Tales of Sinestro: Superman Prime

Well! In all the excitement over the weekend, in-between the Red Sox winning the World Series (yeah!) and Jimmy Johnson winning in Atlanta (booooo!) not to mention moving the cable, the television AND the piano around, I completely forgot to mention that I really rather enjoyed Geoff Johns story of Superbrat Prime.

You all know Superbrat Prime. He's Clark Kent from an Earth that has no real superheroes, all that he knows, he learned from comicbooks. And then one magical day, he realizes that he DOES have super powers! The world is at his feet! Then the real Superman shows up, the Anti-Monitor shows up, and the shit hits the proverbial fan, in the original Infinite Crises. I admit it, I felt sorry for the poor kid.

I no longer feel sorry for the poor kid. I DO want to slap him silly. Other and better writers than I, have proposed the theory that Geoff Johns is using Superbrat Prime to comment on the self-entitled uber-Fanboy, and I may say that I agree. Moreover, he does it quite cleverly. Let me also state that I am the mother of teenagers, and I need say no more.

Firstly, he starts by mocking Bart, and defacing his Flash statue. That seems a bit on the nasty side. Then we have this lovely scene.



And



He's really happy to be getting all this attention. Of course he beats them all up, and then starts down memory lane for a bit of self-justification. Red Star shows up and lays down a nice smackdown, but of course it isn't Superbrat's FAULT that he murdered Red Star's family ! They MADE him do it. Risk shows up, and unfortunately for him, gets his OTHER arm ripped off! He really should quit while he still has any remaining limbs. I WAS going to say while he was a head, but that's a terrible pun.

Then he whines some more, and incidentally gets in some very nice explanations for why the heck he is hanging out with the Anti-Monitor, instead of doing his best to destroy him. He's being SUBTLE...at least for Superbrat. He's going to make the Anti-Monitor PAY! Some day maybe.

Then all the Super people show up and smack him around a little more, which is very satisfying. I really do wish that they allowed Power Girl to neuter him. Then, he bursts into tears, and says that once again, it's all their fault, and if they don't leave him alone, he's going to take all his toys away! That...that will show them! Seriously, if anybody ever needed a spanking, it's this kid. And I don't give a CRAP about his self esteem. I hate self esteem. I consider the current worship of self esteem to be one of the main things wrong with the world today. CRIMINALS have enormous self esteem. I do believe in self respect, but that's a horse of a different color.

*Ahem.* Where was I?

Oh yeah, then Alan Scott and a bunch of heroes show up, and Alan mentions that Superman was probably getting tired of listening to Superbrat whine. I LOVE Alan. That really is such a Guy thing to say. Remember when Guy called him a crybaby back in IC #7? Heh. Lanterns call it the way they see it. They all manage to mostly rip his armor off, but of course the sun comes up, and he flies up and rips his Sinestro Corps shirt off, exposing that big creepy "S" that he carved into his own skin, and just revels in the moment.

I must say that this was a stunning set of panels, with the coloring being quite lovely, the rising sun shining through the silhouette of the bridge and so on. The art is excellent in this.

And then...then Ion shows up.

It's going to be great.

I also noticed that in that large group picture, there is Ice! Woohoo! Finally, we're going to get her back together with Guy, although probably not until GLC #18 or so. I wonder if anybody else in the group noticed that she was back, and said anything?