DC’s Superboy ‘Clone Saga’ Is The Story Fans Actually Deserve
For better or for worse, clones are a mainstay in DC and Marvel Comics, and almost nowhere is that more apparent than in Superboy and Spider-Man's publication histories. Clone stories have a reputation of being divisive, or at the very least frustrating for fans, as seen with Spider-Man's panned «Clone Saga» story that introduced Peter Parker's double, Ben Reilly. Even so, the trajectory of Conner Kent's Superboy and his clone, Match, in Suicide Squad proves that clone stories can carry a unique emotional weight while also inviting fans to look at comics' most iconic characters in new light.
To start, what makes Conner Kent (also known as Kon-El) unique in comparison to other clones in superhero comics is that he was created from DNA belonging to Superman and the villainous Lex Luthor. This makes Conner's clone, Match, a clone of a clone. Conner was created in a test tube at Cadmus as part of an operation to replace Superman, while Match was created under even darker circumstances by a group called the Agenda. And while Conner is able to pass in public as a perfect, if charmingly bratty, copy of Superman, Match stands out because of his deeply unstable nature and limited speech capabilities that are reminiscent of Superman's Bizarro clone. While Match has been appearing in Superboy comics since the 1990s, only in the most recent Suicide Squad run has he been given the chance to unpack the horrifying truth about his identity as a clone of a clone.
Related: Spider-Man's New Clone Saga Fails to Learn From Controversial Original
Robbie Thompson, Dexter Soy, and Eduardo Pansica's Suicide Squad featured Superboy on the team, leaving fans surprised as to how Conner first got there. But when the real Conner appeared later on in
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