A Strange Confession: I like Superboy Prime

As my title says, my strange confession today is that I love Superboy Prime. Don't get me wrong, he's a whiny, angsty, over-used, over-powered, emo teenaged tool. But oddly, that's why I like him.

Okay, see, I'm one of those people that honestly, well, villains never really do much for me. Don't get me wrong. I cheer seeing Sinestro and I'm more than happy to see Lex Luthor scheme and the like. But I like seeing villains in relation to the heroes, I don't have a whole lot of interest in the villains in their own right.

And I think sometimes creators get a little too over-enamored with their villains. Which to be fair is often somewhat inevitable. Villains have to be complex and interesting since that's what makes it fun to see them battle the heroes. But there's a way to take it too far. And then its on and on about how cool the villain is, his tragic backstory, how utterly badass he is...

Take, for example, Deathstroke. I don't mean to offend any Deathstroke fans, but I tend to think he's completely overused. (And don't get me started on the stupidity of the Deathstroke vs. Kyle fight in Identity Crisis. Even assuming Deathstroke CAN take advantage of Kyle's distraction to force the ring to very briefly react, Kyle Rayner, who is the Lantern most famous for deranged conjurations, is not about to PUNCH DEATHSTROKE to begin with. Hell, even Hal or Alan at their most by the book would CONJURE a giant fist rather than punch him. But I digress.) I won't deny that he's got a complex backstory or that he can be interesting or compelling, but I don't find him nearly as interesting as certain writers appear to. Honestly, I find him a little annoying. (Not to mention pretentious, yeesh.)

Superboy Prime is probably a bit overused right now, but not quite on level with Deathstroke, I think. He did spend a year or so real time in a giant green cube at least, as opposed to showing up everywhere. But I think the real draw for me is that well...you know that annoyance I feel whenever Superboy Prime opens his big mouth?

I'm SUPPOSED to feel that way. I'm supposed to find him annoying, whiny, emo, and all those other things. I'm supposed to enjoy Guy Gardner calling him a crybaby and cheer for Power Girl to kick his ass. And as powerful as he is, I never get the sense that we're supposed to appreciate his utter badassery.

He's a whiny teenager with way too much power, sure, a badass? AS IF. And that's how we're supposed to feel.

He's kind of like one of the annoying villains that normally would be relegated to cannon fodder or comic relief underling status, but they actually gave him POWER. That's oddly interesting to me.

That said, I do hope they table him for a while after Sinestro Corps. He's a villain that can be overused real fast. At the same time, I kind of like him.

I hope he gets one hell of a beatdown first. <3