Do you want Jon to bea de-aged

[MeGrimlock420]

I’m of the opinion that this whole run is taking place after Doomsday Clock.

That's cool. What about Bat-Mite?

[Superlad93]

Conner's back, there's plenty of 16-17 year old heroes already, this'll mess with the Damian dynamic, blah blah blah. I fear those things too.

This is totally not picking on you or whatever, but I'm just using your quote because you summed it up.

I have to wonder why we're talking about Jon in terms of other characters and age groups rather than just, ya know, him. Like, it's almost like a tokenism argument. "We've already got a minority on that team. We've filled out that quota." It's like that rather than taking him as a character going through a story right now. I mean, no one seems to be mad at the idea that Kara is a teen and so is Conner. No one bats an eyelash at the fact that Dick, Jason, Tim, and Damian all look virtually the same, or the fact that Dick, Barbra, and Jason are in their 20s (hell they wanted Tim in there too). Why? Because they're characters and not concepts. They like them because of who they are as (fictional) people.

The arguments I hear against his age up seem to point to more of a fascination with his concept in a panoramic sense. I'm not totally knocking that (given I know I'm guilty of it too), but just pointing it out given all the issues we've had with concept vs character when it comes to Superman. For better or worse, Bendis seems to be stress testing that for Jon. Dude's giving Jon 7 ish years of solo lore to mine, basically making space his turf, and technically making him a space prince (yeah, that's a thing if you haven't read the latest issue. I won't say how but you'll likely dig it).

Again, I'm just making an observation.

[Celgress]

I'd prefer he is de-aged. That said, I'm open to seeing where Bendis & co. take this even though I'm highly skeptical of the current character direction.

[Yoda]

That's cool. What about Bat-Mite?

As a fix? I mean if they are going to that well, Mxy is the likely candidate.

[MeGrimlock420]

As a fix? I mean if they are going to that well, Mxy is the likely candidate.

I know Mxy is the easy way out. He could meet Bat-Mite when he's with Damian.

[Kon93]

So Jon is 17 and we have probably actually read maybe what a year or so of his actual life on the page, is that not the saddest thing you ever heard.

He is nothing but a concept that DC are willing to do whatever to because they don't care about HIM only that superman has a kid. They tried with new 52 kon, then Jon, and then with lil jon, now older Jon. He isnt a person to them he is a IP concept they want no matter the cost, they want their superson in anyway they can.

I treat these characters as actual ppl, sure not real ppl, but enough for me to give a **** about them to follow them for years.

I'm sad for the kid, he doesn't even get a chance to actually live(on page), he is a means to a end, nothing more.

You know why I love the SB character? It's because I read him from his beginning, and read through all his changes and growth as a character, he is as real to me as any non real character is, he matters to me, I wish they would give us a chance to watch the kid grow, care for him, make him matter to us more than just"supermans kid", but not if he is gonna be changed anytime you turn around and not actually let his story b told on page in real "comic"time.

[king81992]

Jon getting decent aged is inevitable at this point.That being said, he shouldn't have been aged up in the first place.

[Soubhagya]

I vote undecided.

I really loved Jon as a young kid. So, a part of me is always against this aging up. So many stories could be told when he is of that age. We can see the kid growing. And then tell more stories when he reaches 13 or 17. That would feel natural and earned. Plus, you get Jon into a dangerous situation. If Superman has a 17 yr old kid that ages Superman quite a bit. With 10 yrs you can have him below 40. But with 17 years he appears significantly older. That's not how you usually market a superhero to new readers. Jon would be in crisis come the next reboot. (It will happen someday. That's the DC's way of acting).

Fears and concerns apart there is still a lot of potential to this idea. I liked the initial issue of Jon. There's still a bit of that charm as a kid. But he appears a bit wiser and assured of himself. I really really hope that Bendis does it right.

[theoneandonly]

Superboy reborn anyone? where all the versions of Superboys combine to form a single superboy entity who has memories of each and every superboy which drives him mad and to join with Grandpa jor el who convinces him to resurrect Krypton on earth. Batman 666 isn't having any of that and they collide in the series BvsS twilight of the supersons which ultimately leads to the final conflict where Damian has him at his mercy after a brutal battle that maims John but spares him when John reminds him of the old days and Talia comes to the fore and kills him revealing to John that she spurred Damian on to this path. John loses control over his powers in his grief for Damian and fries everyone and everything in metropolis thus proving bat Tim right. Ugh.

[DragonPiece]

I feel this thread is unfair. None of us know how teen Jon will go yet, we've only had one issue with the character as he is.

Jon getting decent aged is inevitable at this point.

I disagree, based on interviews and some of Bendis's recent tweets, I think this is permanent(at least while Bendis is writing the character.) Fans will get young Jon in other media such as adventures of super sons & the dc kids graphic novels.

[Kon93]

It's unfair to jon,not the question on here.jon is a yoyo,he gets jerked around whichever way someone at DC wants him to be,no matter however he is,or how he fits perfectly,or how is natural progression should be.

The older Jon stories might be great,I will be reading them,but doesn't mean Jon kent the character created before bendis came to bendis,didn't get robbed.

He is at totally different character now,that's fact,cause 10 year olds and 17 year olds are miles apart from each other irl.you can give him all the aww shucks pa stuff you want,its all comes off fake or atleast trying to hard to make the reader believe it's the same kid when its not.

[OpaqueGiraffe17]

I'd probably feel more open to this if they got a good amount of mileage out of kid Jon, like kid Damian got. A lot of potential got squandered in order to tell a story about Clark feeling sad about said potential being squandered. and frankly they would have gotten the same dramatic implications if they just aged him up to 13.

[Badou]

Aging Jon up is absurdly stupid. You take a character and remove some of the truly unique qualities he had in being such a young kid in a world of superheroes who also had a very normal upbringing. Sending him off into space and having him age 7 years in a story that didn't really make any sense undermines a lot of what people liked about Jon in the first place. Having 3 Superman characters now all be basically the same age with Kara, Jon and Conner feels like really bad planning as well.

[Sacred Knight]

It really doesn't matter to me. From a point of view of practicality, it seems altogether way too early to do it. I'm used to the "babies are aged up" trope, but when the kid's already an adolescent, that seems less common to me. And he's only been around in canon a few years. From a point of view of just my personal opinion as a Superman fan, I just can't bring myself to care one way or another. All I can say is he bugged me less in the present-day scenes of #7 than he usually does. That's not a large sample size, but there's that. Whether I really will like him better or dislike him just as much as I always have remains to be seen, but that's why I can't bring myself to care about the change. If I DO end up liking him, it could sway me to the "keep the change" camp. But until then, I'll go "Undecided" as its the closest thing to "Indifferent".

[Superlad93]

He is at totally different character now,that's fact,cause 10 year olds and 17 year olds are miles apart from each other irl.you can give him all the aww shucks pa stuff you want,its all comes off fake or atleast trying to hard to make the reader believe it's the same kid when its not.

This is conceptualizing him rather than characterizing him, though, and that's fine, but this isn't anything specific about his character.

Since looking at the concept over the character has been so detrimental to Superman for literally decades, I worry if fans unwittingly did the same for child Jon.

A very real question I'd like to ask is do we mourn the loss of a specific character with aspects interstice only to them as people, or do we lament at being denied a collection of conventional childlike characteristics and aesthetic befitting the platonic ideal of Superman's son?

It's a question I'm genuinely asking because as the responses come in for what was apparently lost, the lists seem to point more towards the former, and I think it's something worth collectively discussing if the passions are in fact this high.