Following the DC KO event, we yet again have the main Superman go missing, and now have a surge of heroes trying to take over the mantle. One of them is probably one of the craziest characters in the DC Universe. Sure, it’s no crazier than the supervillain who gets his super strength from cocaine, but it’s still pretty wild. Superboy Prime, a hero from the Prime Universe, which was basically our own universe with its own version of DC Comics, where all the adventures and events are just fictional comic books. Due to the desire to include a Superboy in the Crisis on Infinite Earths, they established that Earth Prime DID have a Superman. However, immediately after discovering he has powers, his entire universe gets destroyed by a wave of antimatter. Real shame the Prime Universe writers at DC Comics never saw this coming. Due to a bizarre reluctance to kill off Superboy, Crisis ends with Superboy joining Earth-1 Lois, Clark, and Alexander Luthor in a Pocket Dimension. In a way, keeping him alive was kind of a mistake, because two years later, they would kill off a different Superboy from another pocket universe.
For the next 20 years after the end of the Crisis, we wouldn’t hear any updates from him. Then he comes back in Infinite Crisis, but this time as a whiny comic book fanboy complaining about how dark the universe has become. Already this has aged terribly, as this was an intermediate period between the gritty 90’s and awful New 52. So already his anger and pettiness are hard to believe as a fellow comic fan. Sure, Wonder Woman killed Maxwell Lord on live TV, but shortly after the original Crisis, we also had Superman kill a pocket universe Zod.
I’ve seen the accusation that Superboy Prime is actually a self-insert of Infinite Crisis writer Geoff Johns. However, Superboy Prime’s biggest moment to come out of the event was his cringey, whiny dialogue about how unfair everything is. I don’t enjoy the event myself because the entire premise is that he is correct, because all the recent storylines we loved were just so awful that they were worth committing mass murder. Oh boy, does Superboy Prime commit so much mass murder. Sure, he lost his home, but in Crisis on Infinite Earths, he just seemed kind of bummed about it; it reads more like he’s just mad at the universe for not being what it was Pre-Crisis.
Of course, he eventually starts getting the retcons for why he turned to evil in the first place. I think my main issue with Infinite Crisis isn’t just Superboy Prime, it’s also how antagonistic everyone is to each other. This event was set off by having the main trinity no longer trusting each other, Superman of Earth 2 fights his Earth 1 counterpart. It’s fair to say that an omnipotent force created this antagonism. The DC Wiki even states that his descent into madness was actually caused by “the great darkness” trying to wipe out the multiverse, but I don’t even see a citation on this.
This isn’t even the first time they tried to redeem Superboy Prime, as at the end of Blackest Night, he became emotionally drained and decided to let go of his rage and return to his former girlfriend, Laurie. This could have been a happy ending; however, the Titans needed someone to fight for their 100th issue, and Superboy Prime drew the short straw, and because this was right before New 52, he won’t be seen or mentioned for a long time.
However, due to Flashpoint and later Convergence undoing the destruction of the multiverse, it also nullifies all the evil actions he committed. It was as if all the murder and destruction that occurred never did. Sure, this means any and all character development he helped create never happened, but it’s really not that big of a loss.
In the end, you just have to look back at the other Superheroes who have turned evil and have since been redeemed. Hal Jordan, Wally West, and Wanda Maximoff all killed a lot of Superheroes only for it to be quickly swept under the rug via a retcon. With Superboy Prime, it’s different. For years before his redemption, he was nothing but cannon fodder for a massive event. He is the main antagonist of the Sinestro War, Legion of 3 Worlds, and the 100th Issue of the 2000’s Teen Titans run.
Then you have his most recent redemption in Death Metal, where he is reminded of Krypto, a comic he read as a child, and talked down by Wonder Woman. Prime once again had a happy ending where he returned to his home universe. This time, it felt much more earned. Despite being the one to start the events of Death Metal, this is still a massive event featuring a team-up between heroes and villains trying to take down a greater threat. Even then, there is a symbolic reason for Wonder Woman talking him down as it has been sighted that her lack of a rouques gallery is due to her ability to talk down her opponents.
One thing I’ve noticed upon rereading Evil Superboy Prime stories is how he doesn’t just want his Prime Universe to return, he also wants to BE the definitive Superman. This is something we are finally seeing unfold in the current Superman comics. The version we have now still feels like a completely different version. Sure, he is still a comic book fan with God Complex, but he still has a desire to do good. I feel a fan would probably do the same if they were in the same position.
Despite everything Superboy Prime has done, I think it is better to look at this from a meta perspective. He is from an era where Geoff Johns and Dan Didio were the biggest creative voices at DC Comics. Media in 2005-2015 was always about pushing the bar, seeing who could pull off the edgiest humor or darkest story. Ultra Violence, gruesome deaths, and poor character motivations were incredibly common during this era. However, those days are gone. Shock value for the sake of shock value is no longer the priority. Decent storytelling, such as what we are getting out of the Absolute Universe, proves dark storytelling can still be done with a consistent story and tone.
In the end, I do think he is worthy of a redemption, a flagship of the start of a brand new era for DC Comics, moving on from a Universe of Constant Fighting and instead trying to just tell a fun, thought-provoking story. The thing is, his current run as Superman has also been pretty fun. A far cry from the character who would rip off arms and hit them with them. His old stories may still exist, but violent killing sprees and whiny dialogue are just not worthy of thinking about now.
