Originally posted by Surtur
You seem to more or less be saying "Prime is like Gladiator" when that was never the case..nor is it the case for Superman.
Prime is not like Gladiator, so to speak. He is like Superman.
And Gladiator is also explicitly based on Superman's established mentally controlled dynamic factor. That is Byrne's direct basis for Gladiator's confidence based mindset.
Superboy Prime has the Pre Crisis Kryptonian power set. Pre Crisis Superman's durability decreaes when his subconscious fears surfaced.
It's not your fault that you aren't that knowledgable about Superman, though.
Oh Superman certain has had mental blocks that stopped him from going all out..but that is a far cry from his durability actually being lessened due to his mental state.
His mental control over his stats also lessens his durability due to his mindset.
Directly stated to be the reason for him dying is DoS-- he thought of himself as a human being post Crisis, limiting his true power levels, also highlighted in No Limitsby Lieband why his base level stats, senses and out put increased post Mongul training, why he got wrecked by Doomsday in Hunter/Prey-- Jurgens, too, has Supermans stats controlled by his subconscious mind and a theme of that story is that Superman was facing nightmares about Doomsday.
This was also the reason why Earth-2 Superman outperformed him against Doomsday in Infinite Crisis as shown when E-2 Superman within Post Crisis Superman's body, who was more confident due to not being afraid of losing control of his power,( as stated in Blackest Night Superman) survived the fight against Superman and was "stronger than ever" afterwards: post-DoS, Superman has a subconscious fear of Doomday which kept him from accessing his peak stats during their fights.
All it takes is actually being familiar with continuing sub plots established from Byrne on through Jurgens, Ordway, Simonson, Loeb, DeMattheis, Casey, Schultz, Kelly, Rucka, Johns, Busiek and out Robinson's portrayals in Post Crisis continuity.
Since Bart Allen was able to hit Prime so hard he drew blood.
Superboy was emotionally rattled by Bart. Hence why he outperformed top tiers against SBP.
Here is the thing though we don't need to make up excuses for it..it is just bad writing. Do you see people making excuses for why Firelord lost to Spider-Man? Or Deathstroke took down a JLA lineup consisting of GL and Flash? No, it is just bad writing.
You aren't in a position to criticize, since you cleRly aren't familliar with Superman's established powerset.
Superman had mentally controlled dynamic stats since the 60s and his durability lowered due to being subconsciously afraid since then. Gladiators poweeset is based on that aspect of Superman's power. Byrne then made it more central to Superman's poweeset in Post aCrisis continuity. If you dispute this, it's because you don't read enough Superman comics.