What Happened: Alexander Luthor of Earth-3(the one from Infinite Crisis)rises as a Black Lantern, collects a bunch of Black Lantern Rings, and uses his abilities to teleport to other dimensions to send himself after his one-time ally, Superboy Prime. On Earth-Prime, the ever annoying Superboy Prime reads his copy of this very comic and is aghast(aghast I say!)with the way it ends. Prime forces his terrified parents(who don't realize he is powerless)to drive him to the local comic book shop so he can get his copy of Adventure Comics #5 and discover what his fate is. Prime demands that the clerk give him a copy of Adventure #5, but the clerk explains to the panicked Idiot of Steel that Adventure #5 hasn't hit the newsstands yet. Prime decides to jump online to see if he can find spoilers for Adventure #5 so he can discover what fate awaits him. However, before he can read the spoilers, BL Alexander arrives and begins to torment Prime in an attempt to build rage up in Prime. Since Prime in his weakened state is unable to build the amount of rage BL Alexander was hoping for, BL Alexander re-powers Prime. Prime, now Super again, attacks BL Alexander, but is unable to inflict any real harm on his one time friend. This issue ends with several heroes who were killed by Prime(including the Threeboot versions of Element Lad and Sun Boy!)returning as Black Lanterns, all ready to force Prime to join their ranks.
What I Thought: Huh. I opened this comic with a lot of preconceived notions. Several people whose opinions I value highly were VERY down on this comic. And when I say VERY, I mean VERY! After reading this comic, I have to say that I respectfully disagree. I LOVED this comic! It was hilarious! In my opinion, this was the perfect way to write a Superboy Prime story. I've never hid the fact that I think SB Prime is a great character. He's probably the comic book character that I most love to hate. His actions, his dialogue, everything about him is just so annoying! In this issue, Geoff keyed right into what makes Prime great, his ability to annoy and BOY was he annoying here! Never before did I find myself rooting more for Black Lanterns then when Element Lad and Sun Boy showed up. And I think that's the fun of this comic, openly rooting AGAINST the starring character. I've got to say, I read the entire Superboy Prime story with a dopey grin on my face. Sometimes it's nice to just sit back and read a good, fun comic, which was exactly what this was.
Score: 9 out of 10.
"A conduit of rage"? Hey, Alexander must be checking out my blog!
I LOVED this, I was shocked to see that you said the other guys didn't, this issue was Prime at his best. It's Prime time!!! Lol
ReplyDeleteHey, I really enjoyed this issue as well! I think it was just Kello and Hex who actually hated it, lol.
ReplyDeleteI agree with both you guys on this one.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I checked out your review after I finished mine Robert(I couldn't read it until I'd posted my own), I don't know what was up with our fellow Legionaires concerning this comic!
I'll put it this way: this issue was too much of a departure from the series as it was. Yes, the Superboy (Kon-El) stories have been lighthearted, but this was just out of left field.
ReplyDeleteI think any time creators break the fourth wall or get all "meta" with their storylines, they run the risk of it not translating very well.
I can also site two other reasons why I did not like this issue:
1. I just dislike "comic that knows it's a comic" stories, (unless they're written by Joe Kelly), and 2. I still haven't read Legion of Three Worlds #5, so I was kind of lost as to why Superboy was even banished to this world.
So, to sum it all up- buy me legion of three worlds #5 for Christmas.
"I just dislike "comic that knows it's a comic" stories" Ah, now I get why this one bugged you so much Kello. I'm kind of the opposite of you in that regard, I've always enjoyed reading about certain characters who know they're comic chararters. Deadpool(who was actually written by Joe Kelly!)immediately comes to mind as a character who knows he's a comic book character with often times hilarious results.
ReplyDeleteWow, you STILL haven't checked out Lo3W's #5 yet? That's crazy! I'd happily buy that for you Mr. SuperKello, but I'm ashamed to admit that I pretty much blew my entire Christmas budget on TPB's the other day... I'm lucky I don't have a very big family to buy presents for!