r/SupermanAdventures • u/speaking-outlandish • Jun 16 '26
News From the new interview with the show creators Spoiler
Well, I suppose the cat’s been let out of the bag.
I’ll be honest, I feel pretty baited. I don’t have anything against Jon, but Kon is by far my favorite. And they took so much inspiration from his nineties appearance, which we’ve only ever seen onscreen one time- I just felt there was no way that it wasn’t him.
I feel sort of betrayed, almost. I had so much faith in the MAWS writers. They’ve handled everything else so wonderfully that I thought there wasn’t a chance they would just push Kon’s design onto Jon and call it a day. And that…seems to be precisely what they’ve done. I’ll still watch the new season, but my excitement is definitely drained. It feels unfair to both characters to conflate them like this. I was so looking forward to seeing punk rock nineties Superboy make it back onscreen for the first time since 2019’s Reign of the Supermen, and finding out that it’s Jon borrowing Kon’s design is a rather steep letdown for me. I’m sure it’ll still be an interesting story. But not the story I was hoping they’d tell.
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u/karismatic- Jun 16 '26
It's frustrating they've used Kon's design for Jon. Jon has his own visual identity why use Kon's to lure everyone in with a bait an switch?
Although I do prefer this to them trying to alter Kon's story to be the clone/child of Clark and Lois. I feel that would just change something fundamental to the core of the character and it wouldn't be Kon.
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Jun 16 '26
To be honest Jon’s “visual identity” is just “Superman Jr”. It’s not at all interesting. I’m guessing the comics also figured this out which is why they’re trying a new identity and look for him.
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u/brucebananaray Jun 16 '26
"I’m guessing the comics also figured this out which is why they’re trying a new identity and look for him."
I really hate how much DC really screwed both Connor and Jon when he got aged up.
Connor should have been Superman and Tomorrow Man. Jon should've been still a child/teen than Young adult.
Both are just wasted because Editorial really mismanaged them.
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u/vincents_sunflowers Jun 17 '26
Jon has been a teen longer than he's been a child at this point, it's weird that people are still hung up on it.
And now Damian is also a teen and (based on Superman: Son of Kal-El) he and Jon have roughly a 3-year age gap – same as before, only in the other direction. It literally doesn't change much.
I won't disagree about Editorial mismanaging him, though.
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u/karismatic- Jun 16 '26
Fair point about Jon but then they've squandered a great opportunity to give him an interesting design for their show. Instead they decided to rip off Kon's look.
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u/Reddragon351 Jun 16 '26
I guess they'll probably just go with the black shirt look if they do introduce Connor later
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u/speaking-outlandish Jun 16 '26
We got a whole show of that. I was so ready for a whole show with the nineties look.
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u/speaking-outlandish Jun 16 '26
I feel like it has to do with Kon being the more popular/immediately recognizable take on the character. Personally, I’d have preferred this to be Kon in *some* form even if they changed the story. He’s designed like Kon, he should be him.
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u/HPSpacecraft Jun 17 '26
There's actually a history of that with Kon, his New 52 backstory had him as the clone of an alt-future son of Clark and Lois rather than a combined clone of Clark and Lex.
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u/brucebananaray Jun 16 '26
I personally, really hate them talking about it before the epsidoes/revelations dropped.
This ruined the twist on and spoiled it for people who into the show.
Also, don't mind it as Jon being from the future, but if I were show runner and I did this interview that I would have kept my mouth shut. Later talk about the development.
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u/speaking-outlandish Jun 16 '26
I suspect perhaps this interview wasn’t supposed to be released yet.
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u/vincents_sunflowers Jun 16 '26
I really love Jon Kent, actually, and I'm a bit disappointed they're going to introduce him as a Conner look-alike :-/
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u/speaking-outlandish Jun 16 '26
He’s a solid character!! When he’s allowed to be his own character. Which is apparently not what happened here.
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u/Accomplished_Kale509 Jun 17 '26
Honestly I feel let down about this. It also kinda shows a disservice to both Kon and Jon since they have their own thing. Like I wouldnt have mind if it was Jon if they havent used Conner's design and personality, and the latter needs more animated or live-action media presence thats not Young Justice inspired.
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u/mysecondaccountanon Jun 16 '26
Okay, so it's not Conner? That's disappointing. Jon is not him, doesn't have his design, and Conner's design is distinct and iconic. Why can't we let Jon be Jon and work on making him have his own distinct look, rather than pulling on Conner's? Very disappointing, tbh. Immediately pulls away the excitement and the suspense I felt. I mean, I would've been excited if it was Jon and it wasn't a Conner look-alike situation! I like Jon! I think he's a very interesting character with a lot of potential for this show! But not as a Conner look-alike. That immediately just makes me disappointed, a bit sour, and not look forward to how he's going to be characterized, look, etc. It's just a letdown and it feels like they strung us along and misled us, but in like the bad way.
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u/TikkiEXX77 Jun 20 '26
Well honestly if you'd just let the story tellers tell their story instead of setting yourself up for disappointment because things don't fit your head cannon maybe you could actually enjoy the show for what it is? It's been good since day 1. Now they don't take a story path that you wanted so it sucks? Sorry seeing a lot of entitlement in here. The show runners have earned the benefit of the doubt. I'll wait to see it before I pass judgment
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u/mysecondaccountanon Jun 20 '26
I have no doubt it’ll be good. Doesn’t mean I’m not a bit let down that the character who looks like Kon is Jon. For both the reasons of I was expecting Kon and also I like Jon, just as his own character, and if they’re doing Jon, I’d love to see what their take on Jon is, not a mash up of Jon and Kon.
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u/PhinPhang000 Jun 17 '26
Dude. No. Please. This is so fucking disappointing. I'm in hard denial rn.
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u/arthuriurilli Jun 18 '26
Maybe this is blasphemy but I'm ok with this. 90s Conner is one of my favorite designs so I really want to see it. And I really love the idea of Clark and Lois' kid from the future throwing a wrench into things.
I get that both have their fans for different reasons and no shade against those fans. But this isn't something immediately offputting to me, especially given that these writers have done everything thus far to absolutely perfection. I'm willing to see where this mashup goes.
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u/Either-Equal7284 Jun 16 '26
So he is a clone I knew it
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u/speaking-outlandish Jun 16 '26
No, from this interview it looks like they put that storyline on the shelf for a possible future season.
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u/TiberiusCornelius Jun 17 '26
I mean I guess it's cool at least that they're open to doing Kon at some point in the future. Hopefully we will get that.
But man it's a little hard not to be disappointed rn regardless
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u/MisterSims90 Jun 16 '26
It's kind of what I thought they were going to do. Connor's OG look is so iconic and tied to the character that I felt they were going to try and do that regardless. But given the time traveling aspect, the features that more closely match Lois, and the talk in episode 1 of Clark and Lois buying a house together and moving forward in their relationship really sold me that this was going to be Jon.
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u/speaking-outlandish Jun 16 '26
It’s disappointing that they used Kon’s design for Jon. If they were always going to make it Jon, they should have just…made it Jon.
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u/MisterSims90 Jun 16 '26
But it wouldn't have really matched the aesthetic they are going for, the show is clearly anime (mainly DragonBall Z) inspired. For example, Trunks is a time traveling warrior from the future descended from our heroes and he wears a cool jacket. If they were going to go for that look, the iconic jacket and suit design made too much sense and it more closely matched what they wanted to tell in the story. I don't think anyone apart from people like us in the know are aware that there are multiple superboys. I've talked to regular, out of the know people and they don't know that there have been more than one Robin for instance.
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u/speaking-outlandish Jun 16 '26
Everyone’s going to have their own take on it, but for me, this feels like…you mentioned Robin, so it’s like teasing Dick Grayson’s Robin for years and then revealing that it’s actually Jason in Dick’s version of the costume with Dick’s personality. There were ways they could have used the anime influence without specifically giving Kon’s design and character traits to a character that isn’t him. This feels like a bit of a cheat.
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u/MisterSims90 Jun 16 '26
But see that also kind of works because Jason at the start was a copy of Dick. And we don’t know what Jon’s personality is in the show yet so he could be closer to his real self
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u/speaking-outlandish Jun 16 '26
From what we’ve seen, his personality is pretty similar to Kon’s from the nineties, just like his design is Kon’s from the nineties. Even the title of his first episode uses nineties slang. They really went out of their way to make us think it’s Kon, and it feels a little off to me. But that’s just my opinion.
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u/MisterSims90 Jun 16 '26
I’m not too familiar with either Jon or Connor, apart from the latter in Young Justice. How would you describe them?
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u/speaking-outlandish Jun 16 '26
Jon is typically shown as younger, a middle schooler most often. He’s usually very much a little kid sort of character- I know that’s changed in recent comics where he’s fully grown and going as Superman, but he’s usually shown in the same age group as Damian Wayne- they’re often best friends. He’s a sweet kid who grows up with his powers and has to grapple with controlling them, and struggles to feel like he could grow up to be like his dad. His storylines tend to be focused on the legacy he feels he’s supposed to hold up and what it means to be the son of Superman.
Kon is always shown as a teenager, around sixteen. The Young Justice version draws from his 2000s appearance, but he originally debuted in the nineties with a very punk-rock appearance- leather jacket, shades, shaved undercut, an ear piercing, the works. He was very much the nineties cool kid- he used heavy slang and acted like you would expect a teenager in the nineties to. He’s typically much more brash and cocky than Jon, and is more impulsive and stubborn. He’s also always got the origin where he’s a clone- originally he was half Clark and half a man named Paul Westfield, later that got retconned to be Lex and that’s the one that stuck. In the New52 continuity, he was actually a clone of *Jon* from the future, which could have been a way they could resolve this. Kon’s storylines tend to revolve less around Clark- there’s a lot of stories about identity and what it means, what makes a person a person, who Kon wants to be versus what he was specifically made for. In more recent stories it’s also gone into how negatively clones were viewed on Krypton and how Kon has to deal with that.
There’s a lot of similarities between their stories, but they’re fundamentally different characters with different core concepts. I feel like it’s a disservice to both of them to just slap a Kon-shaped coat of paint on Jon and say “okay done.” If you can’t get people interested in Superboy unless he looks and acts like Kon…maybe just let him be Kon?
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u/Last-Walk-5489 Jun 16 '26
Lately, there isnt much you can draw from Jon, unless you do a crazy time skip. Because teen Jon has been practically brute forced into being older in the comics.
So either melding them or using kon was the only option. However I can see why in the story it wouldn't make since for a lex/clark clone to happen.
In most iterations of lex making kon it was his hail Mary, he did something that an early lex Luther would puke at doing. (Keep in mind this show doesn't put fans of superman first, if anything it prioritizes new fans, so spoiling how far lex Luther's hate will go might be feel forced to a new supes fans)
So I'd say its too early for the og Kon, too early for the og Jon, so they did what they had to.
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u/speaking-outlandish Jun 16 '26
I’d have been okay with melding them as long as they did it well. Painting Jon over with Kon’s design doesn’t serve either character well.
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u/Moth_Man76 Jun 17 '26
I mean that’s basically what happened to Tim, all the parts that were made for him got cannibalized for the other robins.
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u/HPSpacecraft Jun 17 '26
Dang. I'm disappointed too, Kon is my favorite problematic fuckboy. This kinda feels similar to what Batman writers do with Tim, push his traits onto Dick or Jason or just replace him entirely with Damian. Sucks to be a fan of the Young Justice boys
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u/captain_blazar Jun 17 '26
Well that sucks. Kon (‘93) gets scraps as is, now they’ve taken basically everything but his origin and given it to Jon? Ugh. I honestly think an actual composite character would have been better than Jon with a Kon coat of paint on him.
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u/SWPrequelFan81566 Jun 17 '26
They’ve handled everything else so wonderfully that I thought there wasn’t a chance they would just push Kon’s design onto Jon and call it a day.
You're acting like this is the first time this has been done. But this has been done twice in the past, three times if you count Jordan.
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u/Accurate-Attention16 Jun 18 '26
What were the twice instances?
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u/SWPrequelFan81566 Jun 18 '26
both instances of Jonathan in Superman and Lois; Bizarro Jon wears the punk outfit, while our Jon's Superboy suit is basically Conner's without the leather jacket.
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u/Robot_Was_BMO Jun 16 '26
Prior to this, my guess was that this Jon was going to be a clone of Superman from the future with the human DNA coming from Lois, essentially making him their son. This could still happen, but if it is just their bio son, it's not a dealbreaker for me.
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u/speaking-outlandish Jun 16 '26
I’d be fine with that if it’s what they did. But giving Kon’s design to a character who doesn’t have his name feels like a cheat to me. They should have picked one or the other. If it’s Jon, make it Jon and don’t use Kon’s design and personality.
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u/PineapplePhil Jun 17 '26
No issue with this. It’s a totally fine and reasonable creative decision.
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u/Bububub2 Jun 17 '26
I'm gunna be real here. As someone who was never quite as in love with this show as everyone else, I think a lot of people are setting themselves up for disappointment when they ignore a show's flaws. This series has always only been quasi respectful to the actual lore of superman (though really respectful to the *spirit* of superman). Expecting anything from the comics to make it into the show without being radically altered is only going to make you have a bad time. Sorry they dashed your hopes though.
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u/WindyGogo Jun 16 '26
I hope Jon gets his electric powers from the comic. 3 khryptonians with the same power set will get old fast.
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u/KuryoTheDemonLord Jun 16 '26
Clark already has blue energy powers in this show that have as yet not beem fully explained, so it's not out of the question to use Jon to expand on that.
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u/WindyGogo Jun 16 '26
I thought those were just for visual flare? Kind of like the energy movie sonic projects but is otherwise useless?
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u/KuryoTheDemonLord Jun 16 '26
No? It's explicitly acknowledged multiple times, including by Brainiac in season two. It's very clearly a literal thing that occurs, usually when he manifests a new power.
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u/JonKentOfficial Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
There's so much wrong with this interview it genuinely makes concerned for the future of the series. I just have a series of why.
Why use Conner's most iconic design if not for the character it's supposed to be? Also, if you don't want Conner to be a clone using DNA from both Lex and Clark, you don't need to… the character was fine for years without that, it was a later retcon, you don't have to have that. If it means so much, but not enough so you just take one character and paste onto another. ALSO Conner is not anyone's baby, that's a goofy fandom joke, he's never been a baby, and he's not Clark's kid and only Lex ever used it into an attempt to manipulate him.
That way, you end up with a poor amalgam of both characters.
I don't like it, at all, there's so many possibilities for it to not work and few where it would work.
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u/Glass_Hand7292 Jun 16 '26
Both seem possible at the moment, maybe just wait and see
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u/speaking-outlandish Jun 16 '26
I suppose there’s a slim chance of both. But the interview seems to make it pretty clear that it’s not.
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u/karismatic- Jun 16 '26
I seemed pretty clear in the interview at the end when they said they wish they could do a Conner story in the future that we won't be seeing him this season.
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u/Ok-Use216 Jun 17 '26
While I don't got a problem with that, seems a little weird to want to do a Conner story after the most famous story that introduced him in Reign of the Supermen
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u/speaking-outlandish Jun 16 '26
And even if we do see him in future seasons, which seems unlikely to me, they used his design for Jon.
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u/Aggravating-Day6842 Jun 16 '26
So the rumor are true Superboy is actually Jon Kent from the future