Is it just me, or do the DC Universe heroes seem like better people than the Marvel?

[BrianWilly]

Yes. Right up to the end of Infinite Crisis #7 he was a brilliant character. The panel of him staring in tears at the blood on his hands after ripping through a Titan was, hands-down, one of the single best uses of imagery ever. It was a brilliant and tragic carrying of a silver age character into modern times and fit the tone of the work perfectly. He was a mirror of the fallacies of the silver age and he was a mirror of Conner Kent and he brought out the most interesting facets of both.

Superboy-Prime was always one of the best metaphors of that time. The problem was that the metaphor ended when Infinite Crisis did, and yet the character was still around, and the writers started dealing with him literally, which is...problematic.

And I know I'm not the only who thought so. I remember back around that time these boards full with discussion about him and what he meant.

 

[Aristotle]

I loved Infinite Crisis all the way through. Everyone always goes OH NOES TEH CONTINUITY AND MULTIVERSE and JOE CHILL OMZ WTF WAS THE POINT, but I guess I was too busy being distracted by the brilliant character arcs, rock solid writing, and epic storytelling not just on the part of Johns, but on the part of the DC staff as a conglomerate whole.

Oh yeah, I absolutely agree. While I don't LIKE Superboy-Prime/Superman-Prime at all, he worked fine to serve the purposes of characterization that were required. He's a villain--you're not SUPPOSED to like villains. The world of fiction has enough Darth Vaders, Boba Fetts, Captain Colds, and Jokers that any fool can love as much as the heroes--what's wrong with a villain who just plain-out annoys the piss out of you?

Also, all of the literary and metaphorical stuff that you mentioned, but quite a bit of that seems a little moot now, since they've steadfastly refused to let him die. Although Dan DiDio's little holiday note seems to suggest they might finally give the punkass some resolution.

 

[Stallion9979]

i just think that since then everything DC has put out has been lackluster and the way they handled the ending of 52 and now Countdown...its not near the level of set up and story that we got leading into IC...

I'm not a fan of the new earth/multiverse at all...

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yes. Right up to the end of Infinite Crisis #7 he was a brilliant character. The panel of him staring in tears at the blood on his hands after ripping through a Titan was, hands-down, one of the single best uses of imagery ever. It was a brilliant and tragic carrying of a silver age character into modern times and fit the tone of the work perfectly. He was a mirror of the fallacies of the silver age and he was a mirror of Conner Kent and he brought out the most interesting facets of both.

Superboy-Prime was always one of the best metaphors of that time. The problem was that the metaphor ended when Infinite Crisis did, and yet the character was still around, and the writers started dealing with him literally, which is...problematic.

And I know I'm not the only who thought so. I remember back around that time these boards full with discussion about him and what he meant.

I suppose metaphorically he was very effective, but the execution of the thing bordered on absurdity for me. Metaphors are all well and good, but you've gotta pay attention to how you present the surface stuff, too. On the surface, all SBP is is a whiny *****ebag who's chronically incapable of accepting responsibility for his own actions. Over. And over. And over. It wore thin on me after the second or third time he viciously murdered someone while whining, and he viciously murdered a hell of a lot more than just two or three people in Infinite Crisis.

I do agree that he's managed to be even worse after IC, though.