DC Is Finally Doing Something With Jon Kent (And It’s Heartbreaking)

Jon Kent is one of the best new characters that DC has introduced in a very long time. People loved him with his initial debut and quick journey into becoming the new Superboy, fighting crime alongside his dad. Jon gave us a brand new dynamic with Superman and Lois Lane, and the story potential for Superman being a father was practically limitless. Unfortunately, in what is widely considered to be one of the worst decisions in modern comics, Jon was unceremoniously yanked from his family, only to return as a seventeen year old, having grown up trapped in another world. This was to push him into quickly becoming the new Superman in the failed 5G initiative, so when that ultimately fell through, DC had no idea what to do with him. He’s spent the last several years languishing in character-purgatory, nobody knowing what to do with him. But that’s finally changed. DC is finally doing something with Jon Kent. It’s absolutely heartbreaking and I couldn’t be more excited.

Joining the Secret Six

Nicole Maines’s criminally underrated Secret Six limited series revives the popular villain and antihero team with a brand new incarnation, this time featuring a couple of superheroes in the forms of Dreamer, Gossammer, and Jon Kent Superman, fighting alongside the standard villains like Deadshot, Catman, and Black Alice. The six were bound together by a mutual desire to track down the amnesiac Amanda Waller, who was kidnapped from her prison cell by the evil organization Checkmate, who was working with the United States government. Everyone else on the team joined because they either wanted revenge on or information from Waller, but Jon stuck with them not just to rearrest her, but also concern for his boyfriend, Gossamer, also called Jay. Jay had become obsessed with getting revenge on Waller, and Jon was trying to keep him in check.

Everything fell apart the second it started, which is the norm for the Secret Six. Everyone but Superman and Catman wound up captured by Checkmate, and the Batman knockoff took the time to rip into Jon, saying that he was much too soft to get the job done. Jon defended himself, saying that he’s been made into a monster enough times to know that there has to be limits and rules, but Catman simply said that those rules didn’t keep the people he loved safe.

Jon smashed his way into the Checkmate facility to find the team trying to kill each other as much as the enemy mooks. Being Superman, his arrival pretty much put a stop to all of that, but he had to pry Dreamer and Gossamer away from trying to knock each others’ teeth in. They had used a machine to extract all of Waller’s memories permanently and stored them on a flash drive, but Jay screamed that he discovered that the US was planning to use her as a scapegoat to cover up their role in the Absolute Power event. They had funded Amanda’s attempted takeover of the world, turning Jon into their mindless murder drone. They had used Jay’s home country of Gamorra as a testing ground out of convenience, but then Jay asked Jon to tear down the United States.

Heartbreak and Heroism

Jon obviously refused to rip apart the USA, but Jay accused him of being a hypocrite after helping liberate Gamorra. Jon also asked why Jay was covered in blood that wasn’t his or Dreamer’s, and although he didn’t say it, Jay had murdered numerous goons and tried to do the same to Dreamer after she stopped him from killing Waller. Jay kept screaming that these people had turned Jon into a monster and that he could stop them, he could fix everything with his power, but Jon refused because it was going way too far. He’s Superman, he’s a hero no matter what. So Jay said that he doesn’t believe in Superman anymore, and disappeared, leaving Jon alone in the rain. After years of torture, being held captive, being turned into a monster, this was Jon’s breaking point. He flew away, screaming out his pain, because after everything he just couldn’t handle anymore. 

DC is taking Jon in a really, really interesting direction by exploring the trauma of everything he’s been through. Ever since Brian Michael Bendis’s Man of Steel, Jon has been in a downward spiral of terrible events with almost no agency. Now he’s finally being given an identity. Jay has also been heavily criticized as a love interest for Jon because, up until now, he’s been really boring, but Jay himself has also been made very interesting by setting him apart as Superman’s antihero ex, which is actually a fun concept. Jon Kent has the chance to explore something that his father normally can’t; a painful, traumatic vulnerability that everyone can relate to, while keeping the integral hope that Superman requires. Secret Six might be over far too soon for my tastes, but the story of Jon Kent’s new journey will continue in Superman Unlimited and Justice League Unlimited, and I am very excited to see what they do with him. Jon deserves a good story, and this is his time to shine.

Secret Six #6 is on sale now!

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