Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Superman Prime

posted by JediSheltie @ 7:09 PM

Oct 24th RoundUp

Ah, time, time, time.

Tales of the Sinestro Corps: Superman Prime

Since I've commented elsewhere on the site about this, I can't let this review get away from me.

I called bull honkus on the "coming of age" excuse Johns used for the name change before reading the comic. In retrospect, that was unfair. I should give him a chance to prove his case. My conclusion after actually reading the comic... bull honkus. Note that I'm not saying this is a bad comic, just that it didn't strike me as a "coming of age" story, as "Superman" Prime acts like the petulant child he's always acted like.

There's no really progression in the state of the character. The story, and art, flips between the "current events" of the Sinestro Corps invasion of Earth, and, "S-Prime's" backstory on Earth Prime. It's interesting to note that this kind of switch between Ordway's "old style" art and the more modern art of Woods and company was supposed to be used to similar effect in Infinite Crisis but the delays caused the addition of many different fill-in artists which caused that aspect of the work to be somewhat muddled.

S-Prime is pretty much every kid who wanted to grow up and be Superman, the difference was, he actually got the chance. It lasted about two seconds before his universe was eaten by the Anti-Monitor and he was tossed into the original Crisis on Infinite Earths. A long detour through a pocket dimension watching his parents die over and over again, and out he pops for Infinite Crisis, all bat-*#!@ insane.

The interesting things about the book aren't really the backstory pretty much everyone is familiar with, but a peak into the current motivations of S-Prime, who, it is revealed, has not forgotten who actually did the whole parents killing thing. Turns out S-Prime has his own agenda for the Anti-Monitor and his new pals in the Corps. Not that the assembled forces of the JSA and Teen Titans really know or care, they just try to put him down before he can "reach sunlight."

Now, I hate to be "that guy", but the central conceit of the modern part of the story is that S-Prime is "weakened" in his solar armor and is trying to make around the globe to the sunlight so he can recharge. I just have to point out that he appeared in space before heading to Earth. Even if we assume he was in the Earth's shadow the whole time, there's still a whole bunch of solar radiation out there. It seems it was an effort to make the fight at least seem reasonable, as S-Prime has already demonstrated a "Silver Age" power level.

The fight that ensues sees a macabre bit of humor involving Risk, who's last encounter with S-Prime went just about exactly as well as this one does. We learn, off page, that the 3 Kryptonians (-girl -girl -man) regrouped and kicked the Cyborg's tail when they turn their attention to S-Prime. That's about the time the sun comes up.

It seems the big fight now turns to the new Ion, something I'm not particularly happy about. I realize this is a Green Lantern arc, but S-Prime is also kind of "Superman Family" problem, and I hope they don't just have him sit it out.

Other than those nitpicks, and the whole "it's-not-a-coming-of-age-story" thing, it wasn't a bad comic, really. I think some amount of pure honesty would have been nice concerning the name change and the lawsuit, but ultimately it doesn't matter.