"Rocketed to Earth from the exploding planet Krypton, baby Kal-El was adopted by a kindly couple named Jonathan and Martha Kent. Re-named Clark, he grew to adolescence in Smallville, learning to use wisely the amazing super-powers that would one day make him The World's Greatest Hero! These are the adventures of Superman when he was...Superboy!"

After a short run of appearances in Adventure Comics (#451-458) and The Superman Family (#182, #191-198), Superboy received his own title which was launched in January of 1980, as The New Adventures of Superboy (not to be confused with the companion comic for the UPN series Superboy starring first John Haymes Newton, then Gerard Christopher as Superboy/Clark Kent and Stacy Haiduk as Lana Lang) brought the Teen of Steel back from the 30th Century, where he was hanging out with the Legion of Super-Heroes and into his own short-lived title. While a revival was going on in the future, the past/present wasn't so kind, as John Byrne's Legends and Man of Steel erased Superboy from the DC Universe continuity. After the Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Teen of Steel was retconned out of existence as Superman never had a career in Smallville as Superboy before arriving as an adult in Metropolis and working for the Daily Planet. It wasn't until Geoff Johns, that the Teen of Steel returned in the diabolical form of Superboy/man Prime.

This series precedes the head-scratching UPN series The Adventures of Superboy (head-scratching in that the series was developed by the Salkinds; who originally financed Superman: The Movie which also established that their was no Superboy. And, after it had been firmly established that Superboy no longer existed in the DCU) that ran from 1988 - 1991; and Smallville, which ran for ten seasons on the CW network.

The New Adventures of Superboy ran for 54 issues from January 1980 to January 1984. A backup series featuring "Dial "H" for Hero" starring Chris King and Vicki Grant appeared from issues #28 through #50.