Superboy-Prime's Altered History

[NotSuper]

As many people know, Superboy-Prime's history was changed during Infinite Crisis. Originally, he was sent from Krypton to Earth via teleportation, his parents were a career couple--Jerry and Naomi Kent, he grew up in New England, and was unaffected by red sun radiation (and yellow sun radiation). Now his history has him being sent to Earth in a rocket, being raised by farmers, growing up in Kansas, and he's affected by both red and yellow sun radiation.

Now, Dan Didio has stated that the Continuity Waves changed Superboy-Prime's history, but how and why could his history change if he never existed in the regular DCU? How does that work?

My real question, however, is why these changes were made in the first place. Did someone forget Superboy-Prime's origin and just assume it was the same as the pre-Crisis Superboy's? Or was it deliberately changed in order to make the story better?

I enjoyed Infinite Crisis but I'm still puzzled about why these changes occured. Does anyone have any theories?

[Agentum]

I guess they wanted him to be effected by the diffrent suns to future storys, i think they want him to be a future Superman villian.

[MuleMulerton]

Maybe it was just to avoid confusion? Why would a kryptonian not get powers from the sun? It makes you think he isn't 100% kryptonian which then brings up a bunch of other problems. He didn't make that many appearances prior to the COIE so the change isn't that drastic to me, although I'm sure it will annoy some people.

Wouldnt they of needed to change his origin anyways? How else would they of stopped him if red sun radiation and kryptonite would not work?

[Bored at 3:00AM]

They had clearly read the original story because of the elements they used from those initial Superboy Prime stories, but they wisely chose to ignore the somewhat pointless changes made to his origin to make him unique from the other two incarnations of Superman.

Teleporting baby Kal-El to Earth is a neat enough idea, but it's not nearly as cool as baby Kal-El rocketing to Earth moments before Krypton explodes.

Having Kal-El's foster parents be a career couple is very 80s and all, but there's something primal about his parents being farmers.

[Wannabe]

He probably Retcon punched that history into being true.

[NotSuper]

He probably Retcon punched that history into being true.
That's what Didio basically said.

[NotSuper]

I guess they wanted him to be effected by the diffrent suns to future storys, i think they want him to be a future Superman villian.
It does seem like they're going that route. They'll probably bring him back when the universe needs to be rebooted again.

Still, I do wonder if Superboy-Prime remembers his original past.

[NotSuper]

They had clearly read the original story because of the elements they used from those initial Superboy Prime stories, but they wisely chose to ignore the somewhat pointless changes made to his origin to make him unique from the other two incarnations of Superman.
I kind of liked the changes to be honest. It was interesting to see a Superboy grow up in a world so very much like (at the time) our own. In fact, I think that the original Superboy-Prime would fit in great with the Legion of today. Think about it, Superboy-Prime came from a world where super-heroes only existed in comics and many of the Legionaires believe that the heroes of the past were just in comics. Plus, if Prime was in the Legion he wouldn't need to go back and forth from the present to the future--he'd stay in the future (he has nowhere to go back to any way).

Come to think of it, why didn't DC just put Superboy-Prime in the Legion after Crisis? They could've still had Superboy inspire the Legion (and join them) but they wouldn't need it to be a young Superman. This could've saved us a lot of reboots and retcons.

[Gernot]

DC hadn't done enough to trash Superman and build up Batman in the story. If they'd let Superboy Prime remain a hero, would they have NEEDED The Joker to kill off Alexander Luthor?

No. I don't think so.

But by having SBP become the villian, DC could bring the Batman family to the forefront of the series by having one of them kill off the main baddie.

That way, they COULD trash Superman and build up Batman at the same time! It's a win-win situation for DC! EVERYBODY'S happy!

(I'm turning off my sarcasm mode now.)

[NotSuper]

I still wonder why Superboy-Prime donned armor similar to the being that destroyed his universe--the Anti-Monitor. In theory, he should hate the Anti-Monitor more than anyone (ditto Alex Luthor). Before Infinite Crisis had finished I thought that the Anti-Monitor's essense might be "hiding" in Superboy and building up its strength. When Alex bathed him in anti-matter I even started to think that the Anti-Monitor would gain partial (only half of Superboy's body was covered) control of him; maybe only being able to get him to act on his darkest desires. And if we look to the end, Superboy did seem to take great pleasure in killing the Earth-2 Superman, who was the slayer of the Anti-Monitor.

Maybe the story isn't quite over yet...

[Buried Alien]

I still wonder why Superboy-Prime donned armor similar to the being that destroyed his universe--the Anti-Monitor. In theory, he should hate the Anti-Monitor more than anyone (ditto Alex Luthor). Before Infinite Crisis had finished I thought that the Anti-Monitor's essense might be "hiding" in Superboy and building up its strength. When Alex bathed him in anti-matter I even started to think that the Anti-Monitor would gain partial (only half of Superboy's body was covered) control of him; maybe only being able to get him to act on his darkest desires. And if we look to the end, Superboy did seem to take great pleasure in killing the Earth-2 Superman, who was the slayer of the Anti-Monitor.

Maybe the story isn't quite over yet...

The Monitor (not the Anti-Monitor) is rumored to be showing up in BRAVE NEW WORLD, so the COIE fallout of INFINITE CRISIS just might not be done yet.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[NotSuper]

The Monitor (not the Anti-Monitor) is rumored to be showing up in BRAVE NEW WORLD, so the COIE fallout of INFINITE CRISIS just might not be done yet.
Wasn't that the Martian Manhunter's silhouette on the cover?

[Buried Alien]

Wasn't that the Martian Manhunter's silhouette on the cover?

It could be, but J'Onn is already elsewhere on the cover and the promotional blurb for BRAVE NEW WORLD is that it will feature "the return of the most unexpected character of all."

And the silhouette does resemble the Monitor more than it does J'Onn.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)