Bad Characters: Superboy-Prime

Later this summer, DC is going to release a mini-series called "Legion of Three Worlds" which will have the key task of killing the Waid/Kitson version of the Legion, and double-killing the DnA version, because DC is determined to turn the clock back to 1983 whenever possible.

But wait, not only is the Legion of my youth going to be annihilated, it's going to be done by Super(Lawsuit-pending)-Prime, a terrible character.

You see, Superboy-Prime wasn't meant to be a villain, near as I can tell, he was put in the original Crisis because Superboy was about to be Byrned right out of canon, and Marv Wolfman figured, "Well, might as well give the character, or a close facsimile of him, one last spin."
Of course, then Geoff Johns said to himself, "Man, the best villain I can think of for my crisis is a whiny teenager, because everybody loves what Lucas is doing with Darth Vader in the new Star Wars movies!"

I mean, Superboy-Prime doesn't come off as menacing so much as kind of stupid:


For that matter, Superboy-Prime has managed to kill exactly one character that anyone cares about, and that was the Golden Age Superman, who had been effectively dead for twenty years anyway.

And it's not like he's become a better character in the interim:


Based on what the character has done so far, I can guess Legion of Three World will progress thusly:

Superboy-Prime: I want to go back to my home universe!
Cosmic Boy: Okay, but....
Superboy-Prime: You're ruining it! I'm going to Mega-Murder your universe into super-death!
(Superboy-Prime somehow removes the Threeboot and DnA Legions from continuity)
Geoff Johns: Take that anyone not alive in the Carter administration!*

*The restoration of the original continuity should in no way be construed to represent an acceptance of any Legion story written after 1987. Five Years Later, my ass.