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

I’ve always really enjoyed adolescent superhero stories - so I’ll be curious to see what they do here. It’s why I moved Smallville as much as I did - especially the early years, because (even though everyone looked 25) Clark had so much vulnerability and humility. Seeing him go from a lovestruck high schooler with intrusive heat vision - into a hero and mentor to others - was satisfying in a way that we never get from established heroes. Teen/Origin stories can be pretty meh, but when done right and over a decent amount of time, definitely can reflect different things about us that fully baked heroes can’t.

I have to be honest, for me, Jon Kent lost a little of the interest when he was aged up. I loved the dynamic when Jon and Damian were the same age, and I kind of miss that.

Aging up Jon Kent was the worst thing DC could have done to that character, in my opinion. I feel like they just speed-ran through character development there and I haven't been able to feel any investment in him.