Hoo-boy! What goes on? Is this for real? So Smallville finally wised up to that holier-than-thou hero! At last, everyone realizes he's just a Heel of Steel! This is the happiest day of my life! Duhhhh!... They've got to be kidding!... What kind of a wacky gag is this? No! It can't be true! Fate wouldn't be that cruel to me! 
Superboy #173 is an issue of the series Superboy (Volume 1) with a cover date of April, 1971.
Synopsis for "The Super-Clark of Smallville!"
Clark Kent pretends that he has gained powers from ambrosia dust, the "food of the gods", which Professor Lang has discovered when Lana catches him lifting a heavy bookcase off her father with one hand. At first, Clark finds it amusing to use his powers openly as Clark Kent, but the novelty soon wears off. Lex Luthor comes to Smallville and saps Superboy's powers with a device. Superboy concocts some real ambrosia, eats it, and gains the powers of the gods, enabling him to defeat Luthor. When the ambrosia wears off, Superboy's normal powers return.
Appearing in "The Super-Clark of Smallville!"
Featured Characters:
- Superboy (First appearance as Super-Clark)
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Democritus (Flashback only)
- Hades (Mentioned only)
- Hermes (Mentioned only)
- Interpol (Voice)
- Martha Kent
- Zeus (Mentioned only)
Locations:
- Greece (Flashback only)
- Sahara Desert (Mentioned only)
- United States of America
- Smallville
- Kent General Store
- Store-Room
- Kent Home
- Basement
- Lang Farm
- Laboratory
- Smallville Bay
- Smallville High School
- School Stadium
- Kent General Store
- Smallville
Items:
- Ambrosia (Flashback and main story)
- Cryogenic Grenade
- Depolarizer
- Laser-Beam Ring
- Power-Nullifier
Vehicles:
- Bathysphere
Synopsis for "Trust Me or Kill Me!"
Mordru creates a duplicate of Cosmic Boy and challenges Superboy to tell which is which, or see the Legion destroyed.
Appearing in "Trust Me or Kill Me!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Notes
- Trust Me or Kill me! is reprinted in Legion of Super-Heroes Archives Vol. 10.
Trivia
- In Trust Me or Kill Me!, one of the two Cosmic Boys makes an error in his recollection far earlier in the story than when Superboy determines which was Mordru's fake. When asked by Superboy to recall the details of their first meeting, the Cosmic Boy being addressed finishes the story by claiming that Superboy passed the Legionnaires' tests and was inaugurated into the Legion the following day. This statement is accompanied by a panel showing Superboy being sworn into the LSH amidst other members including Mon-El and Lightning Lass. However, in actuality, Superboy failed the Legion's tests, per Cosmic Boy and the others' designs, as the real test was to determine Superboy's character from his handling of rejection. In addition, both Mon-El and Lightning Lass, at the very least, definitely joined the Legion after Superboy's inauguration. The fact that Superboy claims this recollection of events was accurate reflects that this was likely not intended by writer Cary Bates to be an intentional discrepancy, but rather was a sincere scripting error.
See Also