Only Superboys Should Skip Their Vaccines

If nobody could see a giant octopus sitting in clear water, I feel like that’s the swim team’s problem, not Clark’s.

A couple of days of these mostly harmless pranks is all the principal can stand, and he tells a devastated Kent family that he is expelling Clark. I feel like there should be some middle ground between “mild finger-wagging” and “permanent expulsion,” but I’ve never been a school principal, so what do I know?

No sooner is Clark out the door than he learns via super-eavesdropping that several teachers have come down with MacGuffin’s disease, leaving the school short-staffed. Enter Superboy, who, of course, knows everything about everything and can take the unattended classes on fantabulous, educational adventures to the Arctic, outer space, and the seafloor. What must those permission slips have looked like?

Why do you hate sea life, Clark!

Lest you think that Clark got himself expelled so he could be a free substitute teacher, we quickly learn otherwise as the school’s vaccination day arrives.

Naturally, Clark can’t get vaccinated (and presumably doesn’t need to) because the needle wouldn’t pierce his skin. So he got himself expelled just to avoid the shot. Superboy now concocts an even more convoluted plot, implying that Clark “accidentally” broke one of the vials and acted intentionally so he’d be expelled, and no one else would be deprived of a vaccine and suffer for his “mistake.” Then, by lucky chance, Superboy finds an “extra” dose of the vaccine and flies off to give it to Clark, whom the principal generously reinstates as a pupil. (Did you get all that?)

Sure ya did, Pa.

Final thoughts: the plot is silly, the dialogue is worse, and I absolutely loved it. And, yes, as goofy as this story is, it did also remind me of the fact that vaccines have been in the news lately for much less enjoyable reasons.

So remember: unless you are secretly a Kryptonian–and you know who you are–there’s no excuse not to protect yourself and your community by talking to your doctor about the shots you and your family need! And don’t forget to get vaccinated against MacGuffin’s disease as well. Nasty piece of work, that MacGuffin!