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Superboy # 60

PLOT

• Barda shows up at the JLA Watchtower through a Boom Tube with a dying Superboy, who's wearing what at first appears to be a variation of the jacket he usually wears. Some form of energy is lancing out from the jacket, and part of it strikes Wonder Woman's bracelet, causing her to have a vision of realities that she's never before seen. Superboy mentions a "blackness coming" to "this earth next..." After life-saving measures are taken, Superboy dies anyway, leaving the JLAers to mourn his passing...
• ...until a living Superboy, who arrived at the Watchtower with Superman, is revealed, confusing both the Kid and the JLAers. Superboy wants his other self to be taken to Cadmus for testing. . . and we see that Superman and Wonder Woman are getting an idea about what's happened.
• At Cadmus it's determined that the dead Superboy isn't a copy of the original -- for all intents and purposes, he IS the original. Wonder Woman mentions that if they knew the purpose behind the jacket that the dead Superboy had been wearing, then they might understand what was going on. Superboy sets out in search of the technology-loving Hairies...
• ... while Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman realize "we're all thinking the same thing."
• After the Hairies have examined the jacket, they find that it's an "instant recall device," but they cannot determine where it goes. "Isn't dimensional, isn't time-travel..." Oh, yeah--it's DNA-specific, meaning only Superboy could utilize it for whatever purpose it has...
• Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman take the Kid off to tell him about Hypertime and how they think that the dead Superboy was travelling through Hypertime.
• IMPORTANT--Superman gives a "definition" of Hypertime (which just so happens to match up with what's on the rest of this site)--"Hypertime is an infinite number of realities that continually diverge and converge and overlap and circle back."
• Wonder Woman realizes that "something is moving across Hypertime, threatening different realities," and also that ONLY Superboy can investigate, because he's the only one who can wear the "Hyperjacket"
• Superboy is all for it, even after Batman reveals what's needed to power the Hyperjacket -- a nuclear explosion. After a warning from Superman that the explosion may just kill him, Superboy blasts off anyway, and is sent hurtling through Hypertime...
• ...only to end up in what we the readers recognize as a Batcave filled with Kryptonian relics. It's here that we meet a divergent version of Batman and his sidekick -- Superboy, who wears a costume with elements of both "our" Superboy's and Robin's costumes. It's also here... that the issue ends.

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