History Characters / SupermanSuperboyPrime

[[Characters/GLGreenLanternCorps Green Lantern Corps]] ([[Characters/GLGreenLanternCorpsEarthLanterns Earth Lanterns]], [[Characters/GreenLanternHalJordan Hal Jordan]]) | [[Characters/GLSinestroCorps The Sinestro Corps]] ([[Characters/GreenLanternThaalSinestro Thaal Sinestro]]) | [[Characters/GLRedLanternCorps The Red Lantern Corps]] ([[Characters/GreenLanternAtrocitus Atrocitus]]) | [[Characters/GLBlueLanternCorps The Blue Lantern Corps]] | [[Characters/GLStarSapphireCorps The Star Sapphire Corps]] | [[Characters/GLOrangeLanternCorps The Orange Lantern Corps]] | [[Characters/GLIndigoTribe The Indigo Tribe]] | [[Characters/GLOtherLanternCorps The Black, White, Ultraviolet and Gold Lantern Corps]] | [[Characters/GLOtherVillains Other Villains]] ([[Characters/SupermanCyborgSuperman Cyborg-Superman]], [[Characters/SupermanGeneralZod General Zod]], [[Characters/DCComicsMongul Mongul]], '''Superboy-Prime''') | [[Characters/GreenLanternSupportingCharacters Supporting Characters]] | [[Characters/GreenLantern1941 Golden Age]] -]]]]]

* PsychopathicManchild: A rather tragic example. While a petulant maniac who has little tolerance for not getting his way and lashes out violently at the drop of a hat for what are frequently flimsy reasons (to the extent that his actions in ''Infinite Crisis'' are largely throwing a tantrum over the heroes rightly seeing him as a villain and attacking Kon-El for the affront of being a user of the name Superboy besides him), a lot of the horrible things Prime has done is because, for all of his raw power and abilities, Prime is still only a teenage boy unable to cope with the loss of his homeworld and loved ones.

* BrokenPedestal: He became disillusioned with the DC heroes after witnessing UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks.

* EvenEvilCanBeLoved: {{Averted|Trope}}. When Superboy-Prime finally comes home, he is shocked to discover that his parents and girlfriend read "ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis," "ComicBook/SinestroCorpsWar," "ComicBook/CountdownToFinalCrisis," and "ComicBook/FinalCrisis" - Legion of 3 Worlds, and are now terrified of him. It is implied that he killed Laurie Lemmon, and his parents let him live with them out of fear. While he becomes more possessive and controlling of his parents, he still wants them to love him. However, it is clear that all the love they had for him has been replaced by fear. This is best shown in Adventure Comics #4 when Superboy-Prime demands that his parents take him to Jet's Comics, as it is a matter of life and death. They do as he commands, and along the way, his father, Jerry Kent, begs Prime not to hurt them. Prime asks why in the world they would think that he would hurt them. His father points out what he had done to Laurie, to which Prime responds that he had done it because she didn't like him anymore. Prime then asks Naomi, his mother, if she loves him, to which she replies that she is terrified of him. Upon arriving at Jet's Comics, Prime tells Naomi he loves her, apparently ignoring her previous comment. When Prime leaves the car, Naomi tells Jerry to drive away to anywhere. Jerry refuses, pointing out that he would just find them like he did last time. This was ultimately averted in his final appearance when he was sent home and had his girlfriend was happy to see him, with it being implied that his home world has been reset with his previous actions being unknown to his girlfriend, meaning it's likely that his parents have forgotten about his previous actions also and love him like they previously did before.

[[Characters/SupermanCentralRoguesGallery Central Rogues Gallery]] ([[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Alexander "Lex" Luthor]], [[Characters/SupermanBizarro Bizarro]], [[Characters/SupermanBrainiacCharacter Vril Dox/Brainiac]], [[Characters/SupermanCyborgSuperman Cyborg-Superman]], [[Characters/NewGodsDarkseid Darkseid]], [[Characters/SupermanDoomsdayCharacter Doomsday]], [[Characters/DCComicsLobo Lobo]], [[Characters/SupermanMisterMxyzptlk Mister Mxyzptlk]], [[Characters/DCComicsMongul Mongul]], [[Characters/SupermanRoguesGalleryPhantomZone Phantom Zone Criminals]] [[[Characters/SupermanGeneralZod General Zod]]]) | [[Characters/SupermanRoguesGalleryAToL A-L]] | [[Characters/SupermanRoguesGalleryMToZ M-Z]] ('''Superboy-Prime''')\\

[[WMG:[[center:[-''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' '''[[Characters/{{Superman}} Main Character Index]]'''\\

* HatedByAll: Because Superboy-Prime killed so many of his fellow heroes he is pretty much despised by all of the DC superheroes.

* EvenEvilCanBeLoved: {{Averted|Trope}}. When Superboy-Prime finally comes home, he is shocked to discover that his parents and girlfriend read ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'', ''ComicBook/SinestroCorpsWar'', ''ComicBook/CountdownToFinalCrisis'', and ''ComicBook/FinalCrisis'' - Legion of 3 Worlds, and are now terrified of him. It is implied that he killed Laurie Lemmon and his parents let him live with them out of fear. While he becomes more possessive and controlling of his parents, he still wants them to love him. However, it is clear that all the love they had for him has been replaced by fear. This is best shown in Adventure Comics #4, when Superboy-Prime demands that his parents take him to Jet's Comics, as it was a matter of life and death. They do as he commands, and along the way his father, Jerry Kent, begs Prime not to hurt them. Prime asks why in the world they would think that he would hurt them. His father points out what he had done to Laurie, to which Prime responds that he had done it because she didn't like him anymore. Prime then asks Naomi, his mother, if she loves him, to which she replies that she is terrified of him. Upon arriving at Jet's Comics, Prime tells Naomi he loves her, apparently ignoring her previous comment. When Prime leaves the car, Naomi tells Jerry to drive away, to anywhere. Jerry refuses, pointing out that he would just find them like he did last time. This was ultimately averted in his final appearance when he was sent home and had his girlfriend was happy to see him, meaning his parents will be too.

* ArchEnemy: Conner Kent (who he consider a "fake" ComicBook/{{Superboy}}) and [[Franchise/TheFlash the Speedsters]] like Bart Allen.

* RoguesGalleryTransplant: He joined the Sinestro Corps and menaced Comicbook/GreenLantern, the Legion of Super-Heroes, then the Flash Family and Shazam. In a way, he's graduated from any single character's RoguesGallery and become [[OmnicidalNeutral the DC Universe's enemy.]]
* SealedEvilInACan: In order, his cans have been [[Franchise/TheFlash the Speed Force]], [[Franchise/GreenLantern an Oan Sciencell near a Red Sun Eater]], [[ComicBook/NewGods the Source Wall]], and inside the Magiclands.

* StoppedCaring: In ''ComicBook/DarkNightsDeathMetal: The Secret Origin'' he claims that, after being in a lot of {{Crisis Crossover}}s where villains have tried to "Remake the entire {{Multiverse}} in their vision" and having no idea of what is happening anymore, he stops caring. The fact that, barring Franchise/{{Superman}} and Franchise/{{Wonder Woman}}, none of the heroes or villains that are trying to save the {{Multiverse}} trust him doesn't make things better for him. Nor does how he realizes some of the people he personally killed are there, meaning they got rebooted and his efforts did not matter.

* UnusualPopCultureName: InUniverse. In his AlternateUniverse, Earth-Prime, Franchise/{{Superman}} is a fictional character, so his parents (surnamed Kent) named him Clark after Superman as a joke. Coincidently, he later discovered that he was Superman's counterpart on this Earth during ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', so it all worked out.

* VillainDecay: In his last Post-Crisis appearance Prime was taken down by a group of ''Comicbook/TeenTitans'' despite the support of [[LegionOfDoom their other enemies]] and ''three'' clones of [[ComicBook/{{Superboy}} Kon-El]]. Compare this to ''Infinite Crisis'' where he single-handedly beat up not only the much larger group of the Titans, but the [[ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica JSA]] and the Comicbook/DoomPatrol as well, or ''Legions of Three Worlds'' when he took [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin three versions of the Legion of Superheroes]], or the ''Sinestro Corps War'' when he killed the Anti-Monitor and was tackled by almost every hero on Earth.

* VillainousBreakdown: All of the time. In the classic villain style, he remains smug up until the point where he no longer has the upperhand. And he's scared to death of [[Franchise/TheFlash Bart Allen.]]

* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: He develops a fear of [[Franchise/TheFlash Bart Allen]] after he traps him in the Speed Force for a while. Bart is the only character that he'll run from. He's also afraid of the dark, since he hates being cut off from sunlight and losing his powers.

[[Characters/SupermanCentralRoguesGallery Central Rogues Gallery]] ([[Characters/SupermanLexLuthor Alexander "Lex" Luthor]], [[Characters/SupermanBizarro Bizarro]], [[Characters/SupermanBrainiacCharacter Vril Dox/Brainiac]], [[Characters/SupermanCyborgSuperman Cyborg-Superman]], [[Characters/NewGodsDarkseid Darkseid]], [[Characters/SupermanDoomsdayCharacter Doomsday]], ComicBook/{{Lobo}}, [[Characters/SupermanMisterMxyzptlk Mister Mxyzptlk]], [[Characters/DCComicsMongul Mongul]], [[Characters/SupermanRoguesGalleryPhantomZone Phantom Zone Criminals]] [[[Characters/SupermanGeneralZod General Zod]]]) | [[Characters/SupermanRoguesGalleryAToL A-L]] | [[Characters/SupermanRoguesGalleryMToZ M-Z]] ('''Superboy-Prime''')\\

* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: He undergoes one in ''Dark Nights: Death Metal'', finally letting go of his anger and selfishness and making a genuine effort to be a hero, defeating The Batman Who Laughs. This gets carried over when he is returned to his own Earth and starts saving people.]]

* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:After so many years, he was successfully talked down from evil by Wonder Woman in ''Dark Nights: Death Metal'', joining the heroes to fight the Batman Who Laughs. While he nearly relapses into villainy he ultimately gives his life to weaken the Darkest Knight, even thought almost nobody knows he did so.]]

* TookALevelInJerkass: From ''Infinite Crisis'', he starts off disparaging Conner Kent for being wangsty (a not, at the time, unreasonable critique, given Conner was paralyzed by CloningBlues). Then he picks a fight with Conner, starts killing Titans. After getting sealed in another dimension and escaping again, all bets are off - Superboy-Prime becomes a volatile jerkass who incinerates people without a second (or even ''first'') thought, and just generally rampages around in a perpetual tantrum.

Once thought to have been erased by the events of ''ComicBook/{{Flashpoint}}'', Superboy-Prime returned in 2018's ''Shazam'', where he was revealed to be trapped in the Monsterlands, where Dr. Sivana and Mr. Mind discovered him. During the Batman Who Laughs' invasion of the multiverse, Superboy-Prime sided with the heroes of the multiverse in their war against him. Despite being unwelcome among most of the heroes for his past deeds, Prime is instrumental in defeating the villain in the end.

* IllKillYou: His infamous "I'll kill you to death!"

* TheBusCameBack: After apparently having been erased following ''Flashpoint'', he returned in a 2020 issue of ''Shazam''

* FreudianExcuse: His/our world was destroyed (it's/we're better now), he's been stuck in a pocket dimension for years with a ManipulativeBastard forced to see the DC Universe go through the worst of times and no-one remembers him. Clearly, this combined with his [[ManChild teenage mentality]] is the root of his insanity. But at the latest when he got back to his world and hurt his girlfriend, it becomes clear that it doesn't hold water. [[spoiler:It ultimately true in his final appearence where he goes back to his true universe and his girlfriend loved him. Further proven hen he saved a kid from a car not knowing he still had his powers yet.]]

* PsychopathicManchild: A rather tragic example. While a petulant maniac who has little tolerance for not getting his way and lashes out violently at the drop of a hat (to the extent that his actions in ''Infinite Crisis'' are largely throwing a tantrum over the heroes rightly seeing him as a villain and attacking Kon-El for the affront of being a user of the name Superboy besides him), a lot of the horrible things Prime has done is because, for all of his raw power and abilities, Prime is still only a teenage boy unable to cope with the loss of his homeworld and loved ones.

* KnightOfCerebus: Initially played with but ultimately played straight. In the Post-Crisis canon he was usually portrayed as a serious threat whenever he shows up due to how powerful he is and his status as a HeroKiller. One the other hand, his childishness and [[{{Narm}} Narm-riddled]] lines (such as the one under IllKillYou above) can made him difficult to take seriously or even unintentionally comedic. In the New52 canon he was always a serious threat.