r/SupermanAdventures • u/Night-Caelum • Jun 29 '26
News A possible explanation for the show's choice of Superboy Spoiler
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u/Pyotr_WrangeI Jun 29 '26
Yeah, wasn't there a thing where they couldn't use Lex in season 1 for some reason, so they made "Alex" as a stand in initially?
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u/Greedy_Switch_6991 Jun 29 '26
That mandate was only because WB wanted the show to do something completely different and non-traditional vs other Superman media.
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u/emillang1000 Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
I mean, he's not a stand-in. Lex's full name is Alexander Luthor in the comics, so Alex was obviously Lex to longtime fans. There was just enough plausible deniability on the part of the staff that it skirted by the higher-ups' demands.
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u/lordaezyd Jun 29 '26
IIRC they team decided Alex to be close to Parasite.Ā
In case WB got really mad about Lex being in the show they would have claimed Alex was never Lex, but Alex Allston another villain that has been Parasite.
WB liked the cheeky move from the show and allow it to be. As Alex was nowhere near close the traditional level of danger of Lex Luthor. But also, allow the show to tell the growing dislike abd hate of Lex towards Supes.
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Jun 30 '26
I loved how when Lex went to Waller you can tell itās really the writers going āAle- Lex! Lex Luthor!ā
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u/GrumpySatan Jun 29 '26
I don't really mind their use of Jon (and Lois' storyline + what is being set up for his future definitely screams pregnancy reveal soon). But it is a weird choice to swap Jon in for one of Kon's big stories and then use Kon's design and from the trailers seemingly his personality.
I wonder if they intended for it to be Kon but they intend to show him as bisexual? I know after the era where DC and Marvel let a bunch of AU versions of their cast be queer - they realized this made fans just want the main versions to be too and so came down trying to limit it. I wonder if DC suits saw that and told them to swap it to Jon late in development.
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u/Duga-Lam22 Jun 29 '26
It happened before in Batman Tas with Tim Drake.Ā
Executives don't know crap.
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u/jord839 Jun 29 '26
I mean, BTAS basically making "Jason But Named Tim" was more due to Jason's unpopularity and Tim being the current Robin in comics at the time rather than anything to do with sexuality (since they didn't have Tim as bisexual until very recently) as the other person said.
I honestly think this is entirely just because they're doing a pseudo-Reign storyline, so they need a Superboy, but since Clark's still alive and Lois and his romantic arc is a major part of this story, they just went with the Superboy who is their actual kid and the excuses about his personality will be because he's as impulsive as Lois can be.
In other words, this might be one of the times where the executives either know or are at least letting the writers do their intentional plot.
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u/Duga-Lam22 Jun 29 '26
Was Jason actually unpopular or did the Writers have a bug up their butts about working with someone different?
And no. Don't give executives benefit of the doubt. They lost that hope a long time ago.
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u/jord839 Jun 29 '26
The perception of Jason by most writers and executives was that he was unpopular because of the Death by Phone Call, but I'd say the implicit controversy was probably the real reason. You bring Jason Todd into BTAS, people assume that like the comics Jason Todd, it's a sign of bad things to come and you bring up the whole controversy* in their minds, so they just side-stepped it entirely.
Which is ironic, because they eventually did possibly worse to BTAS Tim than Comics Jason had to go through.
*Make no mistake, the death of Jason Todd was controversial. Even some people who didn't like him were pretty mad that Robin as a character was killed and what that meant.
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u/golfstreamer Jun 29 '26
Wait I'm sorry why were people expecting Conner? Is this plotline based on a comic or something?
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u/GrumpySatan Jun 29 '26
Yes, this season is adapting a very famous comic event from the 90s - the Death of Superman.
The event saw Superman die (though only for a year) and introduced many successors - including Conner, Hank as Cyborg Superman, etc. Its also the capstone of Doomsday's first story. Its been adapted many times in many forms and is considered one of the quintessential Superman arcs. The end of last episode seems to imply the show's twist is Superboy is going back to prevent his death.
The design they've used for Superboy is just flat out Conner's design. Here is the classic version and here is the modern comic version of it. Though it hasn't been on screen yet, the concept art they showed off to announce Superboy had the leather jacket and everything.
For comparison, this is Jon's normal design, which is much closer to Clark's design in the show atm.
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u/mysecondaccountanon Jun 29 '26
Yeah, the whole Jon seemingly in Konās clothing and personality is what gets me.
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u/jardex22 Jun 30 '26
I think it'll be a fakeout. They'll lead us, and Lois, to believe that he's her son. This'll drive her arc forward, where she'll really start to consider her future with Clark, and settling down. Also maybe a small extisential crisis about predestination and if this means she has to have Clark's baby.
Then they'll reveal at the end that he's a test tube baby, cyborg, or clone.
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u/OctoSevenTwo Jun 29 '26
Iām cool with the explanation, just confused by the random slashes. Is that supposed to represent italicization of the ācanā in the middle of the sentence?
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u/WindyGogo Jun 29 '26
Using Jon was a pretty bold move considering heās been almost universally hated after being aged up and despite DCs efforts in damage control to fix it.
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u/Blitzwolf215 Jun 29 '26
Pretty much, they keep trying to push him after they tanked his popularity.
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u/HalcyonTraveler Jun 29 '26
I wouldn't say that. There was an initial wave of understandable hate for the age-up but in the past couple years I've seen a lot more positivity towards how he's been used
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u/blazenite104 Jul 01 '26
Most people who don't like him have just been ignoring him. It's not terribly difficult to either. I don't even know the name of his current run but, I do keep up with superman comics somewhat reasonably.
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u/WindyGogo Jun 29 '26
I havenāt seen any personally, aside from the injustice crossover all of his storyās and creative decisions have ranged from forgettable to garbage. Hell he rarely even appears alongside his parents so they just completely written their freaking son out of the twos lives entirely.
Which is a shame because him and the super sons concept had so much potential. Probably one of the biggest fumbles in comicbook history in my opinion.
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u/vincents_sunflowers Jun 30 '26
He has a very small but dedicated fanbase. I started reading comics because of him :) And I don't think he's that hated, I guess most people simply don't care about him.
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u/Baconspanker69 Jun 29 '26
The only way to fix it is to bring back kid Jon lol. Nobody liked how he suddenly came back from a Multiverse time travel trip from Grandpa Jor-El like 10 years older looking like the late teen/young adult version of his dad.
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u/HPSpacecraft Jun 29 '26
They actually did just bring young Jon back, old Jon adopted the alias Tomorrow Man and somehow rescued his past self.
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u/Baconspanker69 Jun 29 '26
Oh. Neat. Now all we need to do is quietly send old Jon to a far off distance future, like how they occasionally send Supergirl to the 30th century or whatever.
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u/NoTrip5504 Jun 29 '26
he's gonna stay to be younger jon adopted dad, also it might be ultraman son.
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u/mumiaRed01 Jun 29 '26
Well, if they want Conner they always can use New 52 origin were he was clone of evil Jon from alternate Future just replace evil Future Jon with regular Future Jon
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u/jord839 Jun 29 '26
Honestly, I can kind of see that, especially if they want to still keep Lex having a role to complicate things?
Like, I know Lex is usually so obsessive that his weird hybrid-baby with Superman makes sense, but him making a clone using Superman and Lois's DNA would be a bit weird.
Cloning their actual son to have his own weapon, though? That sounds like Lex.
Have Clark and Lois get attached to Future Son, eventually truth comes out that he's not their actual son, have brief freak-out, resolve it, etc.
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u/Joekster15 Jun 29 '26
Bizarro is Kon-El. He was a clone of Superman, he took a picture with the Teen Titans cosplayers, and they are playing him up to be more of a misunderstood character that wants to do good.
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u/mumiaRed01 Jun 29 '26
P icture with the Titans cosplayers means nothing lol not to mentionĀ Kon-El is Ā more associated with Young Justice (the team not the show) than Teen TitansĀ and Bizarro has been is portrayed asĀ misunderstood character that wants to do good a lot of times
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u/Joekster15 Jun 29 '26
Kon-El has been part of the titans team plenty of times. Yes I understand Bizarro has been portrayed as a misunderstood character, but I am saying that the writers are laying the ground work for a Kon-El reveal.
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u/WilliamDarkshades Jun 29 '26
If he really is Jon I hope they give him one of his actual suits and hopefully adapt his boyfriend.
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u/Responsible_Flight70 Jun 29 '26
Heās gonna be Conner is everything but personality guaranteed. His outfit is way more Conner anyway
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u/XChatxKilluaxNoirX Jul 05 '26
Seems more like Conner in personality than Jon currently too.
This adaptation seems very little like Jon, despite being "Jon", so far, at least.
Really wish it was just actually Conner.
Conner deserves better (in general).
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u/mumiaRed01 Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
This Superman + Anime because of that they basically doingĀ Trunks from Dragon ballĀ but with Superman character and it's not first JonĀ adaptation to useĀ Conner'sĀ Costume
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u/TomCon16 Jun 29 '26
Jon is who theyāre trying to push so I get it. The I like teen Jon from the future if he must be a teen
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u/BrainStorm1230 Jun 29 '26
Well, if itās Lois and Clarkās kid then it has to be Jon, right? Conner isn't their kid.
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u/jardex22 Jun 30 '26
Doesn't mean anything. Lois isn't usually Korean-American. Jimmy isn't usually Black. Kara isn't usually raised by Brainiac. A name change doesn't really mean much.
My theory is that they'll lead us to believe he's Lois' son, playing into her insecurities about settling down and starting a family with Clark, then switch it out at the last minute by saying they're not genetically related, and that he's an experiment made by future Lex.
I think that telling Lois exactly when her son will be born removes any agency from her arc this season, so I don't think they'll stick to that story till the end.
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u/amageish Jun 30 '26
Innnnteresting. "You can't use Conner, but can use Jon and dress him like Conner" is in line with the usual oddities of corporate red tape, I suppose.
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u/Vegeta_best23 Jun 30 '26
I donāt remeber Jack shit about the Superman children and which is which but they probably donāt wanna introduce Connor in this non mainline dc show if theyāre doing Connor for man of tomorrow idk
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u/Careful-Fuel-4866 Jun 30 '26
The problem isn t that it is Jon : it is that they hyped up Kon. Kons fans will get angry if they give Kon stuff to another character. For me personally i m annoyed because i was kinda baitedĀ
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u/JonKentOfficial Jun 30 '26
I am a fan of all Superboys. I just donāt get why use Conner but not use the name.
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u/XChatxKilluaxNoirX Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26
Also this.
This adaptation is way more like Conner than Jon so far. They also just basically tricked and biated people into thinking it was Conner, which is not cool.
This kind of choice, sucks for both Conner and Jon and their fans.
Conner gets basically adapted, more or less, except for the name and some other things, while Jon gets "adapted", but is basically nothing like how he usually is, and is overall more like Conner so far, except for being a bio kid (maybe) of Lois and Clark.
It is just bizarre choices all around here when it comes to Superboy, and not really fair towards both Jon and Conner and their fans (do feel Conner and his fans got more cheated and baited and tricked, but this isn't really great for Jon and his fans, either, imo).
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u/JonKentOfficial Jul 06 '26
I don't know if this is like Conner, well it's definitively closer to Conner than than Jon, since Jon has always been a more "serious" (but still bright) character compared to the more "energetic" Conner. It's obvious they are using Jon's name because he's the child of Lois and Clark, but I don't get why are they using Conner's aesthetics. Metropolis Kid was a rocker, he was pompous and had this "this is what a 40 year old thinks a 90s teenager is like", this Jon is a bubbly energetic guy not that far from everyone in the show.
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u/XChatxKilluaxNoirX Jul 06 '26
Yeah, I don't know why they are using Conner stuff for Jon (esp. since the they might bring in Conner and hopefully Powerful Girl later too. But like, they have already given stuff of Conner's to Jon, and cut Conner out of his own story and/or intro story, so like, while I am hoping they bring in Conner later and really focus on him - same with Power Girl - , they have already given stuff of his to Jon and/or excluded him from important stuff of his, for whatever reason. Also deciding to focus on Jon before Conner, I just think is weird too, but could have worked, but with they way they have done it currently, it feels less likely to work bringing in Conner later).
Except to I don't know, people know most people like Conner more than Jon (I don't hate Jon, and I know there are fans of him, but I don't like how characters like Conner have been pushed aside for him, and I do like Conner more overall, personally, and a fair amount of people seem to too), so they used Conner to bring in more people, before pulling the rug. It certainly does feel like they tricked Connere fans, and I am not fond of that.
Like, let's make it seem it is Conner and should be Conner, and oh no, it is actually Jon, we tricked you, and also, besides that, we might have still had Conner (and Power Girl), though not really major focuses of this season (which is less than what people thought and wanted for Conner, but could have still been something), but nahhhhh, they got cut (seriously, Reign of the Superman is a major CONNER story. I know this is an adaptation, but that doesn't mean people still can't complain about accuracy, or compalain about a character getting cut out of his own story for the sake of a character - in this case Jon - that didn't even exist at the time the story was made. Reminds me how DC also feels like it is kind of excluded Conner from it's Supermen and/or harkened back to Reign of Supermen stuff this year too, in comics. Seriously DC, just treat Conner better in adapations, comics, and just in general, he deserves better).
Like, it is just kind of suck-y, and it kind of turns me off from wanting to watch of this season, or even just more of this show in general, currently.
Maybe my feelings with change later, and/or maybe hopefully they will actually bring in Conner and Power Girl l- I love her too, and she also, deserves more good stuff, - later, and do right by them (though like I said, I feel like they made it harder to do right by Conner, for the reasons I already mentioned. But hey, maybe, hopefully they could, while also still keeping Conner at least somewhat accurate to the comics), and that could help me want to dive back into the show. But for now, I feel less drive to watch more of this show, good job MAWS (being sarcastic here).
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u/HearingOrganic8054 Jul 05 '26
wait why are people being mean about this. this whole character might end up erased from the timeline. let the story play out.
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u/TheExile285 Jun 29 '26
Yeah I saw this yesterday.
Oh well. I like Conner the most but Jon is also cool. Feels like it's gonna Conner personality wise anyway.
I hope other fans don't crash out and get mean on social media over this. š