Before this volume was even officially solicited, I predicted it would become my favorite release of 2025. A brief perusal of the "Your Favorite Things of the Year" discussion proves that assertion to be true, at least so far. I have been reading it at the rate of approximately one story per day ever since I finished DCF: Superman Family (about two weeks now). I am currently a bit more than halfway through but I have yet to see the titular "superdog." He doesn't make his first appearance until page 350. His second and only other story in this volume, a sequel to the first, begins on page 477, about 60 pages from the end of the book. So if you're expecting to find a lot of Krypto stories, you won't find them here.
But you will find a ton of Silver Age goodness featuring the Boy of Steel. I personally amd most familar with the Man of Steel of the last 40 years, for most versions of which, "Superboy" did not exist. More recently the first seven years of stories (see my "Superman from the Beginning" posts in "What Comic Books Have You Read Today?"), and there's no Superboy there, either. I know I am an outlier on this board when it comes to this opinion, but I love the concept of the "Pocket Universe" Superboy. AFAIAC, "The Superdog from Krypton" is a collection of "untold tales" of that version.
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Many of these 50s stories would be recycled in the 60s so there may be some sense of deja vu.
I've only read the first story in this volume so far -- Superboy is summoned below the earth by a subterranean race whose queen has created a Superboy robot (called Superlad) to keep order, but her rival suspects Superlad is a robot, and Superboy helps her defend her reign and remove suspicion surrounding the robot -- sheesh, what a plot! And an absolute treat after the gritted-teeth relentlessness of Peacemaker!
In another era, this 1954 story could have expanded Superboy's world with his own secret place, his "Atlantis" or "Kandor", if you will. But, alas, it is ignored and forgotten until the story gets recycled in Adventure Comics #302 (N'62) where "Superlad" is now "Steelboy" and the subterranean race gets forgotten again!
And an absolute treat after the gritted-teeth relentlessness of Peacemaker!
I'll bet!
...and the subterranean race gets forgotten again!
If this were an RTD or Stephan Moffet Doctor Who story, the race would have the power to be "forgotten" as long as no one is interracting with them directly.
These 1954-55 stories from the Adventure and Superboy titles predate my 1958 initiation into the “Super” titles*. The quality of the writing is surprisingly good. The other thing that surprised me so far was the cap that Clark was wearing. I never saw a human being wearing a cap like that, only Donald Duck’s nephews. Because of other demands on my time, so far I am only up to page 78
*I’m hopeful that sales justify continuing the Superboy reprints. It will take several volumes to get to ones I read as a kid.