Originally Posted by
Ascended
Honestly? Jon can be and has been a lot of fun but I don't even know where to start with 'fixing' the issues he's got. And I'm not trying to dump on the character of his fans here, it's just the truth (as I see it). Personally I don't support the idea of Clark having kids at all, especially biological ones, and I'd be fine if Jon disappeared...but even though I think it's a mistake for the larger franchise Jon has enough value to justify keeping him around. DC just hasn't done a great job using him. There have been issues with how Jon fits into his surroundings from the start, and DC's solution was to ignore it or brush over it, and that can work for a little while but it prevents a lot of nuance and depth from forming, and sooner or later that'll catch up with ya.
He was a retcon bomb, dropped in a semi-deboot relaunch and has never really fit the rest of canon (insofar as we've had a 'canon' at all). Despite being around for several years almost nothing has been established. Did he spend a lot of time with his grandparents? Or Kara? Perry? Jimmy? I don't know if Clark's son and best friend have actually even shared a panel? He's had no impact on the rest of Clark's supporting cast, no dynamic with them, he might as well not exist. I feel like we've had a line or two of dialogue here and there that mention things, but just one-off comments, not actual characterization.
What's his role/purpose? At first he was the Shonen style, modernized update on Silver Age Superboy/Clark. Which isn't really a 'purpose' and is more of a 'tone' but it was enough to help make Super Sons a respectable mid-tier seller and Jon could get by on just being an adorable, excitable kid. Now he's.....what? Just another cape wearing his privledge on his sleeve. Taylor pushed the idea of making him something of an activist superhero, someone who would go after the root problems. That never happened. Jon is just another Super, but with extra emphasis put on his sexuality and boring ass boyfriend.
Jon's a square peg who, despite being fun at times, never fit the round hole of the Superverse, and fixing that probably requires making a bunch of smaller adjustments.
He needs a personal relationship with the supporting cast and people he should've known his whole life, like the Kents and Jimmy and Sam Lane. He needs a supporting cast of his own beyond a love interest and Damian, friends from school or whoever. Maybe bring back Kathy and the aliens of Hampton town? Same for rogues. Lor Zod could be fun as a Jon foe and there's a few other faces he could probably lay claim to, but he needs some original threats and they need to be used enough for things to become personal and interesting. And a purpose and goal/mission to put him at odds with these villains. Jay turning into a villain is pedestrian but it could be fun too; he's the superhuman activist prince of a technologically advanced nation. Give him 'one bad day' and he could be Jon's Doctor Doom. But write Jay out completely, revamp him, or turn him into a bad guy, Jon's love interest needs a lot of TLC. Jay's been so boring I'd almost welcome the painfully obvious and awful idea of Jon and Tim dating, that at least would generate some fun tension with Damian, which would be more than what Jay offers.
And if Jon must be de-aged (I don't think he needs to be, but I'm not really against it either), don't reboot doing it. Just have, I dunno, Doctor Malpractice hit him with a devolution ray that turns him back into a 12-13 year old. Trying to undo the last several years of content is a mistake that causes more problems and ripples than it solves, and you're not gonna get a good story out of it no matter how you spin it (just too convoluted, with too convenient an end result), so just get it over with fast and dirty and move on; Jon's back to his 'kid' age, and you can treat his time as a young adult like just another weird phase that happens to costumed people, like when Iron Man was randomly a teen for a while, then got better.