Exclusive Preview: ACTION COMICS #975

Creepy Clark has cranked up the creep to 20

I'm struggling to see how Mystery Clark can be anyone other than Superboy Prime. That childish junk food diet is what I imagine Prime's diet consists of.

@lvenger: Last time we saw Prime was Blackest Night, right? His fate was pretty ambiguous.

This is actually a pretty smart guess.

His last appearance was in Teen Titans #100 where he got imprisoned in the Source Wall by Supergirl and Superboy. It might be possible for someone to remove him from the Source Wall and bring him into the current DCU.

Not my theory, posters on other boards came up with it first.

@lvenger:

His last appearance was in Teen Titans #100 where he got imprisoned in the Source Wall by Supergirl and Superboy. It might be possible for someone to remove him from the Source Wall and bring him into the current DCU.

What if when Black Mask freed everyone from the Source Wall during God Hunt, Superboy Prime came out too?

I mean that's a possibility and a good explanation for why Prime is here. But Mr Oz will probably have a role in being the one to release whoever the Mystery Clark is in the first place.

@lvenger: I agree.

Did anyone notice in the Superman story which recently went down where all the Supermen and Women from alternative universes was captured Prime was not one of them. Big guess as to why.

@lvenger: I respectfully disagree. He straight up vanished multiple times to the point where Superman could find him.

Superman said that himself and Lois where the only ones in the apartment, but Evil Clark appeared out of nowhere.

Plus, the fact that he wiped Jon and their home from existence. Prime couldn't do that before.

My guess is Mr. Mxyzptlk. That guy could warp reality on a whim and pretty much lived to fuck around with Superman. And he was a gigantic man child, so that would explain the food.

Totally prepared to be proven wrong, btw.

Looks like prime shirt in the cover

Maybe he's using a Phantom Zone device?

@bluehope: Doubtful. If it was Phantom Zone related, Superman (of all people) would have said so

@masterofevil: You have a good point, Mxy could pull off disappearing and making himself undetectable by Clark's senses. Teleporting around is what Mxy often does. I'm just not sure what purpose Mxyzptlk would have for impersonating Clark. His intent has never been this malicious. Also, his powers haven't been associated with a weird blue fire/energy before, that might be a connection with the Paradise Dimension still.

@lvenger: Motive is the big issue with the Prime and Mxy theories (Or any theories for that matter).

It's even possible that Oz's prisoner is the one behind the kidnapping and Mystery Clark being there was a coincidence

@masterofevil: There's still the matter of Oz's escaped prisoner's identity too, that needs to be revealed in Reborn too. Still, Mystery Clark being there and dropping off that photo album is a little too convenient to be a coincidence.

i really hope it's superman prime. New52 Supes seems like an obvious choice too

Most likely Prime but I would laugh my ass off if it was Nuperbro, just for how the n00b52 fans' heads would explode.

@blue_son: Because Prime is stuck in the source wall.

• Damn rebirth has been so dope.
• I,m guessing its either Superboy Prime or Jon Kent from the future.

I'm think Clark Kent is really Jon Kent from the future.

Why would Jon Kent ask his mother to marry him? It doesn't make sense to me. MClark got his memories back in AC 974, he wouldn't have called his mother 'Lois' if it is Jon.

I'm kinda 50-50 with Prime or Mxy. Leaning towards Mxy because of the whole 'FUN' dialogue, but curious as to why he'd have animosity towards pre new 52 Superman.

The Kid fantasy diet screams bratty Prime but could be Mxy.

Keep thinking the blue flame is a clue but i'm drawing a blank. When dealing with what can only be described as magic if not higher dimensional powers, prime as we knew him is ruled out.

For a time thought it could be N52 Supes because of wild Meta theories but all the childishness of it doesn't make sense for it to be him.

Am I the only one who thinks it could be that guy who thought he was n52 Superman? Anyone else think its possible he survived somehow?

@lvenger: Actually most of the entities in the Source Wall was released during the God Head Story Arc (Green Lantern book Crossover). Black Hand release almost all the entities and lose control to most of them during his fight against the New Gods.

@grandsymbiote94: I've seen other forum posters propose that Solar Superman is the fake Clark. It wouldn't be impossible for him to survive and he was already experiencing New 52 Superman's memories.

@vinomonster Yeah I know, that could be justified as an explanation for how Prime was able to escape the Source Wall.

@grandsymbiote94: it's possible, but that guy didn't want to be Superman or Clark Kent. if he was getting his memories back, he'd more likely remember being Denny Swan. From there, he'd have no motive to do any of this

@mightykalel said:

That could have been a trick to mess with his parents.

It's Prime, I'm 90% sure at this point.

...I'm gonna go with Martian Manhunter.

I'm not up to date with New 52 Superman continuity, but weren't there other New 52 Superboys? Connor and the hypothetical child of New 52 Lois and Clark. What happened to both of them (they're either dead, or benched since neither are the current Superboy).

The theories that I've seen the most about are whether creepy Clark is Superboy-Prime, a reformatted New 52 Clark, or the the real pre-Flashpoint Clark (with the supposed superman being a confused Dr Manhattan or Mxyzsptlk). The red/blue superman concept is another one I've seen people posit being behind all of this. I'm not offering anything new really, I just want in on this discussion.

I just love how there are so many possibilities as to who this Clark could be. Is is Superboy Prime? Mr. Myx? A creation of Manhattan or Oz? Connor Kent? Maybe even Chris Kent? Who knows? Either way this is super compelling.

I just hope that by the end of this we can have both pre52 and new52 Clark.

Problem with this being Superboy-Prime though, he got injured like a normal human so it cannot be him unless he somehow lost his powers and turned into a regular human or Oz had something to do with it.

Either way, I am waiting for the conclusion so we can finally get definitive answers since all the future descriptions talks about Superman ''merging'' or something.

Maybe new 52 was Prime all along

Maybe fake Clark is just a clone, and Superman Reborn will be the Clone Saga of DC.

Kidding. Part 1 was really good, I can't wait for this. Comic Vine's server is going to crash when they reveal who fake Clark is.

I love how their are people debating in the Gen. Discussion section about Superman being a boring and outdated concept and here in this comment section are tons of people excitedly debating about what's going to happen and who is really behind everything.

Gee, it's almost that the quality of the character and their stories is based on the writer and not just a constant thing.

Just so some remember Superboy Prime was the Time Trapper at one time and had access to a multitude or powers. Also he was able to enter the 5th dimension at one point. So it's entirely possible if he is Clark Kent that he could have swiped Jon. Also if Mr. Oz is involved he could have did the swiping.

Your guess is right.

In hindsight you made one helluva good guess Masterofevil.

@rubear: @lvenger: It really couldn't have been anyone else since he was blinking things in and out of existence before he even remembered who he was.

What's funny was that I finalized the answer after Mr. Oz checks out the empty cell. Who is that obsessed with Superman and can blink out stuff?

Mxyzptlk was the least ridiculous answer lolz

But now we might have wrong and there were two escaped prisoners, so the mystery continues