...and Superboy joins the Scouts!

When I was a kid I didn't really see the point of Superboy. After all, he wore the same costume as Superman and in fact was almost indistinguishable from him. I suppose he was easier to draw, because he had fewer muscles. But his adventures just weren't as interesting.

Nowadays of course I really don't see the point of the modern Superboy character (who isn't actually Superboy anyway). He's just a slightly nastier, smuttier version of Superman, and his costume (it's not called a "uniform" anymore) is totally stupid.

Well, here's the original, proper version of Superboy, doing proper, traditional, wholesome things that proper traditional teenage super-heroes are supposed to do. And which probably no boys do anymore at all!

Superman goes to church...

More Superman stuff, just to raise my flagging spirits! (This and this really hurt this morning.) Here Superman visits a Catholic church. (It's not so improbable, if you consider that his wife is a Catholic.)

And the Catholic Church could certainly use a real Superman (e.g. the services of a man who is also God, perhaps!) right now. The big problem with "conservative" Catholics is that they think the world is going to the dogs (which it is) but they also imagine that the Catholic Church somehow has all the answers that will solve everything. (Yes, I'm talking about people like this.) "Traditionalists" are at least a bit more realistic, in that they concede that the Catholic Church itself is going to the dogs as well, and in fact that it's the decline of the Catholic Church (in real terms) that is one of the biggest causes of the secular calamity the world is facing.

Just to take one example, the President of the Vatican Bank has pointed out that the real cause of the current economic collapse in the west is the collapse of the birthrate. He is, of course, quite right. But will the Catholic Church restore its traditional teaching about the Sixth Commandment? Don't bet on it!