"SUPERBOY'S GREATEST GAMBLE!"

Images copyright DC COMICS

Less than four months short of 47 years, today I finally got to read the conclusion to a two-part SUPERBOY tale, the first instalment of which I read way back in December of 1968.  (For the full story behind that event, click here.)  It doesn't seem like anywhere near that length of time, and I'm amazed that it's sped by so quickly.  Several school pals who were alive when I read the first part have long since departed this mortal vale, yet because my mind has returned to '68, it feels like they're still out there, going about their everyday lives just as they once did in happy days of yesteryear.

What's interesting about the conclusion is that Superboy colludes in what appears to be the death of two alien life forms.  Okay, so they're not flesh and blood (and they're evil), but they're sentient beings, so I'm somewhat surprised at this story receiving editorial approval.  While it certainly displays a degree of imagination, it feels like the wrap-up was written by a different writer to the first part.  Either that, or he didn't know how he was going to tie it all together when he began it.

As with WORLD'S FINEST #180 (see here), I read my newly acquired SUPERBOY #148 in a room, the door of which displays the actual number plate of the house in which I lived when I read the first part of the tale, nearly 47 years ago. What's more, the room has furniture which graced my previous room's interiors, so there's an almost tangible air of continuity and connection, which appeals to my overdeveloped sense of nostalgia.

But there's more!  My screensaver is the view from my old bedroom window of the house in which I stayed when this mag was first published, so it was easy to make-believe as I sat down to type this that I'd read it in the same room where I'd read the first part of the tale, ten days before Christmas on a dark December late afternoon in 1968.

Okay, my mental associations with this mag are imaginary rather than memory, but don't let that prevent you from sharing your own personal reminiscences (if you have any) of this comicbook with your fellow Criv-ites in the comments section.

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Y'know, now that I think about it, this story seems strangely familiar, making me wonder if I'd perhaps read it out of sequence before I bought #146.  This would account for me not realizing I'd already read the denouement in advance of the first part of the tale, especially as the wrap-up takes a slightly different turn from what one would naturally expect from the set-up.  Perhaps it was one of the issues contained in a DOUBLE DOUBLE COMIC?  Still glad to have it though, whatever the case.

AND WHERE DO YOU COME FROM?

Do you know where you're from?  No, I'm not talking the 'birds and the bees'.  What I mean is, do you have a sense of self springing from a particular area where you grew up or lived at some point in your life?  For example, I'm Glasgow-born and lived in the West End of the city for the first year and a half of my life before moving to a new town.  However, although I'm a Glaswegian by birth, I don't feel so 'connected' to the city as the town in which I grew up.

Humans seem to be territorial creatures and tend to align themselves with the neighbourhood they were raised or lived in during the formative years of their lives.  I spent five and a half of my first seven years of existence in one neighbourhood, and the next six years, seven months of my life in another neighbourhood, before moving back to the first one.  Apart from four years spent in yet another neighbourhood from 1983 to '87, I've now lived in my current neighbourhood for forty-four and a half years of my life.

Each of those two neighbourhoods (and others) had their gangs, who were bitter enemies of one another.  Which is not to say normal, well-balanced kids from each area didn't get along perfectly well together, but 'officially', as far as the neddish gangs were concerned, they were at war.

If I were to label myself based on where I've lived longest, I'd be a 'Murray' man, but as I spent nearly seven years of my life from the age of seven, to five months short of my fourteenth birthday in an area called Westwood, I tend to regard myself as more of a 'Westwood' man.  After all, I spent most of my primary school years there, and continued to go to secondary school in the area, even spending the final two and a half years of my school life there after returning to the Murray.

Thing is though, as I lived in the Murray first, and have now lived here longer, I feel slightly disloyal in not considering myself, first and foremost, a Murray man.  As I mentioned, I only lived in the Westwood for just under seven years, but that period encompasses most of my school life, and just about everyone I still know from childhood I first met while I was living there.  Not only that, proportionately, that period was around half my life at that point, so that's quite a significant factor to consider.

So, to which area should I pin my loyalties and sense of identity - Murray or Westwood?

Funnily enough, I don't have the same problem when describing my Nationality on forms - I always put British.  That's because I'm a British Scot or a Scottish Brit - doesn't much matter which way you put it.  So why's it so hard when deciding which neighbourhood I'm really from?  I suppose I could say I'm a Westwood man who lives in the Murray, or a Murray man who lived in the Westwood, but neither seems to do the situation justice.

Both areas left an impression on me in my formative years, and in embracing one, I don't want to spurn the other.  The best I can do is to describe myself as a Westwood/Murray man, or a Murray/Westwood man, but it still seems to me like sitting on the fence to some degree.

Aw, shoot!  I'll work it out one day I guess.  What I want to know though, is where you consider yourself from.  Is it the area you grew up, or the one of which you have the fondest memories - or even the one you've lived in longest?  Or don't you think that way?  Perhaps I've just got far too much time on my hands in even pondering the matter?

If you feel at all motivated, Crivs, share your thoughts and observations in the comments section.  After all, that's what it's there for.