WHO COUNTS IN COUNTDOWN to Infinite Crisis? – Episode #23 – SUPERMAN PRIME By Bruce! MacIntosh
Countdown Beatdown
Recently, Superboy… er – Superman Prime broke out of his Green Lantern prison in space and started punching his way from one Universe to another. In Countdown #24, he showed up in new appropriately-emo duds, and literally rampaged through Earth-15. Too bad: I really liked that version of Earth! Are you wondering who this guy is, and why he's so upset? Me too. Read on, and let's see if we can figure it out together.
If you read Countdown #24, you either loved it because "the comic is finally getting some action" or you hated it because Super-Prime was so violent and he blowed up a lot of stuff for seemingly no reason.
That's why after finishing Countdown #24, I had a yucky feeling. You see, I had really liked Earth-15: It was the perfect Earth: clean, happy, and free of crime because the supers had done their job so well… Kind of like Disneyland, but without the long lines and expensive churros. Plus, this Prime number is anything but intelligent and cool, and is merely a whiny brat who needs a super-spanking.
On the other hand, I lovedCountdown #23! Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time has Mr. Mxyzptlk tied up and he is torturing the formerly mischievous imp like a wounded puppy. But the Prankster from the 5th Dimension has the first, middle and last laughs, as even from his supine position he teases the pseudo Superman to a frazzle. Mxy's line as he pushes Primeape to the edge is sheer brilliance: "You still don't get the joke, do ya, Prime Rib! I'm the damn trickster god! I couldn't be square with you if I tried!" The significance of that statement gets lost if you haven't read the issue, so go out and buy or borrow a copy… (after you finish this article, that is.) But I'll tell you, it felt triumphant, like your long suffering baseball team finally made it into the World Series.
So, how did the sweet super boy from the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths survive said Crisis and fall so far as demolishing an "imperfect" Earth-15 and torturing Mr. Mxyzxptlk so he would help "get rid" of the extra Earths? First, some background: When he first appeared, he was called Superboy Prime. Recent legal events have forced DC comics to relinquish in perpetuity the name "Superboy", so now he is referred as either Superman Prime (cover of Tales of the Sinestro Corps – Superman Prime) "super-psycho, Jr." (Guy Gardner) or "that guy with a real attitude problem" (me). Now, let's track this character's long and destructive fall from grace.
Prime Cuts In the "heyday of multiple Earths" two decades prior to Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985), DC's creators and editors had to start giving each version of Earth a number or letter designation to keep them all straight. In the ultimate conceit, Editor Julius Schwartz and writers John Broome and Robert Kanigher ("Flash of Two Worlds", The Flash #123 - 1961) and Gardner Fox (Justice League of America) named the "current" Earth in the comics Earth-1 and the prior, Golden Age stories as having occurring on "Earth-2". Next, when these two teams met their bi-polar opposites in the Crime Syndicate of America, they named that planet "Earth-3". (The heroes from these secondary and tertiary Universes seems to accept these designations without question, whereas I wonder why they never resented such inferior labels. "Hey! We're from Earth-154… but we try harder!")
Apparently having run out of numbers, DC started resorting to letter designations for each new Universe and its heroes. There was Earth-X where Uncle Sam and his Freedom Fighters still fought the Nazis who had won WWII (Justice League of America #107 – 1973), and Earth-S which contained the former Fawcett superheroes such as Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel, and so on.
But what about our world – the place with we the comics readers, and where superheroes were fictional? The place where there were no people with super powers, we were designated "Earth-Prime" when the Flashes first used their cosmic treadmill to visit Editor Julius Schwartz in the DC offices in Flash #179 (1968). Later, writer Elliot S! Maggin and artist Cary Bates from "our" Earth-Prime were involved in one of the Justice League/Justice Society cross-overs, in The Justice League of America #124 (1975). After a few of these "comic creators cross over in to their own comics" adventures, Earth-Prime came to be recognized as an "alternate" Earth: similar to "ours", and we the readers lost our designation as one of the Earths in the multiverse. (Whereupon we all had to accept that we were never going to get powers, and stop throwing ourselves in front of canisters of radioactive materials and running out into gamma-bomb test sites.)
After that, Earth-Prime just became one of many alternate Earths – except that one sucked because no one had super powers. That is, until The Justice League of America #153 (1978), when Earth-Prime got its first superhero, Ultraa. Without bogging you down in details, suffice it to say that in the end, Ultraa decided that "our" Earth wasn't ready for supers, and accompanied the Justice League back to Earth-1, never to return again.
DC's writers left Earth-Prime alone for a few years, until DC Comics Presents #87 (1983). Writer Elliot S! Maggin (again) must have known that DC was about to wipe out all the alternate Earths with Crisis on Infinite Earths, so he had free reign to pull out all the stops and concoct the craziest possible alternate-Earth story. After all, anything that happened would soon be retconned from DC history… There was no way that the character he created in that story could be one of the only characters who survived that Crisis, and there was no way he'd be around 30 years later to screw things up royally… right?
So, here's how it went: Jerry and Naomi Kent found an abandoned baby in the forest and named him "Clark" – ostensibly because that was Naomi's maiden name, but really because Jerry was a sick bastard who thought it would be cool to give a kid a superhero secret-identity name. Little did Jerry know that this kid was actually Kal-El from the planet Krypton who had been teleported here at the last second before his planet blew up. (Remember, this was Earth-Prime: No super-heroes, no exploding planets. It was also the place where Elliot S! Maggin himself was supposed to reside, so nothing like this was supposed to happen… I'm confusing myself.)
Other than the constant teasing he must have suffered because of his name, young Clark grew up normally (except that he must have been more intelligent than the other kids, since he read comics.) As a teen, he went to a costume party dressed as Superboy, and the passage of Halley's Comet naturally triggered his latent super powers. Since this was all happening in Superman's team-up book, it was time for him to show up: He was thrown into the Earth-Prime universe and together with Superboy-Prime, and by the end of the issue they had defeated some aliens.
Crisis, Crisis, Everywhere As Crisis on Infinite Earths was destroying all universes and essentially merging them into Earth-1, Superboy-Prime was pulled into the final battle together with the Earth-2 Superman against the Anti-Monitor. After the Anti-Monitor was defeated Superboy-Prime, the Earth-2 Superman and his wife Lois, and Alexander Luthor, Jr. of Earth-3, got to stay in an in-between place called the "paradise dimension." Since he was now stuck being a teenager and never maturing, Superboy-Prime was stuck in permanent brooding mode. He tried to reach out to his surrogate father-figure in the Superman formerly from Earth-2, but Kal-L was preoccupied with his wife's failing health.
Alexander Jr. showed his true Luthor colors and manipulated Clark's emotions, convincing him to help him return to break free of their in-between dimension and return to reality. After seeing the death of the couple on this Earth who would have been his parents, and how low the superheroes had sunk, Superboy-Prime exploded with rage and punched the barrier of reality. This caused some changes in reality (what we would call "DC continuity") such as the return of Jason Todd, Donna Troy's multiple origins, and the confusing multiple versions of the future Legion of Super-Heroes. Soon he and Alexander Jr. escaped to wreak havoc throughout the DC Universe, including starting the Rann-Thanagar War, causing the creation of the new Jean Loring Eclipso and the Secret Society of Super-Villains and the new OMACs.
Their return sets off the events of Infinite Crisis, where Superboy-Prime ultimately freaked out and killed several heroes including Conner Kent, who had been playing the role of Superboy since the "Death of Superman" in 1992. The three extant Flashes (Bart Allen as Kid Flash, Wally West as the Flash, and Jay Garrick as "Old" Flash) grabbed him and pushed him into the Speed Force. Bart returned without Wally – whose whereabouts remained the subject of message board posts for almost two years while Bart took over as the "All-New Flash". Unfortunately, Wally's apparent sacrifice was in vain, because Superboy-Prime soon returned with a snazzy new suit resembling the Anti-Monitor's (from COIE) which harnessed the yellow sun's power-giving radiation.
During the Battle of Metropolis Alexander informed S-P him that he was content to simply take over the (New) Earth, rather than re-forming the hero-less Earth-Prime as he had been promised from the beginning. So S-P went on an even freakier rampage, speeding to the (former) center of the universe – the planet Oa – to spark a new Big Bang event. Most of Earth's supers chased him, but he was too fast for them. He then punched through 300 miles of green "willpower" and slaughtered 32 members of the GL Green Lantern Corps who were trying to contain him.
In the thrilling climax to Infinite Crisis, our Superman lectures Superkid Prime on what it means to be a Super-something, and the latter nearly beats the Superman from Earth-2 to death. The two "good" Supermen drove their pedantic counterpart through Krypton's red sun – which nearly robbed all of them of their powers, our Superman punched out the tyke with his last erg of energy, and they all fell to the living Green Lantern planet, Mogo. The Green Lanterns arrived and "slapped the cuffs" on S-P, imprisoning him in an "impenetrable" "sun-eater" prison within a red sun.
Final Countdown Yeah. That lasted all of a couple of years of DC continuity, while the rest of us caught up with all the "One Year Later" comics and 52. Next, the Hal Jordan's oldest and greatest foe, Sinestro formed his own, evil Corps of ring wearing galaxy-spanning bad-guys. In Sinestro Corps Special (2007), they freed the Artist Formerly Known as Superboy-Prime, and convinced him to join in their evil galaxy-conquering reindeer games.
The Sinestro Corps Special was a terrific read that was little-publicized by DC. The rest of the saga has played out in the subsequent issues of Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps and will be wrapping up soon. The tricky part is something unique to a weekly comic, and is certainly causing Countdown Editor Mike Marts and his crew fits (as well as potentially confusing readers): The events of Countdown #24 and #23 – released last week – happen after the climactic events of Green Lantern #25 (at least the parts involving Super – uh – Man Prime) which was released this week. Although one would think this would give away the ending of the Sinestro Corps saga, we really don't need to worry: The good thing about Countdown is that it usually doesn't spoil the endings of the comics it ties into, and this time was no exception. (I guess the only thing that it revealed was that Prime is still alive.)
Why is Superdude-Prime able to traverse from one Universe to another, and how is he so powerful as to be able to destroy entire planets? Remember, he originated from a pre-Crisis (on Infinite Earths – 1985) continuity. Back then, Superman could smash through planets, fly around the Earth and go back in time, and jaunt from one universe to another almost at will. (Remember, that's how this all started when he first met Superbrat-Prime in 1983.) This is why S-Prime was essentially the most powerful (and dangerous) being in the Universe and it took the combined might of all the superheroes to contain him in Infinite Crisis.
There are a couple of items that I do hope DC gets around to explaining. First is S-Prime's costume: When imprisoned by the Green Lanterns, he was dressed in the old Superboy blue pants, red boots and red underwear on the outside (a là Smallville - Season One. He even heat-vision tattoo-ed his own "S" symbol on his chest.) When he was released by the Sinestro Corps, he got a new yellow-sun collector to restore his powers to optimum levels. When he appears in Countdown (slightly later thanthe events currently taking place in Green Lantern)he has a goth-inspired black uniform and cape. Where did it come from? What does it signify? Well, Green Lantern #25 has not been released as of the writing of this piece – and that comic may have the answer. It is very likely, however, simply for effect. One thing is fairly certain: Superguy-Prime's new threads have nothing to do with the "Resurrection" costume when Superman returned from the dead in the early-90s.
The final unexplained quirk is why he seems to have aged about ten years from his boyish appearance in Infinite Crisis and only slightly older appearance in the current Green Lantern books (and the recent recounting of his "origin" in Tales of the Sinestro Corps – Superman Prime) which depict him as about 19 years old. Were I a cynic, I might say this had something to do with the fact that DC is legally prevented from using the appellation "Superboy", and seek to match his apparent age with his new code name. However, I am not a cynic, but a freakin' DCcheerleader. So, I would say that S-P's "aging" was a creative decision to juxtapose this man-child's destructive immaturity with the internal growth he will be forced to endure through these tumultuous events.
Nice, huh?
Posts: 21381 | From: PA | Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Nice recap. I am so tired of this "prime" guy now...he's not an interesting villain he's just an incredibly annoying, enormously insufferable brat with the ridiculous power level of a pre-Crisis (on Infinite Earths) Kryptonian...it's tired and I hope that Countdown (or Final Crisis) sees him meeting his end once and for all (or at least as "once and for all" as super-hero comics can do :-).
-------------------- May you live in interesting times Posts: 102 | From: San Diego, CA USA | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
Although I have no confirmation of this, I suspect that S-Prime will keep tearing through the Universe(s) until May, 2008 - when Final Crisis comes out. It seems he is being set up to be a major factor (if not *the* cause) for the Final Crisis. Hopefully, it will not merely be S-Prime trashing every alternate Earth until there are none left!
-------------------- See Bruce write...Write, Bruce, write! My website about Me: Comiczar.com Posts: 109 | Registered: Aug 2006
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posted
"The final unexplained quirk is why he seems to have aged about ten years from his boyish appearance in Infinite Crisis and only slightly older appearance in the current Green Lantern books (and the recent recounting of his "origin" in Tales of the Sinestro Corps – Superman Prime) which depict him as about 19 years old. "
One of the COUNTDOWN issuess explains that: SupermanPrime said he bulked up when he absorbed all that solar energy in the Superman-Prime Special.
-------------------- Visit www.titanstower.com for everything Titans! Posts: 24 | From: Connecticut | Registered: May 2004
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I read that too - which would explain his noticeable increase in size and muscle. But the conspiracy theorist in me thinks that the "boy" was aged to the typical superman age of about 32 because they legally must retire the superboy name and character.
-------------------- See Bruce write...Write, Bruce, write! My website about Me: Comiczar.com Posts: 109 | Registered: Aug 2006
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