Superboy Saves 1776 in Adventure Comics 296 May 1962

Adventures Comics May 1962On a vacation to Washington D.C. with his foster parents, young Clark Kent (aka Superboy) expresses thanks for the Kryptonese rocket having landed in America.  After admiring the Declaration of Independence, they notice an issue of the Pennsylvania Gazette with the headline “Kents Perish at Party Local Family Dies” and the large engraving is–of them. Superboy admires the Declaration of IndependenceWith the Kents, Clark must investigate the strange circumstances. The Boy of Steel searches old hulks of colonial merchant ships for perfectly preserved clothes they can wear when they step out of the protective plastic bubble upon arrival in “quaint” Philadelphia. Superboy and his foster parents travel back to 1776 Clever clean-cut Clark pays a call to the proprietor of the Pennsylvania Gazette, none other than Benjamin Franklin, to ask for work.  Beguiled by Clark’s quoting aphorisms from Poor Richard’s Almanac, Franklin signs him on as a reporter.Superboy meets Ben FranklinHis first assignment is to cover the midnight ride of Paul Revere, but when he gets to the old North Church, one of the lanterns is dark and there’s no time to relight it the ordinary way.  Superboy reignites the wick with his heat vision, so Revere will get the correct signal, which will not really alter history.  Franklin can’t understand how he got the scoop, but that won’t stop him from getting the story out first.Superboy makes sure Paul Revere gets the signalA few weeks later, Franklin goes off to the signing of the Declaration.  Superboy follows him and hides in a closet to watch the historic event—which almost doesn’t happen, because John Hancock has sprained his hand.  Moving faster than the human eye can see, the lad holds Hancock’s hand and guides the quill so he can sign as boldly as possible.Superboy helps John Hancock sign the DeclarationOh no!  The window is opened to let in some fresh air and a gust of wind blows the precious document outside the building and towards the Liberty Bell.  Superboy succeeds in recapturing the Declaration, but the bell starts to ring out for freedom and cracks when it strikes his superhard body.  There’s no time to change back into his street clothes.  The red cape is mistaken for a British uniform as he is nearly shot down after delivering the document to Jefferson.Superboy cracks the Liberty BellThere’s no time to rest—the evening is stormy and Franklin is eager to test his theory about electricity.  Kent’s telescopic vision shows that there’s not enough string to carry the kite up to the clouds, so he manages once again to slip away, get into his blue and red suit, and extend the kite string bearing the key with wire made from nails, stretched long and thing with his superstrength.  Franklin amazes his guests that evening.Superboy saves Ben Franklin's experiment with electricitySuddenly Kent realizes that he and his foster parents must have disappeared during the Boston Tea Party, so he must dispel any suspicions that they are British spies and arrange for their safe travel back home to Smallville.  His foster parents are troubled by the inconvenient fact that their adventure to the past is riddled with historical inaccuracies.  A cosmic cloud “caused a freak reaction with the time barrier—and affected our senses!”  Luckily the people they met in the past were unaffected by the cosmic cloud because they did not time travel.  The Clarks still made history because a copy of the Pennsylvania Gazelle was somehow preserved by his super breath and was now on display in the gallery they visited.Superboy travels back in timeSuperboy explains it all to DadAt the end of the episode, Superman invited young readers to go to the King Bros. Sells & Gray circus when it stopped at Palisades Amusement Park in April, with five different discount coupons as added incentive…Superman circus promotion