The Punk Scene In Shusterville

Recently I wrote a four part series for Orlando Weekly about the “Superboy” TV program they filmed in and around the City Beautiful twenty-five years ago. There was a lot of ground to cover, and one angle I had to leave out was the show’s handful of references to punk rock. There’s an episode in season one where Superboy goes undercover at a punk club to thwart a gangster (or is it a demon?), but everyone there looks more Sisters of Mercy than Sex Pistols—except Superboy, whose disguise is straight up Glenn Hughes from the Village People (complete with bushy facial hair).

There’s another instance where a character tells Clark he’s “taking the punk thing too far” because his hair is messy or his clothes are all torn up from fighting some evil, but the best of these moments can be seen in the still above. Wandering around town like a stray dog, the evil Bizarro makes his way to a shopping center where these extras from Dudes emerge from a store, take one look at him, and tell him his outfit looks stupid. That’s right, Billy; punk rockers are so crazy they aren’t even fazed by rampaging Superboy clones.

Yes, Bizarro is a clone in this series, not an alien. Clark also spends the last two seasons interning for the FBI. Listen, the producers of this show got off on tweaking canon. That male punk at the strip mall is wearing cargo pants, for the love of Christ!