Can somebody PLEASE explain and draw an illustrated constellation of all the many characters so named? So somebody actually named Pete Ross (like myself) without knowledge of fantasy, fiction, and superheroes can understand what the conceit is all about? Thank you.

On Tuesday, February 7, 2023 at 5:41:04 AM UTC-7, Boso deniro wrote:
> Can somebody PLEASE explain and draw an illustrated constellation of all the
> many characters so named? So somebody actually named Pete Ross (like myself)
> without knowledge of fantasy, fiction, and superheroes can understand what the
> conceit is all about? Thank you.

I can't do that, not being familiar with most of them.

But I do remember the *first* one from the Silver Age.

Basically, Pete Ross was a boy who grew up in Smallvile. He was a contemporary
of Clark Kent and Lana Lang.

And he was a unique character in the Superman mythos for one special reason:
on a camping trip with Clark, he accidentally learned that Clark Kent was secretly
Superboy.

He kept this a secret, but occasionally over the years this knowledge enabled him
to do various little things which helped to protect Superboy's and Superman's
secret identity.

In one John Byrne version of Superman, there was a tragedy that happened
specifically because Pete Ross _didn't_ know Superman's secret identity in
that continuity, and thus couldn't ask Clark Kent for help. This was intended as
a reference to his original reason for being.

John Savard