#jonology

Using my own favorite bumatron 3000 as an example, it boggles my mind that people don't get what Jon's character is about. Fundamentally, his story is about a kid who experiences a traumatic life event in his formative years (in his case abuse, but in an interview Bendis compared it to childhood cancer or disability, a comparison I also think is apt) and is playing catchup. Reading his interactions with people through this lens is practically the only one that makes sense. His parents, who had a Plan for him, aren't really sure how to respond to the young man he's been forced to become but they love him anyways. His best friend is just glad he survived and is more than willing to help play catchup, but his own issues end up enabling Jon's skewed self perception. The people he's closest to in his new adult life are often people who also went through similar things and therefore can understand him.

This isn't even getting into the broader, more specific theme of how unprocessed trauma can effect your politics for better or worse, yet you get people who act like the age up was meaningless, accomplished nothing, and should be ignored. His entire character is hinged on it, and people want to throw it away because they either didn't understand the themes, or the themes going on here are inconvenient to them and their desire for cute child adventures. Which is a little funny because the story is largely criticizing the idea of trauma being at most inconvenient and ignorable.

Jon presents a completely different set of indicators to his trauma that are far more subtle, but once you pick it up, you cannot stop noticing it.

As proven by the previews of Secret Six #6, his responses are defined by fear.

Fear defines every action Jon takes in all of his appearances and runs after he returned from the Bad Space Summer Trip with Grandpa + Volcano Torture with Ultraman.

I have previously touched on Jon's fear, about his own powers (the first Jon-centric half) and his fear of his abuser Ultraman.

TL;DR Jon is afraid of his own powers due to the devastating effects it could have, which he had witnessed multiple times when Jon was puppeted around by Manchester Black and Brainiac Queen, in addition to accidentally killing his family pet cat Goldie, leading to him being extremely cautious with how he uses his powers.

Jon is generally afraid of external powers also taking him or his loved ones(particularly Jay) away from safety. In response he does not fight, he fawns or flees.

Jon refuses to allow himself to have any sort of external reaction to his trauma because if he does, he's afraid he's going to turn into Ultraman. This isn't more evident than in Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent. The entire run is him confronting with versions of his dad gone rogue. Compounding his own fear of himself due to accidentally Goldie, a very vague prophecy in Super Sons saying he'll lose control of his powers due to a charged emotional argument, being used to cause havoc, and witnessing Injustice Superman, Jon is deathly afraid of himself.

I refer to Jon's time in the volcano as torture, but it wasn't physical torture, he is very clear that Ultraman never hurt him beyond the first time they met.

What Ultraman actually did was far stranger and harder to process; he talked to Jon.

Ultraman was wearing his dad's face, and he spoke to Jon about his miseries and woes. And Jon...Jon almost pities him. A twisted, horrible kind of possession and connection formed by trauma. Jon spent the best years of his life around a horrible emotional mess of a man led entirely by his emotions, whose outbursts literally made the volcano he was in more active.

Jon does nooooot want to become this man. But here's the thing, In his quest to avoid becoming Ultraman, he has landed exactly there.

This is about Ultraman but also about himself.

He is self-reflective enough to understand that fear had led Ultraman to take some horrible decisions. In lieu of addressing the source of the fear, Jon has chosen to completely suppress his reactions to said fear.

He will not blubber, he's not going to cry about it, he's going to keep it all inside himself until he dies (tf is he? Ultraman? To blubber and cry about his woes?? Nah, he's better than that). Which is WHY we don't see overt symptoms heavily associated with the fictionalized depiction of trauma or PTSD because Jon's chosen coping mechanism is absolute avoidance.

He never fucking talks about his issues ON PURPOSE. Even on his recount of his own trauma with Lois and Clark, he asks them their feelings instead of his own. He continues doing this with Jay too.

He doesn't wanna talk, because talking means his head becomes a mess, and that is safe for no one because it leads to a loss of control which he desperately wants.

Control and stability = Safety.

So Jon's efforts goes into creating this stability. By asking Jay to pretty please never talk about their issues, and instead moving in together because then he gets to keep Jay safe with him.

He fixates on keeping Jay happy and never talking about Brainiac Queen or Waller in detail, because that's not happy thoughts! That's gonna prompt people to ask him about what exactly happened and we can't have that.

In Jon's effort to be safe, he's blocking Jay from investigating on Waller or doing anything beyond what's approved by thr Justice League and the Superman code. This quest for safety and refusal to talk about anything also makes him inactive and complicit.

He doesn't want to work with the Secret Six because that will put his position as Superman in danger, but is also clearly affecting Jay. He doesn't want to deal with moral ambiguity, because he has lived in an environment where when a version of his dad got emotional or questioned things, he became an evil dictator. TWICE.

He is a good boy, who will always follow the rules and never let his ugly side(his trauma) show.

But he can't coast along like that anymore. While Jon has the luxury of avoiding his trauma (on account of his abuser being dead), Jay CAN'T. Nia CAN'T. Jay's abuser, the thing making every aspect of his life miserable is a systematic issue which he can never, ever run away from ; the United States of America's Imperialism and genocide. His family in particular was targeted by this, Goliath of a country.

Jay also has no luxury to choose the squeaky clean path because that ultimately requires being complicit to the very system which failed to help Gamorra.

Jon loves Jay. Jay is Jon's safe space, Jay is his cornerstone, the only thing that makes any damn sense to him in a world that is seven years behind him.

So now, Jon either gets his false sense of security with a system he KNOWS contributed to the fall of a country. Or a lack of safety but perhaps a new sense of self due to self-reflection if he chooses to help Jay.

Is Jon going to continue to let fear rule him?

(Lois Lane 2019 issue #4 and Superman 2018 issue #16)

"doesn't leave you much of a choice, does it?" vs. "I am jealous of... the choices in front of you"

Now, if you're like me, this is the kind of thing that makes you very excited about characterization and storytelling so let's get into it.

So I really liked Superman Unlimited issue 11 and think its doing lots of very interesting things!

For one: Giving Jon a weird freak Goblin to torment him and try and break him mentally.... I feel seen.

For two: Tomorrow Man! A new mantle! Sort of!

Tomorrow Man as a mantle is really good on several fronts. First: The design is killer, Lucas Meyer knocked it out of the fucking PARK. Very visually pleasing and a lot of great storytelling going on in the optics department here.

The name and the costume are like a perfect embodiment of Jon in two ways. Both the things that make him a good, compelling character, and the flaws he has that actively hold him back across multiple narratives.

Starting with the first, the name harkening to the Future is genius. Jon has ALWAYS been associated with the future: from his time with the Legion (as... weird and bad as that run was, it still matters) and his relationship to legacy, Jon Kent IS the Tomorrow Man in more ways than one. Most obvious to me is this killer line from Superman: Son of Kal El issue three:

But then the problem comes the fact that even now, even here, in the future... Can Jon really escape Clark's shadow?

First, the obvious: He literally peels the costume off a corpse. From the looks of it, his own corpse.

Its a literal self-fulfilling prophecy. So like, I get the sentiment, Jonny, but... Um. Are you sure this is defying fate, or are you just following it blindly?

Then there's the name and the suit. "Tomorrow Man" is clearly derived from the 'Man of Tomorrow' moniker of his father, and then even now, it isn't even just that he's still in the red yellow and blue, he's returning to those colors, explicitly. And his symbol is pretty obviously a knockoff of Nightwing (who is his personal hero).

And this is a problem Jon has always has. He's a follower. It isn't just the years of trauma in the volcano that has stifled his imagination for who he could be, but also, even before that, his entire life he's been told to be one thing and every minor step he's taken out of line has been harshly punished by even his friends and family.

Assuming that Jon look-alike is in fact Jon, we know from the get go that Jon, as Tomorrow Man, ends up a corpse in that costume. Him proclaiming it a new identity, a way to defy fate, is interesting. Will he be right? Will he redefine fate? Or will he be forced to reckon firsthand at what new actually means?

Oh, and another thing, now that Jon is getting a new mantle (for the time being, at least). I want to remind everyone that the idea that Super Son was a mantle DC or specifically Nicole Maines was ever an idea that they were entertaining is a misogynistic lie that was spread falsely based off unsubstantiated rumors. It has actively been rebuffed (and called Stupid) by Nicole Maines on livestream, and more obviously, Super Son has been Jon's secondary title since SUPERMAN REBIRTH. Its like how they call Batman the "Dark Knight." That doesn't mean Bruce is changing his fucking mantle to Dark Knight, does it? I have to specify this because any time Jon gets a new title teased everyone goes 'lol remember when they were gonna call him super son?' THEY WEREN'T. THATS HIS TITLE!

On that note, even if Jon doesn't stick with Tomorrow Man as a primary title, "[name], the tomorrow man" would be a sick Secondary Title at the very least.

With great power comes great responsibility. The person with power needs to define what their responsibilities are based on a steadfast ideals. Jon has never had to do this because he's a legacy hero of Superman. Clark has been very clear, but also rather succinct about what his ideals are. Be kind, be good, don't cause harm, protect. Truth, Justice, and the American Way.

None of this is going to work for Jon because he is his own person, his life experiences are different, and by being a bisexual man deeply involved with the queer community with queer and POC friends & lover, he needs to understand that this kind of blanket non-violence is never going to work.

Clark's Superman obviously defends the marginalized, but it's been acknowledged that a good chunk of his influence comes from being the "all-American" cishet white man. We don't see what it's like to be a hero who isn't these things through Clark's Superman. Typically, the Steels were who showed us the systematic discrimination, & how many more obstacles there are to upholding The Superman Way when you're marginalized.

(JHI had to watch his nephews be exploited, paralyzed, he had to watch as Nat tried to cope with all of this happening to her siblings, their entire family was threatened when she was barely a teenager. The trauma of going through all this as a child. Now I don't like the 90s Steel run because it is racist as hell but even the white author knew JH had to deal with the violent racism of the US on top of the sci-fi bombastic threats)

Point being, Jon being queer immediately brings up obstacles which makes the regular Superman motto inadequate. On top of this, the events of Absolute Power reaffirmed his fears of losing control of his powers & has pulled him away from the defiance he showed in SOKE. The safety of following Clark, verbatim, gives a sense of comfort that Jon has been searching for for 7-8 years. He's tired, he's done, so he'll go to a comforting lie if it gives him some reprieve.

Sucks for him because he's dating a guy named The Truth.

Jon loves Jay. Loving Jay means acknowledging that the superhero system, the American Government, and practically the entire world has let him down. The things he seeks safety in are used to torment Jay and his people.

Jon is trying to make Jay a part of the superfam and pull him into the comfort of this vague blanket ideology of "do good, be nice" thinking it'll help but Jay is well aware that it will not. He's been trying this since as early as SOKE #4. Take him to his family, getting Dick and Lois involved, trying to shut him away in the fortress of solitude for the final battle. But Jay has showed him time and time again that dating him means defiance, risk, rebellion.

There is nothing pretty or non-violent about dismantling a dictatorship. The definition of the "right thing" changes depending on circumstance. Secret Six as a group have always been outcasts who were exploited. Some of them want to do good, some are bad but only because their situations gave them little other choices, others are straight up evil but trying to reform. This is where moralities and lines blur.

Should Jon consider Lori a villain because she killed her parents due to a loss of power? Is Nia good or bad for accidentally using her powers which she barely understands to save him but also mess with his brain? Is Floyd terrible for wanting to protect a woman who colonized Gamorra or good for wanting to keep her alive? Is Thomas deserving of a chance to be a hero after his past as a villain?

Is Jay right or wrong for wanting revenge for his mother?

I have seen a lot of my beloved mutuals talk about adoption as a theme in the superfam, and thats true, thats very much a thing, but thats more a subsection of the larger idea with the superfamily: You get to choose your family, and define your relationship to them.

Clark and Kon come to mind. They've been discussed a lot lately, huh? Namely people saying Clark does not treat Kon well. This is false, by the way, they get along great.

But let's sort of dig into the actual story told by their relationship here: Kon was created by Lex without Clark's consent. Clark had no say in how part of his DNA would be used to create a new life.

(This is coincidentally why it irks me that certain fans will act like Clark is a monster for even HYPOTHETICALLY not wanting a relationship with Kon. Guys, you sound like pro-lifers. Lets watch it!)

Despite this, Clark accepts Kon with open arms. Now, as myself and others have pointed out, Kon's technically... he's not a clone, he's a test tube baby. Technically, biologically, he's Clark & Lex's son. D.. diversity win...?

But thats not how Clark and Kon choose to define their relationship. They instead decide, hey, we were raised by the same people, we're brothers.

Kon is not an outsider to the Superfam, even as he is an outsider to this world- He is welcomed with open arms once it is clear he needs a home. And with Clark and Kon, they get to choose how they define their relationship, not Lex, not anyone else.

Then, John Henry and Nat. John Henry is not Natasha's father, but their relationship is very complex and often veers into that territory, for the simple reason that he shows up for her in that capacity when Natasha's own father fails her.

Even while their relationship has its ups and downs (read 52 guys for THEM), they manage to forge a relationship based on mutual respect, enough to the point where during Steelworks, she is not just his niece, but his partner in building a better tomorrow. It is a fatherly/daughterly relationship built on mutual respect largely independent of their blood relation, built on the security that Clay failed to provide Natasha with.

Of course, to talk about adoption, Clois adopting the twins. I think Phillip Kennedy Johnson handles the topic of adoption EXPERTLY with Otho-Ra and Osul-Ra, specifically as a metaphor for transracial/transethnic adoption.

Clark's relationship with the twins is built throughout the Warworld saga, and does not start... great (they discuss looting his corpse lol), and often they. But Clark understands that the kids are traumatized, and seeks to guide them to a better situation.

Now I would be irresponsible to not mention that, during this time, Clark is still struggling with Jon's age up. He mumbles, disoriented during their first meeting, that the kids are the same age as his son (no they are not). In a less tightly written book by a worse writer, it'd be a thing where Clark completely uncritically finds 'replacement kids' in the twins... Which is NOT what happens here, because PKJ is the GOAT.

In the end, his relationship with the twins is built not only independently of his struggles with Jon, but the way he connects with them helps Clark realize that whats done is done. They need him to be Clark, not a man hanging onto the past he will never get back. To move forward, they must do it together, it won't work if the twins remain on Warworld and he remains mentally in Hamilton. Its why it is SUPER important, also, that in the end, Clark doesn't ask them to come with him- rather, they ask to go with Clark.

(Sidenote: The twins lost not only their parents on warworld, but an older brother, too. Clark isn't the only one who finds a healing way forward via the Ra-El relationships, but that's gonna be another post!) And their hero names, Red Son and Starchild, are from their original culture (the Phaelosians), a culture that was systematically robbed from them when Warworld trafficked them into service. Rather than forcing them to conform to the house of El and their legacy, they help the kids reconnect.

These are his children. They found each other in the scariest place in the universe, and together, they find a way past the things they've both suffered through.

I'm afraid I don't know much about Kara (kara mutuals, reading recs appreciated! i've only ever read WOT and a few issues of the most recent Supergirl run) but I do know that her relationship to Clark is inherently different than it was supposed to be, and she has to roll with it and redefine it accordingly. She was supposed to be older than him, be able to take care of him, but by the time she actually finds him, he's the one doing that for her.

(I dont really have a panel here I fear, so look at the pretty art from Woman of Tomorrow. If someone wants to say more on Kara, you're welcome to hijack my post for a bit!)

Kenan is an example of this theme going kind of sideways and being examined from another angle- He's forced to choose between his two found families, and with either choice, he stands to lose something. Either his connection to Superman, or his connection to home:

Kenan already has a messy relationship with family, considering the soap opera level drama his parents inflict on him in his solo. Now, separated from his culture by circumstances he can't control, Kenan's relationship with the Superfam is forced by circumstance, even as it isn't unwanted. He's forced to make the most of what he has.

Then you have Clark and Jon, where the 'and define your relationship to them' part of my thematic statement REALLY becomes important.

I've seen it argued many times that giving Jon the Superman mantle weakens the theme of found family, but I'd argue it strengthens it, because Jon not having a choice in becoming Superman is EXPLICITLY framed as a bad thing.

Jon's not ready to be Superman. He doesn't even really WANT to be superman. But because of the circumstances of his birth, the world, and his father, push him into it. Clark never asked Jon to be Superman, during the Son-of-kal-el + Warworld era. He assumed he would be.

It tarnishes Clark & Jon's relationship, actively preventing Jon from connecting with his father and the WORLD fully in the way they both want. This is a key theme of Superman: Son of Kal El, from the very moment of Jon's actual birth:

All throughout post-age up Jon is the idea that Jon is just as burdened by the expectations placed upon him by his blood as he is comforted by what the mantle represents.

(I know I use this panel like every analysis but its a GOOD PANEL, SHUT UP) And there's of course the fact that... y'know. Well. Y'know.

Y'KNOW.

I think there's a potentially strong story in either Jon walking away from the mantle entirely, or redefining it to be his own. But first, he's going to have to suffer for the fact he wasn't ready for what many people call his DESTINY, including his abuser.

And where does this leave Jon and Clark?

Here.

The last note before Absolute Power of these two is this bittersweet moment where Jon still isn't fully heard. Where he still doesn't get a full say in what he and Clark's relationship will be. And judging by THIS interview from Mark Waid, this particular idea is about to finally come home to roost:

Lastly, there's of course the Most Found Family Thing Of All that i basically see NO one talk about: The fact that the Irons and the Kents just. Share all their big life events with each other. They're literally not related to each other by blood at all, but throughout PKJ's Action Comics, they ARE family!

Teamwork makes the dreamwork guys!

The superfamily is a wonderfully diverse cluster of relationships and examinations of the way family finds each other. Even moreso than the Batfam, which is often defined by their father-son relationship with Bruce in fanon, the Superfam displays a wide array of the various ways non-nuclear families can build each other.

This is all to say you guys should read PKJ's action comics run. It rules.

Even putting aside how Lois is just... canonically, over and over, said to be the better journalist and its her driving passion as opposed to just her career of choice, if you actually read the comics from Jon's childhood, you'd observe pretty quickly that there was a good ten year stretch of Jon's life where Clark wasn't a journalist. They were in hiding. While Lois was busting Intergang as Author X, Clark was a farmer. To Jon, Journalism is his Mom's profession.

Not to mention of course how both the mainline comics where he's interning in Smallville (Superman Unlimited) and the non-canon Webtoon where he's interning in Metropolis establish that this is something he is doing because of his mom's urging.

I think Jon being a diplomat works for a lot of reasons (including bendis trying and failing to set it up), but one of them is that I think any role Jon's going to happy with has to involve non-violent problem solving. Probably his most consistent trait nowadays is Jon abhors violence to the point of black & white thinking, he wants to stop suffering before it happens but doesn't have the stomach for violent resistance. A role where he can negotiate a problem before it escalates is kind of perfect for him. Its literally what he wants to do, but being Superman often means he cant. Creating a new role/mantle for himself where being so and so means he doesn't throw a single punch I think would be really useful. Constructing the parameters of your own identity is like, sort of the point of taking on a hero name.

Being a teacher as a civilian also feeds into that. He wants to build a better future and be a cure to the worlds problems. He'd probably be very idealistic and passionate about getting to guide the next generation.