Should Jon be de-aged?

[NOCTPHOENIX]

Fanart is neat but how reflective is it of popularity or really impactful. Like how many of them go on to buy the comics?

I mean last I recall Jon and Jay were selling decent-to okay. So it seems there is an audience for them and teen Jon that justifies DC keeping them

[walk]

Well I imagine if there was such an audience SOKE would've kept on running but here we are.

I don't think fan made material is the end all be all but it does offer insight into how much of a footprint something made within the collective imagination to evoke such passion and free engagement and there is potential value in that. Big IPs like Star Wars and Star Trek were kept alive for decades in fan circles.

I suppose what I mean is 10/15 years from now after all hype around teen Jon fallen off (are we already there?) I can definitely see there still being a fandom and nostagia around Super Sons similar to way there's still a fanbase around the Young Justice crew but not so much their older versions from Geoff Johns Teen Titans era.

[NOCTPHOENIX]

I dunno. I mean most adaptions when they use Kon go for his Johns era stuff despite the prescence of the YJ online fanbase (Smallville, Titans, YJ the show).

[Riv86672]

I don't know, but at least he had some niche when he was a kid, and it worked.
Currently they just have no idea what to do with him, Jon doesn't have any direction, current character was made for a scenario, where Clark was supposed to step aside, and it's not happening, so, he's just redunant.

^^^Plus he’s made Kon-El redundant, which sucks.

[walk]

I dunno. I mean most adaptions when they use Kon go for his Johns era stuff despite the prescence of the YJ online fanbase (Smallville, Titans, YJ the show).

Well by that reasoning I guess that bodes even worse for teen Jon chances as the majority of his adaptions keep using the kid version

[garazza]

The age up, in one form or another, will always render another character as redundant, even in fanart, unless it's undone.

More than one character cannot fill the same niche and Jon has ever since he was aged up taken up multiple niches that have already been more prominently occupied by other characters in a way he never did before. De-aging him would result in him and every other character no longer being seen as redundant because they would all return to their prior unique niches.

Contrary to popular belief, the twins don't actually occupy the same niche as Jon did before and never have. They occupy one all their own. Even before he was aged up, they would've been considered much younger than him and he would have been older than them. They are an addition to the Superfamily and not a supplement or substitute (re:replacement) for anyone else. Jon returning to his prior niche would only have to contend with new, younger, adoptive siblings (but that would require PKJ's OCs to have staying power and now that he's off AC, where are they now hmm?).

[Doctor Know]

I forget why Jon was aged up in the first place. Especially since Connor is still around and not in comic limbo at the time.

Was it exclusively done so Bendis could have Jon on his version of The Legion?

[garazza]

I forget why Jon was aged up in the first place. Especially since Connor is still around and not in comic limbo at the time.

Was it exclusively done so Bendis could have Jon on his version of The Legion?

It was exclusively done to further the plans for 5G that we all know famously never happened. So why we're forced to live with this mistake is certainly the question (of the thread).

[DABellWrites]

What exactly are they going to do with Jon if they de-age him? Now they're pushing the whole Superfamily, he's in a crowded room and isn't unique or special anymore (Superman Rebirth era only revolved around Lois, Jon, and Clark). His only gimmick was being a "bundle of energy", and I really doubt DC can return to that in 2024. So really, the only avenue DC will push is being Superman II. The problem with that comes with the fact he's just not a good character at all, nothing about Jon is interesting. Maybe DC can find a writer that'll do what happened to Wally post-crisis. Then again... coming off a reboot, the death of Barry Allen, and Mike Baron not doing anything with Barry's stuff (as far as I know) gave Wally a lot more room for freedom.

[Monari]

I forget why Jon was aged up in the first place. Especially since Connor is still around and not in comic limbo at the time.

Was it exclusively done so Bendis could have Jon on his version of The Legion?

Bendis was also quite open about the fact that he felt kid characters are "boring". He was the main driver behind the age-up.

[Doctor Know]

It was exclusively done to further the plans for 5G that we all know famously never happened. So why we're forced to live with this mistake is certainly the question (of the thread).

Thank you. I forgot all about 5G.

Bendis was also quite open about the fact that he felt kid characters are "boring". He was the main driver behind the age-up.

And yet he contributed to the oversaturation of Earth Green Lantern’s by creating kid character Teen Lantern.

I’m about done with all this foolishness from “creatives”.

[Thor-Ul]

It was exclusively done to further the plans for 5G that we all know famously never happened. So why we're forced to live with this mistake is certainly the question (of the thread).

There is only one reason to keep this mistake, the age-up and all we know about it. Which is kind of depressed if that is the only reason to keep teen Jon around, as character has no other particular element to be different of other characters.

[Morgoth]

The only reason that comes to mind is that they believe, that teen Jon has more potential in long term perspective + perhaps it's indeed another OMD situation, where despite fans opinion, lots of writers aren't big fans of a certain concept (in this case Clark having a kid), and Jon being older allows them to just ignore him or barely use him, which would be harder, if he was a kid.

[CPSparkles]

Bendis was also quite open about the fact that he felt kid characters are "boring". He was the main driver behind the age-up.

No he wasn't. The decision was made even before Bendis came on

[Monari]

Bendis was commenting in relation to someone complaining about the age up here. It certainly seems as though he was one of the main drivers for it.

https://x.com/Watson_DCSJ/status/165...408290817?s=20