Superman Through the Ages! Forum

He's a great character,and liked on all the other message boards I visit,but here,you all dont like him because he's not Clark,thats just wrong,he's a totally different character,with a different personality,look,and powers,judge him on hisself.

i oike Kon-El

Kon-El has a lot of possibilities,that they havent even touched on.

Geoff said on his forum,(to my thread)that SB's telekinesis is still there and it willbe seen in a BIG WAY.

I actually don't hate Kon as a character, but I do think that he's endeared himself to me almost despite himself. When Tom Grummet and Karl Kessel debuted the character in the Reign of the Supermen, he was easily my least favorite potential heir. That whole "dude!" womanizing hormonal lunkhead phase really turned me off Superboy II for a long, long time. It's only been lately, thanks to Geoff Johns fun writing on Teen Titans and by incorporating elements of the Superboy I mythos (a Kent secret identity, living in Smallville, a certain white dog in a red cape) that have gradually made Kon stand on his own as a unique blend of the old and the new.

 I'm not too fond of this whole "Luthor DNA" twist, but then I'm not a fan of Kon's "power" as it is. A potential heir to the Superman legacy should be more than some kind of psychokinetic X-Men mutant. He should be, oh I don't know. . .Kryptonian maybe? In power as well as DNA. But that's just my quibble.

 But yes, I like Kon. I just wish he'd get a proper uniform and a cape. A black t-shirt and jeans just screams "Make Mine Marvel!" to me. :p

 -Def.

Well I dont think he is going to ever take over for Superman,because Superman will never stop doing what he is doing now,even after Lois and his parents die he will still be there,as for Conner,he will become the SUPER version of Nightwing,you know find his own way,like calling himself Powerman,and wearing a cool supersuit like his Paascual Ferry suit combined with the Superman from the One Million story suit,but have a 8 or Mobius strip for a symbol,while wearing only black and red.

Well, at some point (if we believe DC ONE MILLION) Kal-El will leave Earth to journey among the stars when he loses all those who are closest to him to the ravages of time (Kal will live to see the 853rd century. Wowzers.  :shock: ), but in his place will rise his heir and founder of the Superman Dynasty, Superman Secundus. Now, whether or not this is Kon is still kind of up in the air, but I have a sneaking suspicion it's him.

 Your idea of Kon going off and forging his own superheroic identity does sound interesting though. Maybe you could put it together as a fanfic for a site that focuses more on the post-Crisis Superman Family. :)

 -Def.

I hope people don't hate me here for saying this, but I have to say that I rather have Superboy with a seperate identity than the Superboy who was a younger Superman. I don't know maybe its because I really missed the Silver Age (too young for that) or something else, but the difference between Superman and Superboy is something I'd rather have stay that way. Its cool if people don't like that though, no hate from me ^^.

i think that having kon el is way better than the superboy who is the same person as superman and i will tell you why.

clark learning to use his powers as a teenager is way more beliveable than him being a superhero as a child. seriously, mature enough to just have an alternate identity and be a superhero as a young man. kryptonians may be more mature at a younger age, but supes was raised on earth dammit, and everyone is immature growing up.

now, back to kon el. his story may be a little unclear at times and have dumb twists, but it is way easier on the imagination than a young superboy ever was. i think the old superboy, while being a staple in the superman legacy, was stupid.

i would much rather have the superman movie/smallville version any day.

I don't think anyone does hate Kon - where are you getting this from?

I may be in the minority, but I think that Superman/Clark should have been Superboy when he was young.  However, that doesn't preclude a new, 2nd Superboy from being around now, just as Kon-El is.

Superman having a Superboy sidekick would be great, and Kon could fit that role.

My problem with Kon is his ridiculous origin and name.

I think Kon-El is a good character,and only getting better with time,he has been a good sidekick to Superman recently in Action Comics,and he's in Teen Titans and Legion with good powers and good plot.

Forgive me for arriving a bit late, but here we go.

If we are to believe that there will eventually come a Superman Secundus, it's going to be his son. A son between himself and Lois. Superboy, Kon-El, could not be Superman Secundus. If you remember, the Heritage of El didn't get psychokinetic powers until one of them mated with an alien race.

Hi Everyone!
  I do not hate Kon -El, but I do not like his current costume (the jeans and black shirt).
 I prefer Superboy to have a uniform, maybe not exactly like Superman's , but close.
  I miss actually Superboy/ Clark Kent Pre- Crisis.
 If the Siegel and Shuster's family have their way, we could see the return of the real Superboy!

The Ceb-Man!

I'm afraid DC One Million, Superman One Million contradicts that.

Superman Prime sought his descendant, the blood of his blood, in that book.  The Justice Legion A Superman also noted that Lois is the co-founder of the Superman Dynasty.

IOW, Superman Secundus is supposed to be the real son of Superman Prime and suppositions that he's Kon-El/Conner Kent are simply wishful thinking unsubstantiated by the published books.

OTOH, Johns is retconning the Westfield DNA link to be Luthor instead so anything is possible if DC/writers shift gears.  But established book evidence makes it clear it's not Connor.  Indeed, Superboy One Million establishes a very different kind of legacy for the Cadmus Superboy that's separate from the Superman Dynasty.  How about the OMAC (One Millionth Actual Clone) Superboy of that line?

Another one I'm coming in late on :)

I have to be honest and say that I have no clue what Kon is like at this point in time.  I think I gave up on him when he and the newsboy legion stole the car at cadmus  :roll: and only glanced here and there for a bit thereafter.

I Hated the attitude, Liked the costume at the time, hated the powers, heard that he was given a Kryptonian name...sorta adopted into the El family?...and saw that he was depicted as an idiot for the most part in Peter David's Many Happy Returns.

I have nothing against there being a modern Superboy (but I still detest the notion that Superman was not Superboy first) But like another poster said....I would rather he be...Kryptonian...with Kryptonian powers.  (hmmm....come to think of it, that was my main gripe against the Matrix/Linda Danvers Supergirl as well.)

Now I am must have missed something along the way.  The way I remember it, this "Kon" was a partial clone of Kal-El.  Has that been retconned?

Dylan

Kon-El is still a partial clone of Kal-El.

What has been retconned under Geoff Johns in Teen Titans is Westfield is no longer the donor of the base genetic template.  Johns made it Luthor ... 'cause it was 'kewl'.  Nevermind that it flagrantly disregarded all continuity on this matter.  Nevermind that it made absolutely no sense for Westfield to use the DNA of his hated enemy when he wanted a Superman he could control.  Nevermind that Roxy Leech is now the other donor when the Westfield blend went unstable and broke down.  Johns thinks Lex being the donor is 'kewl' so let piddling things like logic, theme, and continuity be cast aside.

hehehehe.   Logic went out the door from the begrinning IF Kon is a partial clone of Kal.  Otherwise he would have (gasp) kryptonian powers!!!!! :roll:

So how was the different powers ever explained?  Or was it?

Dylan

My understanding is Kon-El's powers are partial Kryptonian ones.

His original tactile telekinesis is just a more creative use of Superman's established flight and invulnerability auras.  Just like the Flash can more creatively use his single power of super-speed better than Superman can use his speed, Kon is more creative with his singular aura powers than Kal can.

It must be noted that Kon has the potential for most if not all Kal's powers going by Black Zero.  Indeed, current books (Teen Titans, LSH) show him finally developing heat vision.  A recent Action Comics issue has him defending Superman by using heat vision on attacking villains.

Superboy/Kon El is 50% Kryptonian.  He has all the powers of a Kryptonian... or at least will over time.  So far I've seen Heat Vision and X-Ray Vision.. and I think we've seen SuperHearing... say when Conner went to track down Robin in Gotham.

If you remember waaaay back in the Death of Superman storyline, and even before that, they noted that it took years of absorbing rays from the yellow sun for a Kryptonian to develop their abilties... so its just now that Superboy is starting to absorb enough energy into his cells to use his kryptonian powers...at least in my opinion... then again that doesn't explain Supergirl having all her powers already.

Like someone else said..there goes continuity.

I like the Kon El Superboy.  It may not be Clark, but they've established that Superman was only Superman... that his powers were slow in coming, and that he wasn't Superboy. Things like a true Supergirl are easier to accomplish than the true Superboy... although I was a big fan of Linda Danvers as well.

There's a lot of things about Superboy II that bother me.  At first they said he was a clone of some other human and then manipulated the DNA to make him look like Superman and duplicate his super powers, hence the telekenetic powers.  Now he's half Superman DNA and half Luthor, which is, in my opinion, a bad idea.
They really need to rework this character and find a way to make him more popular.  As he is right now, he's destined to remain just a supporting character in books like Teen Titans.

I just think conceptually he's a really bad idea and shouldn't not have been kept around.

Though I enjoyed the way he was written in Young Justice.

Having seen the Teen Titans "Superboy under the control of Lex Luthor shaves his head bald and badly hurts the Titans" storyline I'm now in the corner of not liking the character.  I think they've pretty much destroyed him.  If Luthor can take control of him then he's pretty much useless and will always be under a cloud.
I'm at the point of saying start over again with another Superboy.  Or do a Superboy series set in Clark's past kind of like Smallville in which he operates without a costume.

Me, I like Kon-El, but I think he's not being used right.  Think about it for a moment..  Kon-El is a clone made in Superman's image, originally intended to serve as Superman's replacement, and now adopted as Superman's "Heir" of sorts.  

He's a kid who's never known anything other then trying to be Superman's Heir.  Can you imagine having to live up to that kind of legacy?

I have hated this character form the get go because I thought the poorly dresssed punk was not my Superboy and I will always hate Byrne for destroying both him and the Legion. But, I actually like what John's has done with this character and ejoy him in TT.

As much as I agree that the orginal Superboy is always "Superman as a Boy," I did enjoy Karl Kesel and Tom Grummet's return to Kirby's "Project," The Newsboy Legion, Guardian, etc.  It was a lot of fun.  I think the clone would have made a good sidekick for Jimmy Olsen, the only character missing.

:s:

I enjoyed parts of that as well.  Those parts I found in quarter bins or garage sales.  Can anyone summarize what happened to the Superboy version of the Project? (let's say, post-Superboy 1 Million?)  In 200 words or less?

Kon-El never seemed to be much more than Matrix Supergirl at the end of the day - a lump of cellular material cast in a "Super" configuration, with all the personality of a after-school special punk.  Had they started out things as "Lex Luthor + Superman" when he debuted, I think I'd have taken to him a little better.  Even so, there's nothing yet that makes me really take to him, where I'd really feel bad if someone killed him off.