So the Kents are alive now?

[Midnighter]

There's not much of a rebooted universe left though. The Legion ,the New Teen Titans , Johns' Titans and the JSA are all being restored to continuity this fall.

Ma and Pa Kent are like the last domino left to go full on pre flashpoint.(except for Steve Trever ,Etta Candy and Linda and Wally's kids)

Personally I'd be cool with him going back to Hawaii. It's unique, it looks cool and it's likely that it's fun for the artists to draw. A fortress within a volcano would be hella cool as well.

[DochaDocha]

I'm not against having Ma and Pa alive, or at least not against that in principle. I just hated that old routine from Lois & Clark where whenever Clark had some insecurity about his relationship with Lois, he'd be going back to them for advice. I guess that works for that show (well, not if you ask me...), but it's a bad look for Superman. Also, I'm pretty tired of the routine that every time some hardship happens to Superman, he's at risk for going rogue. If neither of these two issues were ever a problem for me as a Superman fan, I'd be more welcome to Ma and Pa's survival, like I was in early Post-Crisis days, but right now I'm just happier to have them dead. It means whatever they taught Supes as a youngster had to be remembered and properly applied.

If you're happy they're alive, then I have no grudge against your satisfaction. I just hope they are handled OK and not as Superman's emotional crutch/liability.

[Frontier]

I mean, we have Jor-El alive now, unstable as he is, so I think it would be kind of fair to have at least one of the Kents still alive.

[DochaDocha]

Jor-El's being alive is far sillier. At least I would listen to arguments why it's good to have the Kents alive. Jor-El, not so much.

[Last Son of Krypton]

If Jor-El being alive will last more years, there'll be people supporting the idea using the length of time he was alive as evidence as to why he should be kept around.

[Ascended]

If Jor-El being alive will last more years, there'll be people supporting the idea using the length of time he was alive as evidence as to why he should be kept around.

That's what happened with the Kents. Fifty years of them dying before Clark became Superman, and post-Crisis kept them around long enough for people to start thinking that was how it should be, rather than the weird nonsensical tangent it really was.

[Ascended]

Jor-El's being alive is far sillier. At least I would listen to arguments why it's good to have the Kents alive. Jor-El, not so much.

Absolutely. I can see the appeal of having the Kents around and why people would want that, and those arguments do have some good points to them at times. But Jor-El? There's no reason at all, ever, for him to be alive. He needs to be dead the way Uncle Ben and the Waynes are dead. Without that death and sacrifice, the entire foundation of Superman starts to crack.

[Last Son of Krypton]

That's what happened with the Kents. Fifty years of them dying before Clark became Superman, and post-Crisis kept them around long enough for people to start thinking that was how it should be, rather than the weird nonsensical tangent it really was.

Yeah, pretty much. I was having fun citing Sacred's post about the subject:

Sure it did. History has proven you can do both things. If they wanted to, I'm sure they could also get away with reversing it all and killing Martha but keeping Jonathan. You can work these things, I'm not suggesting you can't despite my posts naturally reflecting my preference. But the length of time they were alive in the post Crisis era is more often than used as evidence as to why they should be alive. That it worked just fine before too, much longer in point of fact, is a rebuttal to that argument.

[JAK]

I'm not against having Ma and Pa alive, or at least not against that in principle. I just hated that old routine from Lois & Clark where whenever Clark had some insecurity about his relationship with Lois, he'd be going back to them for advice. I guess that works for that show (well, not if you ask me...), but it's a bad look for Superman. Also, I'm pretty tired of the routine that every time some hardship happens to Superman, he's at risk for going rogue. If neither of these two issues were ever a problem for me as a Superman fan, I'd be more welcome to Ma and Pa's survival, like I was in early Post-Crisis days, but right now I'm just happier to have them dead. It means whatever they taught Supes as a youngster had to be remembered and properly applied.

If you're happy they're alive, then I have no grudge against your satisfaction. I just hope they are handled OK and not as Superman's emotional crutch/liability.

I do agree with that - and that's kinda why I'd like for them to not have "always just been around". If they miraculously "come back" or something, then that adds more to it and keep the dynamic different. Maybe he does go to them from time to time, but not like they were doing for awhile there.

Absolutely. I can see the appeal of having the Kents around and why people would want that, and those arguments do have some good points to them at times. But Jor-El? There's no reason at all, ever, for him to be alive. He needs to be dead the way Uncle Ben and the Waynes are dead. Without that death and sacrifice, the entire foundation of Superman starts to crack.

I'm actually enjoying Jor-El's part of the current storyline (sloooowly getting over the whole "what about him being Mr. Oz again???" thing), but I agree that he's got to go back at some point.

Ooh - just had a thought... what if something happens and he knows he has to go back, and says something like "I know I can't stay. The hardest thing for a father is to leave his son. And now I'm doing just that for the second time. But I can give you one last gift. The same gift I gave you all those years ago. When you see them again... think of me." And his gift to Clark is Jonathan and Martha.

If done right, THAT could be really powerful.

[Ascended]

Ooh - just had a thought... what if something happens and he knows he has to go back, and says something like "I know I can't stay. The hardest thing for a father is to leave his son. And now I'm doing just that for the second time. But I can give you one last gift. The same gift I gave you all those years ago. When you see them again... think of me." And his gift to Clark is Jonathan and Martha.

If done right, THAT could be really powerful.

.....I could roll with that. Dammit JAK, dont you make me change my opinion on dead Kents!

[Sacred Knight]

Ooo I'll play (I admit it'd be powerful).

"A long time ago, I gave you to them. Now, I give them back to you."

If they did something like this I'd also show time being fixed and Jor-El being sent back moments before Krypton's destruction, only in that moment he retains the memories of the timeline in which he lived. And when he touches Lara's face, she's filled with visions of his memories of their son and his family, so she can know like Jor-El did what her son became. Then Krypton explodes.

[SiegePerilous02]

I mean, we have Jor-El alive now, unstable as he is, so I think it would be kind of fair to have at least one of the Kents still alive.

Jor-El's being alive is far sillier. At least I would listen to arguments why it's good to have the Kents alive. Jor-El, not so much.

Lara really needs to drag all of them back into the grave with her....

[kingaliencracker]

For the life of me, I'll never understand why Superman fans get so upset regarding the Kents being alive, especially their reasoning for why they're upset about it.

I'll just say one of the most poignant aspects of Superman's death in the early 90's was the reaction of the Kents losing their only son, and that I think the more supporting characters you can establish in a character's universe the better.

[manwhohaseverything]

What is with superman fandom and trying to kill clark's parents?
It feels like a witch hunt or something.
Me: "oh! Look jor el is here"
Fandom: "what? kill him. Kill him to death"
Me: "oh awesome ! They are bringing back ma and pa"
Fandom :"what? Send Jonathan into a tornado or give him a heart attack. Shoot martha kent dead. Kill them, we say" *pitchforks activated*
Man! What a weird fandom.i feel like, not even the batmanfans are this obsessed with batman's parents death as superman fans are.

[kingaliencracker]

What is with superman fandom and trying to kill clark's parents?
It feels like a witch hunt or something.
Me: "oh! Look jor el is here"
Fandom: "what? kill him. Kill him to death"
Me: "oh awesome ! They are bringing back ma and pa"
Fandom :"what? Send Jonathan into a tornado or give him a heart attack. Shoot martha kent dead. Kill them, we say" *pitchforks activated*
Man! What a weird fandom.i feel like, not even the batmanfans are this obsessed with batman's parents death as superman fans are.

The funny part to me is how many Barry Allen fans scold Geoff Johns for killing off Barry's mother for "no reason except unnecessary tragedy", yet so many Superman fans want a middle-aged couple wiped out.

Fans are an interesting bunch...