7 Most Powerful Versions of Superboy, Ranked

Everyone knows that Superman is the strongest superhero around. He’s called the Last Son of Krypton because he’s the final child born to the doomed planet, but that doesn’t mean that he’s the only Kryptonian hero to ever take a stand. Before Clark was the Man of Steel, he was the Boy of Steel, saving the day and learning the ropes as Superboy. After he grew out of the name, others who were connected to and inspired by him took it up. They continued the mantle, fighting the good fight with all their strength and heart. Of course, with so many heroes, having operated as Superboy, it begs the question of which one is the true Boy of Steel.

Of course, every hero who is called Superboy deserves to be Superboy, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a blast to dissect their powersets and think about which one would come out on top in a fight. Today, we’re going to be looking at the seven strongest people to ever call themselves Superboy and rank them based on power and ability. Don’t let the boy in the name fool you, cause all of these heroes pack a serious punch. Without further ado, let’s swoop into the Superboy rankings.

7) Jon Lane Kent

In a possible apocalyptic future, Jon Lane Kent was the son of Superman and Lois. He inherited much of his father’s strength, though he possessed a much lower ceiling. Instead of other Kryptonian abilities, he developed extremely powerful telekinesis that allowed him to mimic the rest of Superman’s repertoire. He can amp his invulnerability with force fields, fly through the air by pushing himself with his mind, and launch enormous blasts of pure psionic energy. Unfortunately, much of Jon’s potential was sapped by his unstable genetics, as his mixed heritage tore his body apart with horrific spasms, leaving him much weaker than he should have been.

6) Prime Clark

The Prime Earth Clark Kent’s history as Superboy remained mostly a mystery, especially since that being part of his origin hadn’t been clearly canon for years, but as of Action Comics #1087, Clark’s first years as the Boy of Steel are catalogued once again. While he was still very clearly one of the strongest people around, some powers like his heat vision had yet to develop. Even the powers he had were still a far cry from what they would be. None of that is to say that Clark was weak in his earliest years. Heck, Superboy could probably still give most experienced heroes a run for their money with zero training. Unfortunately for him, everyone else on this list has a bit more than underdeveloped Kryptonian powers.

5) Chris Kent

Chris Kent is actually the son of Superman’s longtime enemy General Zod, born within the Phantom Zone and later adopted by Superman and Lois. As a full-blooded Kryptonian, he possessed the same potential as heroes like Superman and Supergirl, which was only furthered when his dimensional instability caused him to age rapidly, quickly advancing his powers. Chris would later gain incredible powers by becoming the host to the Kryptonian deity Nightwing, but as this is a Superboy list, we’re only counting his time before taking up that particular mantle. Still, a full-blooded Kryptonian is nothing to scoff at, and if Chris has any of Zod in him, he’s set to be a major powerhouse.

4) Conner Kent

As the genetic clone of both Superman and Lex Luthor, Conner has access to the full array of Kryptonian abilities. They initially didn’t take, given that he was only half Kryptonian, but they eventually developed to match those of his Super-Family peers. Before his solar powers came in, Conner fought with tactile telekinesis. He’s able to psychically control anything he touches, which lets him mimic Superman’s powers by lifting great weights and avoiding damage with a forcefield. He can even unleash pure psionic energy in a concentrated burst, which was measured at matching around five thousand pounds of TNT. Conner is absurdly powerful when he combines his two power sets, and is by far the best psychic in the Superman Family. 

3) Jon Kent

As the son of Superman and Lois, Jon not only has all of his dad’s powers, but something far greater. When he was young, his powers ebbed and flowed with his emotions, but after growing to young adulthood, not only had they stabilized, but they had arguably become even stronger than his father’s. Batman himself attested that Jon’s dual heritage would make his potential greater than any other Kryptonian on record, and he proved it when he showed that he could both see at a spectrum Superman couldn’t and burn his heat vision at that frequency in the “Golden Age” storyline. Jon would go on to be Superman himself, which just attests to how absurdly powerful he became at such a young age.

2) Pre-Crisis Clark

It might seem strange that Clark has two spots on this list, but I could not in good conscience call the pre-and-post-Crisis Superboys the same character. The Golden and Silver Age Superboy operated on an entirely different level than anyone who took the title after him. This version was just as powerful as pre-Crisis Superman, and utterly broke every law of reality on a whim. He could travel through time, casually redirect planet-sized meteors, and famously tugged an entire galaxy’s worth of planets to a new place in space with zero effort. Superboy could do literally anything he wanted, and frankly, you could easily give him the top spot, but there’s exactly one person who might claim to be stronger.

1) Superboy-Prime

Mr. Prime-Time himself takes our top spot as the stronger Superboy of them all. He’s the living embodiment of that classic, Silver Age style of powerscaling with modern storytelling styles, meaning that he’s a walking, smart-talking monster who breaks every preconceived notion about what should be possible. He’s taken blows from Black Adam like they’re a light breeze, battled the entire Green Lantern Corps, blasted his way through the Anti-Monitor, and punched reality so hard that he caused retcons. Granted, the fabric of reality was weakened at that point, but even the comic itself called out how his strength was miraculous, and that shouldn’t have been possible. Superboy-Prime is one of the strongest heroes in existence, and it’s a darn good thing that he’s a good guy once again.

Which version of Superboy is your favorite? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!

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