Conner Kent/Kon-El/Superboy Appreciation 2022

[dietrich]

Haven’t found Tim to be a deeper character since he became bi. If anything he’s grown flatter, more fanfic-esque. End of the day I have three reasons why I’m opposed to it:

1. I am so sick of the Bats in fucking everything. Pairing Kon and Tim together means there is now a Bat permanently tied to the Super books, the exact opposite of what I want. Even the Cass Cain/Kon ship which I first thought was cute has gone sour for me simply because of how overexposed the Bats have become. Plus I already have two relationships I’m invested in when it comes to Conner, Cassie in the comics and M’gann in the show. I’ve never found Tim interesting and I don’t like the idea of Conner being permanently chained to such a boring character because of a fanfic ship from decade old comics.
2. I like Conner the way he is and Conner is plenty popular as he is. He’s never had the massive fall off in popularity that Tim has because the Superfamily isn’t as overloaded with members as the Batfamily is. He doesn’t need to be changed to find an audience as seen with how he won the Round Robin.
3. There’s already a Superfamily member who is dating men: Jon. The two are already competing against each other in a lot of ways, I see no reason to add yet another area of overlap. Jon can deal with the LGBT issues in the Superfamily and Conner can do his thing. Yes I know some want both but my answer to that is: you don’t always get what you want. If shippers got their way everyone in the Big 2 would be queer, it’s not like there isn’t a single character who hasn’t been shipped with another same sex/gender character at some point in fanfic. Freaking Superman and Batman get shipped together all the time, even Batman and the Joker get shipped together (and Joker’s homoerotic vibes with Batman put everyone else to shame).

“But I want Conner too!” does nothing to convince me that it’s a good or necessary change. All I see it resulting is is Conner devolving into Tim’s perfect boyfriend, just like how Bernard is a nothing character who only exists to be wholesome. The upcoming YJ Dark Crisis tie-in will definitely do more queer-baiting but until the day comes where they actually make Conner bi, any shipping with Tim should be confined to the Tim thread on the Batforums, because let’s be real: all of the queer projection is over how Tim acted in the relationship. Conner himself?



He’s made his feelings clear. All the homoerotic stuff that Johns wrote came from Tim’s end, Conner was only ever interested in girls like Cassie, Tanya, or the other various LIs he’s had.

Man I’m tired of this debate, until it happens you guys need to just keep it to the Tim Drake thread. If they actually change Conner’s sexuality then fine (they won’t), but until then the thread should be restricted to actual canon.


It won’t. I’m sure Fitzmartin would love to do that but Conner has his own solo coming and is involved in the upcoming Superfamily crossover. She doesn’t have the control over the character to do something like that, and honestly if they were going to make Conner gay or bi they would’ve done it already. Likely they can’t because Conner is being used in adaptions that have established him as straight, so they went with Jon instead (and even with him they likely made him bi instead of gay because of the CW show establishing him as liking women). Tim will likely be shown to have had feelings for Conner, Conner will say he’s touched but that he only likes Tim as a friend, and that will be the end of it.

She’s a CW writer, you can ask the SuperCorp fans all about how good that lot is at queerbaiting lmao. If she could actually put the two together she would’ve done it in the Pride one shot, that would’ve been the perfect place for it. She didn’t.

Funny thing is that Johns based Tim and Kon's dynamic on his dynamic with his brother.

[Konja7]

Well. I stand corrected, I suppose. However, in all fairness, you can't deny that Connor was queer-coded from his inception as a character - he was born from two men. So, i'd argue, that a form of queerness has already been fundamentally hardwired into his origins. I do agree that a lot of the coding came after the YJ run, however even before that run you saw Connor always working to overcompensate with the ladies, in the same way that Bobby Drake did. The idea of a gay man coping with his homosexuality by overcompensating with women is all too common, and again, Connor is still just a teenager. If Alan Scott is only able to come to terms with his repressed queerness after decades of marriage then it's not out of the question that Connor isn't fully settled in his identity. In fact, i'd argue that 99% of all people aren't, if they're being truly honest with themselves. Connor's profile wasn't any better than Jon's, he was gone from comics for years and even with the YJ appearances, I think he could have used the boost to his popularity more than Jon could have tbh. But that's another argument. All that to be said, I don't really see how it would harm his character if he were revealed to have some queer feelings for Tim. It would just add depth imo.

In fact, that idea wouldn't apply to original YJ Conner either. The idea that Conner was a clone of Lex and Clark was a retcon from Johns's Teen Titans.

[Frontier]

Just for the record, I think we should focus on appreciating and discussing Conner rather than the possibility of a TimxKon ship that hasn't even been put to print yet.

[Digifiend]

In fact, that idea wouldn't apply to original YJ Conner either. The idea that Conner was a clone of Lex and Clark was a retcon from Johns's Teen Titans.

Wasn't it originally some random Cadmus scientist and Clark he was supposed to be cloned from? So still two men?

[Vordan]

Wasn't it originally some random Cadmus scientist and Clark he was supposed to be cloned from? So still two men?

Nope, he was actually a normal human clone who used “tactile telekinesis” to mimic Superman’s powers.

[Konja7]

Nope, he was actually a normal human clone who used “tactile telekinesis” to mimic Superman’s powers.

Exactly. Kon was created in a time where they want Superman to be the only Kryptonian. So, his first origin was a human clone modified to look like a young Superman.

The idea that Kon was a human/Kryptonian hybrid happened much later.

[Vordan]

Never expected to see Cir or Linda acknowledged again (even if it is just a variant)!

[SuperX]

Never expected to see Cir or Linda acknowledged again (even if it is just a variant)!

where is this from? omg I love this shit so much, cir and Linda with the SUPER family, it's awesome

[SuperX]

[Vordan]

Love this variant. Apparently Fitzmartin doesn’t know that Conner already found out that Cassie and Tim were together while he was dead since it looks like she’s digging that back up for the YJ Dark Crisis tie-in. Great, can’t wait for the CW tier drama. Ugh just gotta get through that until Conner’s solo and his participation in the Superfamily crossover I guess.

where is this from? omg I love this shit so much, cir and Linda with the SUPER family, it's awesome

Variant for Waid’s Batman/Superman.

[SuperX]

https://aiptcomics.com/2022/06/17/dc...ung-justice-1/

dark crisis YJ preview

[Venomized-spider-man]

https://aiptcomics.com/2022/06/17/dc...ung-justice-1/

dark crisis YJ preview

huh actually acknowledging that Clark & conner haven't talk for a while ok

but man does it take away any weight when most of these titles all begin with "we all died before......." and it just give a god dam uncanny valley to have NuJon standing around the YJ group

[Drako]

Love this variant.

Me too. Adventure Comics #2 is one of my favorite single issues of all time, nice to have it acknowledge here.

[marhawkman]

Never expected to see Cir or Linda acknowledged again (even if it is just a variant)!

I feel like we need a character list for this one O-o'

[SuperX]

I feel like we need a character list for this one O-o'

this makes me want thst super family book now