“this sounds like a job for supergirl”

up to this point, jon has always been a left-leaning centrist. at the end of secret six, he was confronted with his own ignorance and had a decision to make: become the hero — the superman — jay believed him to be, a champion of the oppressed, or continue living in ignorance. and from what we've seen so far, he chose the second option.

in superman unlimited, he abandoned the s — and the superman mantle altogether — to become tomorrow man. now, this new mantle isn't exactly bursting with originality. the name is just a play on one of superman's sobriquets, and the symbol is a variation of chris kent's nightwing logo. the mask is all him, though. or, you know, the dead guy he took it from. so i guess he gets one point for originality there.

but to jon, tomorrow man is something new. it's a way to unburden himself from the expectations placed on him by his parents, his ex-boyfriend, and the world as a whole. and that's not a good thing.

when your politically correct boyfriend more or less calls you a coward in so many words, should your first instinct really be, "maybe i just shouldn't be superman?" jay is right: jon is a screw-up as superman. but for jon to actually grow as a character, he needs to take what jay said to heart and change the kind of superman he is, not abandon the mantle altogether.

tomorrow man lets jon run away from the responsibilities that come with being superman and just focus on saving people from immediate danger. and sure, that would be fine... if his character arc up to this point wasn't about realizing how messed up the world around him is, and how he needs to get politically involved to create actual change. saving someone from a marginalised group from immediate danger only gets them so far if they have nowhere safe to go afterward.

and you know how he could make sure the person he saves actually has a safe place to go? by being what superman is supposed to be: a champion of the oppressed.

i also just find it hilarious that when he was told his superman sucked, he responded with a whole heroic speech about how he's actually doing great and how he's going to "defy" history... only to immediately not defy history.

instead, he abandoned the superman mantle, left all the responsibilities that came with it behind, and became a generic superhero. in other words, he did exactly what history expected him to do by running away from his responsibilities as a "champion of the oppressed."

the "s" means something different to every member of the super family, but they all understand what they're fighting for and what that symbol represents to them.

and deep down, jon knows what the "s" is supposed to mean for him too. he just refuses to accept it. and as long as he remains tomorrow man, hiding behind that mask and running from what being superman asks of him, he will never become the kind of hero worth remembering.