Clone Saga

I was reading a really good blog recently (check out The Cool Kids Table a blog by Ben Morse, Marvel.com's Asst. Editor, et. al.) and it made me realize how much I liked and missed Conner Kent, a.k.a. Kon El, a.k.a. Superboy.

Writing this now its actually pretty ironic, because one of my earliest comics-related memories is hating Superboy. When I was younger I never had much interest in comics, let alone Superman. I mean don't get me wrong, ten-year-old JimmyGlenn was very impressed when the kryptonite ring that came with my Superman action figure made him fall down, but all in all I was too busy being a complete and udder maniac of a child to read comics.

Anyway, my older cousin Greg, whom I idolized, told me Superman died.

Dead?

Superman?

Our Superman?

Did a bad-guy get the ring from the action figure?

Suddenly I was listening.

So Superman died, and Reign of the Supermen began. In RotS, five guys... er... well four guys and one kid were running around claiming to be Superman.

I remember being really put off by Superboy for a number of reasons: he had an earing, a leather jacket, a shitty attitude, and he flipped out when people called him Superboy... (with that last one idk why it bothered me so much but it REALLY did). All in all, I guess I was a ten-year-old superhero purist and Superboy didn't fit the mold of the conventional hero. In any event, I soon found out that he, nor any of the others, were Superman and I went back to not caring.

Eventually, I would get more into comics and Superboy would get his own series. It was then that I began to open up to the idea of Superboy.

In his own series he was a bit of an arrogant dick, which I really liked. I seem to remember, at some point, he attempted to steal Wonder Girl's underwear for Lobo in exchange for lessons on how to be cool (Superman stops hims). However soon that series, and Young Justice (another great series featuring Kon and company) ended.
Soon after Geoff Johns completely reimagined him and a relaunched Teen Titans. That series was a hit, with me at least, and Conner became a cool and even more complex character than he was before. John's establishes a humbled Conner Kent who, after the deaths of Donna Troy and some member of Young Justice (she was some obscure character ripe for the killing), is a bit more serious about his role as Superboy. Also, Conner is a bit more hesitant and unsure of himself. In Johns' series Conner begins living with the Kents, but really struggles with their lifestyle. he begins to find the Teen Titans to be a reprieve from the slow paced Kansas lifestyle. Some of the series highlights for Conner were: discovering his heat vision and other Supermanly powers, finding out his human DNA (he's a 50/50 clone) was Lex Luthors, and rekindling his relationship with Cassie a.k.a. Wonder Girl.

Whether its the brash, cocky, and arrogant leather-jacket-wearing-Kon El, or the later meek, humbled, self conscious Conner, I have found that I really enjoy Superboy's character. One of the major reasons why is, as is the case with Batman and Robin, Conner is his mentor's opposite. Superman is a confident, but humble, natural-born hero and leader. Conner isn't, or at least he lacks the confidence to be that sort of hero and leader. Also Conner isn't a squeaky clean anachronism; he wasn't raised in Kansas by good ole' Ma and Pa Kent, he skips class, makes mistakes, and doesn't command nor seek the respect of his peers.

The fact that he is, or I guess now was, so different from Superman made their relationship that much more rich and interesting to me. There were scenes in Teen Titans where you could see the vast divide that separated them. In the same ways that Dick would never be Bruce, as a reader you knew that Conner would never be Clark. But what was really important was that Conner knew it too. Conner constantly felt the burden of being in Superman's shadow, and I felt that Geoff Johns did a great job of highlighting the effects of such a burden. Being the "son" or "younger brother" of the greatest hero in the DCU is a heavy burden to bear and it was very interesting to see how it affected Superboy's character.


All in all, Superboy was a solid character that I really enjoyed reading. I found out recently, that Conner Kent was killed in Infinite Crisis so that Dick Grayson could live. Geoff Johns was so opposed to Dan Didio's idea to kill off Dick Grayson's that he killed Conner, his favorite character, instead. Truth be told, despite the dact that I just blogged about how much I like him, thats a price I'd pay everyday of the week and twice on Sunday. As much as I liked Conner Kent, I love Dick Grayson so kudos to Geoff Johns for realizing that clones don't have souls and thus they don't matter.

-Up Up and Away.