Superman is the talk of the town, with Superman flying at high at the box office and with critics. DC has been working hard on focusing more on Superman, hoping that the movie will bring fans to the comic store. The Superman comic has been giving readers the current day adventures of Superman and Action Comics has taken readers back to the earliest days of Superman’s superheroic career. Action Comics #1087 saw him put on his costume for the first time in Metropolis, on a trip there to see a space museum with Pa Kent. Action Comics #1088 sees him jump into action as Superboy again, this time in Smallville, which is something that he promised his parents he wouldn’t do. However, this leads to a moment that is not only the most Superman thing ever, but also ties into scenes from Superman.
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A science experiment at Smallville High School goes terribly wrong, starting a fire that only Superboy can stop. Thanks to his superpowers and quick thinking, he’s able to use the town water tower to put out the fire. However, his X-ray vision reveals the reason the fire raged so quickly without any of the school’s fire sprinklers going off. This leads Superboy to the office of the company who put in the system, and he learns a valuable lesson about dealing with the world.
Superboy’s Anger Almost Gets the Best of Him
After the fire, Superboy realizes that the sprinkler system put in was faulty, and he uses his super speed to look through the plans for the school and find out who put the sprinklers in. He races to the office of the company, where the owner is talking on the phone to his wife about the fire in the school and how no one will ever put together that his company’s shoddy work would be blamed for the fire. He’s obviously wrong, and Superman barges in. The owner lies to him about the whole situation when Superboy confronts him, telling him that if he’s going to make those kinds of accusations he’s going to need to lawyer up. This enrages Superboy, and he smashes the owner’s desk. He screams at the man that one of his friends was almost killed, and grabs him around the collar, ready to take his anger out on the man, who begs him to not hit him. Superboy lets him go and quickly leaves flying off.
However, he then returns. Superboy actually apologizes. While the man is a criminal, it’s not Superboy’s place to punish him. He then tells him that he’s given proof of what happened to the fire department and that the police are on their way. This is a perfect Superman moment, and it shows what kind of person he was even as a teenager. Superboy’s anger was enough to make him confront the owner himself, but he never should have done that at all. He should have went to the authorities immediately, but instead he did things in a childish way and saw the reality of the world. He could have hit the man, but what good would it have done? He would have gotten in trouble and no one would have gotten justice. This subcontractor taught Superboy a valuable lesson — that revenge feels good, but it doesn’t solve problems. It just makes more problems. What makes this even more interesting is the events of Superman, where in his interview with Lois Lane, we learn how he treated the President of Boravia. In that situation, he allows his anger to get the best of him and it costs him.
Action Comics #1088 and Superman Echo Each Other
Superboy losing his temper shows how human he is. Anyone in the situation that he was in would have reacted the same way. People at Smallville High could have died because of someone’s greed. That would be enough to enrage anyone, but it was harder for Superboy because Pete Ross, one of his best friends, would have been killed in the fire if he hadn’t been close enough to take care of the fire. He let his anger get the better of him, but he quickly realized that wouldn’t have solved the problem or brought justice, so he actually apologized.
The way this echoes Superman is very interesting. In the movie, Superman gave in to his anger and threatened the President of Boravia. These actions led to the world looking down on Superman, and maybe public opinion wouldn’t have been so easily turned against him if he had learned the same lesson that Superboy had. Superman stories can all kinds of directions, but it’s these humans moments that show who the character should be and the kind of situations that he would be put in.
Action Comics #1088 is on sale now.
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