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March - August 1999 |
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March 1999 |
Big Barda BOOMS into the JLA Watchtower with a wounded Superboy who dropped at her feet. Barda, Wonder Woman, Steel and others start resuscitation. Energy crackles from Superboy's high-tech jacket. Zapped, Wonder Woman glimpses strange visions of alternate realities and heroes: Kamandi, the Tangent Joker, the ancient Superman, and more. Including alternate Challengers of the Unknown.  |
Superboy gasps, "Blackness coming... This Earth next..." And dies. As Superboy walks in! Shocked, Superboy takes his alternate-corpse to Project Cadmus. Doctor Rocket autopsies. The dead Superboy is IDENTICAL to the local Superboy: closer than any clone. The jacket seems to incorporate New Gods technology. Superboy carries Mickey Cannon to the New Gods' rolling fortress, the Mountain of Judgement. Their Gadget Guru determines the jacket is "like a life jacket - to bring a body back from a bad trip!" Except it's not for dimension- or time-traveling. And the jacket's DNA-specific: only Superboy can use it. Superman and Batman theorize the jacket transcends Hypertime, which they learned of battling Gog. The catch: to enter Hypertime, you need massive energy, like a nuclear explosion! Sweating, Superboy is strapped onto an atomic missile and shot into space. "Always wanted to go out with a bang..." he thumbs the trigger. BVOOM! Awakening in the Batcave,Superboy meets an alternate Batman - and a Superboy in Robin-flavored costume! Continued... |
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April 1999 |
Continued from Superboy 60... This world's alt-Superboy slugs Superboy as an "agent of Black Zero". Alt-Batman stops the fight - just as an alt-Knockout bursts in. She wants the "clone traitor" and Batman. Knockout slams Superboy, activating his hyper-jacket. VVOMP! Superboy falls into the headquarters of an alt-JSA. One member is Supergrrrl! These heroes are also paranoid about Black Zero. Superwoman hurls Superboy away. He teleports.. VVOMP! to a ruined Metropolis. Another alt-Knockout jumps and kisses him! This Knockout thinks Superboy is truly home where he started. But Stormguards attack and... VVOMP! Superboy tumbles through MANY realities with a jungle-Superboy, Prince Valiant-Superboy, cowboy-Superboy, and Challenger-Superboy team. |
Detail of the panels where Superboy stumbles across many realities.  The Challenger-Superboy team is a tribute to Kirby's cover on Challengers of the Unknown (1958 series) 7. |
Superboy finally crashes in a ditch and is found by Jonathan and Martha Kent, who declare "Not again!" (Back home, Mickey Cannon and Colonel Winterborne face facts: with Superboy blown to bits, they must replace him.) Waking, Superboy finds his hyper-jacket glowing nuclear. He flies and shucks it, but is snagged by Krypto the Superdog! Another Superboy (Clark Kent), just back from the 30th Century, hurls the jacket away to explode. Clark-Superboy takes Conner-Superboy home to the Kents. Though the two boys look alike, they have different fingerprints. Conner realizes he's stuck in this world. While Black Zero, who's "not a nice man!" is hot on his trail... Continued.. |
Continue the adventure... |