LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES issue #1 Preview/(spoiler) discussion

[Superlad93]

When he got aged up, they kept heroic, independent, and mature side of him. The side that makes him a good hero. But it feels like Bendis ditched the other parts him because Bendis mitook it for things that a character would only have as a child.

Your description of his other aspects is still a little vague for me, but I imagine it's pretty hard to articulate (or even fully extrapolate it from the context of him as a child) something that seems to be more of a general feeling that you got when you read the character. I get it. I was only asking just to see if it was something as easily explained and pointed to as the very clear dissonance between Bendis' writing of Damian vs how most others write him.

But, see, the point of why I brought up the idea of the context of age, people he's interacting with, and immediate situation is because all of that has been changed over, and if any truer structural critique can be leveled at Bendis' handling of Jon so far it's the lack/shortage (there's le of expressly character driven stories/issues or even moments with him in it. Structurally, it seems like it was a speed thing. The Legion book seems like where the bulk if not totality of his character work will be done by Bendis. It's where his interpersonal relationships (both platonic and (likely) romantic) as a teen will explored, and that, as we saw with just how much of 10 year old Jon is expressly defined by how he played off Damian, and will fill him out past being heroic, independent, mature, and kind as he is now. This is also the book where we're more on his Earth-3 back story, so that (thank goodness) fleshes what he was like in that context and how it translates to now. This is also the book where we seem to be getting more of what the Super Sons function like now to.

But speaking for myself, I thought the way that he was so unironically charmed (saying "that's cool" without a hint of sass or irony) by what amounts to a futuristic name tag was great, and also how he met everyone with an instant handshake and smile. Or the unguarded nature of him just admitting he was worried about how he was gonna retain all this new info (and if he'd be turned to ash in a time accident lol). There's also the charismatic smile he has on when he's saying his dad's best friend is his mom. Or even though he's freaking out pretty hard about possibly being in a bottle, he's still nice enough to say he'll be right back as he zips off. But then in totally understandable contrast, he keeps cutting everyone off mid sentence, and paying zero attention to the orientation he's supposed to go to because, like us, he's darting around and taking it all in and not really think everything through (example: the orientation would likely answer literally every question he has). I also liked how forceful he could get when he demanded they go back in time and save the planet before they calm him down a bit.

For me, so far at least, I'm getting this sense of natural charisma, earnestness, and a health bit of impulsiveness. That's what I'm personally getting so far. Personally, that doesn't really strike me how just any teen would act and react. There's a budding swagger and distinctiveness there that I hope is nurtured to grow.

Not in a way that puts him on the road to just being Clark Jr.

The old Conner vs Kon-El debate still going on today.