blew up and damaged a science classroom during class.
• Dies Wide Open: The police officer Knockout killed died with his eyes wide open.
• Did You Actually Believe...?: Knockout's scathing retort when Superboy realizes she never really turned from her villainous ways.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: The Mo-o dies in Superboy's arms and disintegrates into ashes after starving to death.
• Disappointed in You: Supergirl makes her disappointment with Superboy's decision to aid Knockout abundantly clear.
• Distaff Counterpart: Supergrrl from Earth 1098. She seems to be a mash up of Kon-El and Kara Zor-El with her blonde hair and build resembling Kara and her costume and outlook taking heavy design influences from Kon.
• The Ditherer: Superboy gets some flack for how hard a time he has choosing between girls who are interested in him, with many of them ending up really pissed at him for leading them on.
• Dream Intro: Quite a few issues start out in Superboy's dreams until the odd or unsettling occurrences within wake him.
• Dream Tells You to Wake Up: Dubbilex wakes up Superboy by having the cruel dream version of himself that was already in Superboy's dream stop his actions and instead tell him that he needs to wake up and help stop an invasion.
• Dressed Like a Dominatrix: Lashina of the Female Furies as per usual.
• Drowning Pit: Superboy and the Suicide Squad are stuck in a sealed chamber that's rapidly filling with water in the Silicone Dragon's underwater lair.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Superboy gets a lot of flack for the destruction he causes and many are more annoyed with him than thankful for the many times he's saved the people of Hawaii. When he returns after a short absence caused by Cadmus calling him away he finds he's been replaced and no-one is interested in him anymore despite all he's done for them, although his replacement is a fan and says he was inspired by Superboy to act as a hero.
• Dying Clue: Non fatal example when Superboy carves most of his attacker's name into a nearby rock as he loses consciousness. If the clue hadn't been figured out it likely would have become a fatal example though considering what Agenda does to him after Amanda's team delivers him to them.
• Edible Ammunition: The kids on the Neverland style island use food as weapons against the attacking adults and each other.
• Education Through Pyrotechnics: Robert Lai caused an explosion during chemistry class, though he evidently was not following directions at all since he ended up in detention for it.
• Einstein Hair: The mad scientist Dabney Donovan who the government tries to keep locked up at Cadmus has appropriately wild hair.
• Elaborate Underground Base: A few show up, usually connected to scientists:
  • Agenda had one where they created Match. It was destroyed when their reactor was damaged in the fight between Match and Superboy.
  • Cadmus operates out of an extensive underground base.
• Electric Torture: Several villains, including the short lived "Neon", take advantage of Superboy's weakness to electricity to cause him a lot of pain.
• Emergency Broadcast: During the blizzard Superboy, Dubbilex and the Leechs watch an emergency broadcast detailing the dangers of the freak storm.
• Escaped from the Lab: Superboy himself as he's an escaped clone who wasn't "complete" yet. While he gets a lot of flack for his media hound behavior it's also perfectly justified as keeping himself in the limelight means Cadmus can't just grab him and stick him back in their underground facility again.
• Evil Counterpart: Match and Black Zero are both evil counterparts of himself Kon-El has to face in the series.
• Evil Doppelgänger: Match, though when he's not changing his appearance with his additional powers he looks like a pallet swapped Kon-El instead of properly passing as him, is still an evil character that looks like Kon.
• Evil Knockoff: After Amanda Spence helped Agenda knock out and kidnap Superboy they used him to fashion a modified clone with more powers that would actually obey orders called Match and the first order given to him is to kill Superboy.
• Evil Mentor: Knockout inserts herself into Superboy's life as a mentor while trying to corrupt him and get him to be willing and eager to use lethal force.
• Evil Twin: Match and Black Zero are both evil versions of Kon-El, though Black Zero was properly Born as an Adult so looks like an older version of Kon.
• Expendable Clone: Agenda sees Superboy as one, and even causes him to start dying as a side effect of trying to replicate him to make a bunch more clones they see as expendable. Agenda really sees all clones as expendable which Kon-El understandably takes issue with.
• Explosive Leash: Tana Moon is fitted with a choker while being held by Agenda which is later used to kill her by triggering the explosive it contains.
• Failed a Spot Check: Superboy puts a dent in the Legion's spaceship because he didn't notice the prominent Legion emblem attached to the side of the ship and didn't realize who they were.
• Fake Arm Disarm: Poor Professor Emil Hamilton gets his prosthetic arm stolen by Sidearm when he comes to Hawaii for a vacation.
• False Friend: Knockout inserts herself in Superboy's life as a friend but has not actually turned from her villainous ways.
• False Reassurance: Knockout is quite good at this, misleading Superboy while never actually lying to him.
• Fanservice: Everywhere. Superboy's outfit is skin tight and often torn and damaged and a lot of time while still based in Hawaii is spent on the beach where everyone is in swimsuits.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: The series takes full advantage of being set in the DCU, with time travelers, mad scientists, disappearing mystical islands, aliens, beast men and more appearing on its pages.
• The Farmer and the Viper: Dubbilex brings this up by name when questioning Knockout's true intentions and motivations. He's right as well even if Superboy doesn't figure out what he meant by it.
• Female Gaze: There are plenty of shots of Superboy and other well built young men in speedos and swim trunks.
• Finishing Stomp: Knockout kills Victor Volcanum by stomping through him.
• Flirting Under Fire: All versions of Knockout flirt during fights.
• Flying Brick: Superboy's original abilities were "programmed" to mimic Superman's as closely as possible, including flight, deflecting bullets and Super-Strength through Telekinesis.
• Flying Car: Cadmus designed a flying car that Guardian and several other characters use.
• Food Fight: A constant on the Neverland like island Superboy visits in one issue.
• Force-Field Door: The cells for creatures that are potentially dangerous or require certain alterations to their habitats in Cadmus have doors made of special force fields designed to allow things to enter and anything or anyone besides what they're coded to keep in to leave.
• Foreshadowing: Knockout calls Superboy "pup" because she's grooming him to be her lapdog.
• Forklift Fu: Amongst the many vehicles used as battering weapons is a forklift.
• Friend to All Children: Regardless of how many adults and authority figures clash with him Kon-El always gets along with and looks out for kids. Even when his cloning process was interrupted by a lab accident and he woke up for the very first time confused and disoriented he immediately helped the young Newsboys Legion clones and wrapped the scientists trying to stop them in pieces of the lab.
• Fun Personified: Superboy is for the most part a bouncy cheerful teen who is always looking for fun and trying to get everyone around him to have fun.
• Gender Flip: The universe Supergrrl hails from is host to a mostly gender flipped version of the League, with Superwoman instead of Superman for example (although this Superwoman seems to be that universe's version of Kara due to her blonde hair).
• Giant Enemy Crab: B.E.M. transforms into a giant mechanical looking crab for his return from his uncertain watery grave.
• Gladiator Games: Kossak makes it clear he intends to sell Superboy to an arena to be forced to partake in bloodsports for an audience.
• Glasses Pull: Kon will occasionally put on a pair of his omnipresent shades while making a quip or observation about the situation. On one humorous occasion he was pulling out his spare pair of sunglasses since he's learned that he has a hard time avoiding clothing damage.
• Glassy Prison: Silver Sword's cell has large window for observation.
• Godiva Hair: Strategically placed hair is used to maintain Knockout's "modesty" when she takes a shower in a waterfall.
• Goggles Do Something Unusual: The Kid has a set of goggles that replicate some of Superman's eye powers since he doesn't have any himself.
• Go-Go Enslavement: Sterling Roquette is forced into a skimpy outfit after being enslaved by Kossak by a fellow slave girl who then takes Sterling's outfit and switches their physical appearances in order to trick Kon-El and try to get into her master's good graces.
• Going for the Big Scoop: Tana is willing to place herself into dangerous situations to get a good story.
• Goofy Print Underwear: On the cover of issue 83 Kon is seen walking towards the viewer in a pair of boxers with large lipstick covered lips printed on them in a repeating pattern.
• Gory Discretion Shot: When Knockout crushes Victor Volcanum's chest.
• Gratuitous Laboratory Flasks: The scientist who created the Beast Men left a bunch of glassware in his laboratory.
• Grand Romantic Gesture: Superboy tries getting back two stolen powerful and historical significant Hawaiian items to impress Tana during a fight but it backfires and she breaks up with him for not listening to what she was saying.
• Green-Skinned Space Babe: Most of Kossak's harem fits being rather humanoid with varied skin colors. Only one of them is really human in shape (and appears to be Tamaranian) as the rest have strange "hair" or none, varied numbers of fingers and limbs (or tentacles instead of human-like limbs), and odd noses and ears.
• Harmful Healing: When Cadmus is trying to keep the Kid alive after Agenda's experiments left him falling apart at a cellular level part of keeping him alive involves (temporarily) speeding up the process.
• Hand Behind Head: When being scolded for his destructive and impulsive tendancies early in the series Superboy sheepishly puts a hand behind his head while still managing to look kind of cocky.
• Hand Gagging: Knockout covers Superboy's mouth to keep him from giving away their location when the Female Furies track her to Hawaii.
• Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist: There are a lot wandering around Hawaii in the background and the number of tourists around is occasionally brought up or significant to a villain's plot. Superboy also finds himself tossed through the window of a store that sells garish Hawaiian shirts during a fight.
• Healing Vat: The doctors and scientists at Cadmus dump him into several healing vats when things start going wrong with him, most of the time due to Agenda "unzipping" his DNA to make a modified clone of him.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Superboy wears a leather jacket over his more traditional spandex that has to be constantly replaced due to clothing damage.
• Heroic Sacrifice: The alternate version of Knockout sacrifices herself to give Superboy and the Challengers of the Unknown a chance to escape.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Superboy trying to help Knockout when he thinks she is being falsely accused of killing a cop badly damages his public reputation in ways he never really recovers from.
• High-Tech Hexagons: Cadmus keeps a number of biological experiments and dangerous monsters in cells shaped like large stacked Hexagons.
• High-Voltage Death: The Hypertime!Superboy was murdered by a version of Paul Westfield using a lightning gun.
• His Name Is...: Non fatal example when Knockout badly injured Dubbilex when he was about to reveal to Superboy that Knockout really had killed the cop she was accused of killing. Of course S.B. didn't see what she did to Dubbilex either.
• Hoist Hero over Head: On the cover of issue 53 the Kid is being held by his head and a leg over over Killa's head.
• Hologram: The Justice League has a hologram projecting communicator.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Superboy really thinks Knockout turned over a new leaf and doesn't listen to those trying to warn him of her treachery.
• Horror Hunger: The Mo-o does not want to drain people into smoking husks but has to in order to survive. When Superboy flies her away from a child she almost fed on and she finds she can't feed on the Kid she dies and disintegrates into ashes.
• Human Aliens: The New Gods all look pretty human, as do most of the extraterrestrial members of the Legion of Superheroes. There are a number of Kryptonians like Superman himself that make appearances in the book too.
• Hot-Blooded: Knockout loves a fight.
• I Am What I Am: Match says he is what he was created to be and there's no cause for him to stop trying to kill Superboy after his creators ordered him to.
• If I Can't Have You…: When Roxy finally gets it through Thomas Raymond Chatham's head that she is absolutely not interested in him and Superboy makes it clear he won't allow Tom to hold her against her will he decides the best course of action is to blow up the gas station they're at. Superboy is able to save Roxy but Tom is killed in the explosion.
• Ignored Vital News Reports: The invasion of Hawaii by Nosferata's Wild Men appears on the TV as the good Wild Men walk out of the room chatting.
• I Just Want to Be Free: Knockout claims that she left Apocalypse to be free.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Superboy tries to fight Dubbilex when the D.N.Alien seems to loose his personality and start attacking at random in order to get him to come back to himself but it's Roxy's non-violent approach that works.
• Improv Fu: Superboy's fighting style is dependent on his surroundings and what he can think of to do with them.
• Improvised Weapon: Superboy is constantly using his surroundings for weapons in a highly destructive manner, though he does at least try not to wreck everything.
• In Love with Your Carnage: Knockout's interest in Superboy is triggered by his destructive fighting capabilities.
• Instant Costume Change: On those occasions when Superboy wears something other than his normal costume the costume is on underneath for quick changing.
• Interspecies Romance: Dubbilex, a grey skinned D.N.Alien with horns, ends up starting a relationship with a normal human woman in Hawaii. Their relationship gets cut short when the government starts interfering at Cadmus and the military shows up to escort him back to the project.
• Intrepid Reporter: Tana Moon, who manages to get away from a lot of dangerous situations unscathed due to her relationship with Superboy meaning he's paying more attention to situations where she's possibly going to be in danger.
• Island of Mystery: The Neverland island which disappears and reappears at random and hosts missing soldiers and children from across the ages.
• Jedi Mind Trick: Dubbilex uses mental trickery to get the Female Furies to leave without killing Superboy.
• KidAnova: Girls whom have been attracted to him, and those he's dated include: Tana Moon, Roxy Leech, Knockout, Sparx, Triplicate Girl, Dr. Sterling Roquette, Cassandra Cain, Cassandra Sandsmark, Lori Luthor, and Poison Ivy.
• Kid Hero: The teenage Superboy qualifies as a young hero, especially since he's less than a year old at the start of the series.
• Kill It with Water: B.E.M. can't control his transformations well enough to hold his body together if it comes in contact with a large body of water while he's transforming. Superboy and B.E.M. both think S.B. accidentally killed him when he punched him into the ocean during a fight but B.E.M was eventually able to pull himself together and returned.

L-P

• Labcoat of Science and Medicine: Most of the scientists wear labcoats, except for Sterling.
• A Lady on Each Arm: The Kid often finds himself surrounded by bikini clad ladies on the beach since he spends a lot of time there and once dreams about walking down the beach with Tana on one arm and Roxy on the other.
• Laser Blade: The leader of the Silicone Dragons uses a laser sword to fight Superboy.
• Late for School: Heroics cause Superboy to be late on more than one occasion.
• Lava Pit: Superboy finds himself having a couple of battles inside volcanos, which is dangerous since he's not all that great at using his TTK field to protect against heat.
• The Law of Power Proportionate to Effort: Superboy has Psychic Powers that work both subconsciously and with effort. His original abilities were "programmed" to mimic Superman's as closely as possible through Telekinesis. They turn "off" completely when he's asleep or unconscious, making him as vulnerable as a normal human. He eventually takes effort to break the subconscious "rules' for his power so that he can use them in other ways, such as moving something as large a ship or as light as air vapor with his mind.
• LEGO Genetics: Superboy's creation involved some scientists fiddling around with genes to try creating a clone with the powers of Superman. The Wild Men are genetic experiments that combine human and animal DNA that act like humans but look like anthropomorphic animals.
• Leotard of Power: Knockout's green strapless leotard and Sparx's simulated strapless black one.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: The L.E.G.I.O.N. splits up when searching for Sliver Sword in the museum.
• Let's You and Him Fight: As a side effect of Superboy's impulse and brash behavior this happens all the damn time. Lampshaded by Kyle Rayner when he almost starts a fight with Superboy by grabbing him and dragging him underwater to a more secluded spot for the two of them to talk:
  Do we talk sensibly, or do we become a super-hero cliche?
• Lightning Gun: Several versions of Paul Westfield during the Hyper-Tension arc have built lightning guns and the Superboy whose death kicked off the arc was killed by one.
• Like Is, Like, a Comma: Superboy, like, occasionally abuses the word, and Roxy and Robert are much more frequent misusers of the word.
• Living Ship: Kossak's space ship is revealed to have organic fleshy parts between the metal walls and floors as Kon-El sneaks around the ship trying to rescue his friends and avoid capture.
• Logical Weakness: Superboy is just as vulnerable as any other human when he's asleep or knocked out since he can't maintain his TTK field while unconscious.
• Longevity Treatment: Victor Volcanum found some way to stop his aging, and Superboy is horrified to learn that in order to stop the degradation Agenda's experiments caused him his own aging has been stopped.
• Lost World: A few, such as the disappearing island with the unaging children and soldiers and the island of the beast men.
• Love Dodecahedron: The love triangle between Superboy, Roxy Leech and Tana Moon is further complicated when Knockout enters the mix and Superboy eventually starts liking her after she isolates him from his friends and allies.
• Love Triangle: Superboy isn't even aware of it at first but both Roxy and Tana are romantically interested in him, while he likes Tana.
• Lover Tug of War: After Roxy makes her romantic feelings for S.B. clear to him while he's dating Tana he has a dream of walking along the beach with each of them on an arm until they start pulling at his arms and tear him in half.
• Luckily, My Powers Will Protect Me: Hey, has the Kid mentioned that he has tactile telekinesis? Because he does.
• Made a Slave: Superboy is captured and enslaved twice, first by the Beast Men and later by the extraterrestrial slaver Kossak.
• Mad Scientist: There are a few but the villainous Dr. Dabney Donovan from Cadmus fits the stereotype the best.
• Mad Scientist Laboratory: So many, though the most traditional one belongs to the scientist who created the Wild Men.
• Magic Genetics: All over the place. Cadmus and Agenda are both organizations concerned with fashioning powers through cloning and way back in the 1940s the precursor to Cadmus, Project Moreau, managed to create the Wild Men who are a combination of human and animal DNA.
• Master of Illusion: Dubbilex can change his appearance in the eyes of others using his telepathy, and so can Match though he's more limited.
• Meaningful Name: Rex Leech leeches off of everyone around him including Superboy and his own daughter whose career and life he ruins.
• Meaningful Rename: Though he didn't really have a name beforehand Superman gives him the name Kon-El which signifies his trust and how much he cares for the Kid as the name places him in Superman's own family and was the name of of his father's trusted cousin who died with Krypton.
• Media Scrum: After a fiasco at a roller coaster ride Superboy's manager had his Superboy's name licensed to gets recursively blamed on Superboy even though he saved everyone there as a publicity stunt he's confronted by throngs of questioning reporters. To make things worse Superboy learns that his manager and those running the theme park did stage the disaster in order to run a scam and he leaves upset and goes missing for months.
• Mind over Matter: Kon-El's superpower is "tactile telekinesis", a telekinetic force field that surrounds his body as a protective shield and allows him to simulate Superman-level speed, strength, flight and invulnerability. The "tactile telekinesis" field also lets The Kid break free of an opponent's grip by pushing the field outward to force the opponent away and can be expanded around someone he's touching or allow him to dismantle things he's touching.
• Mirror Self: Kon-El gets two in the pages of his own book:
  • Match. The amoral, obedient, prideful, clever and well spoken clone with a couple of extra powers tacked on beyond TTK that Agenda created using the information and material they gleaned from "unzipping" Superboy's DNA. He's even a bit of a pallet swap since his hair, eyes and skin are naturally pale when he's not making himself invisible or changing their colors to pass as Kon-El.
  • Black Zero, a version of him from another universe that actually completed Dr. Westfield's maturation process and became Superman rather than Superboy. He then started conquering different earths and imprisoning the local versions of Superboy supposedly to protect clones. He wears all black of course.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Silver Sword turns on "Pele" because of how she's betrayed his trust and is destroying things all over the island.
• Mr. Fanservice: Superboy. Designed to be the younger hipper and hotter version of Superman.
• Mix-and-Match Man: Match may have been based on what Agenda gleaned from "unzipping" Superboy's DNA but he's got superpowered traits from other genetic sources mixed in as well.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Superboy is horrified to realize that he was wrong about Knockout and has been aiding and abetting an unrepentant murderer.
• Navel-Deep Neckline: Sparx shows up in her usual impossibly low-cut simulated leotard with a plunging neckline.
• Neck Lift: This is apparently a popular way to grab Superboy, as Knockout, King Shark and others partake in it, possibly because whoever's grabbing him is hoping he'll shut up for a minute. Heck Kon-El being grabbed this way is the page image for Junior Counterpart.
• Necktie Leash: After Roxy ties Superboy's necktie for him so he can look presentable for a date with Tana she yanks him towards the door with it telling him not to be late.
• Neural Implanting: Before escaping Cadmus Superboy was having knowledge implanted in his brain. When his school lessons overtake the implanted information he finds he has an incredibly difficult time trying to study and learn like his classmates.
• Never Given a Name: While Kon had a designation prior to Kal bestowing a name on him it was never treated as a name and Kon never responded to it since those using it considered him disposable property rather than an individual. When Superman finally gave him a name after he'd been acting as a superhero for well more than a year Kon cried with joy, as it reaffirmed him as a person with his own rights and the name placed him firmly in Superman's own family.
• Never Going Back to Prison: Knockout and Silver Sword do not want to be locked up again and cause a lot of destruction trying to avoid it.
• Never Land: Superboy comes across a strange disappearing island mostly populated by kids and a handful of soldiers from different wars all of whom stopped aging when they arrived. Every once and a while one of the kids doesn't actually want to stay so the soldiers stage an "attack" on the kid's camp to grab them and send them back to society.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Superboy helping Knockout avoid police causes a lot of problems.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Dabney Donovan's mixture that causes the Agenda clones to become unstable and basically melt might have been horrifying and not at all how the heroes wanted to deal with the invasion of Cadmus but it sorted the whole mess out quickly and saved Kon-El from Match. It was especially horrifying because some of the clones were realizing how expendable Agenda considered them and the Guardian clone seemed to be considering turning against his makers.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Superboy and Match can mimic it with their TTK and of course Superman, Wonder Woman and Knockout are all pretty difficult to injure.
• Not Growing Up Sucks: To create Match, a Agenda's scientists "unzipped" Superboy's DNA, causing him to degenerate. The only way Cadmus's scientists could stop it was to halt his aging at physically 16 years old. They couldn't find the aging genome to turn it back on until some time later, during the Young Justice Crisis Crossover "Sins of Youth," when the spell that aged the rest of his teammates to adults started tearing him apart at the genetic level once again. Dr. Stirling reactivated Superboy's aging, only to have him lose all his powers when the aging spell was lifted.
• Not So Stoic: Match starts out claiming to be and acting rather robotic but quickly shows that he's actually quite emotional, proud and cunning. There's also the fact that his initial stoicism occurred directly after he was "born"/activated.
• And Now You Must Marry Me: Nosferta manages to force Prince Tuftan to marry her through blackmail.
• No Yay: Pointed out by S.B. himself when Amanda (who thinks he's cloned from her father and not only intends to kill him but has already subjected him to a potentially fatal experimental process) comes into the room while he's naked and looks him over.
  That's it! Not only did you kidnap me and lock me up, you come in here and start checkin' me out! Lady or not, I'm gonna deck you!
• Oddball Doppelgänger: Several of the Superboys that team up with Kon-El during the Hyper-tension arc are rather odd and quirky, like O.M.A.C.!Superboy, Musketeer!Superboy and others.
• Offscreen Teleportation: Batman of course, to the great annoyance of the new government overseers at Cadmus. Robin and Batgirl partake as well.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Before Superman gave him a Kryptonain name, which placed Kon in his family, Superboy didn't have a name outside of nicknames, like "the Kid" or SB and his designation as "13" from Cadmus.
• Other Me Annoys Me: Match is incredibly annoyed by Kon-El, he dislikes the way he talks, acts and dresses.
• Our Clones Are Identical: Played straight when Agenda is cloning the Cadmus personnel but usually averted. Kon does not look at all like his supposed genetic donor. Match looks a lot like Kon but is a pallet swap.
• Outdoor Bath Peeping: When Knockout takes a bath in a waterfall Superboy interrupts her to talk to her and makes no attempt to avert his eyes.
• Palate Propping: On the cover of issue 10 Superboy is propping open B.E.M.'s mouth from inside.
• Palette Swap: Match is a pallet swap of Kon-El when not disguising his appearance. His form is the same but he's got pale skin, hair and eyes compared to Kon.
• The Patient Has Left the Building: When his body is degrading Superboy leaves S.T.A.R. labs to rescue people on a boat stuck in a powerful storm even though his powers are quickly weakening and doing so speeds up the degradation.
• Pedestrian Crushes Car: An unfortunate driver runs into Knockout which does not damage or move her in the least.
• People Jars: Superboy ends up in glass containers at Cadmus while the doctors there are trying to heal him from what Agenda did to him. The clones at Agenda are in jars during the last portion of their formation, though they start out in more coffin like containers.
• Pipe Pain: Superboy hits a lot of people with pipes and poles.
• Playing Possum:
  • Superboy goes limp and pretends to be knocked out during his fight with Knockout in order to surprise her with an attack.
  • Kon-El fakes having unconsciousness after being attacked when Agenda infiltrates Cadmus which allows him to listen to Amanda as she plots and holds a gun to his head considering killing him, find his captured friends, and break them all out while Agenda still thinks he's unconscious. It's a plan that requires more patience than he had earlier in his career and shows how much he's grown as a character.
• Playing with Syringes: The Agenda docs who nearly kill Superboy by "unzipping" his DNA and cause him medical problems for years as a result.
• Pointy Ears: Kossak's green shapeshifting slave girl has pointy ears in her natural state.
• Poor Communication Kills: Superboy gets into a lot of trouble due to jumping to conclusions and not trying to talk things out or stopping to listen to what others are trying to say. He slowly gets better about doing this over the course of the books.
• Power Degeneration: Superboy's powers start failing him along with his body due to Agenda's experiments on him.
• Power Incontinence: Dubbilex starts having trouble controlling or using his telepathic and telekinetic powers at all after Knockout gives him a head injury.
• Power Nullifier: They abound, especially when dealing with criminal meta-humans whose powers need to be nullified in order for them to be properly contained.
• Power Perversion Potential: Superboy is given X-ray goggles to make up for his lacking in most of Superman's powers. As one might expect from a teenage boy, he has used them to see through women's clothes, at least two occasions having him use them on Tana Moon.
• Private Tutor: Dubbilex becomes Superboy's tutor after it's requested that he stop attending high school due to the destruction.
• Psychic Block Defense: Discussed by Dubbilex. It's evidently one of the things he's been training Superboy to build up and he helps train the new Police division that is meant to deal with metahumans and alien attacks to resist psychic attacks as well.
• Psychic Radar: Dubbilex can sense those around him by their "loudest" thoughts, generally just basic emotions but occasionally more clear concepts and ideas.
• Psychic Static: Knockout is just plain hard for Dubbilex to read in addition to her Psychic Block Defense.
• Round Hippie Shades: Superboy's favorite style of sunglasses. He tries to keep a pair on him at all times.
• Rubber Man: Kana is a teen superhero based out of Honolulu with stretching powers who took over as "Hero of Hawaii" in Superboy's absence.
• Punched Across the Room: Superboy does this pretty often, usually with whoever's getting punched being punched through the wall behind them.

R-Z

• Raised in a Lab: The second iteration of the Newsboy Legion were clones who were created and raised in Project Cadmus where they were constantly meddling in things. They released "S-13" from the lab before he was completed to Director Westfield's specifications and generally annoyed many of the scientists there by being underfoot.
• Really Was Born Yesterday: When being interrogated by an overeager truant officer a slouching irritated Superboy responds to the question of how old he is with:
  "Oh, not quite one I guess. I'm kinda big for my age."
• Restraining Bolt: Match and most of the other Agenda clones are made to act like they've got a restraining bolt preventing them from doing anything against Agenda. It annoys Superboy to no end, especially since Match, despite his programed obedience, is definitely more complex than he first claims.
• Rhymes on a Dime: Roxy Leech has a biker friend with the appropriate name of The Poet who insists on always rhyming when he talks.
• Rising Water, Rising Tension: The Watery Grave arc involves trying to escape from an underwater base as it fills up section by section with seawater.
• Rubber-Forehead Aliens: Several of the extraterestrial slaves on Kossak's ship including two of the ladies in his harem, one of whom is relatively human outside of her eyebrow ridges, the grooves on the bridge of her nose, the odd structures replacing her ears, her yellow slit-pupil eyes, orange skin and webbed four fingered hands.
• Running Gag: Early on Superboy's jacket has to be replaced on about a daily basis since it seems to be destroyed in every fight, small confrontation and rescue he gets involved in. He also traded it for information at least once.
• Save the Villain: Superboy feels very strongly about this and tries to save the villains constantly whether they want him to or not.
• Scenery Censor: Strategically placed objects and heavy shadows help preserve Superboy's modesty when he wakes up naked in a laboratory in Agenda's base.
• Secret Project Refugee Family: The newsboys kid clones are such even if they keep getting grabbed and put back in Cadmus holding whenever they escape. Superboy is considered a part of their family, like a cousin, as a fellow Cadmus clone whom they helped escape.
• Secret Public Identity: Superboy has no secret identity and until Superman gives him a name he's just Superboy or The Kid. He even goes to school as Superboy.
• Self-Destruct Mechanism: Victor Volcanum's lair has a switch and other mechanisms to drop it into magma that his robots trigger upon confirming his death.
• Send in the Clones: Agenda's plans involve making a ton of clone soldiers, which they consider a disposable resource.
• Sexy Soaked Shirt: While his costume is skin tight anyway he does get a comment about his wet costume when he goes to see Tana after a fight in the ocean.
• Shapeshifting: One of the extraterrestrial slave girls can shapeshift to look like shapes someone else. If she gets knocked out the effects of her ability are canceled and she returns to her natural green skinned state.
• Shield Bash: As per usual Guardian uses his shield offensively to bash opponents and while depowered Superboy also uses a shield this way since he was trained by Guardian.
• Shipped in Shackles: The slaves on the island of anthropomorphic animals all travel everywhere they go in chains and after being arrested Knockout is transported in some serious power nullifying restraints.
• Shirtless Captives: The male slaves on the island of anthropomorphic animals have their shirts taken from them before any of the island residents ever see them.
• Shock and Awe: Neon's supersuit allows him to attack Superboy with electricity and manipulate things with electromagnetism.
• Shout-Out:
  • Sidearm uses a new weapon that's comprised of small mechanical tentacles and Superboy sarcastically exclaims "Oh no! Little wires like snakes! I can't stand snakes!" before slamming Sidearm face-first into the asphalt while saying "Oh, wait that's Indiana Jones, snakes don't bother me at all."
  • In Superboy's first fight with Silver Sword he notes the silvery figure's overt Hawaiian theme and asks if he has a surfboard.
  • When trying on different potential housings for Emil Hamilton's modified X-Ray helmet/visor Superboy says of one "Didn't I see this on Mystery Science Theater?" and of another, yeah sure - just call me Cyclops before settling on the goggles that would end up being used.
  • To Planet of the Apes and Kamandi (which was itself inspired by Planet of the Apes) with the Wild Men enslaving captive non-speaking humans and the initial ambiguity of the time period in which they lived, seeming to be far in the future.
  • The odd little disappearing atoll home to unaging children and adults who occasionally battle each other is a shout out to Peter Pan.
  • Some of the alternate Superboy's have designs inspired by other works like the one who's dressed a lot like a musketeer.
• Show Within a Show:
  • Superboy, Dubbilex, Tana, Roxy and Rex watch the pilot of a Superboy cartoon Rex Leech had made. Tana correctly predicts that no-one will pick it up for syndication and Superboy and the rest make a few snide comments about the fact that the show made Rex the main character, and made him much more upright, better looking and likeable than the real Rex.
  • Superboy is a huge fan of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer pastiche Wendy the Werewolf Stalker. He generally watches it with Young Justice, although Tim can't help but snark at the cheesier aspects of the show.
• Sickening "Crunch!": Knockout's two murders are accompanied by a horrible crunch which signifies the deaths of her victims.
• Sick Episode: A few
  • As a tie in to the Battle for Metropolis storyline and to get Superboy into the city for the event he fell deathly ill with the clone plague in issue 4 and his condition continues to worsen until Cadmus figures out a cure.
  • Curing the debilitating effects of Agenda's experiments on Superboy takes a couple of arcs.
• Signature Move: Superboy frequently lets attackers with super strength pin him so he can use his TTK to push off the ground and fling them far away. He does this less and less and he further refines his control to be able to use his TTK in more effective and less direct ways.
• Skipping School: Superboy gets detention for repeatedly skipping school in order to do hero work.
• Slave Collar: The anthropomorphic animals that keep human slaves keep collars on them with marks to show who they belong to. Kossak the extraterrestrial slaver puts collars on his slaves that he can zap them with.
• Slave Liberation: Superboy frees all the slaves on the strange island populated by anthropomorphic animals he washes up on after being struck by lightning.
• Slave Race: The anthropomorphic animals think humans are this because every human that washes up on the island is poisoned and drugged before being seen by them.
• Smart Gun: The new police division for dealing with metahuman and other abnormal threats have guns with targeting ammo that can swerve around things in between the gun and the target.
• Snarking Thanks:
  Sam Makoa: I know the Kid's arrogant, naive, self-centered annoying...but sounds like he's thinking with his head for the first time in weeks. I say we take advantage of this rare opportunity.
  Superboy: Gee. Thanks for that great vote of confidence! I'm ready for the battle of my life now.
• Some Kind of Force Field: Superboy wasn't paying great attention when the containment cells at Cadmus were described so he gives a great demonstration of how they work when a creature in one wakes up and looks like it's going to attack and he flies to fight it, instead bouncing off the basically invisible door.
• Some Nutty Publicity Stunt: When a metahuman trying to pass herself off as Pele walks through town some people think it's some kind of show for the tourists.
• Sonic Stunner: Agenda's agents knock Superboy out with sonic weapons when they kidnap him.
• Stalker with a Crush: Thomas Raymond Chatham (Neon) for Roxy Leech.
• Statuesque Stunner: Knockout, rather like her former mentor and idol Barda.
• Strapped to a Bomb: In issue 60 Kon-El is strapped to a bomb by the DCU's trinity in order to use the power of the explosion to travel through hyperspace and figure out what happened to the genetically identical Superboy who showed up from another universe badly wounded with a warning of coming calamity and promptly died.
• Strapped to an Operating Table: Superboy wakes up naked and strapped into a strange scientific device after being kidnapped by Agenda.
• Suicide by Sea: When Superboy realizes he can't take out Knockout in a regular fight he uses his TTK to pin both of them to the sinking island they're on in order to drown. Luckily she passes out before him so he's able to hand her to the authorities for arrest instead.
• Supernormal Bindings: Used to cuff Knockout so that she won't simply kill the officers escorting her and escape as soon as she wakes up.
• Superpowered Date: Superboy uses his ability to fly to get him and Tana to cool date locations.
• Super-Soldier: Match was created to be an obedient soldier fashioned after Superboy with a couple of extra abilities.
• Super-Strength: Knockout and the rest of Granny Goodness' girls have it and Superboy and Match can simulate it through telekinesis.
• Super-Toughness: Superboy and Match can become bulletproof through telekinesis.
• Surfer Dude: Superboy surfs but it's his surfing companions who really fit the mold, even talking in the truly bizarre lingo. This may explain some of his own odd word choices.
• Suggestive Collision: Superboy lands on Roxy in a rather compromising position when Dubblex's powers are on the fritz and he knocks Superboy across the room.
• Swamps Are Evil: The "Glowing Swamp" in the Wild Men's lands which King Shark frequents.
• Tailor-Made Prison: Knockout is placed in a very specialized cell after her capture and Silver Sword was held in a hermetically sealed room by the US Navy until some earthquakes gave him a tiny crack he could use to escape.
• Take My Hand!: Superboy tries to save the metahuman who had been rampaging through town as a fake Pelle by reaching out towards her as she starts to fall. She declines his offered hand and crumples the ground underneath herself to fall into the lava.
• Taking You with Me: Superboy decides this is the only way to deal with Knockout, but since she passes out before him he's able to hand her over to the authorities for arrest instead.
• Talking in Your Dreams: Dubbilex can talk to people in their dreams and uses this ability to wake up Superboy and get him to come to a situation where he's needed to save people on occasion.
• Teachers Out of School: After Superboy is asked not to return to school due to the damage to the school buildings caused by a fight he still runs into his teachers on occasion around the island.
• Team Pet: Krypto the Superdog
• Tears of Joy: He might not show them to Superman but after Kal-El bestows him with the name Kon-El in issue 59 Kon has tears of joy while flying away at the thought of having his own name outside of a designation, superhero name (Superboy), or nickname (The Kid, S.B.).
• Techno Babble: Brainiac 5 spouts some tech talk that even the S.T.A.R. labs scientists don't know how to decipher.
• Teen Genius: Superboy runs into a few teenage geniuses who've been recruited to Cadmus or S.T.A.R.. He lampshades it when Dr. Rivera of S.T.A.R. labs jumps in to help him when he get knocked through the asphalt during a fight in New York:
  "How come the doctors I meet these days aren't old enough to vote?"
• Telepathy: Dubbielx can read minds, speak into people's minds and disguise what he looks like by affecting how their minds interpret visual input.
• Teleportation: Boom Tubes and other teleportations devices are used throughout the series by various characters.
• Teleportation Sickness: The vest that allows Kon-El to travel in between dimensions so long as it has power makes him feel ill every time it jumps him to a new one. It doesn't help that he has no control over it and the jumps start happening one right after another for a bit until he manages to stay on Earth-One.
• Tempting Fate: Lampshaded continuously which still doesn't prevent Kon from saying things to which it seems the universe immediately and dangerously responds to.
• Tentacle Rope: Superboy has some trouble with the mechanical tentacles in the Silicon Dragons' base.
• There Was a Door: Superboy and Knockout have a bad habit of entering and exiting buildings through walls, though Superboy only really does so during fights when he's in a hurry.
• They Would Cut You Up: Agenda most certainly would kidnap, experiment on and dissect any clones they wanted to replicate or any people they felt it would be beneficial to clone.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Superboy comes close to breaking this rule to deal with Knockout, thinking the only way to do so is to take her out with himself, but when she passes out first he hands her over to the authorities instead.
• Throwing Your Shield Always Works: During the brief period Kon was without powers he used a thrown shield to destroy some slave collars and take out bad guys as trained to by Guardian.
• Thrown Out the Airlock: Kossak tries to jettison Superboy and a rebellious slave out an airlock on his ship when he learns that some of his slaves are plotting to overthrow him and free everyone and Superboy is helping them. While some of his slaves (who were not a part of the rebellion) were jettisoned those he was targeting manage to stay on the ship.
• Time-Travel Tense Trouble: Shows up some with the Legion to Brainiac's consternation, especially when his teammates talk about having to do things "right now" or things being the first priority when it would require time travel to get to those things.
• Tin Man: Match claims that his desires and emotions don't matter or possibly exist and he is only there to follow his master's orders but quickly shows that that's not true.
• Together in Death: The two married scientists who jump into a volcano together. There's an implication that something in the volcano may have actually kept them alive and vastly physically altered.
• Toplessness from the Back: Roxy gets a few shots like this when lying on her stomach at the beach when she has the top of her bikini undone in order to get an even tan.
• Totally Radical: Superboy's way of talking, though it comes off as rather normal when compared to the way the surfers he hangs out with talk. Note that the surfers are using a real, if strange, American dialect.
• Trapped in Another World: When Kon-El and the Earth-One Kal-El toss Kon's reality jumping vest into space to prevent its explosion from damaging Earth-One Smallville Kon realizes that he now has no way home. Clark brightly tells him there's always a way and invites him to stay with him and his parents for the duration of his stay.
• Trapped in the Past: The Legion is trapped in the past while waiting for Brainiac 5 to sort out a way for them to get home for most of their adventures with Superboy.
• Umbrella Drink: Seen often in backgrounds in touristy areas, parties or bars. Superboy and his friends are of course too young to drink.
• The Unapologetic: Knockout is completely unapologetic for betraying Superboy's trust and murdering at least two people.
• Underwater Base: The Silicon Dragons' base is an elaborate underwater affair.
• Unequal Pairing: Knockout, who is much older and has inserted herself into Superboy's life as a trainer or teacher in order to try to corrupt him and turn him into her lackey, and Superboy.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Amanda Spence tries to kill Superboy and ruin his life even after he saved hers.
• Universal Translator: The translator earbuds the Legion possesses and the "hand stamp" from Event Horizon.
• Unusual Ears: Many of the aliens enslaved on Kossak's ship, like the lady in his harem with strange ruffles behind an angled ridge instead of human-like ears.
• Unwitting Test Subject: Superboy himself for Agenda.
• Ursine Aliens: A few of Kossak's alien slaves are covered in hair with large canines.
• Utility Belt: After Kon loses his powers he keeps crimefighting gadgets in a utility belt and uses his Legion ring to fly.
• Villainesses Want Heroes: Knockout comes on to Superboy, though she did want to corrupt him till he no longer resembled a hero and keep him as a boy-toy/lap dog.
• The Villain Knows Where You Live: Superboy starts to realize that this a significant downside to having no secret identity.
• Villainous Face Hold: During the "Hyper-tension!" arc, Black Zero uses his telekinesis to hold Kon-El still and force him to look at him while he monologues at his captive audience.
• Villains Blend in Better: Match passes for Superboy for a while among his friends and allies and his disguise is only ruined when Superboy himself flies in and punches him in the face.
• Virtue Is Weakness: Several villains seem to think compassion or an unwillingness to kill are weaknesses.
• Viva Las Vegas!: Roxy takes a trip to Vegas to deal with a stalker and when Superboy follows her to help he briefly considers trying to enjoy the night life before being attacked by a supervillain.
• Volcano Lair: The metahuman trying to pass herself off as Pele hangs out in a volcano as does Victor Volcanum, whose lair is sealed and protected against the heat.
• Wacky Racing: The short Demolition Run arc involved a race with all kinds of bizarre vehicles that were all attacking each other with strange weapons as they worked their way to the finish line. In the end the only one to complete the race was a new god on a supercycle.
• Wake Up, Go to School & Save the World: S.B. was attending Ilupani High School while working as Hawaii's hero and found himself in trouble when school caught up to and surpassed the knowledge Cadmus had implanted in his brain. He got kicked out for unrelated reasons soon after but his school teachers still expect him to keep up with at home schooling.
• Waking Up Elsewhere: After being knocked out and kidnapped by Agenda Superboy wakes up Strapped to an Operating Table in their base.
• Walking Disaster Area: Killer Frost drains all the heat from her surroundings.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Most of Superboy's surfer friends are never seen with a shirt on.
• Walking Swimsuit Scene: Most of the younger crowd spends all their time in swimsuits at the beach when outside of school.
• "Wanted!" Poster: Superboy and Knockout get a matching set after Knockout kills a police officer and Superboy is misled into thinking she's innocent. They're prominently displayed on the cover of issue 27.
• Was It All a Lie?: Superboy is devastated to learn that Knockout has't really turned over a new leaf while he thought they were working together as superheroes even if she was a little wild and wonders if any part of what he thought about their time together was true.
• Waterfall Shower: Knockout takes a shower under a waterfall.
• We Can Rule Together: Black Zero really wants to find a version of himself that actually agrees that what he's doing is right and is willing to team up with him, which gives Kon a chance to wake up the other Superboys who are held in Black Zero's lair in suspended animation.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Discussed since Agenda very much sees clones as a disposable resource while Kon-El very much does not.
• What the Hell, Hero?: The Kid gets called out for defending Knockout by Supergirl and when Knockout herself interrupts their conversation and Superboy continues to defend her Supergirl tears the crest of the house of El from his uniform saying that with his current behavior he does not deserve to wear it.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: The Kid does not like sharks. They're not really physically a problem for him but this interactions with King Shark have left him unnerved by actual sharks.
• Win Your Freedom: On the Beast Men's island Superboy wins his freedom in a contest.
• Worf Had the Flu: Several of Superboy's defeats and near defeats are only able to happen because he's already injured or ill.
• Working on the Chain Gang: Discussed by Superboy and Robert Lai while they're in detention and complaining that it seems like prison.
• Working Through the Cold: While suffering degeneration from Agenda's experiments he continues to act as "Hawaii's Hero". Unfortunately this only accelerates the issue till he can't even stand on his own and has to be rushed to Cadmus to try saving his life.
• Would Rather Suffer: Match really does not want to be in Superboy's debt for anything.
• Wreathed in Flames: One of B.E.M.'s temporary forms is a humanoid figure on fire.
• X-Ray Vision: Superboy's goggles have the ability to see through things, it's handy when he's using his TTK on the innards of complicated hatches and things since he can better tell what he's doing.
• You Can Talk?: The anthropomorphic animals are horrified to realize humans are sentient and capable of speech and the potion they'd been giving their human slaves was preventing them from doing so.
• You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good!: Superboy's irritated response to realizing Knockout has been playing him for a fool.
• You Have Failed Me: Knockout decides to kill Superboy when he refuses to murder a man for agreeing to have sex with her.
• Younger Than They Look: As a result of being made as a teenager Superboy starts his series much younger than he looks.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: After realizing just how wrong he was about Knockout her subsequent approval of his violence while fighting her does not make him pleased.
• You Just Ruined the Shot: In Paris Superboy saves a woman from a monster only to find that the monster was an expensive prop and she's a model who is now furious with him.
• You Must Be Cold: Superboy lends his jacket to Yvonne at the luau since it's night and she's just in a bikini with a sarong wrap, he's not exactly pleased about it though.
• You Won't Feel a Thing!: The Star labs scientist who is trying to convince Superboy to let him take a tissue sample to figure out why Superboy's body is breaking down. Superboy just really doesn't care for needles even if he knows they're necessary in this case.
• Zen Survivor: Agent Sam Makoa. He does loose his cool on the rare occasion like when Amanda Waller insisted King Shark be included on the Suicide Squad team he was lent to try to take out the Silicon Dragons' lair.
• Zerg Rush: The Agenda clones attack en mass when taking over Cadmus in order to overpower Cadmus' more capable fighters like Guardian and Superboy.

---

Clark: "I'm trusting you in the place in the care of two of the people I hold most dear to me. I want you to consider this your home for a while. A place for you to start a new life."

Conner: "I...I'll make you proud."

Clark: "You already have. Now it's time to make yourself proud."