If Evangelion has set an example of what Supergirl might end up doing and turning into, then the Superboy Prime stories are what the Supergirl series will turn to for inspiration. If not, then the New 52 Superboy series where it's very likely that producers and writers will change their minds and introduce Kon-El instead.
Superboy Prime is also a precursor to Conner Kent though I wouldn't doubt if the late 80s Superboy programme has lent a helping hand when it got its own tie-in comics adaptation. Superboy has appeared on television before, perhaps more frequently than Supergirl does.
The first one between in the 1960s, the second in the late 80s and live action at that, the third being Smallville, the fourth being Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes (at least when it came to a younger Superman), the fifth being Young Justice and the sixth could be Supergirl.
Just like in the comics, we see a gradual transformation of Superboy from being a younger Superman to a youthful duplicate of Superman. Supergirl will take a step further where Kon-El turns out to be James Olsen's brainwashed younger brother given superhuman powers.
No doubt it will arouse a lot of controversy and death threats. What would be even more alarming is the appearance of Superboy Prime. Superboy Prime is an early example of a Superboy who existed independently of Superman but not the first one to date.
Superboy Prime didn't start out that bad and he was a klutz who got ridiculed and stuff. Not to mention that he's something of a fanboy. Someone brought up about Superboy Prime and why his descent into villainy is so shocking is because he really didn't start out as such and had a lot of promise.
Given the Secret Identity series, it's not surprising to see why it's disturbing to have him gone wrong. Somebody else pointed out that the writers didn't ruin him but rather the image he presented which is being close to the original Superboy as possible.
This brings up an interesting side question. If Superboy Prime was the closest thing to the classic Superboy, would Young Justice Superboy be the closest to the original Superboy Prime? Perhaps other than the Secret Identity stories, that would be the case.
In case if you don't know, Young Justice is essentially a Teen Titans cartoon. Bart, Kon-El, Tim and Cassandra were in Young Justice before moving to Teen Titans, which also started out as a group of teenaged sidekicks. This Superboy behaves suspiciously like what you'd expect Superboy Prime to be.
Impulsive, emotional and reckless but also prone to hero worship. Except that YJ Superboy strived to do good despite or rather because of his recklessness. Superboy Prime was so reckless that he stopped doing good deeds and lost his mind upon accidentally hurting and killing people.
Superboy Prime's antics live on in DC. He killed off the good Superboy first before Jon Lane Kent got to it, summon an army of Superboys and then have their arses kicked by the good Superboy. He became a Red Lantern before Supergirl got to it.
He might not really appear on Supergirl but he will come close to appearing there. One has a feeling that if producers and writers changed their minds when introducing Superboy on Supergirl, Kon-El is the first thing they'll ever introduce before revealing him to be James Olsen's brother.
But when this gets too shocking, they'll summon a Superboy Prime/Bizarro like character which only makes matters worse. This prototype Superboy is white and named Jon Lane Kent just to make Supergirl angry. We could even watch a televised adaptation of Infinite Crisis on Supergirl to temporarily boost ratings despite the staff getting sent even more death threats upon its airing.
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An Incoming Decline Part Four
Non-FictionA series of essays on superhero fatigue and backlash. These range from predictions to reminisces and mentions of prior controversies that will repeat itself again if producers and writers aren't careful.
