I was curious about how Jon was filtered to the public consciousness so I checked out some mainstream network coverage and grabbed some quotes. I thought it would be interesting to see how the cultural conversation plays out through Superman, especially since when society undergoes social, philosophical, and religious shifts we tend to work it out in fiction, and Jon got to have his moment. Apologies for the length.

- “Superman is one of the most iconic characters in comic books. And it’s sort of bridging a generational gap from a character that came out in the 1930s, 1940s, to his son, you know, part of the world today.” (x)

- “His sexuality isn’t the only way the character has been updated. In recent editions he’s also been advocating for refugees and fighting the climate crisis. Is it a bird, is it a plane, or is it social change.” (x)

- “A bisexual Superman. Not Clark Kent, but rather Jon Kent, the son of the perfectly wholesome alien-human hybrid couple, Clark Kent and Lois Lane. He tackles climate change and school shootings, and will soon begin a romantic relationship with a male friend.” (x)

- “It’s not just any superhero, this is Superman. This is the big one. And yes, even though it’s not Clark Kent, the original Superman, it’s his son, it’s still a really big deal, and a really big step in representation for the LGBTQ community. […] There really is a progression over the last decades. You have LGBTQ villains, then victims, sort of side characters, and now superheroes, and actually what DC and their rival Marvel have been doing is really queering their cast of characters, they’ve been bringing back superheroes with new queer backstories…but Superman is really the big one. This is next level.” (x)

- “Instead the writers have introduced a new character, their son Jon Kent. He’s a millennial. He’s growing up in the 21st century and his character reflects that. Jon Kent campaigns for climate action, he fights military brutality, he gets arrested at a protest for refugee resettlement. Jon Kent is basically ‘woke Superman’. […] The [fans’] problem is not with the romance. They have a problem with the partners. They’re fine with heroes in heterosexual relationships but not same-sex ones. So how do you work around this problem? Fans feel strongly about their superheroes so a sudden change in character may come as a shock. The alternative is what Superman has done—introduce a new character, equally symbolic, equally powerful. Getting a consensus here is nearly impossible but the fact is you cannot stop the march of time. Superman was a refugee from another planet. Today his son is fighting for refugees on Earth. It’s a natural progression. […] The idea is not to alter old characters or change their legacies. Create new characters, equally powerful but more diverse. So a bisexual Superman is not the end of the world. It is a sign of a changing world.” (x)

My least favorite news reaction comes courtesy of Nigel Farage, who said that the Superman he admired was a “big, masculine, alpha male figure who goes out and wants to take on the enemy and save the world” “one of the most heterosexual role models” married to Lois Lane but is now part of an “endangered species”, with the intention to imply that the new guy in comparison is an emasculated, unheroic, limp-wristed queer. Seriously, f*ck that, and f*ck the idea that a man kissing another man is anything less than masculine and using Clark to perpetuate that idea.

A different segment from another show does have a more positive take on how a queer Superman challenges traditional masculinity: “Because if you think about real life, I mean there will be very, very tough guys who fight for the SAS who are bisexual and gay. And I think the issue here is the fact that traditionally we’ve associated the heroic actions of people like Superman and Batman—we’ve somehow conflated them with straightforward heterosexual masculinity. And it doesn’t have to be that way. As I say in the real world, you can have real male heroes who are gay or bisexual. And to just actually just make one of them bisexual is actually a nod to that reality.” (x) With that in mind, I would love to see certain people’s faces when they find out that Jon is stronger than his dad. And I think it’s telling that Jon’s queerness, more than any other controversial thing he’s done in his existence (even dropping “The American Way” from the motto), is somehow the biggest transgression on the Superman name and is the spark that lit the international firestorm of debate. In a way this challenges people’s perception of Clark too, because he’s the messianic figure of Western society and whether or not he accepts Jon is a statement on what’s acceptable in our culture. And of course both Clark and Lois are going to be the coolest, most loving parents in the world, and homophobes are going to have to deal with the shattering realization that the Super family are no longer the ideal, completely straight nuclear family and they might just hang a rainbow flag in front of their house. It’s nearly impossible to disentangle what Jon coming out means to Clark and Lois as characters too.

Nigel Farage also continued to talk about Jon in heavy scare quotes, but despite that he pretty much gets it right on what Jon Kent is about. If Jon challenges traditional heterosexual masculinity then what else does he challenge: “Jon Kent is coming out in DC Comics as being bisexual. That’s just the beginning. But what he’s also gonna be doing is he’s gonna be fighting some different campaigns. Rather than taking on enemies that could destroy the world he’s gonna do some rather different things. He’ll be fighting against climate change. That’s a very, very important part of what he’ll be doing. In particular, something that is incredibly political, he will be campaigning against the deportation of those who do not qualify as refugees that have entered America illegally. Now that is all astonishing.”

I do get satisfaction that not only are people outraged over a new bisexual Superman, they’re outraged over his activism too (which he’s done for…all of three issues). I think there’s something about Jon’s transgressive queerness that sort of intertwines with his politics, in a sort of “The new Superman is queer, and that’s not all because don’t you know he’s a social justice warrior too?” It’s a Golden Age Superman with a modern queer twist. Though what if New 52 Clark was a radical Superman who dated guys? It’s an interesting thought exercise.

In total, hell yeah for Jon Kent getting to be known to all sides of the general public as the bisexual, young, super activist of the 21st century. Ya either love him or hate him. I have to give Taylor credit because I think he succeeded in what he set out to do in a remarkably short amount of time. Also I think it’s funny that the cultural conversation took a clear hurdle over the fact that Jon replaced Clark as Earth’s Superman.

I hope that after all this has settled down Jon can take a breather so we can get to know more of him as a character. Does he still go to college? What does he do in his spare time? What are his likes and dislikes? At least he’s set to appear in more books so hopefully there’s more room to explore that stuff.