The Curious Case of SUPERBOY & SUPERMAN's Armor

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January’s Superboy #1 Annual (details and images released Thursday by DC) certainly offers up an intriguing image – Superboy apparently wearing Superman’s controversial Kryptonian armor while Superman himself is seen wearing his pre-armor Action Comics t-shirt and jeans look.

Readers might be tempted to write that off as simply your standard exaggerated cover tease (and for accuracy sakes, DC qualifies the image as a promo image and not the final cover art), but as it turns out, this is actually the second time this costume dynamic has been seen.

 

A closer inspection of the cover of December’s Superboy #15 shows Superman in his jeans/t-shirt look again, while an obviously-in-distress Superboy is seen hooked up to non-descript machines, and his N.O.W.H.E.R.E. containment seems to be morphing (look around the chest) into the blue armor. All the while an obviously concerned Superman looks on, in the Fortress of Solitude no less.

“With Superboy dying from the wounds H’el inflicted on him...” reads the solicitation copy to Superboy #15, part of the Superman Family “H’el of Earth” crossover event.

Could those machines be life-support? Could the armor be a means to help save Superboy?

 

Add this to the fact Superman sports a new costume in the promo art to Andy Diggle and Tony Daniel’s Action Comics #18 (appearing in a seemingly Kryptonian background) and it again leads to the question – could Superboy be inheriting Superman’s armor in the coming months, perhaps long-term, necessitating Superman getting a new costume?

DC declined to comment on our speculation. But there is a Superman panel Thursday evening at 6:30pm ET at New York Comic Con so maybe the topic will be addressed then.

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