Connor Kent - Fictional Character Biography - Superboy (2010-2011)

Superboy (2010-2011)

Following the conclusion of War of the Supermen, writer Jeff Lemire and Italian artist Pier Gallo launched a new Superboy series. The series begins with Conner resettling his life in Smallville, directly continuing the Adventure Comics arc. The Phantom Stranger warns Conner that a new darkness that lies within Smallville is to be unleashed in the near future. Back at school, Conner avoids Lori Luthor, as he is still unsure of his feelings for her. While walking home, Conner is confronted by Simon Valentine, a local kid who Conner has befriended, who tells him he knows his secret. Conner is then abruptly attacked by the Parasite who hopes to drain Superboy's powers and use them to kill Superman. Superboy defeats the Parasite, but his powers are shot. He and Simon are suddenly attacked by the surrounding plants and Poison Ivy appears, telling them that it is too late to save Smallville.

Conner and Simon initially believe that Poison Ivy is responsible for the plants attacking them, but she reveals that her powers, and perhaps all plant elementals, have been drained. She asks Superboy for help and he begrudgingly agrees to help her find the source leaving Simon and Krypto to guard Parasite until help arrives. Simon, feeling left out, decides to take some samples of Parasite's cells and goes back to his lab leaving Krypto to guard Parasite. In the meantime, Superboy and Poison Ivy track down the source of the mutant plants back to the barn of a farm belonging to Mr. Gillam in the center of the surrounding vegetation. when they enter they find Gillam ensnared to a huge device with what looks like a bomb and a timer.

Poison Ivy wants to remove Gillam by force, to which Superboy objects to with fear that removing him might kill him. Gillam then proceeds to tell them that they must "find the broken silo" which neither of them understand. In the meantime, Simon examines the cell samples of the Parasite and gets an idea while looking at a tank of frogs that he has been working on. Poison Ivy, who has become tired by Superboy's conscience decides to rip the wires that were coming out of Gillam's chest. Superboy is outraged, but by doing this, stops the process that was going on and regains control of her powers and is in the process of ensnaring Superboy, when Simon shows up controlling his frogs which have now been infused with the Parasite's powers.

Simon uses his frogs to overpower and incapacitate Poison Ivy, Superboy then sees that the timer on the device is about to reach zero and takes the main component and flies off to detonate it safely away. When the timer then hits zero, there is a blinding flash of light that somehow show's Conner's skeleton but otherwise does nothing and then the device melts in Superboy's hands. In the meantime, while Krypto is guarding the Parasite, something happens that sucks the Parasite into the earth. When Superboy returns to the barn, Simon discovers a tablet with strange writings on it that Simon cannot decipher.

Both Conner and Simon are wondering about the broken silo and what the hieroglyphs might mean, so then, Conner flies to the hospital with Mr. Gillam leaving Simon to guard Poison Ivy while the authorities arrive. Later that night, two men in farming outfits are talking, one of them mentions that the device worked like it was supposed to and it got a full scan of Superboy, they would never find the gateway or the broken silo and that someone, or something, called Tannarak assured him of that, and when their plot succeeded Smallville would belong to them.

The next day, something awakens Krypto at four-thirty in the morning, which in turn, awakens Conner and Martha Kent. Conner is still worried over what happened with the plants and how helpless he was to prevent the crops from being ruined. Martha tells him that he should not worry about it because the community is stronger than Conner gives them credit for. She then suggests that if he feels that strongly about it he should ask someone from the superhero community to give him a hand.

While walking to school, Conner calls Bart Allen who shows up at Conner's location. Conner suggests to Bart that there should be the first Superboy/Kid Flash race with proceeds to help those affected by the plant attack. Bart agrees to it and then tells Conner that he has been feeling a headache ever since he came into Smallville. Later that day Conner is going between classes when Simon shows up and wants to talk to him about what happened the day before.

Conner then warns him that doing so in the school was dangerous and that if he wanted to be friends with Superboy he would have to give up being friends with Conner Kent. This is something that hurt Simon's feelings. At the end of one of his classes, suddenly Superboy gets a huge headache and all of a sudden, the rest of the students at Smallville High start to pass out, all except Lori. She sees Conner stagger into a classroom where he removes his shirt and exposes his black Superboy shirt which Lori then expresses that she has suspected of Conner being Superboy for a while. She asks Superboy for help pretending that she did not see him take off his shirt, and as they are walking down the hallway a portal opens up and a boy wearing a costume comes out.

As soon as the boy came out of the portal the pain subsided and Superboy could function normally. The boy introduces himself as Sanjay Mehra, AKA Psyonic Lad. Psyonic Lad claims that he comes from the future and he "thought" his way to Superboy's time seeking him out. At that same moment three men follow the portal and one of them blasts Superboy unconscious.

A battle ensues between the armored men and Psyonic Lad as well as Superboy when he recovers. These men are adaptive and download defenses against Superboy and Psyonic Lad and the battle goes on until Simon shows up, at which point they suddenly flee back through the portal. Sanjay then tells them that they would not return since they only can travel by following his thought patterns.

They wonder why Lori was not affected by his psychic wave and after Sanjay scans her reveals that Lori has latent psychic abilities which he offers to help awaken later on with practice. Lori and Superboy agree to meet later at her house, and then takes Simon and Sanjay back to the Kent farm. Sanjay explains that he comes from the year 2216, to answer a question that Superboy had wondered about if he was a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes.

He also explains that the armored individuals are Science hunters, the later forms from the Science Police in modern times. He also tells them that in his future the Science Hunters are led by the Prime-Hunter who controls the world from Smallville which has become a huge city by then. He goes on to show them where he comes from using images in his mind, where he reveals that no one really knows who the Prime-Hunter is exactly but he rules the world with an iron fist from Smallville which is its own city-state in his time. The heroes there were a small resistance force, of which Psyonic Lad is a member of. Unfortunately, all the heroes were killed and Psyonic Lad is the last survivor. He traveled back in time to be tutored by Superboy on how to be a better hero.

Superboy offers to gather the Titans and go to the future with him and stop Prime Hunter but Sanjay refuses saying that it is his destiny to stop him himself. Superboy agrees to help and Martha opens her home to him. Sanjay wishes to repay their generosity to which Simon suggests to do a mental scan of Mr. Gillam. when they get to the hospital he begins, and reveals that Gillam found the tablet with the emblems and the two men that were talking before capture him. Later the two men are talking to Tannarak who tells them they just need Gillam to attract Superboy otherwise they already know everything else.

Later they are discussing what they have found out at the Kent farm where Simon decides to go home for the day and Conner shows Sanjay to his room and goes off to meet Lori. Later Conner gets to Lori's house and they talk about the feelings for each other and Conner learns that Lori smokes. Superboy then reveals that he is having problems with Cassie and that he is feeling burnt out emotionally about it to which he suggests that both he and Lori should keep their distance for the time being. This is something that does not sit well with Lori. In the meantime Psyonic Lad makes contact with a woman from his time, where he reveals that he was planning to earn Superboy's trust and enter his inner sanctum, and when the time was right he plans on killing him. Afterward, Lori sits in the field in her farm wishing that Superboy would come down and take her away to a better life, something that he never does and goes back inside hoping that maybe tomorrow he would.

The next day, Superboy is flying with Krypto thinking of all the things that have happened so far. No answers come to his head and he feels even worse over his break-up with Wonder Girl. He arrives at the starting line where he is going to have his race with Kid Flash and sees that the Titans are there watching as well, but is very disappointed when he sees that Wonder Girl is not among them, saying that even Ravager is with them. Raven gives him a look of sympathy which makes Superboy even more determined to win the race.

Pete Ross is there as the Master of Ceremonies and states that with the help of the Wayne Foundation, Steve Danton, and The Baron Winter Fund they have gathered half a million dollars to help the farmers and small business owners of Smallville that were affected by the Parasite and giant plant attacks. The race starts and Krypto goes along with them, through a path that Mister Terrific has plotted out for them. The path makes them circle the world several times over in different directions and the race is transmitted via the Justice League satellite. During their path they make stops along the way to stop robberies and defeat several supervillans like the Royal Flush Gang and King Shark. They decide to stop on top of the Giza Pyramid where Bart tries to cheer up Conner because Cassie did not show up to watch, which makes Conner feel better, but makes Bart decide to take the lead.

In the meantime, Sanjay is watching the race when he turns over to see the Titans and sees that a man is watching him. Sanjay blinks and the man is gone.

After going around several more parts in Asia and the Middle East, Superboy and Kid Flash make their way back to Smallville to the finish line, when they cross the Luthor farm. At that moment, Superboy looks over and he sees the Phantom Stranger standing there and then vanishes. Conner wonders what Lori's farm has to do with the weird things going on but shakes it off as the trio makes their way to the finish line, only to have Krypto win the race. While everyone is celebrating, Superboy tells Raven and Simon about his sighting of the Phantom Stranger and they wonder how Lori is tied into all of this.

Later that night, Lori goes outside to wait for Conner to pass by, like she always does, and gets tired and decides that she is tired of waiting for someone to rescue her. She seems to have decided to leave and drops her cigarette on the ground and goes back into the house, but what she does not realize is that right by where she dropped the cigarette is a rock with the same hieroglyphs as the kind found in Mr. Gillam's farm.

In a tie in with the Reign of Doomsday crossover, Doomsday subsequently attacks Superboy while the young hero is returning home from Titans Tower, literally appearing from out of nowhere hundreds of feet in the air. While the two fight, Superboy notes that Doomsday is significantly stronger than he was when they last met, and that he now appears to possess the ability of flight. Badly injured, Superboy attempts to fight off the creature, only to be overwhelmed when Doomsday somehow begins to mimic Superboy's trademark tactile telekinesis, which allows him to attack him from long distances. After beating Superboy into submission, Doomsday grabs him and teleports back to the ruins of New Krypton, where he enters a large alien spacecraft with his prisoner.

After Superboy returns from his battle with Doomsday he awakens in the Kent Farm and looks outside to see complete devastation as far as the eye could see. Connor flies across the destroyed Smallville looking for signs of life and finds one person left alive, Lori. When Superboy asks for an explanation she reveals that the one that caused all this was Superboy himself. As it turns out, she was only the bait as Red Robin and a group calling themselves the New Titans were waiting there for Superboy. As Superboy demands an explanation Tim reveals that Superboy has systematically annihilated all the heroes of Earth, and he is here to claim vengeance for Batman and Wonder Girl. Superboy reluctantly fights the New Titans and then is aided by Simon who is wearing a suit similar to Lex Luthor. Simon kills the New Titans with no remorse and then kills Lori as well. This sends Conner into a rage and Simon reveals that this is how things are supposed to be since he is a Valentine and Superboy is a Luthor. After Superboy kills Simon he is confronted by Lex who congratulates him on a job well done for destroying the earth. Lex wishes that Conner embrace his Luthor heritage, and suddenly Martha Kent appears and tells him to fight it, that that is not who Conner is. After some internal struggle he turns away from it and finds that the voice that he had been hearing was not Martha, but instead, Psyonic Lad who tells him that he must use his Tactile Telekinesis to remove an alien thing that was stuck on him. Earlier Superboy and Psyonic Lad had traveled to a spaceship that was headed for earth. After going inside they found the bridge and saw the lone pilot had a strange red ooze on his chest. Psyonic Lad had suggested that Superboy remove it with his Tactile Telekinesis, which Superboy attempted to do. Unfortunately, the creature attached to him and the whole episode had been all in Conner's mind. When they returned to earth, Steel analyses the creature and remarks that it is similar to a creature that Superman encountered called the Black Mercy, which had made Superman live his greatest desires. Steel, then, dubbed this creature the Red Mercy since it made one feel his or her greatest fears. Inside the ship they found a lot of weapons as well. What troubled Steel was that he analysed the flight trajectory of the ship and saw that they were headed not just to earth, but specifically to Smallville.

The Phantom Stranger ponders that he has been waiting for the upcoming moment for centuries and also is surprised that the one that would help him complete his "greatest work" would be Superboy as he watches him fly by. He then turns into a flock of ravens and flies away. First, he heads to the Kent Farm, where Psyonic Lad is talking to the mysterious woman that sent him on his mission to kill Superboy. Sanjay is having second thoughts about killing him and implies that Conner may become the Prime Hunter in the future. the Livestock becomes agitated and goes to see what is going on and finds the flock of ravens, which Sanjay tries to read the mind of, only to discover that it is the Phantom Stranger and quickly shuts Psyonic Lad out.

Later, Simon is trying to get back to his projects that he has been neglecting as of late. As he starts to work on a weather machine the flock of ravens flies by and takes the machine that Simon was working on.

Krypto and Superboy are flying by downtown Smallville, when Krypto flies down to meet Mr. Lynch, who Conner had met in the first issue and had given him a wooden carving. Lynch asks Superboy if he had read up on Smallville's history. Superboy denies meeting him since he met him as Conner not Superboy. Mr. Lynch shrugs it off and begins to tell Superboy a story of Smallville's past during the frontier days.

In those days, the law of the town was Sheriff Nate Kent, who is presumably the Kent's ancestor, and Albert Valentine, who is presumably Simon's ancestor. Kent and Valentine were tough but fair Sheriffs, and knew there was trouble when Eben Took became a resident of Smallville. Took had been a doctor in England but had been shunned from England for his arcane practices. Took had three children who married when they grew but kept to the Took compound. One day a boy named Jonathan Talbot had disappeared and was found dead in the Smallville swamp. The thing that drew Kent to the Took was that Talbot's body had been mutilated and arcane symbols were carved into his chest. Kent and Valentine assembled a posse and headed to the Took compound. Took's children and grandchildren tried to prevent the posse from entering and started a brawl with them. One of the members of the posse then started a fire that consumed the compound that killed the entire Took family. But, Kent followed Eben Took to his concrete silo and while investigating found a trap door where he found Took and a mysterious figure performing an occult ceremony with the boy's missing parts. Took using magic closed the trap door and as Kent was exiting the building the Silo exploded.

Mr. Lynch made reference to this as 'the broken silo' that Conner and friends have been looking for since the incident with Poison Ivy, at which point Conner saw that Mr. Lynch had been taken over by the Phantom Stranger. The Stranger proceeds to warm Conner of three things, one that 'she' is in danger, two, that who Conner calls friend is not, and three that the next time they meet it won't be him but he must follow. When Conner demands an explanation Mr. Lynch falls unconscious and Simon's machine falls from the sky as the flock of ravens flies by. At that moment, Simon finds Conner and points out that everyone in town has fallen asleep standing up or doing whatever they were doing. The reason they were not affected was because Psyonic Lad shielded them from whatever the Phantom Stranger did. Conner told Simon that he knew what the broken silo was and cross-referencing maps using his GPS discovers that the farm standing where the Took compound used to be was the Luthor farm.

In the meantime Lori was out smoking in her usual spot when a flash of light from the arcane stones flashes and reveals a trap door. When she opens it a flash of light engulfs her and she screams. When Superboy, Simon and Psyonic Lad arrive, they find the trap door and the Phantom Stranger reveals that Lori was taken inside. Under the trap door they find the altar that Took used when he shut out Sheriff Kent and the Stranger reveals a stairway underneath. the stairs go down for what appears to be several miles and they are lined with a thin layer of lead to prevent presumably either Superboy or Superman from peering down inside it. When they arrive at the bottom, they find a huge cave with what appears to be a labor camp of zombies and other strange creatures.

The zombies seem to be farming strange giant plants and tending to evil looking pig creatures among other things. The Phantom Stranger goes on to explain that these creatures all work in a hive mind, and they are waiting for the time to destroy Smallville. He goes on to reveal that they are in Hollowville, and that in spite of Superman's invulnerability he would be susceptible to their magic, if he was ever to find Hollowville. They have a factory like building that is rendering the population of Smallville helpless. Psyonic Lad senses where Lori is being held captive and the Stranger separates the group in two, sending Simon and Psyonic Lad to where Lori is and he and Superboy go off to the factory. In the factory Superboy gets a better look at the creatures and sees that they are Golems made possibly from the original family members of the Took family and are being controlled by Tannarak who turns out to be one of the Phantom Stranger's oldest enemies.

In the meantime, Simon and Psyonic Lad track down where Lori is being held. As they walk Simon suggests that Psyonic Lad change his name to "Psion" to shorten his name. When they arrive to the barn where Lori is being held, she is less than pleased to see who her rescuers are, as she was hoping that Superboy would be the one to rescue her. As Lori and Simon get into an argument about the color of Simon's Parasite Frogs Psion gets a message from the woman in the future who urges him to kill Simon while he has a chance, because as it turns out, Simon will become the Prime Hunter in the future. Psion refuses to kill Simon because he has become friends with him and knows that there is good in him, the argument escalates in his mind that Lori and Simon take notice. As he tries to explain that it was just a headache they are attacked by the Parasite who is now under the employ of the Hollow Men, and with Psion disabled the rest of the Hollow Men take notice of them.

Superboy and the Phantom Stranger enter the factory building and they find that the whole building is full of hundreds of clones of Superboy. Superboy realizes that the machine is Gillam's farm was a scanning device and that is the reason they were able to clone him. The Stranger explains that they are merely hollow shells and that they are going to be filled with the souls of the people in Smallville. Superboy wonders how he knows this and the Stranger reveals that he is the one responsible for this. At that moment, Eben Took and his sons appear, and the Stranger attacks Superboy and Krypto. He tries to lunge at Took who merely swats him away with tremendous force. With Superboy defeated, the Stranger reveals that he is not the Phantom Stranger at all, and the impostor Stranger has captured the real Phantom Stranger in a magical circle.

It is revealed that in 45,025 B.C., Tannarak tried to conquer Atlantis with an army of clones, but he was stopped by a wizard named Arion along with help of the Phantom Stranger, both of whom vanquished Tannarak and his army. Later, in the 10th Century a group of Vikings were investigating a cave that had runes they could not understand. As they went deeper into the cave, the lead Viking discovers an army of soulless clones of himself. Again, the Phantom Stranger appears and reveals that the court magician Tannarak had created these clones and would use the souls of the people. Fortunately for all, Tannarak did not wait long enough between attempts so he was weak. The Vikings then made short work of the clones by burning them. In 1884, Eben Took is praying asking God why he had taken his youngest son. He is suddenly interrupted by his sons as Tannarak comes calling in a carriage. Tannarak offers to bring back his youngest son, promising that he can make life from the dead soil in Took's farm. Later on, it is revealed that it was indeed Took's children who were the ones that kidnapped Johnathan Talbot, and they took him in order to bring back their younger brother. Took is disappointed because the ritual did not work to which Tannarak replies that it is work that can take decades which angers Took. Tannarak then promises that he can make Took and his family immortal by making a blood pact with him which he accepts.

In the present, Tannarak tries to entice Superboy to do the same and lead his army. Superboy declines his offer by blasting him with his heat vision. Tannarak then stops him using his magic revealing that the souls of the people of Smallville are now floating in limbo awaiting to be put in the Superboy clones.

Tannarak reveals that he is using the souls in Limbo to power the clones and that this is the most powerful army that he has created. Meanwhile back in the barn, Simon and Lori are facing down the Parasite. They are quite worried because Psion, the only one with powers, is now unconscious. Simon tries to use his Parasite frogs on the Parasite which turns out to be futile. When the Parasite slams him against the wall, he instructs Lori to use the helmet that he has been wearing. Lori blasts the Parasite with a powerful ray that throws the Parasite into the pen with the zombie pigs. Lori is horrified that Simon casually wears this around, but Simon reveals that unfortunately it only has one charge which means they are vulnerable to the Hollow Men that are breaking down the barn doors.

Meanwhile, Tannarak is taunting the Phantom Stranger for his choice in allies and claims that he is stronger than the last time they fought. The Stranger reveals that he had been talking through Mr. Lynch the whole time that he had been captured, which was roughly around the time that he discovered Hollowville. He reveals that the wood carving that he gave Superboy as Lynch is actually a weapon in which he had stored enough of his power to escape the snare. Superboy then tosses it to him and the Stranger is set free.

Meanwhile, Simon and Lori are doing all they can from barricading themselves from the Hollow Men. Simon figures out that the Hollow Men are being controlled by a radio frequency. Back at the clone room, Superboy manages to free himself from the clutches of Took and his sons, and he then sends Krypto to destroy the radio tower on top of the building. Superboy manages to defeat Took's sons, and then Krypto takes care of Eben himself. Superboy then sees in a monitor that Lori and Simon are about to be overrun by Hollow Men and goes to the main control panel and destroys it, at the same time, Lori starts to press buttons on a scrambler that Simon was carrying, at that moment, the Hollow Men start to fall apart, both Lori and Superboy thinking they were the ones that defeated them. At that moment Psion then wakes up.

The Phantom Stranger then looms over a defeated Tannarak demanding that he release the souls of the people in Smallville to which Tannarak refuses. At that moment, Simon and the others come into the building and at that moment Psion realizes that he can feel the souls of the people of Smallville, and with the help of the Phantom Stranger he manages to release them from Limbo and then returns them to their bodies.

Defeated, Tannarak then takes the life essence from the Took family and then escapes. With Tannarak gone, Hollowville begins to fall and collapse on itself. Superboy is worried for the clones which, both the Phantom Stranger and Lori, reassure him that he is the only one that matters because unlike the clones he has a soul and that's what matters.

The Phantom Stranger then transports the group and the Parasite to the surface and tells them that he will chase Tannarak, even though he might already be gone, and with that he bids Superboy and his friends farewell. Simon questions Sanjay about what he was saying when he zoned out and Psion gives him a flimsy excuse that Simon does not believe. In the end, Superboy sits once more atop the Smallville water tower, he ponders what it would have been like to have been a normal human once more, he realizes that he is where he needs to be and surrounded by the friends that suit him just fine and realizes that he is happy with his life the way it is.

It was announced by DC comics that all of their series will come to an end and be relaunched in September 2011, and with this announcement, Superboy ends with issue 11.