Superboy-Prime: Difference between revisions
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|powers=[[Flight]], invulnerability, limitless super-strength, super-speed, super-breath and lung capacity (including freeze breath), super-hearing, vision powers (including [[x-ray vision]], [[heat vision]], telescopic vision and microscopic vision), and various other sensory powers (including the ability to see, hear and feel the entire electromagnetic spectrum). High resiliance to magic, armor able of harness and feed vast quantities of solar energy to enhance his powers.}} |
|powers=[[Flight]], invulnerability, limitless super-strength, super-speed, super-breath and lung capacity (including freeze breath), super-hearing, vision powers (including [[x-ray vision]], [[heat vision]], telescopic vision and microscopic vision), and various other sensory powers (including the ability to see, hear and feel the entire electromagnetic spectrum). High resiliance to magic, armor able of harness and feed vast quantities of solar energy to enhance his powers.}} |
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'''Superboy-Prime''' is a fictional [[superhero]] turned [[supervillain]] in the [[DC Universe]]. He is the second character to be called [[Superboy]]. He came from the parallel universe Earth known as [[Multiverse (DC Comics)#Earth-Prime|Earth-Prime]], where Superman and the other DC superheroes only existed as fictional characters. Unable to let go of his former life, his convictions and morals have been warped by years of solitude trapped in a paradise dimension. |
'''Superboy-Prime''' is a fictional [[superhero]] turned [[supervillain]] in the [[DC Universe]]. He is the second character to be called [[Superboy]]. He came from the parallel universe Earth known as [[Multiverse (DC Comics)#Earth-Prime|Earth-Prime]], where Superman and the other DC superheroes only existed as fictional characters. Unable to let go of his former life, his convictions and morals have been warped by years of solitude trapped in a "paradise" dimension. |
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==Character history== |
==Character history== |
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Revision as of 12:31, 4 May 2006
| Superboy-Prime | |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | DC Comics Presents #87 (Nov. 1985) |
| Created by | Elliot S! Maggin, Curt Swan, Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Kal-El, adopted as Clark Kent |
| Team affiliations | Alexander Luthor, Jr. |
| Abilities | Flight, invulnerability, limitless super-strength, super-speed, super-breath and lung capacity (including freeze breath), super-hearing, vision powers (including x-ray vision, heat vision, telescopic vision and microscopic vision), and various other sensory powers (including the ability to see, hear and feel the entire electromagnetic spectrum). High resiliance to magic, armor able of harness and feed vast quantities of solar energy to enhance his powers. |
Superboy-Prime is a fictional superhero turned supervillain in the DC Universe. He is the second character to be called Superboy. He came from the parallel universe Earth known as Earth-Prime, where Superman and the other DC superheroes only existed as fictional characters. Unable to let go of his former life, his convictions and morals have been warped by years of solitude trapped in a "paradise" dimension.
Character history
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Superboy-Prime was the adopted son of a family named Kent who thought it would be amusing to name their new infant son "Clark". What the Kents didn't know was that the baby, found abandoned in a forest, was actually a young Kal-El, who (in that reality) had been teleported to Earth moments before the planet Krypton was swallowed by its sun.
How there was a real Krypton in a reality where Superman was known as a fictional character was never explained. Possibly the old explanation given in the Flash (Barry Allen) comics about creative writers being able to pick up the happenings in nearby universes in their dreams applies here.
For years, young Clark lived as a normal boy, through his mid-teens. One night, while Clark was attending a costume party dressed as Superboy, his Kryptonian powers suddenly manifested themselves (with the passing of Halley's Comet and the beginning effects of the Crisis on Infinite Earths); at approximately the same time the Earth-One Superman found his way into Earth-Prime's reality, and the two versions of Kal-El met.
The Earth-Prime Superboy soon joined Superman in the fight against the Anti-Monitor, with Earth-Prime soon destroyed due to the effects of the Crisis. At the end of the conflict and after destroying the Anti-Monitor, with no home to return to, Superboy-Prime joined Alexander Luthor, Jr. of Earth-Three and the Lois Lane and Superman of Earth-Two in a "paradise dimension".
Life in "Heaven"
Infinite Crisis: Secret Files & Origins 2006 revealed life in the paradise dimension. Superboy-Prime started to seclude himself from the others. He used the crystals to watch events from his life on Earth-Prime. His favorite memory was his birthday party, which he watched over and over. Superboy-Prime started to become frustrated and angry all the time. He reached out to Superman, but Lois's health drew most of his attention. Luthor used this opportunity to persuade Superboy-Prime to help him return to reality. Luthor began manipulating the young man by showing him the deaths of all those he loved on Earth Prime and by showing him all the evils of the new earth, none of the good. Luthor had complete control over this "heaven" . Superboy-Prime was hesitant until he overheard Superman say, "I wish this world would let him grow up. He'll never be Superman here". Alex also showed him his parents and his girlfriend Laurie in the new Earth dying in an accident. This caused his grip on reality and his morals to change.
Altering reality
Furious, Superboy-Prime pounded on the barrier to reality but was unsuccessful. A side effect to this assault on the universe was "ripples" that corrected reality and caused history to repeat itself for several characters (which, in effect, is a catch-all explanation for real-life changes and retcons in DC continuity for the past 20 years. This "ripples" set the mistakes and wrongs of this darker reality right.
- Jason Todd, who was "never supposed to die", was resurrected.
- Superman's multiple origins, including The Man of Steel and Superman: Birthright.
- Hawkman's many incarnations and reincarnations.
- The death, return, change and then normal again cycle of many characters. For example; Superman's death, resurrection, electrical powers and his return to normality at the hand of the Millennium Giants. Hal Jordan, Jonah Hex, Green Arrow, Donna Troy, Maxwell Lord, the Metal Men, and Batman were also affected as each character went through a similar cycle at different times in their careers.
- The "first appearance" of the original Doom Patrol. They debuted years before, but recently reappeared as though they, along with the resurrected Elasti-Girl, were starting out as heroes for the first time.
- Donna Troy's multiple origins after the first Crisis.
- The various incarnations of the Legion of Super-Heroes since the first Crisis.
- Catwoman's past as a prostitute has been altered, but characters from that time still exist.
Countdown to Infinite Crisis
Superboy-Prime's failing efforts frustrated him. He was not as powerful in his post-Crisis prison because there was no yellow sun in the paradise dimension. Eventually, Alex combined his restored anti-matter powers with Superboy-Prime's and they broke through. Together, they set into motion the events that culminated into Infinite Crisis:
- The planet Rann was transferred into Thanagar's solar system. Superboy-Prime moved the orbit of Thanagar closer to Rann’s, destroying its ecosystem and making the planet uninhabitable. This sparked the Rann-Thanagar War and moved the center of the universe away from Oa.
- Alex posed as Lex Luthor and started the new Society of Super-Villains.
- Alex recruited the Psycho-Pirate, who gave the Black Diamond of Eclipso to Jean Loring, who in turn seduced the Spectre into destroying all magic.
- Superboy-Prime destroyed the JLA Watchtower and took the Martian Manhunter.
- Alex stole control of Brother Eye from Batman. This gave him control over the OMACs and Checkmate's files on all of Earth's meta-humans.
In Infinite Crisis: Secret Files & Origins 2006, he is called "even more dangerous than the Anti-Monitor and perhaps the greatest threat in the DC Universe".
Descent: Infinite Crisis
In DC's Infinite Crisis miniseries, Superboy-Prime, Alex Luthor, and Superman and Lois Kent of Earth-Two were revealed to have been watching the DC Universe since they entered the paradise dimension. Unhappy with what they've been seeing, they decided to take action. The Superman of Earth-Two broke open a portal back to the main DC Universe, and the four returned, making themselves known to some of the current DC characters (in particular, Power Girl and Batman), and wanting to replace the current DC Universe with a "better world" by unraveling the post-Crisis Earth (the dominant world based on Earth-One left in the aftermath of the Anti-Monitor's attack) in order to bring Earth-Two back from oblivion. Earth-Two Superman then said to Power Girl: "When the universe was reborn, Earth-One became the primary world. The scraps of the remaining worlds were folded into it. But I finally realized—we saved the wrong Earth".
Jealous of Conner Kent (Kon-El, the Modern Age Superboy), for living the life he never had, Superboy-Prime allied with Alex Luthor in a plot to alter the current DC Universe and carried out his orders, which included the destruction of the Justice League Watchtower, the kidnapping of Martian Manhunter and Power Girl to power the vibrational fork built by Alex and the moving of several planets out of alignment in order to shift the universal center from Oa to the center of the Earth-Two universe. These actions resulted in the Rann-Thanagar War and led to the re-creation of all the former Earths in the multiverse, including Earth-Two.
Superboy vs. Superboy
Superboy-Prime then attacked Conner, saying that he was the real Superboy, and that Conner was a fake and an impostor. When several members and associates of the Teen Titans arrived, Superboy-Prime accidentally killed and wounded several of them while fighting them off, causing him to become severely traumatized. While he tried to defuse the situation, after what they had just witnessed, the heros continued thier assault. Speedy used the blue emergency "Phantom Zone Arrow", trapping Superboy-Prime in the Phantom Zone. This enraged him even further because the phantom zone is for "bad guys". The extent of Superboy-Prime's power was fully realized when he broke out several moments later.
Members of DC's speedster set, including Wally West, Bart Allen, Barry Allen, Max Mercury, and Johnny Quick grabbed Superboy-Prime and dragged him into the "Speed Force", all the while screaming, "You can't get rid of me! When I grow up I'm going to be Superman!"
Bart Allen, now dressed in his uncle Barry's Flash uniform and several years older, then reappeared in Tokyo, Japan. He grabbed Kimiyo Hoshi, the heroic Dr. Light, and got her to warn the other heroes of an enraged Superboy-Prime, who had escaped the Speed Force, now with dark red eyes, dark color of blue for his superman costume and dressed in a combination of his costume and the Anti-Monitor's armor.
Superboy vs. Superboy: Round Two
Superboy-Prime reappeared during a climactic battle between Alexander Luthor and the freed heroes from his tower. During this battle, Black Adam discovers that Superboy-Prime does not share the vulnerability to magic, common in most versions of Superman, before being beaten by Superboy-Prime and banished to Earth-S.
Superboy-Prime explains to Luthor that through the Speed Force the Flashes had banished him to a world bathed in red sunlight for years, even though he had only vanished from Earth-One for about a few hours. In order to escape, he had to develop the armor patterned after the Anti-Monitor. This armor (as with the Anti-Monitor's) serves as an energy collector, in this case created to constantly feed yellow solar energy to Superboy-Prime. This has also boasted his power levels even further. No longer just a victim of Alex Luthors manipulations, and having lost all compassion during his exile, he insists Luthor reinstate Earth-Prime as the only existing Earth.
His intention is that he can make Earth Prime the perfect earth, and that no one on his home world will have to know what he had to do to make it possible. This shows that he feels guilty for his crimes, but feels justified in his actions. He is then attacked by both Conner and WonderGirl.
However, after threating to kill WonderGirl, he is attacked by an enraged Conner Kent and the two battle each other fiercely before he crushes Conner's hand. Realizing that he cannot match Superboy-Prime's power levels Conner makes a kamikaze charge into Alexander's tower in a desperate attempt to save both the earth and stop Superboy-Prime, and brings Superboy-Prime with him. The tower explodes, remerging all of the Earths into one once more and apparently thwarting Alexander's plan. A fatally-injured Conner dies in Wonder Girl's arms as Wonder Woman, Batman and the two Supermen arrive too late.
Conclusion
During a massive prisonbreak engineered by the Society under Alex Luthor, Alex and Superboy-Prime quarrel. In fact, his madness still growing, Superboy Prime refuses to help Alex to take over New Earth and make it a Perfect World, hinting that even living the life of Kon-El is no more sufficient to him. Pummeled again at top speed by an angered Bart Allen, returned from the Speed Force only to stop the villainous lad, escape at light speed to the restored center of the Universe, Oa, trying to restart again the universe with a Big Bang, and be the sole hero again. In the process he manages to kill thirty-two rookie Green Lanterns and shatter a thick wall of willpower, only to be confronted by Kal-El and Kal-L. Willingly deploying their own solar energies, the Supermen drag him into Rao, the red sun of Krypton, melting away his empowering armor, and leading to a final showdown on Mogo (the Green Lantern planet), now orbiting around Rao. A now powerless Superboy-Prime, in a fit of rage, savagely beats Kal-L, without his powers only an aging frail old man, left him almost dead. He then confronts Superman, trying to kill him and reclaim his namesake for him. Deploying his last energies, Superman beat him, and ripping the S insigna from his costume, shattered his dreams of being ever a Superman, leaving him beaten and unconscious ready for be dragged away from the Green Lantern Corps. He's currently imprisoned for life on Oa, in a quantum containment field surrounding a Red Sun Eater, guarded by a patrol of fifty Green Lanterns. His eyes burning red for cage and powers, the beaten, mad, but not broken Superboy is still thinking at a way to escape his new prison.
Powers and abilities
Kryptonian powers
Superboy-Prime has all the basic Kryptonian powers, including super-strength, the power of flight, super-speed, super-breath, arctic breath, super-hearing, super-vision (including X-ray, heat, microscopic and telescopic visions), and invulnerability to any other force than psionics and Kryptonite, except his power-levels are at the god-like stature of the Silver Age Superman of Earth-One before he was depowered.
This Superboy is also assumed to have the power to travel through time under his own power. He can quite literally move entire planets with his bare hands and could arguably have been one of the most powerful people in the contemporary DC Universe. Indeed, Superboy-Prime has been named as more dangerous than the Anti-Monitor in the contemporary DC Universe and has successfully escaped the infinity of the Speed Force. His emotional instability, combined with a lack of inhibitions thanks to his youth, make him an even more dangerous foe.
Power suit
Despite his growing insanity, Superboy-Prime has exhibited the same Kryptonian super-intelligence shared by the pre-Crisis Earth-One and Earth-Two Supermen by designing his power suit. The armor is patterned after the Anti-Monitor's armor; it collects and feeds him yellow solar energy. It is highly likely that armor also gives him greater power and he is collecting more energy than he could do on his own. It was destroyed when Superboy-Prime was flown through Krypton's sun and crash landed on Mogo.
Weaknesses
One of the most common Kryptonian weaknesses is magic. After an assault by Black Adam, Superboy-Prime said that the magically-fueled attacks tickled him. His resistance to magic is currently inconclusive as the only magical attack made against him so far have been Black Adam's blows which, although powered by magic, were technically physical strikes. Also, the state of magic in the DC Universe at the time is in question because, as a result of the Spectre's assault, magic has been fundamentally changed (See also: Day of Vengeance).
After the speedsters removed Superboy-Prime from their world, they imprisoned him under red sunlight for several years. It should be noted that during Crisis on Infinite Earths, Superboy-Prime was not vulnerable to red solar radiation, as other Kryptonians are although keeping him on a planet under a red sun for long enough would, in theory, deprive him of the yellow sunlight that fuels his powers. It is this weakness that is ultimately exploited by both Kal-El and Kal-L to defeat Superboy-Prime in Infinite Crisis. They did this by flying him directly through Krypton's red sun, destroying his armor and sacrificing his (and their) powers to even the odds.
However, as hinted at on the final pages of infinite crisis by his now glowing red eyes and by the fact that one year later, Kal-El's powers are returning, that Superboy-Prime's powers will return (although Hal Jordan hopes that keeping him exposed to the red sun radiation of a red Sun-Eater will considerably hamper his recovery process).
Another common Kryptonian weakness is Kryptonite. However, Kryptonite from the modern DC Universe does not affect Superboy-Prime. Also, the Krypton of Earth-Prime, unlike other versions of the planet, did not explode in the thermonuclear reaction which created kryptonite; it was engulfed by its sun, Rao, when the star went nova. Thus, it is unlikely that any version of kryptonite which could ever affect Superboy-Prime was ever created.
Geoff Johns and Dan Didio on Superboy-Prime
Though the extent to which Superboy-Prime is being manipulated by Alexander Luthor has not been revealed, the character has been observed making several clearly malicious decisions, including bringing about planetary wars resulting in millions of deaths. According to Infinite Crisis writer Geoff Johns in Wizard magazine #172, "He's really frustrated with what his life has turned into and, unfortunately, that frustration is going to be taken out on the world". He also said earlier in Wizard #170 that "He's been wanting to show the world what he can do, because he barely had a chance to be Superboy. He was Superboy a little bit before Crisis on Infinite Earths and then—BOOM!—his world was wiped out and that was it". These statements could be taken that Superboy-Prime has allied with Alex Luthor due to frustration over the fact that he never got to truly have a heroic career like the heroes in the post-Crisis DCU.
When asked how Superboy-Prime's battle with the Teen Titans got out of control so quickly, editor Dan Didio said, "Superboy is a teenager raised in isolation, with raging hormones, a huge chip on his shoulder and the powers of a god. He never learned how to keep his powers or emotions in check, so when confronted, the situation escalated and he had no idea on how to defuse it. Think of a situation where you, as a teenager, lost your temper. Now imagine you have the power to crush a planet. Do you think that situation would have ended differently? This is the moment where Superboy-Prime crosses the point of no return and becomes the greatest threat the universe will ever know".
Superman: Secret Identity
The protagonist in this four issue prestige format miniseries has similarities to Superboy-Prime as he originally appeared in DC Comics Presents. The story describes the life of Clark Kent, a man with the powers of Superman, on an Earth much like our own where superheroes only exist in comic books.
In his introduction to the collected volume of the series Superman: Secret Identity, writer Kurt Busiek has stated that his inspiration for this story was the original appearances of Superboy-Prime in DC Comics Presents during the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths.
See also
External links
