Superboy Is Dead! All Hail Superboy!

I just don’t understand the way DC’s Bad Fanfic Brigade thinks.

At New York Comic-Con, so reports CBR, Scott Lobdell, who somehow became the lord of the Supertitles, did what today’s DC Comics only knows how to do…get into the news with a shock announcement. Said announcement is that Superboy Connor is going to die, solicits pointing towards the new version of New Krypton and H’el, one of Lobdell’s babies. However, they also announced that a new Superboy will take his place, because Superboy is just a title and nobody cares about who holds it, right?

So why are they killing the old Boy Of Steel off? No reason given. Who is the new Superboy? That they told and it makes even less sense. Also, Supergirl is going to be kept apart from the other Supertitles but let’s be honest–she was rarely in the fold to begin with.

“[Superboy makes] the ultimate sacrifice, giving his life in order to stop the universe from falling apart,” Lobdell told the crowd, semi-spoiling the ending of the upcoming “Krypton Returns” story arc. From “Superboy” #26 on, the titular star of the comic will be Jon Lane Kent, the original son of Clark and Lois from an alternate future. Lobdell also announced that Supergirl “will be leaving the Superman family forever, for another whole set of books in the DC Universe.”

No reason was given for getting rid of the Superboy we’ve known since “Reign Of The Supermen” back in the 90’s. You’d think they’d love Connor. He will never age by design, he has a terrible backstory (maybe the lack of parents to kill off?), and he’s already popular. With the New 52 they could easily mold him into whatever they wanted. Plus he was on Young Justice, which means casual fans know who he is…oh, wait this is the same Lobdell who screwed around with Starfire despite everyone knowing her from Teen Titans, what am I thinking?

Cover of “Son Of Superman”, link to Amazon Affiliate page

So who is Jon Kent? I can’t find a lot about him. The Superman Wiki says almost nothing about the original and nothing at all about the New 52 version. I did find a regular Wiki entry about the Son of Superman Elseworlds story in which Jon is the son of Clark and Lois who takes up the mantle when his father disappears, later learning he’s been kept prisoner as Luthor takes over. This new version has I think been seen in the company of Harvest, the man whose every failure is just part of the plan. In other words, we know nothing while Connor is already there and marketable.

The sad part is…this is the first one I can’t raise a defense for. Sure, I’ve stood against killing the Supermarriage and every other superhero marriage (going so far as to making Alan Scott gay along with tossing out his and Jay Garrick’s decades long marriages), the darkening tone, Wonder Woman”s origin rewrite so that Zeus is her biological father, hooking up Superman and Wonder Woman, and even some of the events. On the other hand, I do understand why they did what they did for the most part. I just disagree with their point of view, some of which I even find stupid. This, however, is the one I do not understand at all! I see no reason to replace Connor with Jon from either a marketing position, even the temporary news appearances DiDio and friends seem to love so much now, or a storytelling one. Are they really that unable to find a good writer who knows how to write this character, or just unable to find one who is willing to go so easily with their version of the DC Universe?

This is just my continuing belief that whomever controls the origin has the power and Mr.’s DiDio, Johns, and Lee are trying to remake DC Comics in their image, so that they and their friends are the ones who control what the DC Universe is long after their gone to continue playing to the “cool kids”. The characters they can’t mold into their perspective getting tossed aside. Because if that’s not it there’s no reason to eliminate Connor and bring in a new Superboy almost nobody’s heard of or keeping Supergirl at arm’s length and now tossing her into outer space. Even I can see the poor marketing decision here and I’m tired of watching DC lose everything that made it my favorite comic book universe.