Adventure Comics #5/508

Writer: The comic book GOD, Geoff Johns(can you guess who I'll be giving my writer of the year award to?)and Sterling Gates. Pencils: Bob Wiacek and Jerry Ordway.

What Happened: Superboy Prime dukes it out with the Black Lanterns who want to add his rage filled heart to their ever growing collection over the streets of Earth-Prime Manhattan. Prime brings the fight to the offices of DC Comics and threatens the various creators for screwing up his life. Before Prime can kill anybody from DC Comics(and deprive us fanboys of our favorite vice)Black Lantern Alexander Luthor arrives and teleports Prime and the Black Lanterns back to the basement of Prime's parents house. The BL's continue to torment Prime, and Prime finally gives up and grabs a BL ring and puts it on his finger, killing himself. However, for some reason, the BL ring causes Prime to transform into a member of several of the other Corps until he finally ends up becoming a Red Lantern(huh?). Prime manages to roast all of the BL's with his Red Lantern powers, which causes his Black Lantern ring to shatter, leaving him alone(and whining)on his basement floor. Prime's story ends with Laurie(Prime's long thought dead girlfriend)walking down the basement stairs to embrace Prime. Unbeknownst to Prime though, Laurie is a Black Lantern!

Second Feature: Writer: Geoff Johns. Artist: Francis Manapul.
On his way home from Paris, Superboy spots Lori destroying a doctor's office in Smallville. Superboy tries to find out why Lori is vandalizing the doctor's office and winds up learning that the doctor wouldn't treat her sick mother(or something along those lines). SB brings Lori back to her house and tries to convince her that she should be trying to find constructive way of helping her mother. While the two are talking, someone knocks on Lori's door and as she opens it, SB keels over in pain. This issue ends with Lex Luthor(who was at the door holding some Kryptonite)announcing that he had been looking all over Smallville for SB, and that he was glad that he had finally found him(oh, and Lori is Lex's niece).

What I Thought: Umm, I really didn't like this comic. I thought the Prime feature was too cutesy, and the SB feature was too short. So yeah, this definitely won't go on my Geoff Johns highlight reel... The Prime feature really annoyed me, mainly because it was too "insider" for my tastes. I could have done without Prime's assault on the DC offices, it didn't really serve any purpose, and just seemed lame. I have NO idea why Prime putting on a Black Lantern ring resulted in him becoming a Red Lantern... That was completely mindboggling. And on top of all that, I thought the ending was pretty lousy as well! It was like the sort of thing you'd see in a really bad horror movie. Yep, Prime's feature was sincerely lacking. As for the Superboy feature, with the exception of Lex's appearance on the last page, nothing of note happened. It was just SB talking to this girl who turns out to be Lex's niece. Since I'm not emotionally invested in Lori at all, this reveal didn't impact me at all. To sum up this comic in a single word, "Meh".

Score: 3 1/2 out of 10.This was the only good part of this comic, and it came on the very last page!

A Quick Look at Adventure Comics #4

Writers: The comic book GOD, Geoff Johns, along with Sterling Gates. Pencils: Jerry Ordway.

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!

Superboy Prime... I just can't hate him...

I really want to hate Superboy Prime, he WAS responsible for the death of Superboy(one of my favorite DC characters)during Infinite Crisis, but I always find myself laughing at his childish antics. Usually, I really hate whiny characters, but it just works so well for Prime.