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In the pages of Shazam, Superboy-Prime is seen in a prison in the Monsterlands, one of the seventh secret and mysterious magical world in the Magiclands, where many of the evilest beings have been locked away. He is currently unaware of the changes of The “New 52” Relaunch.
IN Death Metal, Superboy Prime allied again with the superheroes to stop the madness of the Batman who laughs. He apparentelly died in battle, but the nature of this event is unclear.
Origin
Superboy-Prime was raised on a parallel world dubbed Earth-Prime. He was thought to be a normal child. He was adopted by Jerry and Naomi Kent, who named him Clark, Naomi’s maiden name, and after the fictional comic book character in their world. It turned out he really was Kal-El and was teleported to Earth-Prime before the Krypton of this universe was destroyed when its sun Rao went supernova.
The Superboy of Earth-Prime left his reality shortly after discovering his new abilities as Halley’s Comet passed by activating his Kryptonian powers, while coincidentally dressed as Superman at a Halloween party. In a twist of fate the Earth-1 Superman was passing by and saw yet another Superman and asked him to join other heroes in protecting reality itself from the Anti-Monitor during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. His reward, along with Alexander Luthor, Jr. of Earth-3, Golden Age Superman, Kal-L, and Lois Lane of Earth-2, was a chance to escape to an apparent heavenly pocket dimension before reality fixed itself after the Crisis.
Character Creation
Superboy-Prime was created by Elliot S! Maggin and Curt Swan. Superboy Prime made his first comic book appearance in DC Comics Presents #87.
Character Evolution
Never aging in the Paradise dimension, with a view of the world he can never be a part of (post-Crisis Earth), Superboy-Prime came to despise his situation. He lost his childhood, and he could never grow up to be Superman, his idol of Earth-2. His envy and anger boiled as he watched the world he had saved become darker.
He believed its heroes were losing the fight for justice, and he was especially angered by Superboy, Connor Kent, for taking his name and what he believed should be his life. Regretting his decision, he escaped with the help of Alexander Luthor, and the two set off the chain of events which brought about the Infinite Crisis, an attempt to recreate the world in their image. Having been exposed to yellow sunlight and reveling in his strength, he was the cause of many of the atrocities during the Infinite Crisis:
- He destroyed the Watchtower on the moon and left the Martian Manhunter for dead.
- He moved the planet Rann into Thanagar‘s orbit, causing the two planets and their allies to go to war.
- He almost beat Connor Kent to death in an attempt to prove that Connor wasn’t worthy of the name “Superboy,” and killed several Titans in the process before being pushed into The Speed Force by the Flash‘s Bart Allen, Jay Garrick, Wally West, and with assistance by Barry Allen, Max Mercury, and Jesse Quick who pulled Superboy-Prime in. While trapped as a prisoner inside The Speed Force, Superboy-Prime was placed under an artificial red sun to prevent any more harm to others.
- Upon his return to Earth-1 hours have passed, although it had been four years while inside the Speed Force, he went directly after Conner Kent, killing him as the two fought. His plans had changed when Earth-Prime couldn’t have been resurrected by Alexander Luthor. So thus, he set his sights on destroying Oa to restart creation. While on his quest to bring back his Earth and to be the only remaining super-powered being, he broke through a 300-mile thick wall of will powered by the Green Lantern Corps, and killed thirty-two ring-bearers in the process. Prime was finally met with resistance in the form of the Supermen of Earth-1 and Earth-2 by them flying directly into a red sun and crashing on the living planet Mogo. The Superman of Earth-2 was beaten to a pulp by Prime during the fight and ended up dying in Power Girl‘s arms following Prime’s defeat at the hands of Earth-1 Superman.
Major Story Arcs
Infinite Crisis
For More Information: Infinite Crisis
The Superman of Earth-2 breaks open a portal to the DC Universe, and the four residents of the paradise dimension return, making themselves known to Power Girl and Batman . When introduced to Power Girl, he calls himself Superboy-Prime for the first time. Kal-L tells Power Girl: “When the universe was reborn, Earth-1 became the primary world. The scraps of the remaining worlds were folded into it. But I finally realized â we saved the wrong Earth”. Superboy-Prime is jealous of Conner Kent , the modern Superboy, believing him to be living the life he himself ought to have had. He also believes the Earth’s heroes act more like villains. Superboy-Prime confronts Superboy, telling him that he (Superboy-Prime) is the only Superboy the Earth needs. Superboy-Prime brutally attacks Conner, but not before Connor activates his homing signal. The Teen Titans, the Doom Patrol, and the JSA arrive to help Conner. After accidentally killing Pantha, Superboy-Prime is shocked and horrified. The heroes try to contain Superboy-Prime, who kills or wounds several of them.
Speedy traps Superboy-Prime in the Phantom Zone, using an “emergency Phantom Zone arrow”. Superboy-Prime breaks free, exclaiming that the Phantom Zone is for “bad guys”. Left with no other option, the three Flashes drive Superboy-Prime into the Speed Force, and banish him to a world bathed in red sunlight, where he remains for four years.
Hours later, an older Bart Allen, dressed in his grandfather’s costume, emerges from the Speed Force and tells the heroine Doctor Light to warn the other heroes that Superboy-Prime has escaped. Superboy-Prime reappears during a battle between Alexander Luthor and the heroes freed from his tower, wearing a power suit modeled after the Anti-Monitor ‘s armor, which constantly feeds him yellow solar energy and boosts his power levels. During the battle, Black Adam discovers that his magic has little effect against Superboy-Prime. Superboy-Prime knocks Adam away from the tower, and his opponent is transported to Earth-S . Superboy-Prime insists that Luthor reinstate Earth-Prime as the only existing Earth. After Superboy-Prime beats Wonder Girl, an enraged Conner Kent attacks him. Conner and Superboy-Prime’s battle sends them both headlong into Alexander Luthor’s vibrational tuning fork. The machine explodes, and the alternate Earths merge into one. Conner dies from injuries sustained during the explosion.
Alexander and Superboy-Prime join the Battle of Metropolis and quarrel about their contingency plan. Since their tower has been destroyed, Alexander is prepared to settle for taking over New Earth instead of creating a perfect Earth. Upon hearing of the new plan, Superboy-Prime refuses to help Alex, as he believes New Earth to be hopelessly inferior.
When Batman, Wonder Woman, Kal-El, and Kal-L arrive to save Metropolis, Kal-L confronts Alex about his role in the destruction. Meanwhile, Superboy-Prime is attacked by Bart Allen, who is outraged by Conner’s death. Superboy-Prime escapes Bart and flies toward Oa intending to destroy it and spark another Big Bang which would recreate the universe with himself as the sole hero. Although the majority of the Earth’s heroes are in pursuit, Superboy-Prime eludes capture.
Superboy-Prime is slowed down by a 300-mile thick wall of pure willpower generated by the Green Lantern Corps. Breaking through, he battles and slaughters thirty-two Green Lanterns. The two Supermen arrive and fly Superboy-Prime through Rao, the red sun of Krypton. The heat melts away Superboy-Prime’s armor, and severely weakens all three Kryptonians, who then crash on Mogo. Superboy-Prime savagely beats Kal-L, but is then attacked by Kal-El.
Superboy-Prime claims that he is better than Kal-El, and that his Krypton was superior to Kal-El’s. Kal-El responds: “It’s not about where you were born. Or what powers you have. Or what you wear on your chest. It’s about what you do… It’s about action.” Although nearly powerless, Kal-El knocks Superboy-Prime out before collapsing himself, but members of the Green Lantern Corps manage to save Kal-El.
Superboy-Prime is then taken into the custody of the Gurdians of the Universe, who place him in a quantum containment field, surrounded by a red Sun Eater and guarded by fifty Green Lanterns.
The Sinestro Corps War
For More Information: Sinestro Corps War
Superboy-Prime was imprisoned by the Guardians of the Universe in the center of an artificial Red Sun Eater which was given to them by Donna Troy and was watched over by at least two dozen Green Lanterns at all times. This was commonly referred to as Prime Duty by The Guardians and the Green Lantern Corps, and was a job hated by many due to the fact that, while in the process of keeping an eye on Superboy-Prime, they were not allowed to do anything else.
Superboy-Prime is released from his imprisonment by Sinestro and joins The Sinestro Corps. He is a Herald of the Anti-Monitor, along with Cyborg Superman, Sinestro himself, and Parallax (with Kyle Rayner as its host). He sports the uniform of the Sinestro Corps and a variant of the power suit he wore during Infinite Crisis and begins calling himself Superman-Prime.
As the war against the Green Lantern Corps raged, Prime kept a post on the moon until The Sinestro Corps brought the fight to Earth. After defiling the Memorial of Bart Allen, Prime re-waged his war against a number of spare heroes. This time around, Prime tore off the other of Risk‘s arm’s and may have killed Wildebeest before a faction of Team Superman joined the fight. But even with their joined efforts, Prime managed to last until the sun rose and he was able to recharge. It was then that he ended up being challenged by the new Ion: Sodam Yat.
Prime ferociously battled Ion across the city. They originally seemed to be evenly matched until the fight brought them to a nuclear powerplant. The powerplant, made of lead, weakened Ion and Prime was able to impale him with a lead rod. Ion managed to escape from the plant but Prime pursued mercilessly. The fight continued into a cemetery. Prime and Ion fought hard and long but Prime was too much for the young and inexperienced Green Lantern Corpsmen. Prime was able to beat Ion into submission. However, John Stewart and Guy Gardner arrived to save their comrade.
The battle in New York raged on as Prime battled the Green Lantern Corps and Earth’s heroes. After hearing the Anti-Monitor declaring victory, Prime turned on the Guardian of Fear and ripped him apart for destroying his homeworld. Superman-Prime tossed the Anti-Monitor into space after achieving his ultimate goal of revenge. Prime then attacked the Green Lantern Corps and the Sinestro Corps and slaughtered many of them.
The Guardians of the Universe attacked and began blasting Prime with energy. The Kryptonian managed to grab onto one of the Guardians but was shocked to see the Guardian self-destruct in his face, apparently killing Superman-Prime. It was later revealed that Prime was trapped in the Multiverse looking much older and more powerful.
Countdown To Final Crisis
For More Information: Countdown To Final Crisis
In the Countdown storyline, Superman-Prime discovers the new multiverse and begins the search for his home dimension. He wears a uniform very much like the one Superman wore when he returned from his death and looks as if he has grown to adulthood.
In his search he finds Earth-15. He kidnaps the world’s Lex Luthor, blaming him for Alexander Luthor Jr.’s failures. Prime then kills the world’s Superman (General Zod) and his pregnant wife. He then flies Luthor through the atmosphere, killing him, he then fly’s through the JLA watchtower killing everyone inside save the Martian Manhunter who emerges from the wreckage to confront Prime for his crimes. Prime quickly kills the Martian Manhunter by snapping his neck, he then returns to Earth and begins the process of killing off the Justice League. After destroying Atlantis using his heat vision he is attacked by Wonder Woman (Donna Troy) and Batman (Jason Todd). He quickly kills Wonder Woman while Batman watched is horror. Prime then removes Batman from his craft and fly’s him out of the Earths atmosphere only to toss him back towards Earth unprotected, leaving Batman to burn while reentering Earths atmosphere. Prime then decides to destroy the entire planet by flying straight through it at high speeds causing the Earth to explode.
Superman-Prime then flies to his home base in the Source Wall. There, it is revealed that he has kidnapped Mister Mxyzptlk and is torturing him into helping him recreate Earth-Prime. It is revealed that Prime is still 19, but absorbed a great deal of power from the death of Guardian 7 during the Sinestro Corps War and that he was not older but rather that his muscles were simply swollen with power thus making it only look like he was older. He also has Annataz Arataz of Earth-3, an evil version of Zatanna Zatara as his captive.
Prime then commands Annataz to cut out Mxyzptlk’s heart with a sharpened rock, to which she agrees. However, she has a change of heart, and starts mouthing off to Superman-Prime which leads him to decide that seeking help from magic users was a waste of time. He leaves the room only to blast it with a shot of heat vision from the outside, burning Annataz to death, but not Mxyzptlk as she had helped him escape. Mxyzptlk, who returns home in tears as well as a state of fear and panic, has his girlfriend Gsptlsnz seal up the 5th Dimension forever.
As Monarch and the Monitors‘ war begins, Prime finds the Monitor traitor, Solomon. Prime says that he will do terrible things to him unless he helps him find what he is looking for.
Forerunner arrives while Prime is beating the living daylights out
of Solomon and Prime quickly disables her. Solomon interferes stating that the “perfect” world Prime was looking for is Earth-51. Solomon, also seeking the “perfect” world declares that they were both too late, and that it is Monarch’s fault that it is not perfect anymore. Prime leaves in rage to confront Monarch. Prime finds Monarch and they have a monstrous battle. Prime taunts Monarch saying he’s hiding behind his suit and Monarch corrects him stating that the suit is protecting everyone else from him.
Monarch lifts off his helmet and causes a nuclear explosion that blows up a city. Prime survives the blast and continues to attack Monarch. Monarch explains that the power Prime’s received from the Guardian is wearing off and that he will revert back to what he used to be before fighting the Guardian. Prime then rips open Monarch’s armor releasing enough energy that results in the total annihilation of Universe designate #51
Legion of 3 Worlds
For More Information: Legion of 3 Worlds
Prime reappears floating in time. The being known as the Time Trapper finds him and sends him to the 31st century to be used as a weapon against the Legion of Super Heroes. He is found by an old man and woman and he is not much younger than he was and his uniform is ruined.
The old couple addresses him with Superboy which doesn’t make him happy as he wants to be called Superman. He kills them and goes off to the Superman museum in Smallville and, after talking to a hologram of Jimmy Olsen, finds that his history has been falsely rewritten. Prime becomes infuriated as the museum claims Bart Allen and Connor Kent had both respectively defeated him in battle with ease. Superboy-Prime is then described as someone not of any importance and was reduced to only a minor threat.
Prime finds an idollic statue of him placed in storage. He takes the uniform, destroys the building and kills several police officers that had been sent to investigate his presence at the museum. The hologram informs Prime about the Legion of Super Villains and he goes after them with the hope of becoming Superman’s greatest enemy. He frees Saturn Queen, Cosmic King and Lightning Lord.
They are happy to see him. He frees more inmates and uses his powers to mark a large S upon the planet they had been imprisoned. The Legion contacts Superman who is not aware of Prime’s actions in the battle during Countdown. Soon, he and Brainiac 5 intend to use two different groups of Legions to help them fight off Prime, but Superman seems to think the only real way to beat him his to make him good.
During their attempt to save The White Witch from the deranged sorcerer Mordru, Legionnaires Rond Vidar, Blok, Wildfire and Dawnstar cross paths with Prime and the new Legion of Super-Villains who have also added The Justice League of Earth and The Fatal Five to their ranks.
After The White Witch opens a stargate that leads back to Earth, Rond forces his allies into it and stays behind on Wizard World to combat Prime and The L.O.S.V. Needless to say, Rond fails and is eventually murdered by Prime.
When Rond’s father, Universo, fails to obtain his son’s Green Lantern Ring, he flips out and causes Mordru, who is furious about losing The White Witch, to attack Prime. However, since Prime cannot be affected by magic, he merely shrugs it off and laughs.
Saturn Queen eventually convinces Mordru to calm down and tells him if he joins with The L.O.S.V. he can get The White Witch back. Mordru agrees and joins forces with Prime’s Legion. Later on, Prime and The L.O.S.V. descend upon Metropolis where they are confronted by Superman and what little remains of The Legion of Super-Heroes.
Superman attempts to put some sense into Prime but fails and is injured badly. Prime then orders a couple of the fire-wielding members of The L.O.S.V. to begin burning down all the statues of The L.O.S.H., Superman returns shortly after and directs Prime’s attention to the arrival of Brainiac Five, a couple other Legion Members – and two other alternate versions of The L.O.S.H.
During the fight, Prime murders one version of Sun Boy. Meanwhile, Brainiac 5 gathers up every version of Lightning Lad and Lightning Lass as well as XS and takes them back to Legion Headquarters where they use the Cosmic Treadmill to bring Bart Allen a.k.a. Kid Flash back from the dead.
Bart, XS, The Lightning Lads and Lasses as well as Sodam Yat attack Prime without mercy. However, Kinetix enters the fray firing wave after wave of kryptonite at Prime, not knowing that it won’t work. However, when Prime obliterates Kinetix, the explosion is so great that all of Prime’s cells become poisoned by kryptonite radiation.
As he is burned alive from the inside out, Cosmic King comes to his aid and transforms the kryptonite radiation into yellow solar radiation. Mordru then tells Prime that in order to actually win this fight, he will have to travel to Superman’s Fortress of Solitude or else all will be lost. Prime does so and, after beating up several Legionnaires, faces off against Polar Boy whom he nearly kills until the “mainstream” Sun Boy saves him from Prime’s rampage.
It is at this point that the last person Prime ever thought to see other than Superman, Sodam Yat and Bart Allen appears — Conner Kent a.k.a. Superboy. As Superboy and Prime fight, another major battle is being fought at the End of Time.
Having transported Superman, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad and Cosmic Boy from the 31st Century to his realm, The Time Trapper attempts to finish them all off once and for all.
As the fight intensifies, Superman overwhelms The Time Trapper but Saturn Girl learns The Time Trapper is gradually lowering his mental defenses, obviously in preparation to reveal his true identity to the four heroes.
When Superman rips off The Time Trapper’s hood, he and the others are shocked to learn that The Time Trapper is actually a future incarnation of Prime, a ragged elderly man who has the same glowing red eyes, the same self-inflicted S-Shield Scar and the same hatred for Superman and The Legion as his younger counterpart.
He also claims that Conner’s return will be short lived and that he, along with Kid Flash, Sodam Yat and what is left of The Legion of Three Worlds, will die. He knows this simply because of the fact that he was there. However, the Brainiacs deduced that this was a lie since a wound inflicted on the younger Superboy-Prime appeared on the body of Time Trapper-Prime.
They came up with a new plan: send Time Trapper to their world, hoping that the younger version would engage himself in combat. To do this, they used the Time Trapper’s access to all worlds to bring in every incarnation of the Legion of Superheroes throughout the Multiverse.
They were able to knock Time Trapper-Prime unconscious while they brought him to Superboy-Prime’s location. Once there, as predicted, Superboy-Prime became enraged and attacked his older self, causing a reaction that erased Time Trapper from that timeline.
After he was “erased”, Superboy-Prime was sent back to Earth-Prime.
Blackest Night
For More Information: Blackest Night
While reading a copy of Adventure Comics #4, Prime began ranting to the reader about wanting to have been left out of the Blackest Night crossover, however when he flipped to the end of the book he freaked out and left his house.
Which is where he found his parents coming back with everything he wanted from the Grocery Store and demanded that they take him to Jet’s Comics, as it was a matter of life and death.
They did as he commanded and along the way Jerry Kent, Prime’s adoptive father, begged from Prime not to hurt them. Prime asked why in the world they would think that he would hurt them.
His Father then pointed out what he had done to Laurie which Prime responded that he had done it because she didn’t like him anymore. Prime then asked Naomi, his adoptive mother, if she loved him to which she replied that she was terrified of Prime.
Upon arriving at Jet’s Comics, Prime kissed Naomi on the cheek and told him he loved her, apparently ignoring her previous comment.
Once inside the comic store, Prime demanded that the clerk give him Adventure Comics #5 but since #4 had just come out, naturally #5 wouldn’t be out until December.
Prime then asked the clerk if he had heard anything about what happens to Superboy-Prime in #5 and the clerk directs him to the store’s computer, saying that there could be spoilers online.
While Prime is surfing The DC Comics website for information on Adventure Comics #5, a new customer enters the store who garners attention from both the clerk and another customer who comments on how cool his “Black Lantern Costume” is.
The clerk and the other customer are both incinerated by a powerful beam of energy, which gets Prime’s attention and upon turning around Prime found himself face-to-face with Black Lantern Alexander Luthor of Earth-3.
After greeting Prime, who leaps away from in fear, Black Lantern Alex comments on how interesting the computer is able to act as a conduit of rage for the people of Earth and then notes on how Prime is still able to invoke quite a bit of rage from them all.
Prime replied by smashing Black Lantern Alex’s head through the computer which was the reaction he had been hoping for and goes on to tell Prime that while his rage is still great, his travels through the Multiverse have left him severely weakened making it impossible for him to generate the amount of rage he once did.
Black Lantern Alex then said that because he demands it Superman-Prime must return and used his powers to restore Prime back to normal and reconstructs his old power suit.
With his powers back, Prime tells Black Lantern Alex that he’s made a mistake and that he finally understands that he’s the hero of the Adventure Comics two part tie-in to Blackest Night.
Black Lantern Alex says that Prime is no hero, that he is a bad character, an annoying guest star and is hated by everyone including his own parents, who fear him greatly.
Prime rebuttals this by saying that his parents love him and then shields them from one of Black Lantern Alex’s energy blasts, Black Lantern Alex tells Prime not to confuse obligation with love and then tells Prime that he is both a burden and an inside-joke to the other characters and the fans.
As Black Lantern Alex says this, Prime is then suddenly struck down by beams of Kryptonite and Red Sun energy and has his attention directed heavenward as several Black Lanterns, all of whom were people he had killed over the years starting all the way back to Infinite Crisis, descended from the Heavens with weapons in hand.
As Adventure Comics #4 comes to a close, Black Lantern Alex gives Prime and the readers a “spoiler alert” telling them that next issue Prime dies. The issue ends with Prime demanding to know what happens next.
Adventure Comics #5 opens on Prime being accosted by The Black Lanterns in the skies above New York City, believing that he will die, Prime has decided that if he goes down he is taking the people who ruined his life with him.
The fight between Prime and The Black Lanterns spills into Dan Didio’s office at DC Comics, which shocks Didio greatly as he never thought that Prime was really real.
As the fight presses forward through the offices of DC, Prime tells each and every person he comes across that they had all brought this down upon themselves, that comic books and the things happening within them were real and not just ideas that popped out of their heads and that they all knew this day was going to come.
Before Prime can actually bring any harm to the DC Staff, Alex and the other Black Lanterns teleport him back to his basement where they begin to overpower him while Black Lantern Alex explains that people have always found hope and a community they could belong to in the pages of comics but for Prime he was surrounding himself with his very own kryptonite each and every time he walked into his basement.
And it is because that he can claim ownership of himself but has no control over what the writers do that sparks his rage, as he does not like being in control, which prompts him to harm even the things he loved the most in this world…including Laurie.
The Black Lanterns then pin Prime to the ground and start stripping his armor off in preparation to tear his heart out and he is told by Black Lantern Alex to stop struggling as not even he has the power to stop a Black Lantern.
Prime agrees with Alex and snatches one of The Black Lantern Power Rings in mid-air before it can reconstruct its wielder and says to Alex that if he cannot defeat them…then he must join them.
Prime then slips on the Ring, which kills him and turns him into a Black Lantern but as it does Prime begins to access every facet of the Emotional Spectrum while the ring asks and answers a series of questions directed towards him which relate specifically to a certain emotion.
After having been a Green Lantern (for the fight he puts up for a delusional demand for respect), an Indigo Lantern (for the compassion towards his beloved parents), an Orange Lantern (for the need to be loved), and a Sinestro Corps soldier (for fear of who he admired most), the power of Prime’s rage (for the his own self hate over what he’s become) turns him into a Red Lantern and he turns his rage on Alex.
As Prime burns the Black Lanterns with his rage, he tells Alex that unlike him, he never wanted to be better than everyone else.
All Prime had ever wanted was to fit in, to be someone who mattered, someone who was worth something.
What he wanted was to be heard but Alex would never listen to him, the ring then asked Prime who he loved and Prime told the ring that it was Laurie that he had always loved.
As he admitted this his body unleashed the power of rage, willpower, compassion, avarice and love simultaneously allowing him to destroy The Black Lanterns once and for all as well as the ring attached to his finger.
In the aftermath, Prime admits that he hates himself for what he has become, for what DC has turned him into and asks why he can’t have a happy ending.
At that moment the doors to his basement open up and Laurie, whom Prime had supposedly killed shortly after his return to Earth-Prime, comes down and embraces Prime tightly.
Laurie tells Prime that The DC writers are sorry for what they did to him and that they will leave him alone from now on, Prime begins to break down and sob on Laurie’s shoulder.
As he does, The Black Lantern Ring on Laurie’s finger says “Hope” and with that the story of Superboy-Prime comes to a close.
Legion of Doom
Prime once again finds himself on New Earth at the start of Teen Titans #98, as a result of a wormhole caused by Titans villain Headcase. He assembles a new Legion of Doom consisting of Sun Girl, Headcase, Inertia, Persuader, Indigo and Zookeeper along with 4 clones of the original Superboy (created from the remains of Match), with the intention of destroying Conner and the Titans. Prime and the Legion overwhelm the Titans and attempt to destroy the Tower, but are beaten back by a large group of former Titans that includes Damian Wayne, Speedy, Supergirl, Bombshell, Miss Martian and Red Star among many others. Prime and the Legion are defeated by the combined might of the Titans, and he is imprisoned in the Source Wall by Conner and Kara just before the New 52 reboot occurred.
Powers & Abilities
Superboy-Prime possessed just about the same powers as his counterpart Superman although they appear to be more powerful due to his insanity. In truth, Superboy-Prime was amped by Alexander Luthor’s Anti-Matter powers. This explains the inconsistencies with the character. Superboy-Prime’s power levels are reminiscent of the powerful Silver Age Superboy, accomplishing such feats as overpowering two Supermen, punching planets with ease and defeating or killing many other DC heroes. Superboy-Prime also wears a yellow sun powered suit of armor to further enhances his power. His body is currently not energized with energy from a Guardian of The Universe, as he had used up his energy during his fight with Monarch.
Flight:
He can fly at light-speed.
Hearing:
Prime can hear anything, anywhere like the Silver Age Superman.
Healing Factor:
Superboy-Prime can heal wounds rapidly.
Heat Vision:
He can generate an intense beam of heat to melt things and it was powerful enough to shoot through and penetrate the chest of Superman.
Invulnerability:
He can fly into a sun unharmed like Pre-Crisis Kryptonians.Able to survive a guardian of the universe exploding. When he was charged by Oan energy, he was able to withstand monarch’s attacks. He can eat uranium without any discomfort and withstood Krypto’s heat vision, Powergirl and Supergirl’s attack.
Super-Strength:
Superboy-Prime has the same strength as a Pre-Crisis Kryptonian. This is absolutely terrifying display of physical strength. He can move planets with ease and tear superheroes apart like they are made of tissue paper. An army of superheroes and villains are more of annoyance than anything else.
Super Speed:
He can travel faster than the speed of light or fly faster to cross the time barrier to travel back in time.
Vision Powers:
Prime has x-ray, microscope vision and telescope vision that was strong enough to see across universes.
Energy Absorbing:
Prime like any Superman absorbs different forms of radiation and draws power from yellow sunlight, but appears to absorb it back faster and reach full power sooner. He has also been able to absorb the energy from a Guardian of the Universe and used it to increase his age, but only temporally.
Prime’s Armor
Prime has a suit of armor that absorbs and stores Yellow Sunlight. As Prime has only been shown to wear the suit after he has been depowered, it is debatable as to whether it is used as a recovery suite or a power enhancer beyond his normal limit. However, it should be noted that Prime once indicated to his opponents that destroying the suite would not help because he was almost “whole again”. This implies that he was in a weakened state at the time, most likely because he had spent several months trapped under a red sun. It has also been speculated that the suite provides a tactical advantage in case he has to fight at night or comes under attack from darkness-manipulating superheroes like Shadow Lass.
The first incarnation of the armor, which was known only as “The Monitor Armor” was stolen from a museum that existed in a parallel universe which had somehow become trapped or replicated within The Speed Force.
But that first armor however was destroyed when the Supermen of New Earth and Earth-Two sent Prime flying into the Rao of New-Earth. The Sinestro Corps variant of the armor was designed by Prime, who was inspired to model it after The Anti-Monitor’s Armor once he got a hold of the information that allowed him to see how his armor functioned. This version of the Armor was also destroyed during a battle with Earth’s Heroes.
Shortly after his arrival in The 31st Century Prime got a hold of an exact and fully functional replica of his original armor that had been on a statue of him that was being sent into storage. The armor proved useful for a time but during Prime’s fight with Superman and several L.O.S.H. members including two alternate versions of Cosmic Boy.
All of the armor save for the part covering his hips and the spandex uniform underneath were destroyed. Contrary to common belief, no version of this armor is capable of protecting Prime from the effects of Red Sunlight or powers that can reproduce the effects of Red Sunlight.
Time Trapper Powers
The immortal Time Trapper incarnation of Prime, who is much older than his modern day counterpart, has several abilities that his younger self does not. “Prime Trapper” has shown that he is not only capable of traveling through time without being seen but also manipulating it subtly as well. Prime also has displayed the ability to fire huge energy blasts and is somewhat well-versed in using psychic and psionic abilities. He can also cast an Astral Projection of himself into the minds of Future Seers such as The White Witch, is capable of manipulating his height at will and has the ability to control The Cockroaches that live with and on him at The End of Time.
Red Lantern Ring
Removing a red lantern ring causes death upon a user unless healed by a blue lantern ring. It is unknown if Prime truly wore a real red lantern ring during his temporary lantern empowerment while fighting various black lanterns. But if Prime truly wielded a real red lantern ring, his body was able to unwield the ring without suffering death.
Weaknesses
Due to the fact Prime comes from another dimension the Kryptonite of New Earth has no effect on him. Also the reality-altering powers of 5th Dimension Imps does not seem to work on him. Originally, Prime was entirely resistant to Kryptonite because in his world Krypton was consumed by Rao, it’s Sun, and thus Kryptonite never came to be in his reality making the weakness non-existent.
Recently however while in the “Threeboot” L.O.S.H.’s version of The 31st Century, he was actually poisoned with a large abundance of Kryptonite Radiation, the reason for this is unknown but it has been hinted that the “Threeboot” version of The 31st Century may actually be a reconstituted version of Earth-Prime.
Prior to this his only weakness was Red Sunlight like the other Supermen. Unlike the other Supermen however Prime is completely resistant to magic as shown when he said that it only tickled when Black Adam punched him multiple times with magic-enhanced strikes and also when the 31st Century version of Mordu the Mystical blasted him with a mystical attack.
Aside from those weaknesses Prime has many psychological phobias such as a fear of the dark due to the fact that it saps his cells of sunlight and an irrational fear of speedsters that has been deemed “Flash-Phobia”, primarily because it was The Flash Family who imprisoned him in The Speed Force and then left him to rot under a Red Sun for approximately four years (Time in The Speed Force runs faster than on Earth.)
Prime is also afraid of being forgotten now that he has learned that in The 31st Century, everything he did during both Infinite Crisis and The Sinestro Corps War was incorrectly documented (i.e., Prime was supposedly defeated single-handedly by Kid Flash, Conner Kent and Sodam Yat during his fights with them) and that he has been considered only as having been minor annoyance to Superman whose place in History matters so little that his statue in the Hall of Villains at the Superman Museum was put in a closet and was about to be thrown into a real storage locker once the statue of the villain called Neutron had finished getting it’s new paint job.