The ghost of Manchester Black has gained enough physicality to go toe-to-toe with Superboy Prime. But if he’s going to force the wannabe Superman to do what he wishes – use his reality altering power to reshape the world to his ends – he’s going to have to use his mental powers to sap Prime’s will to resist.
It doesn’t work. Prime knows Lois, for one, is giving him a chance – the vignettes are just more of Black’s projections. So how about Prime uses his abilities to shift them away from Black’s mental landscape, and onto his own turf?
That would be the Metropolis comic shop where he works as Super-Nerd CK.
It’s the very comic we’re reading. And this copy comes with a free gift.
But after Black fights back with a distinctly meta-monster, mocking CK for his love of comics, Prime demonstrates the unstoppable power of four-colour funnies.
And words.
And that’s not even Prime’s best speech of the issue.
Can we agree Prime has had his redemption arc? He couldn’t sound more like a hero.
Which isn’t to say this is the end of the issue; there are a few more pages of his tussle with Black, a lovely positive scene at the comics shop, a hint Prime is getting his own series next year and a tease for the upcoming Zod crossover.
Writer Josh Williamson, artist Dan Mora, colourist Alejandro Sánchez and letterer Ariana Maher have to be one of the most sympatico creative teams since the glory days of the Uncanny X-Men, when Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Terry Austin, Glynis Wein and Tom Orzechowski gave us exciting, innovative, fun, great-looking comics month after month.
Manchester Black, introduced as a cynical, self-proclaimed anti-hero in the classic Action Comics #775, is perfectly situated to stamp on Superboy’s dreams of redemption. And it’s wonderful to see him fail, again and again under Williamson’s proverbial pen. The writer takes advantage of comics grammar and tropes, having fun with fan thinking but never in a mean way. He’s celebrating the joy the comics medium can give us.
Mora continues to produce stylish storytelling, his dynamic compositions impressing, but never bringing the story to a dead stop. While CK is identical to a younger Superman, Mora’s given him his own body language, an attitude that’s all Prime’s own.
The power of the panels in which Black is whacked in the kisser by hundreds of comics is as good as anything I’ve seen in a fight scene – the throw, the landing, the aftermath… perfect.
And the cover is trade paperback worthy, able to attract readers without giving away all the clever goodness within.
And it’s perfectly coloured by Sanchez, who lays down the bright tones with glee, making me a very happy reader – I’ve had it with comics ‘filmed’ in Drabvision.
As for the letters by Maher, they’re perfectly pitched for nuance and drama.
Prime time, for CK, has lasted five issues – I really hope ratings have been good enough to get him a second season.
Too Dangerous For a Girl 2 
I really liked this issue. It felt like a love letter to Superman and his fans. It was also definitely a thematic sequel to “What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice, & the American Way?”
I agree. This was Prime’s Redemption Arc™. The page where he is talking with Rebecca at the end? He truly looks like Clark Kent for the first time in a while. I know he will never be “pure” and he will always have the back issue baggage with him, but it does feel like he is finally moving past that. I’m glad. Any character being one-note gets old after a while (cough… Batman Who Laughs… cough). It’s not going to be easy, and he is going to have to work through it. But hey! Hal Jordan came back from Parallax.
I really like the Witchfire relationship. I could see that becoming an Existential Crisis™ for him: Is starting a relationship with her formally acknowledging he is never going to get home to Laurie or his Earth? That he is finally making peace with being the lone survivor of his universe?
I also like the implication of wanting to talk to Power Girl. They share that bond of being sole universal survivors – whether Paige likes it or not. And given his powers, could he offer to bring Kal-L and Lois back to her? What would that kind of offer do to their relationship?
There is a question that has been niggling at my brain this whole arc. What exactly do the comics on Earth-0 show? A reader isn’t going to walk in and get the same issue 40 that we got. It would give away so many secrets. So what exactly is in their DC Comics? Also, should a comic store on Earth-0 really cover the heroes of their own world so extensively? Wouldn’t the customers want more about the Agents of W.O.N.D.E.R., Dino-Cop, Cosmoville, The Retaliators, etc? Comics are manifestations of comic creators’ subconscious connection to the Multiverese, after all.
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Great question about what’s in Earth 0 comics these days. Maybe it’s still characters from the original Earth 2, as when Barry was reading about Jay, but they’re now characters from the past of Earth 0, with secret ID details altered where not known.
I really hope Witchfire stays party of the wider Metropolis supporting cast, I loved the original Power Company series.
Surely Williamson is planning a Prime and Peege moment? I’d love to see it… but no bringing back poor Kal-L and Lois again.
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Oh, I don’t want them brought back! At all! I just mean, what would that offer from Prime do for PG? Like if he were sincere about it, would that make her reevaluate him? Especially if it comes with a permanent sacrifice for him?
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Okay, they stuck the landing. CK isn’t redeemed but he got to the place where he knows he needs to do it seeing what his victims want from him. I think that’s why he wants to seek out Karen. The Lois in that vignette was off model but not Karen.
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Too right, Karen, like Kon-El, has good reason to want Prime well away from people she cares about.
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