(It’s eerie how much he resembles Cavill from this angle.)
In some ways, if you don’t want to tread through the Infinite Crisis arc just for SB? Read this, it’s TL;DR’d in this single issue.
Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Superman-Prime | Read All Comics Online
#recommended #read #dccomics
Bro was an early 2000s prototype of an Evil-Superman, before the trope got worn out. He’s essentially “Chronicles” Andrew, Tetsuo, Hal Stewart, Carrie, a Peter Parker gone wrong, all combined.
Despite being a knockoff, his concept, the fall, why he snapped, and where he ended up. Holds up decent still, started with too much trauma all at once.
Saw his home erased in front of his eyes, got his emotions played on, he couldn’t cope.
Basically he’s Kara Zor-El except his reaction to the disaster is more interesting/ realistic/gritty than anything attempted with her.
Why? Because they didn’t turn him into a Superman Legacy accessory, he was the deconstruction; which is what Kara should’ve been
- Loeb’s Daughter of Darkseid angle was rushed.
- Even that Red Lantern shit ain’t got nothing on this guy’s casual hissy fits.
- Even the genocide angle in My Adventures with Lois-Chan was under cooked, cheap and rushed (as I predicted back during Season 1’s Episode 2 first aired. I KNEW they would cram her in there somehow, and I knew whatever they did, they would keep to tradition, make her the miraculous cousin *which is 13 yr old oc artist level writing* & not explore anything if they manage to have a good idea, which they did.)
Why? Because Superboy-Prime, unlike Kara Snore-El, is in a league of his own in just how he coped or lack thereof of losing everything. When people say his name, it’s an omen.
He’s not a sidekick, not a DLC, not constantly being justified by writers because there’s an inherent insecurity of the characters entire concept because they would be relevant if it weren’t for nepotism.
Why Clark-Prime works is he was never relegated to a coattail rider or side piece, even during a time when he wanted to be one. And he genuinely did, that’s the entire reason why he went to Smallville and ruined his & everyone else’s lives. Starting his fall, because he wanted Conner out of the way, he wanted to be “Superboy”, the only one.
“SUPERBOY-Prime” is a class of power & cruelty separate from the Clark we know, he’s divorced from Superman whilst trying to be Superman, so he’s not riding coattails, because he has his own, just not in the way that he preferred.
Kara never got to have that because no matter what good ideas are introduced- be it Loeb’s Superman/Batman #8’s Daughter of Darkseid concept to My Adventures with Lois-Chan’s very bold genocide angle (which is basically just Iron Giant) it's wasted. undone and tarnished.
Wasted upon waste upon waste, and WB still keeps begging normies to like her. No matter how many times they rehash the same trash, people still see it as trash, even if they like how it looks. When all DC has to do is polish Kara, clean her, overhaul and make her into something halfway decent.
SB-Prime was the class clown of super villains, but a serious problem.
The meta is he’s self-conscious about being compared to Superman, being 2nd to Superboy, and everything he does is to make a name for himself.
To make his own home by burning the world down, being seen, getting his home back; overlooking the fact that after everything he’s done, even if he got everything he wanted, would his loved ones even want anything to do with him when he returns. (example: Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds)
He reminds me of Electro from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 as well, that simmering instability; as well as “Spider-Man: The NEW Animated Series” version of Dillon, who predates Jamie’s Max, leagues worse treatment, he was treated so bad I thought he was going to off himself.
The overcompensation, his incompetence as a human being, despite being superior to most, but as a person so inferior, malnourished.
All stemming from one bad day that happened to him and a horrific day he caused for everyone else- that is what makes him interesting.
He’s not a typical victim of circumstance like Kara who just has to process, and heal, & move on, find herself, paving her own identity and all that bullshit. Just self-indulgent coddling by a narrative that spends more time flaunting what she is vs showing us where she can go as a person.
Prime is pathetic, Kara is unnecessary but a victim. She just wants to fit in somewhere, find herself (usual teen novel crap). Super boy-Prime is part of the problem, he knows it, he thinks that's a good thing because he has the power to force his will onto others & thus he does not care. That difference (despite how eerie similar their tragedies are) is why Prime is more interesting/interesting period vs her (despite all the barebones messages that she represented over the years, that Supes already embodies but in better stories) just existing as a novelty with good intentions.
He became one of the most infamous names in DC Villain continuity. Not mainstream but infamous, which is exactly how it should be, the last thing that needs to happen here is he becomes overrated in mainstream to where his very story is trivialized because of how hard WB shills & pushes the source matter, aka the Kara Snore-El treatment.
This loose cannon of a character could’ve derailed the Infinite Crisis arc, ruin it even, and ended up being a highlight.
Hell, in following years he became a lingering nuisance to everyone in-world but he was no less a threat despite how annoying he was, he would show up here in Teen Titans, then over in a Legion arc, a mention in a Shazam run, maybe he’d be mentioned elsewhere, pop up in two panels in a magic prison or something, but he was so obscure despite being such a huge problem.
Like he was the Babayaga of DC, like DC itself as a meta intelligence tried to suppress his very existence, but he just kept coming back.
Superboy-Prime Recommendations:
Read *Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Superman-Prime #1 for the TL;DR, if you don’t want to do immediate homework
- Crisis on Infinite Earths #10 (January 1986)
- Crisis on Infinite Earths #12 (March 1986)
- DC Comics Presents #87 (November 1985)
- Infinite Crisis Secret Files and Origins #1 (April 2006)
- Infinite Crisis #1 (December 2005)
- Infinite Crisis #4 (March 2006)
- Infinite Crisis #6 (May 2006)
- Infinite Crisis #7 (June 2006)
- Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps Special #1 (August 2007)
- Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Superman-Prime #1 (December 2007)
- Green Lantern (Volume 4) #25 (January 2008)
- Green Lantern Corps (Volume 2) #18 (January 2008)
- Countdown #31 (October 2007)
- Countdown to Final Crisis #26 (November 2007)
- Countdown to Final Crisis #24 (November 2007)
- Countdown to Final Crisis #14 (January 2008)
- Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds #4 (April 2009)
- Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds #5 (July 2009)
- Adventure Comics (Volume 2) #4 (January 2010)
- Teen Titans (Volume 3) #98 (July 2011)
- Teen Titans (Volume 3) #100 (August 2011)
- Shazam! (Volume 3) #10 (February 2020)
- Shazam! (Volume 3) #11 (March 2020)
- Shazam! (Volume 3) #13 (July 2020)
- Shazam! (Volume 3) #14 (September 2020)
- Dark Nights: Death Metal Trinity Crisis #1 (November 2020)
- Dark Nights: Death Metal #4 (December 2020)
- Dark Nights: Death Metal The Secret Origin #1 (February 2021)
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