What if Superboy-Prime had never gone insane?

[Buried Alien]

What if Superboy-Prime had come out of the so-called "paradise dimension" with Kal-L, Lois Lane of Earth-Two, and Alexander Luthor, Jr. of Earth-Three as he did in INFINITE CRISIS, but he had never gone insane/evil? If he had kept his original personality from COIE, what would have Superboy-Prime gone on to do in the Post-COIE DCU?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Atlas]

What if Superboy-Prime had come out of the so-called "paradise dimension" with Kal-L, Lois Lane of Earth-Two, and Alexander Luthor, Jr. of Earth-Three as he did in INFINITE CRISIS, but he had never gone insane/evil? If he had kept his original personality from COIE, what would have Superboy-Prime gone on to do in the Post-COIE DCU?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

I'd like to think he would have headed for the stars and had adventures that no other version of Superman has been able to due to the constraints of the status quo. Superman as a sort of ronin. Maybe he would have joined up with the GL Corps in a nice twist on his later conflicts with them?

Perhaps he travels the Multiverse and becomes an earlier version of Earth-23 Superman, leading Justice League Infinity? Or he finds an Earth where there is no Superman and becomes that realty's champion, or heads to the post-COIE version of Earth-Prime and rights the wrongs perpetrated by DC and WB's executive stupidity?

He might also travel to the future and make a life with the Legion.

My "head canon" is that he's back on the pre-COIE Earth Prime, restored after Convergence, living a life similar to Secret Identity and enjoying the happiness he deserved. Maggin intended him to be every bit the hero his counterparts were, after all.

[Jon Clark]

I can see him joining a Legion (not sure if it should be the original or the second one).

I can see him becoming hero of some other world.

I'd hope to never see him depicted as returning him to Earth-Prime as that conceit (Superman is real in our world) doesn't feel right except in small doses. But finding a close approximate world where we could have had him become the first hero of a world that never had super-heroes might have given us no need for the New-52 reboot.

And the idea of a Superman who not only lost his Krypton but later his whole childhood world as well has an interesting pathos to it. One that would be a great flipside to his still being the sunny Superman that he had ben on track to become in his first appearance. A sort of modern take on the way the Bronze Age Superman had the loss of the Kents always in the background without it becoming a millstone around the character's neck..

[PyroTwilight]

He'd probably butt heads with Doctor Manhattan. And given his unique properties, Doctor Manhattan would probably get his ass kicked by Superboy-Prime. Or at the very least stalemated.


If I were to really push him as a concept I'd love him to represent THE Superman at heart. Have him be some form of Multiversal lynchpin. A hero who can see through universes and into the beyond of even that.

Maybe even have him make some kind of COIE averting choice, or basically be like a more heroic version of Telos and Convergence, saving areas of dying realities the same way Brainiac would with cities of dying planets.

[Atlas]

I can see him joining a Legion (not sure if it should be the original or the second one).

I can see him becoming hero of some other world.

I'd hope to never see him depicted as returning him to Earth-Prime as that conceit (Superman is real in our world) doesn't feel right except in small doses. But finding a close approximate world where we could have had him become the first hero of a world that never had super-heroes might have given us no need for the New-52 reboot.

And the idea of a Superman who not only lost his Krypton but later his whole childhood world as well has an interesting pathos to it. One that would be a great flipside to his still being the sunny Superman that he had ben on track to become in his first appearance. A sort of modern take on the way the Bronze Age Superman had the loss of the Kents always in the background without it becoming a millstone around the character's neck..

Have you read Busiek and Immonen's Secret Identity? It's brilliant.

He'd probably butt heads with Doctor Manhattan. And given his unique properties, Doctor Manhattan would probably get his ass kicked by Superboy-Prime. Or at the very least stalemated.


If I were to really push him as a concept I'd love him to represent THE Superman at heart. Have him be some form of Multiversal lynchpin. A hero who can see through universes and into the beyond of even that.

Maybe even have him make some kind of COIE averting choice, or basically be like a more heroic version of Telos and Convergence, saving areas of dying realities the same way Brainiac would with cities of dying planets.

Cool ideas here. I wouldn't mind any of these happening as they're far preferable to bringing back the villainous version.

[Jon Clark]

Have you read Busiek and Immonen's Secret Identity? It's brilliant.

Yes, it was enjoyable, but it ventured a bit from the original story by removing Krypton and grounding the story a bit more. As a stand-alone story it was great. If it had tried to go on as a series though it would have lost some of it's edge as as either this Clark became too powerful or we got more comic book tropes introduced into the "real world" setting.

[Jackalope89]

Then we wouldn't have something so iconic as this!

superboyprime.jpg

[TruthAndJustice]

He would've gone on to be redundant.

[Lightning Rider]

These ideas have me interested in a redemption arc. I liked his villainous turn but the innocence he had and the potential for a greater character to develop definitely interest me.

[Buried Alien]

He would've gone on to be redundant.

He'd also be grossly overpowered vis a vis everybody else...a Pre-COIE Kryptonian in a Post-COIE DCU. I don't know if he'd be redundant or if everybody else would.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Black Angel]

Then he wouldn't be as awesome. Still much potential could even be teaming up with Mr Majestic that would be an interesting team up

[superduperman]

I don't think any of them should have ever left the "paradise dimension". They all got a happy ending and it should have stayed that way. All of them turned out for the worse leaving it.