Summary
Warning: contains spoilers forOutsiders#7!
Superboyhas performed some truly astonishing feats of power in his day, but now DC is throwing shade at his most hated. DC’s newOutsidersseries is a meta-textual joyride through their universe, peeling back the layers of reality to find what makes it tick. Now, in issue seven,DC slyly calls out Superboy Prime’s controversialInfinite Crisisfeat, in which he altered reality by punching it.
Outsiders#7 is written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly and drawn by Robert Carey. After being ripped from her universe and deposited onto the New 52 Earth, Jakita Wagner is desperate for answers. She cannot make sense of her new surroundings, and panics. She reflects on her first few months there, saying she wanted to “punch at the walls of reality” until something happened.
She admits the idea was “insane” and “embarrassingin retrospect.”
Superboy Prime Helped Shape the DC Universe–Whether He Intended to or Not
Superboy Prime Caused Glitches in the DC Universe
In 2005, DC publishedInfinite Crisis, a direct sequel toCrisis On Infinite Earths.Infinite Crisisattempted to clean up the messes the firstCrisisleft, such as Hawkman’s continuity. Furthermore, DC was looking for a way to explain certain resurrections, such as Jason Todd’sreturn as Red Hood. Enter Superboy Prime, one of the survivors of theCrisis. Living in a pocket dimension, Superboy Prime became envious of the post-CrisisEarth, and began punching the walls of reality in frustration. Every time he did, reality would change ever so slightly.
Hailing from Earth-Prime, this incarnation of Superboy first appeared in 1985’sDC Comics Presents#87, and was created by Elliot S Maggin and Curt Swan.
DC used this device to explain the many continuity glitches sinceCrisis On Infinite Earths. 2006’sInfinite Crisis: Secret Files and Origins#1 showed the various ways Superboy Prime’s punches changed reality. In addition to the many iterations of Hawkman, Superboy was also responsible for the changes to Donna Troy’s origin, as well as Superman’s. While Superboy Prime’s reality-altering punches were a cool way of explaining these errors, it was not popular with fans, who took to online message boards to criticize it for being silly and over the top.
Superboy Prime and Jakita Wagner Share One Big Trait in Common
Will Jakita Wagner Get Her Universe Back?
Now, nearly 20 years later, DC is calling this out. Much like Superboy Prime, Jakita Wagner is the last survivor of her universe. They are both desperate to return to their original universe, but are faced with the prospect that it is now completely gone. Superboy Prime’s frustrations with this prospect led him to punch reality, something Jakita admits wanting to do too. However, she knows it willnot bring the Wildstorm Universe back. Jakita demonstrates a sense of awareness he was lacking, leading her to avoid repeatingSuperboy’smuch derided feat of strength.
