George Seminara

Jon Kent might be a great addition to the Superman Family. Might, if they don’t mess it up. His birth was a joyous moment. The Super Sons era was perfect, very entertaining. Then, “Whoopie!” Bendis appears, shaking things up and reintroducing the Legion of Superheroes. This was great, I can’t believe I actually missed the gang of temperamentally altruistic teens. Superboy steps into the foreground and creates the United Planets. Superboy also hooks up with Saturn girls. Which, in my book, is a bonus. Hilarity ensues when he brings Damian to the future. There is some panic and heavy foreshadowing of some dark time in the latest Robin’s future, and it ain’t good. Superboy returns to Earth and the warm embrace of his parents. And then Jor-El, who turns out to be far from Kal-el’s idealized version, returns to Superman, Sr. There is some scuffling, some fighting, most of it taking place in Action and the other Superman titles, until finally, Jor-El announces he’s proud of his son. Clark introduces Grandpa to Jon and Lois. Jor-el floats an offer to Lois and Clark. They oddly agree and allow Jor-el to take his grandson on a great “get to know me” trip through the universe. They’re off, flying into space and to parts unknown. Lois fears for her son’s safety and isn’t as comfortable with Grandpa as Clark is. When they return, some issues later, Grandpa and Jon have been gone for years, in the space-time Einstein stuff. Jon is now almost an adult! (I thought this was the first big mistake. A young pre-teen Superman is a great thing—his foibles, learning how to be a superhero. And go to high school! And now: Note: I’m a dad; there is no way I would entrust my kid to any of his actual grandparents to take him on the bus! When he returns, his voice is lower, and the first pink-haired fella he meets is love! And now he’s gay! I have no issue with that, but I think it’s short-sighted. In the legion of superheroes, he got exposed to the romance of intelligent cross-species beings from different planets. Why couldn’t Superboy be about the emotional connection he makes with Earth-bound individuals? Male, female, black, white, short, tall, after all, love is love—a great message for a superhero. Super-Young Man could be the hero of the downtrodden, the persecuted, and the prejudiced against on the street level—few big-time supervillains for him. Let him travel the world to learn about his fellow Earthlings. He fights drug Cartels, human trafficking, war, injustice, you know? The kid is young, optimistic, and invincible! I’d like to see MS13 try to take him down. This could be a way to save Superman Junior from becoming this millennium’s Superman’s pal, Jimmy Olsen