It depends on what you mean by "if he flops". I guess that you are referring to the regular title, which IMHO will have relatively good sales for at least one year (and no matter what it sells, I have a feeling that it always be higher than Action Comics).
Well... That's a huge issue. It's another problem with superheroes' children. In addition to all the other potential issues they create, it is INCREDIBLY difficult to get rid of them. Superman titles can stay for a very long time without ever mentioning Supergirl or Kon-El, but it is quite hard to stay without the son of the main character.
One thing's for sure: they are not going to kill Superman's son. That's basically impossible. Sometimes I wonder how the hell Grant Morrison could think that he could seriously kill Damian once and for all after several years of building him as a character. A dead son, for God's sake! It would have added some unnecessary angst for an already grim character for whom the only real, iconic death is his parents'.
Here's the deal though. If they really, really wanted to get rid of him, they could kill him AFTER retconning him as something different from Superman's son. For example, if they said that Jon is actually a fake son created by Brainiac together with fake memories or some shit like that they could have him die - maybe in some glorious act of self-sacrifice. There's an interesting detail - as far as I remember, we never saw any single moment of Jon growing up except for his birth. Which means that they could use some fake memories/timespace shenanigans to retcon him. So... If they wanted they could find a way to kill him, but only after making him something different from Superman's son. It's convoluted, but they could do it.
Of course, it's not impossible for them to de-age him, even if I have thoroughly explained why it is unlikely IMHO. By the way, I am not familiar with Franklin Richards' growth, but as far as I know his "iconic" version is the superpowered kid one. Also: I guess that Franklin Richards had been a kid way for several years before they planned to make him an adult. Which means that the kid version was the "regular" one. As I said earlier, that's not the same situation we have with Jon, who in some time will have been an adult longer than he has been a kid.
All in all, I think that all depends on what they are planning to do with Infinite Frontier. The impression I got is that they are going towards some kind of Anti-Crisis, with more rigidly divided parallel worlds. And I guess that they could use it to reduce the number of characters on the main earth, which is quite high at the moment. They could put Wallace Kent on Earth-2 and leave Wally on Earth-1. I find it interesting that we don't have any JSA title on sight, and I am beginning to wonder whether they are planning to restore the old Earth-1/Earth-2 division - I mean the pre-Crisis version. Should that be the case, I can easily see them placing Jon Kent on E-2 as a son to the original Kal-L (maybe even as the kid version) and a member of Infinity Inc. Or they could restore the classic Super-Sons earth.
P.S. About the "big deal"... I wouldn't overestimate this type of moves, quite frankly. If the New52 has proven anything, it is that they could easily discard entire fictional years of the characters in a heartbeat and replacing them with something different. And Kon-El's quite long career (way, way longer than Jon's, with better sales) and his current irrelevance shows that anything can happen even to apparently popular characters with no huge consequences.
Last edited by Myskin; 08-25-2021 at 03:14 PM.
Educational town, Rolemodel city and Moralofthestory land are the places where good comics go to die.
DC writers and editors looked up and shouted "Save us!"
And Alan Moore looked down and whispered "No."
I'm kinda surprised Snyder didn't want Superman to watch Lois and Bruce conceive their love child. All the while singing the "Na na na na na na Batman!" theme song - Robotman, 03/06/2021
Educational town, Rolemodel city and Moralofthestory land are the places where good comics go to die.
DC writers and editors looked up and shouted "Save us!"
And Alan Moore looked down and whispered "No."
I'm kinda surprised Snyder didn't want Superman to watch Lois and Bruce conceive their love child. All the while singing the "Na na na na na na Batman!" theme song - Robotman, 03/06/2021
Well, it's based off a few things that have come to light regarding 5G, the rumors regarding Jon, and the Wildstorm character use in the DCU.
So, for anyone who doesn't know, Jon and Damian were supposed to have a Professor X and Magneto like dynamic in 5G. Damian was to be the big bad of the DCU taking more after his mother's family and using the new version of Leviathan shape his plans for the world, and Jon was suppose to stand in his way. It was going to play on the tragedy of these childhood best friends having an ideological divide that brings them to blows.
I think Jon's new friend and potential love interest, Jay Nakamura, is going to take Damian's place as the Magneto to Jon's Professor X.
After reading issue #2, I think Jay is either Kaizen Gamorra's son or grandson. Kaizen Gamorra was the leader of the island nation of Gamorra back in the Wildstorm days. And back in those days the nation was taken from him several times by the west. Given the fact that the people of Gamorra retain their Asian appearance, it seems likely that Bendix took power from Kaizen in this version of Gamorra.
I think the idea is that Jay is either a Gamorran immigrant or he's first generation born in America. Nakamura is either a fake name or his father's name (his mother being the one with the Gamorra last name). Jay is obviously Asian, but that's not why I think he's Gamorran. It's the way he says "I know what he's capable of" when talking about Bendix and what he'll do to Jon for what he's done. I think Jay's family is in hiding because they'd pose a threat to Bendix's rule since they're the rightful one who should be in power, so Bendix has hunted them.
But I also think Kaizen's villainy isn't being retconed away. I think he was still a tyrant, and Jay has conflicting feeling about that. I think that along with hiding from Bendix is why Jay says he gets why Jon was trying to hide. But it's the words Jay decides to use that stick out. He says "be something lesser, sometimes. Someone smaller." I think he's projecting onto Jon right here because Jon even tries to correct/elaborate, but Jay cuts him off. Jay feels like he's found someone with just as complex a relationship with their family legacy as him.
I think Jon and Jay will date, and they'll be each other's first loves (Jon and Saturn Girl never said I love you), but eventually we'll see Jay go from what we assume to be Jon's Lois to his Lana (or Lori I guess) and then finally to his Lex. As others have pointed out Jay's mask and general color scheme really does line up with the typical villain color scheme and look. And it also looks somewhat Leviathan-y. I also think Jay already has powers, and we'll see them in issue #5 when he saves Jon from Bendix. Not only is Bendix himself known for augmenting humans (he's the one who made Midnighter and Apollo the way they are), but Gamorra and the whole nation is known for augmented humans. In Ellis' Authority Gamorra attacks other countries using a flying army of superhuman clones that are called the Children Of Gamorra. They had superhuman strength, flight, and durability on a lower level than Apollo. Not saying Jay will have these specific powers, but I am saying that he'll have powers.
The thing is, HOW DID HE ACTUALLY GET UP THERE AND SNEAK UP BEHIND JON? Jay never answers Jon. He just says Jon seemed distracted, but that's not good enough especially when we're talking about someone with Jon's powers. I think it's his powers.
After the boys breakup/have a falling out Jay will stop running from his family heritage and assume control of Gamorra, and Jon will continue the good work they started with The Truth network. This is where Jenny Q comes in. By that I mean the Century Baby of the 21st Century, Jenny Quantum. I think DC still ultimately intends to have her and Jon be a couple for however long because similar to Grifter in Batman and The Authority, part of the point is still to introduce Wildstorm characters. So they're likely to keep Jon bi or pan.
Jenny will likely be part of all this from near the start, and she'll likely fall closer to Jon's ideological thinking rather than Jay's, and that will likely be part of the reason Jay goes bad. He may even see Jon and Jenny growing closer even while Jon is with him, and assume that he'll betray him soon, but clearly on Jon's part he's just making a new friend. So a broken heart and an ideological divide is what gets us our Professor X and Magneto.
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I figure this is likely because while Taylor is popular and likely has some pull growing at DC, he probably couldn't change ALL the plans they had for Jon. This is clear given the fact that so many Wildstorm ideas are still in his run just like PKJ has to use The Authority even though he didn't pitch it. So, I'm guessing Taylor worked within the bounds he was given and an idea he had was to make Jon bi or pan in order to really hit that "21st Century" idea, but he'd still have to eventually land on Jenny since she's the equivalent of PKJ still having to make a pitch where Superman leads The Authority. But this would establish that Jon Kent can in fact date boys after however long DC wants to keep him with Jenny.
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And Taylor subscribing to the "Batman NEEDS Joker" club, I could see him creating a "Lex" that literalized often theorized hero/arch villain implicit sexual tension. We've all see the actual comics and movies where there's this "when are you two just gonna get it over with an F%&K" vibe between Batman and Joker or even Lex and Superman. With this becoming text rather than subtext there's a more clear layer to why neither the hero or villain can strike the final blow or won't stop trying to get the other to see their way.
In fact, given the fact that X-Men started out in large part as a queer allegory, and the wording going around DC was Prof X and Magneto for Jon and Damian, I'm wondering if Taylor didn't just go literal with it with Jon and Jay. The subtext of Prof X and Magneto has always been somewhat queer in nature, so I wouldn't be shocked.
"Mark my words! This drill will open a hole in the universe. And that hole will become a path for those that follow after us. The dreams of those who have fallen. The hopes of those who will follow. Those two sets of dreams weave together into a double helix, drilling a path towards tomorrow. THAT's Tengen Toppa! THAT'S Gurren Lagann! MY DRILL IS THE DRILL THAT CREATES THE HEAVENS!" - The Digger
We walk on the path to Secher Nbiw. Though hard fought, we walk the Golden Path.
Yeah, I've seen the connection between Jay and Kaizen be suggested elsewhere too. It makes perfect sense to me, the dude is introduced specifically talking about Gamorra, so a deeper connection is likely. Your speculation that "someone lesser, smaller" means not just that Jay sees regular people as lesser but that he may be projecting and that's what he himself is doing is interesting.
I don't think they'll do a love triangle between Jon, Jay and Jenny (granted, that alliteration that just hit me makes it more likely). That'd be framing the same-gender love interest for Jon as a villanous character partially driven by jealousy and whose presence always brings a layer of hurt to the story, whereas the opposite-gender love interest is "The One" (or at least framed as such for a short time). I would hope DC would avoid such a thing.
As for my own theory, given the mainline is still tying to the Guardian story from Future State going by solicits, I suspect we may see Honest Mary from that back-up be tied to The Truth in some way.
The biggest flaw in your theory is that you are operating under the assumption that Jenny is going to be a thing in Jon’s life
Ocam razor…Jenny and 5G Damian is being composited into one love interest/arch-nemesis for Jon
Jon is torn between his duty as a superhero and his relationship with Jay
Leading to infinite storytelling potential
They aren’t going to have a love triangle between Jenny, Jon, and Jay
They are going to have a love triangle between Jon, his duty as a superhero, and Jay
And big stretch here…I am suspecting that Jay is a shapeshifter with reptilian characteristics
With no set gender
Last edited by Vathlonian; 08-25-2021 at 04:15 PM.
My you are just...so incredibly pleasant.
Everyone's been having a civil discussion all day and you just swoop in with the snark and baiting. You an alt account for Kryptonian or something?
I like your theory a lot and I do hope Jon ends up dating Jenny Quantum still. That Apollo and Midnighter could potentially end up as Jon’s in-laws is hilarious and would make them official members of the Superfamily. As for Jay I still am skeptical they’re going to date, but him taking over Damian’s old role makes a lot of sense given Taylor initially pitched him as a friend “like Damian”.
This meanwhile is bizarre I don’t even know where to begin. You’re an interesting one kryptonian.
It’s him lmao, glad I’m not the only one who can spot the obvious. I still am curious to know what made him pivot from your side to “Aged up Jon is good” that was so bizarre.
For when my rants on the forums just aren’t enough: https://thevindicativevordan.tumblr.com/
Some very weird behavior going on in this particular forum.