When Superman revealed it was doing a story arc centered on Superboy-Prime, a lot of fans had reservations. Many of them centered on the fact that Prime has grown into an example of the worst kind of fan: those who constantly complain that comics “aren’t the way they remember” and express their fury via online rants or far, far worse behavior. Others still remember that he brutally tore through the Teen Titans and beat another Superboy, Conner Kent, to death. Still, other fans have pointed out that characters like Jason Todd and even Lex Luthor have gone through a period of redemption, so why not Prime? Superman #40, which closes out the “Prime Time” arc, answers a lot of these questions.
The “Prime Time” finale also features Superboy-Prime in his biggest battle yet, as he faces off against none other than Manchester Black. Having gained access to Prime’s ability to reshape the universe, Black now wants to go to the real world and remake it in his image. His “makeover” mostly consists of darker edged versions of certain DC characters, which boils down to Superman’s rocket smashing into the Kent farm and blowing it up, Wonder Woman utilizing twin machine guns, or Batman dying in Robin’s arms. As Prime correctly calls him out, these are more or less grimdark fantasies that pretend they’re for adults, but are more or less meant to appeal to certain readers who think they’re “too good” for certain comics.
In fact, a large part of what makes Superman #40 work is how Williamson highlights the sharp difference between Prime and Black. While Prime might have done some horrible things, he, at the very least, can acknowledge them and is trying to change. Black, on the other hand, is still stuck in his mindset of “Superman is outdated,” which leads to some choice monologues about the nature of comics and the two different worlds these characters come from. There’s even a bit of meta-text with the guys who own the comic book shop that Prime works at, with one of them commenting on his gripes with a story arc.
DC
Superman #40 also features some truly inventive artwork from Dan Mora. From the very first page, where Black holds Prime out over a collection of DC’s various comics, to a moment where they fall out of the pages of a comic and land back in the DC Universe, Mora keeps pushing the art to its absolute limit. So does Alejandro Sanchez, who brings different colors based on the background. One moment, there are bursts of purple that highlight Black’s psychic powers. Another features bursts of color you can only see in a comic book shop, with Prime’s red and blue armor being the brightest thing in the store.
The real start of the issue, though, is Ariana Maher. Maher gets the chance to have her words literally make an impact, as the connection between Black and Prime means that Black can literally “weaponize” his words – they end up taking the form of a giant muscular figure that pummels Prime, with massive sound effects contained within its frame. You’ve heard of words hurting somebody, but in this case, it’s literally true.
Superman #40 closes out its current arc with a reflection on the journey Superboy-Prime’s taken, and how much further he has left to go. While the OG Superman is finally back in the DC Universe, the ending hints that Prime’s story isn’t done just yet. Like the man himself said: “See you in the funny pages.”
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