The DC...Extended Universe or Films or Whatever
- Thread starter Zamuel
- Start date
Hoo Boy. Jonathan Kent's history in the comics is a mess.
If you thought what Darkseid's been through the last few years was complicated, then you aren't ready for Jonathan Kent's history.
Buckle up buckaroos! We're going for a ride!
Okay, first it's important to know that Flashpoint, in which Barry Allen the Flash tries to "change history" by saving his mother that the Reverse Flash went back in time to kill, reset DC continuity, resulting in the New 52. This was a attempt to simplify and revert everyone back to their younger days, in a attempt to get new readers. You all see how that worked out below...
Why am I bringing that up? Well, it's later revealed that Dr Manhattan from the Watchmen used this Crisis-Event in order to remove 10 years of history, "hope", and "connections" from the heroes of the DC universe, as a experiment to what would happen. And "repairing" the timeline due to SO MANY Crisis-Events in the past which was slowly breaking down reality so that the evil creator of the Multiverse, Perpetua, could return...but that's another story.
BUT, it turns out that a copy of that pre-Flashpoint universe survived and was abducted by the "true" multiversal Brainiac that collects realities and timelines in bottles instead of planets. During the Convergence event, it's revealed that ONE of these world contains a still-married Superman and Lois Lane, who are about to have a baby. They are able to escape from this "bottle" reality into the "main" New 52 universe. Jonathan is born.
At this point, there are now 2 different Supermen running around. The younger New 52 Superman and the older pre-Flashpoint Superman. The Older Superman has been working in secret, making sure to hide his existence from the New 52 Superman, and Jonathan is able to grow up normally for about 9 years. The New 52 Superman ends up losing his powers and dying. It's during this time hiding that Jonathan starts showing that he has superpowers.
The two Supermen (or...one Superman and the "spirit" of the other) are eventually merged into a single Superman (and timeline) during a fight with Mister Mxylpyx. Jonathan is mostly unaffected by this, but his Convergence origins are retconned into just being born on THIS Earth.
Eventually...(get ready for this one)...his grandfather Jor-El, who is still alive after being saved from Krypton's destruction by Dr Manhattan, becomes the supervillain Mister Oz and manipulates his son Superman, trying to make him and his family leave Earth since he no longer believes humanity is worth saving. After being defeated, Jor-El asks for Lois and Clark to let him take Jonathan on a tour throughout the universe to educate him. Jonathan gets sucked into a black hole into Earth-3, the opposite reality where all the heroes are villains, and spends 7 years there before getting saved and sent home. Jonathan is now older. Jor-El is eventually sent back to Krypton in the past to die.
Later, Jonathan helps to broker peace between warring alien worlds, and unknowingly helps create the United Planets in the future. The Legion Of Super-Heroes (version...6 at his point, I think?) goes back in time in order to witness this historic event for themselves. They then recruit Jonathan Kent to join them in the 31st Century, but he eventually returns to the present day again.
Superman decides to go into outer space to try and stop Mongul and free his slaves, while he's slowly dying due to radiation poisoning. He has Jonathan take over his duties of protecting Earth, making Jonathan the new Superman.
So...I guess it depends on when you want to say he got aged up. I think he only gained his recent age after being stranded on Earth-3.
His first appearance is technically Convergence Superman 2 (July 2015) I'd say his first "real" appearance was Superman: Lois and Clark 1 (December 2015) when he was about 9 years old. He got aged up in Superman v5 7 (January 2019). He returns from the Legion future in Action Comics 1022 (August 2020). And is officially Superman in Superman Son of Kal-El 1 (September 2021),
Why am I bringing that up? Well, it's later revealed that Dr Manhattan from the Watchmen used this Crisis-Event in order to remove 10 years of history, "hope", and "connections" from the heroes of the DC universe, as a experiment to what would happen. And "repairing" the timeline due to SO MANY Crisis-Events in the past which was slowly breaking down reality so that the evil creator of the Multiverse, Perpetua, could return...but that's another story.
BUT, it turns out that a copy of that pre-Flashpoint universe survived and was abducted by the "true" multiversal Brainiac that collects realities and timelines in bottles instead of planets. During the Convergence event, it's revealed that ONE of these world contains a still-married Superman and Lois Lane, who are about to have a baby. They are able to escape from this "bottle" reality into the "main" New 52 universe. Jonathan is born.
At this point, there are now 2 different Supermen running around. The younger New 52 Superman and the older pre-Flashpoint Superman. The Older Superman has been working in secret, making sure to hide his existence from the New 52 Superman, and Jonathan is able to grow up normally for about 9 years. The New 52 Superman ends up losing his powers and dying. It's during this time hiding that Jonathan starts showing that he has superpowers.
The two Supermen (or...one Superman and the "spirit" of the other) are eventually merged into a single Superman (and timeline) during a fight with Mister Mxylpyx. Jonathan is mostly unaffected by this, but his Convergence origins are retconned into just being born on THIS Earth.
Eventually...(get ready for this one)...his grandfather Jor-El, who is still alive after being saved from Krypton's destruction by Dr Manhattan, becomes the supervillain Mister Oz and manipulates his son Superman, trying to make him and his family leave Earth since he no longer believes humanity is worth saving. After being defeated, Jor-El asks for Lois and Clark to let him take Jonathan on a tour throughout the universe to educate him. Jonathan gets sucked into a black hole into Earth-3, the opposite reality where all the heroes are villains, and spends 7 years there before getting saved and sent home. Jonathan is now older. Jor-El is eventually sent back to Krypton in the past to die.
Later, Jonathan helps to broker peace between warring alien worlds, and unknowingly helps create the United Planets in the future. The Legion Of Super-Heroes (version...6 at his point, I think?) goes back in time in order to witness this historic event for themselves. They then recruit Jonathan Kent to join them in the 31st Century, but he eventually returns to the present day again.
Superman decides to go into outer space to try and stop Mongul and free his slaves, while he's slowly dying due to radiation poisoning. He has Jonathan take over his duties of protecting Earth, making Jonathan the new Superman.
So...I guess it depends on when you want to say he got aged up. I think he only gained his recent age after being stranded on Earth-3.
His first appearance is technically Convergence Superman 2 (July 2015) I'd say his first "real" appearance was Superman: Lois and Clark 1 (December 2015) when he was about 9 years old. He got aged up in Superman v5 7 (January 2019). He returns from the Legion future in Action Comics 1022 (August 2020). And is officially Superman in Superman Son of Kal-El 1 (September 2021),
He WAS 17 as of 2019. And according to a recent interview, he's still 17 during Superman Son of Kal-El.
Jonathan Kent, Superboy, is Now 17 Years Old...
As seen in a preview of Superman #7, published tomorrow, Jonathan Kent has returned to Earth from his trip away with his revived-by-Manhattan-transfer
bleedingcool.com
Superman Writer Knows "Some Fans Are Upset" Over Superboy Age Change
Tom Taylor knows fans are upset over Superboy.
screenrant.com
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Excited for what James Gunn can do. Maybe he can stem the tide of just absolutely the bleakest, darkest emo bullshit that DC seems to want to churn out. For a company whose primary hero is supposed to embody hope, their shows and movies are ******* dark. Like, for no good reason dark.
On a lark I watched some of the justice league animated movies on Max. hug me, when they talk about deconstructing heroes, I didn't realize they meant tearing them limb from limb in the most gorrific ways.
On a lark I watched some of the justice league animated movies on Max. hug me, when they talk about deconstructing heroes, I didn't realize they meant tearing them limb from limb in the most gorrific ways.
So... what did they do about two Loises?
Oh, New 52 Lois ended up dying shortly after New 52 Superman. When he dies, his body gives off radiation that hits both Lois and Lana Lang (Superman's high-school sweetheart from Smallville), giving them both superpowers. This leads into Superwoman 1 (August 2016), where they BOTH start becoming superheroes. Lois's body can't handle the powers and ends up dying in that very first issue. Lana's body starts to degrade, too, but she's saved by John Henry Irons aka Steel, and they have a little romance in her comic. Lana takes up the red-electric-Superman costume and continues to be a superhero until she has to sacrifice her powers to stop a villain.
www.quora.com
https://comicvine.gamespot.com/lana-lang/4005-5547/
comicbook.com
New 52 Lois's spirit is merged with Pre-Flashpoint Lois in the same story as Superman, Superman Reborn.
What happened to the New 52 Lois Lane?
Answer (1 of 4): OK. This will sound crazy, but most of the new 52 was crazy. I only know this because I bought the SUPERWOMAN book as part of the Rebirth strategy because the spectacular Phil Jiminez was going to both write and do the art on the book. I did not read the new52 Superman book. Evi...
[SPOILER] Gets a '90s-Inspired Costume Overhaul in Superwoman #1
When fans pick up Superwoman #1 from veteran writer/artist Phil Jiminez later today, the issue is going to surprise them. The second — which we’ll cover in another story — is the biggest and most spoilery, but along the way there’s a pretty major, game-changing revelation. Last chance to turn...
comicbook.com
New 52 Lois's spirit is merged with Pre-Flashpoint Lois in the same story as Superman, Superman Reborn.
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Thanks a TON for the info! So Jonathan was raised in secret and really had 9-10 years of normal childhood, ok. I kinda thought he popped out of the blue and was aged up to match Damian so they could be friends.
There really was only one aging up to 17 (proooobably 18 now, so he can mess around with his boyfriend, probably?). I read his short time in the Bendis Legion and barely anything happened except him kissing Saturn Girl and they got cancelled.
Oh, New52 Jim Lee younger Superman died? I didn't know that.
Anyhow, cool that they made the Super Sons movie, even though they can't push for this version of the World's Finest since Jonathan and Damian's ages are farther apart and can't do the kids going crazy together dynamic.
I looooved seeing a vicious version of Krypto in the movie but Damian's pet was even more awesome. Even though she didn't do anything. Except provide formidable healthy boosts, which they probably didn't even use, darn, haha
Man, we though Hawkman's continuity was a mess.
Oh, no...Hawkman's still worse. In fact, they've been ADDING to the madness.
You're probably aware of Hawkman and Hawkgirl being reincarnations of a alien space cop and Egyptian pharaoh due to exposure to a alien metal...that's fairly common knowledge. Nothing too out of the ordinary, yet.
Well, now it goes farther back than that...like the beginning of the universe far back.
NOW, Hawkman began life as a world-destroying slave of a Galactus-like being at the beginning of time. Ktar Deathbringer (edgy name, I know) rebelled against his master and sealed him away, but he's cursed by God himself to reincarnate for all time until he saves as many lives as he took in his first one. This is revealed in Hawkman v5 7 (February 2019).
dc.fandom.com
And Hawkgirl arguably got it worse. In the newest rounds of retcons, I believe she died in the 1940s, and then was reincarnated into two seperate people. So, now there's a Thanagarian Hawkwoman who was a retcon-altered New 52 version of herself and a ex-military Earth Hawkgirl running around at the same time. And, according to the same 2019 retcon as above, Hawkgirl is actually originally a literal angel sent by God to help Ktar Deathbringer stop his master from entering our dimension.
www.hawkworld.org
And despite how it might sound...I actually kind of liked this run. It's by Robert Venditti, who did mostly some Green Lantern and Flash stuff before this. I actually kind of recommend it. It DOES get sucked into ALL the crossover shenanigans going on at the time (The Batman Who Laughs shows up), but I think it's got a interesting sense of scale and adventure to it.
You're probably aware of Hawkman and Hawkgirl being reincarnations of a alien space cop and Egyptian pharaoh due to exposure to a alien metal...that's fairly common knowledge. Nothing too out of the ordinary, yet.
Well, now it goes farther back than that...like the beginning of the universe far back.
NOW, Hawkman began life as a world-destroying slave of a Galactus-like being at the beginning of time. Ktar Deathbringer (edgy name, I know) rebelled against his master and sealed him away, but he's cursed by God himself to reincarnate for all time until he saves as many lives as he took in his first one. This is revealed in Hawkman v5 7 (February 2019).
Hawkman Vol 5 7
"Origin": In a far distant past, Ktar Deathbringer traveled across worlds ruthlessly slaughtering innocent men and women to offer them up as a sacrifice. He worked with his fellow Deathbringer Idamm to mu Hawkman (Volume 5) #7 is an issue of the series Hawkman (Volume 5) with a cover date of...
dc.fandom.com
And Hawkgirl arguably got it worse. In the newest rounds of retcons, I believe she died in the 1940s, and then was reincarnated into two seperate people. So, now there's a Thanagarian Hawkwoman who was a retcon-altered New 52 version of herself and a ex-military Earth Hawkgirl running around at the same time. And, according to the same 2019 retcon as above, Hawkgirl is actually originally a literal angel sent by God to help Ktar Deathbringer stop his master from entering our dimension.
The Story of Shayera Hol/Hawkwoman and Kendra Saunders/Hawkgirl
Hawkman Hawkwoman Hawkgirl Hawkworld
And despite how it might sound...I actually kind of liked this run. It's by Robert Venditti, who did mostly some Green Lantern and Flash stuff before this. I actually kind of recommend it. It DOES get sucked into ALL the crossover shenanigans going on at the time (The Batman Who Laughs shows up), but I think it's got a interesting sense of scale and adventure to it.
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I mean...there's a pretty good case to be made that DC just doesn't know what to do with ANYTHING.
I love it all. In all it's absurd, random glory. But, it's a mess. And trying to explain even a few years of ANYONE'S backstory involves multiversal destruction, timeline changes, mind control, and loved ones coming back from the dead as villains.
I love it all. In all it's absurd, random glory. But, it's a mess. And trying to explain even a few years of ANYONE'S backstory involves multiversal destruction, timeline changes, mind control, and loved ones coming back from the dead as villains.
Yes, but Hawkman is 'DC doesn't know what to do with characters' in-carnate. Like All the other main heroes, they're still at their core the same characters regardless what changes are made. Superman is still the Alien orphan and bastion of hope. Batman is the vigilante dealing with family issues, Wonder Woman... gets it less worse then Hawkman, but usually still remains the Amazonian warrior of Truth. Green Lanterns are still the Space Cops, be they Test Pilot, Artist, Marine, or whatever else; least with them anytime someone wants to do something different they just add a new memeber... though at the rate their going Earth is gonna be OA 2.
But Hawkman can't just be 'Alien Space Cop' or 'Immortal Pharaoh', its like Every time he gets a chance they've got to completely reinvent him from thr ground up. And this isn't me derideing DC over all; but even ******* Moon Knight has nothing on Hawkman when it comes to be the Fuster Cluck Poster boy.
But Hawkman can't just be 'Alien Space Cop' or 'Immortal Pharaoh', its like Every time he gets a chance they've got to completely reinvent him from thr ground up. And this isn't me derideing DC over all; but even ******* Moon Knight has nothing on Hawkman when it comes to be the Fuster Cluck Poster boy.
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And that's just Batman.
Um, has Black Adam changed the trajectory of the DC movies in any way? I don't see reactions about it in the other thread either.
Patty Jenkins’ ‘Wonder Woman 3’ Not Moving Forward as DC Movies Hit Turning Point (Exclusive)
New DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran are in the final stages of prepping their multiyear plan ahead of next week's pivotal presentation to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
so James Gunn saw WW84.
Aquaman Momoa turning into Lobo is ok.
But what happens to Cavill?
Will Shazam and Black Adam remain unchanged in the new Gunn verse?
What about Harley?
But what happens to Cavill?
Will Shazam and Black Adam remain unchanged in the new Gunn verse?
What about Harley?
Who knows. Hell, we still have, what, 4 or 5 films left in the pipeline? Whatever grand plan that Gunn is helping create, it is unlikely that anything is going to come of it until AT LEAST 2024.
And THAT assumes that the management of Warner/DC remains stable and patient enough to allow a multi-year plan to pan out. As is, it DOES feel like the cancelation of projects like Batman Beyond and Wonder Woman 3 are “clearing the slate” in preparation of “relaunching” the characters under a new film banner with new (and cheaper) actors. How is that going to play after we’ve already seen all these films with one set of actors? Again, we don’t know.
I think clearing away the remnants of the Snyderverse is a good idea. But I also feel if they don’t deliver on the story, recasting the major players could ultimately do more harm than good.