The Return of Pa and Ma

[Vordan]

Since Doomsday Clock the elder Kents have been restored to life once more, and while they primarily show up in Jon’s book, they have returned to being ongoing supporting characters. Some people were very adamant that their return to life was key to “fixing” the state of the Superman franchise. For those people I wanted to know, how satisfied are you with their usage thus far?

[Frontier]

There've been some sweet scenes in my opinion even if Tom Taylor has once again defaulted to "Pa Kent giving Bruce a pep talk."

[Gaius]

Get 'em back in the ground where they can exchange feel good moments with the butler.

[Ascended]

Voted for "hate how they've been used" but that's not entirely correct. They've barely shown up in Clark's comic so I'm pretty happy with that.

I just want them dead.

The Kents add nothing to the story that can't be accomplished with flashbacks and/or other characters like Perry. Far too often in post-Crisis we'd see Clark run off to Smallville to get some of that good ol' corn fed wisdom from the Kents, and usually it wasn't actually worth a damn, so blindingly obvious or useless Clark should've just read his horoscope.

[Vordan]

I guess I should’ve clarified that this was aimed more at people who did want the Kents back and were adamant that they were essential parts of the supporting cast. I prefer the Kents be dead too, but I’m primarily interested in if those who want them alive are happy with how they’ve been used so far.

[Blue22]

I just like them being around. I've always hated how it feels like damn near every superhero has dead parents. So as long as Ma and Pa continue to just..exist, I'm fine. I don't need anything particularly profound from them. Just be supportive supporting cast members and show support to the character that they're supporting XD

[Yoda]

I'm generally indifferent, but lean towards wanting Pa dead and Ma still around. I don't like letting poor writing dictate the use or disuse of certain things. So while I think there were times post-Crisis where they were misused a lot, I don't think that means they need to be dead.

But then Superman & Lois have been doing really well with them both being dead, with the added bonus that they are focusing on Ma and Lara more than Pa & Jor El for a welcome change. Utilizing Ma more through flashbacks has worked very well. And having Lara be the holo-mom is really really a welcome change from yet another iteration of Jor El.

[phonogram12]

Honestly, I've never really felt they've added much whenever they've been present in current stories, but having them around doesn't necessarily bother me, either. For me, anyways, they're kinda just...there.

[DochaDocha]

I've always hated how it feels like damn near every superhero has dead parents.

Don't want to derail the thread too much (apologies in advance), but this is an example of Superman's being a victim of his own success. Superman does something well, everyone copies it, and in the 21st century people complain that Superman is just like everyone else, e.g. being a flying brick and having a secret ID.

[Jon Clark]

I actually prefer them dead myself, but my vote is based on the fact that they were revived and then largely left as unconnected as if they stayed dead. They have more interaction with SuperJon than with Clark. Clark reveals his identity to the world and they get put in Batman's version of witness protection largely off-panel. Have we really gotten that much of any value from resurrecting them. About the only thing I will give them is that no one has made them villains like was done with Jor-El (and before him Supergirl's father).

[magha_regulus]

I'm in the camp that prefers them dead. They shouldn't be around to see Superman as an adult.

[magha_regulus]

Don't want to derail the thread too much (apologies in advance), but this is an example of Superman's being a victim of his own success. Superman does something well, everyone copies it, and in the 21st century people complain that Superman is just like everyone else, e.g. being a flying brick and having a secret ID.

This is absolutely true and is a great point.

[Sacred Knight]

They're more useless now than they've ever been before. They don't even interact with their own son much anymore, and they're of zero use within the cacophony of contrived nonsense that is SOKL .

The only remotely entertaining thing they've done coming back is the few pages of interaction with Conner in the Superboy Round Robin preview. All this time being back and that's it. But even if their dynamic with Conner is still intact, I still don't think its worth it overall and that for Superman as a concept they're still better off gone. Any meaningful use they had outside of the past was long since explored to fruition by the end of the 90s or early aughts at most, imo.

[Robanker]

I like them being alive and I appreciate he's not running off to beg Pa to think for him and be his moral compass, so I actually /do/ like what's going on post DDC.

I typed more, but in retrospect I don't want to derail the thread so I'll move that to the controversial thread.

Don't want to derail the thread too much (apologies in advance), but this is an example of Superman's being a victim of his own success. Superman does something well, everyone copies it, and in the 21st century people complain that Superman is just like everyone else, e.g. being a flying brick and having a secret ID.

Absolutely a fair point, but I'll add that every other character has been expected to adapt to the clock moving forward for 80 years and I'd argue Clark needs to do the same as well. If I don't get what I want and the Kents die, so be it, but we drag our feet far too much about a lot here that really does boil down to "but that's what it was when I started reading" which needs to be ignored entirely.

As I stated above, the only compelling reason I've read for keeping them dead is that writers and editors can't help but using Pa to make Clark look insecure and need a top up of that Heartland America Hope Dope that Pa Kent grows. That's the only common ground I'll share with The Dead Kents Society.

[daredevil1]

The problem is that if they were coming back to life, the time to do it was Rebirth when they could see Jon grow up. Now that it's already been a few years- and he's grown up- it's pointless other than Geoff Johns thinks he knows best, but oh let's keep out of the books until 2020 because all that matters is Gary Frank taking his sweet time to draw an unrelated series. I'm still unclear when they came back in the continuity as it was right between the Bendis changeover, and all I remember is the rebooted origin issues in Action Comics. It makes more sense for them to be dead when Clark has a son of his own, so he has to figure it out himself. And I'm sick of still being stuck with the John Schneider character designs...