From the character's first published story in 1944 until 1992, the title Superboy was applied to versions of the adventures of Superman as a boy, teenager or young adult.

The primary settings for the stories were the fictional town of Smallville, the 30th Century (where Superboy featured in time travel adventures with the Legion of Super-Heroes) and universities attended by Clark Kent.

In issue #259, a villain named Psycho-Warrior revealed details to Clark Kent about his parents' deaths when he caused him to crash into the Metropolis Superman Museum.

Following the erasure of Superboy's history in Crisis on Infinite Earths, another version of Clark Kent was created in order to salvage the Legion's timeline.

4) #59 (February 1999), Superman gave him the Kryptonian name Kon-El and his secret identity of Josh Leslie Kent, in effect making him part of the El family.

[22] Around the same time as his public debut, Superboy learns of his Kryptonian origin,[23] and several weeks later, he gives reporter Perry White the exclusive story about his alien background.

Through clever use of his super-powers and robot duplicates of himself (in both identities), Clark is always able to avoid the traps Lana sets for him in order to determine the truth.

Not until Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Lad come into the past to recruit him for the thirtieth-century Legion of Super-Heroes[29] does Superboy find a group of super-powered friends with whom he regularly interacts.

[36] Through the rest of his years in high school, Pete and Lana remain Clark's closest friends, and also share numerous adventures with Superboy both in the twentieth century and with the Legion in the thirtieth.

Shortly after his graduation from high school, Superboy takes his adoptive parents on a holiday in the Caribbean where they contract a rare tropical disease.

[38] In Metropolis, Clark readily befriends the students who share his dorm suite, Tommy Lee, Dave Hammond and the alcoholic Ducky Ginsberg.

In his junior year, Superboy again feels helpless when he is not present to stop an automobile accident involving Ducky, caused by his own drunk driving.

[43] Upset by his inability to save his parents and friends, Superboy exiles himself until, three months later, Perry White, using Billy's whistle, calls him back into action to battle Lex Luthor.

Clark's history as Superboy was also restored in the main DC Comics universe via the intervention of Doctor Manhattan, saving the Legion of Superheroes' timeline.

[48] Unlike previous characters bearing the name, this Superboy is a clone created to replace the seemingly dead Superman, rather than simply being an adolescent Clark Kent.

He also learns that he is not a clone of Superman, but rather genetically engineered to be as Kryptonian as possible, although his genes originate from the human DNA of Paul Westfield, director of the government sector known as Project Cadmus that had created the Kid.

During the "Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds" storyline, Brainiac 5 resurrects Conner in the 31st century after arranging for him to spend 1,000 years in the Kryptonian regeneration chamber that revived Superman after his battle with Doomsday and introducing into it a hair from Lex Luthor.

A time traveler from the 30th century, the man who would later be known as Harvest, arrived and retrieved Jon's body, recognizing his condition to be a kind of torpor rather than true death.

During the 2013–2014 "Forever Evil" storyline, the Teen Titans, after a battle with the Crime Syndicate's Johnny Quick and Atomica, are sent traveling through time,[57] arriving in the alternate future where Jon and Harvest wage war against metahumans.

Kon-El defeats his vicious progenitor, but before he can finish him off, is summoned through time by the Oracle, leading to the "Krypton Returns" story arc.

[58] With Kon-El apparently having been killed off in the "Krypton Returns" crossover storyline, Jon takes over as the lead character of the Superboy comic book with issue #26.

The younger Jon teams up with Kon to fight against his older, psychotic self with help from Rose Wilson and Guardian, but find they are massively outmatched by him.

Jon co-stars with Damian Wayne in the DC Rebirth comic book series Super Sons as Superboy and Robin.

This Superboy hails from the parallel Earth known as Earth-Prime, where Superman and the other DC superheroes only exist as fictional comic book characters.

[88] At a subsequent trial in October 2006, Time Warner (now the parent company of DC Comics) defended itself against a copyright infringement suit by the Siegels by arguing that Judge Lew's summary judgment was incorrect.

[87] Attorney Jesse J. Kruger, however, noted that character reboots and retcons could create enough differences so that any future version of Superboy might avoid a claim by the Siegels.

In the Secret Origin of the Teen Titans back-up story (March 28, 2007) in the weekly 52 limited series, an illustration of Superboy was changed into Wonder Girl.

[89] In the Sinestro Corps War storyline in the Green Lantern titles and in the Countdown to Final Crisis limited series, the Superboy-Prime character was referred to as Superman-Prime, a development that came about in part because of the legal dispute.

[93][94] Judge Larson later expanded his ruling to allow the Siegel heirs to claim additional plots, Superman characters, costuming, and indicia.

"[100] The Hollywood Reporter said the ruling likely precludes any further attempt by the Siegel heirs to terminate DC Comics' copyright ownership of the character, although an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is not barred.