Before Joker, Joaquin Phoenix Briefly Played A DC Superhero In A Forgotten TV Show

Joaquin Phoenix appeared in one of the most successful DC movies of all time with "Joker" and one of the most disappointing with "Joker: Folie a Deux." But before he put fans through that rollercoaster he actually portrayed a DC superhero. That is, he briefly became a version of Superboy in a show that almost nobody remembers but which is a fascinating snapshot of late-'80s comic book entertainment.

Now that the newly-established DC Universe is up and running, DC Studios co-head James Gunn has several choices for what he might direct next, one of which is a "Superboy" movie. Should he do so, it would be the first project to feature Superboy as the main character since the late '80s/early '90s "Superboy" series. This little-known superhero show was created by Alexander Salkind and Ilya Salkind, the same producers behind Richard Donner's 1978 blockbuster blueprint "Superman." In the late '80s, the Salkinds still had the rights to make productions based on their original deal with Warner Bros. for the "Superman" movies. However, they had sold the rights to Supes himself, which meant they had to use the "Superboy" name for their TV show instead.

Focusing on the college years of Clark Kent, the series debuted as "Superboy" in 1988 with John Haymes Newton starring as the titular hero. Stacy Haiduk played his friend and love interest Lana Lang, and Scott James Wells played Lex Luthor. The show would undergo two major overhauls during its four-season run but before any of that happened, Phoenix appeared in a season 1 episode that saw him suit up as Superboy himself.

"Superboy" isn't exactly one of the best TV shows of all time, but for how little it's remembered it was actually surprisingly decent. At least certain seasons were. The show underwent several changes during its run, some of which were downright bizarre yet yielded okay results. When "Superboy" first aired in syndication back in 1988, however, it wasn't very good. The first season saw John Haymes Newton play the DC hero before he was replaced by Gerard Christopher for the second season. But Newton technically wasn't the only actor to portray Superboy in season 1.

Joaquin Phoenix appeared in the 20th episode, entitled "Little Hercules." The 1989 installment saw the then-15-year-old play Billy Hercules, a high school genius who's offered a scholarship to Shuster University, the college named after Superman co-creator Joe Shuster and which Clark Kent attends in the show. Since Clark writes for the Shuster University newspaper, he's sent to cover the child prodigy who'll soon be joining the college. But after meeting Billy, Clark notices how unhappy he is and befriends him, bonding with the youngster over their shared outsider status.

Prior to forming a bond with Superboy himself, however, young Billy daydreams about confronting three of the most generic punk bullies you've ever seen in an '80s TV show. In the sequence, the bullies throw Billy into a dumpster only for him to emerge as Superboy. He then uses his heat vision to literally turn one of his aggressors into a pile of molten human flesh in a surprisingly violent moment in a show that was still very much finding its way. After using his super breath to send another thug crashing into a vending machine the final bully runs and Billy wakes up from his dream.

Joaquin Phoenix was credited as "Leaf Phoenix" for his role in "Superboy." At the time, he was reportedly using the name to match his siblings, all of whom were named after aspects of nature, his brother, River Phoenix, included. As "Leaf," he also appeared in the coming-of-age comedy "Parenthood" which debuted the same year as his "Superboy" episode, before reverting back to his birth name of Joaquin in 1991 at the age of 16.

Interestingly enough, "Superboy" was his last TV appearance before he became a movie star. Phoenix had appeared in a handful of shows throughout the 1980s before he played Billy Hercules, and after "Parenthood" proved successful his movie career took off. That means that his final TV performance involved portraying a DC character before he embarked on a big screen career that ultimately led to his portrayal of Arthur Fleck in "Joker" and the box office flop that was "Joker: Folie a Deux."

Meanwhile, "Superboy" was transformed for season 2, with Gerard Christopher taking on the lead role. Then, in season 3, the show was overhauled again, becoming "The Adventures of Superboy" — also the title of a canceled '60s Superman spin-off that could have been a classic. The 90s version, however, wasn't quite a classic, as it moved Clark Kent and Lana Lang from Shuster University to The Bureau for Extra-Normal Matters in Capitol City, Florida where they investigated cases of the paranormal (yes, this really happened). Still, the show was actually pretty good even with this unlikely overhaul and ran for two seasons as "The Adventures of Superboy" before it was canceled in 1992.