The Insanity of Superboy-Prime
Way back in January I did a post on Superboy-Prime. That was at the halfway point of Infinite Crisis. And I remember expressing some degree of sympathy for Superboy-Prime.
Not anymore.
That boy who seemed so lost -- who seemed to be a mere pawn in the scheme of a Luthor -- turned out to be something terrifying.
Something happened to unhinge Superboy-Prime. He went from being a troubled youth to a maniacal killer. We saw him casually snapping necks and tearing people in twain. He never blinked; he didn't care. He contemplated genocide on a universal scale. And he attempted it with glee -- and the power to back it up.
What happened to him? What made him that way? When the Flashes pulled him into the Speed Force he still seemed to maintain some degree of sanity. But the years he spent there seem to have warped him.
Did he become bitter as prisoners often do? Did he stew and plot vengeance against his jailors? Did solitude make him mad?
In the end, it doesn't really matter. By the time he returned any bit of humanity he'd had was gone. He'd become what the Anti-Monitor had been: a being a godlike power with no qualms and no morals. And no hold on reality.
To the very end he raved that he would be Superman -- even if it was in a universe where no one else existed. And even now -- stripped of his powers and freedom -- he says he'll get out.
And we know he will.
posted by Diamondrock @ 7:56 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
The thing that bothers me about his coninued existence is that with him being so freaking powerful, how the heck do you beat him when he escapes?
I mean, even the entire Green lantern Corps couldn't put him down. It just doesn't seem like every time this loon raises you're going to be able to raise that much firepower.
Which i guess is sort of the point. Hmm, maybe Darkseid could take him out, decide Superboy-Prime is too dangerous to allow to exist?
Maybe that's the next big thing.
They could do what they always do with Superman-killing engines of death: bring them back in a prestige-format miniseries and stop them with a combination of New Genesis technology and time travel, stranding him in the entropic void at the end of time. And then, when he comes back due to Brainiac's machinations, they could place him in a transporter loop, so that he's constantly split between four points in space. He can't possibly escape from that.
I'm sleeping with my light on.
I think the fact that we;ve seen the complete scope of 'still innnocent kid as the only hero of his world' to 'lost out of timestream scared child' to 'deparate for an answer losing control' to 'SCREW THIS EVERYONE GOES' is about the best intro to a real villain you could ask for.
I still feel for Alex and SBP. DC royally screwed them for the sake of profit. It soils the sacrifice the made in COIE.
Those characters should have been left alone dwelling in a real "heaven" dimension. I feel more for Alex because he played a more prominent role in COIE, and picked up the ball after Monitor died. SBP just showed up for a little bit. What a shame.
Superboy-Prime follows the archetype of the fallen hero exactly. He is reluctant to become the bad guy at first. And when others turn on him, he fails to see that it is his own fault and psychogically breaks.
This is exactly what happened to Superboy-Prime. When he was taken to the Phantom Zone he says "The Phantom Zone is for criminals, I'm a good guy!" He does not see that he has become the enemy, despite killing three other heroes.
He feels betrayed and during his time in solitude, he has nothing to do but contemplate over and over how he was betrayed. In his mind, it is decided that he is still the hero, while the others are villians. Thus, his genocidal rampage begins.
Superboy-Prime is my favorite supervillian of all time.
So, I do not actually consider this may have success.
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