Axiom's Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy

By Sam Christopher

I guess we already saw how the Superboy of… is it New Earth now, or Earth-One, or Earth-1, or DC Continuity Earth (I think it’s New Earth)… anyway, we’ve seen how the Superman/Lex Luthor clone that is mainstream Superboy at this time (and don’t get me started on the LL clone-splice nonsense here) so in this ish “2009 Spike TV Scream Award Winner for Best Comic Book Writer” Geoff Johns—an award I have no problem with, whatever the Scream Awards are Johns is easily the best writer in comics at the moment— and “tag-along” Sterling Gates (just kidding) show us how all this affects Superboy Prime. When last we saw Prime he was sitting in his basement on… I guess this is New Earth Prime? I mean, Johns and Gates call it Earth-Prime but if it was really just a reconstituted E-P that would mean we all died twenty-some years ago and the Earth was just recreated last year (I’m going to stop here, my head hurts). Anyway, S-P was sitting in his basement reading comics and powerless except for his glowing eyes. This story opens the same way, sans the glowing eyes, with Prime reading Adventure #4 and going off the deep end because of how it ends. He can’t believe it, so he has his parents run him down to Jet Comics—prompting an interlude with Earth-Prime’s LSH in which they’re trying to use the old comics of the 20th Century to help them foresee their own troubles—so he can try and get hold of Adventure Comics #5 and see how things turn out. What we learn here is that Blackest Night is not just a New Earth dimensional event. Well, it is and it isn’t. Meaning… but why tell you everything? I’d read about this ish somewhere but I must say it was better than I expected. And coupled with this great story we have that great Jerry Ordway artwork.

The LSH backup story was its usual meh. I really used to love the Legion but for some reason I just have a hard time getting into them lately. The Legion of Three Worlds mini was good—and it should’ve been, as long as it took them to get it out—but the series lately just haven’t grabbed me.