#kon meta

[peepreadscomics]

So... 90s Kon's nightmare in YJ98 01??

Confusing. I've read a bit of Kon's 90s solo comics as well... but maybe I just don't get it?

Pls someone who's read Kon's 90s comic solo chime in. LIKE HELP.

it's supposed to be considered horrifying to Kon! He wakes up with a scream AND the box narrator is like, "The horror..." but I can't really see how this... would be horrifying in a meaningful way?

Im gonna TRY, but... it's not gonna be good.

Kon's back abruptly bursts out with fiery wings as he flies around metropolis alongside Superman.

He exclaims in confusion, only for Superman to chastise him.

It was inevitable, Superboy. That's what happens when you're so holier than thou...

....

So. According to nightmare Superman, Kon's fear is connected to being holier than thou. In comparison to who? And in what way? How does he try to prevent that fear???

And how are the wings a representation of fear? Is it using Icarus imagery? Or phoenix imagery?

It being icarus imagery is a lil weak...Because the wings are made of fire, not ON fire or melting from fire. But if it is,

Rather than a nightmare, it feels more like a weird dream for Kon but foreshadowing for the readers, especially when compared to Bart and Tim's nightmare.

With Icarus symbolism combined with the "holier than thou" expression: Kon is PLENTY prideful. He tends to think that his way is best, especially when it comes to what he considers "his specialty" when he deals with aliens and metas.

This is kept up throughout the next issues until the Apokolips—where his pride and ambition ARE LITERALLY his and his team's downfall via planetary crash. (Superboy 91, his letter to Sterling hurts so much, don't look at me)

So maybe his fear comes from confusion? Because he doesn't understand yet what this means for him.

Still... would that merit the narrator box to say, "the horror" and have Kon waking up in sweat with a shout in the next panel? CLEARLY, this dream stuff caused him horror!

Young Justice

Although... I guess his expression could also convey some confusion.

The phoenix imagery is shaky too, but maybe this one is more about his own fear of his place in the world?

He doesn't even have his own actual name yet. I'm referring to him as Kon right now, but at this time... he hasn't even been given that name yet! And in-universe, he's been in the outside world for at LEAST a year now.

He can't even age any older with him being stuck at 16.

Even more...

With pheonix being symbolism for the natural cycle of life and death... at times representing a break in that cycle by also being a symbol for immortality...

Maybe this is alluding to that one scene in "Mother of all Battles" where he half dreams slowly becoming alone with even his shadow leaving him. There he quotes peter pan, "to die would be an awfully big adventure." (Don't look at me I'm so sad)

He came to be as a replacement in the case of Clark's death. He was supposed to be the second stage of Superman, the one that comes after Clark kicked it. But Clark is alive, and Kon is here. He was Superman for a little bit, but now he'll never fulfill the purpose of a new reinvented Superman leaving him stranded outside the natural cycle of life and death, doomed to never age or change.

So what happens to someone like him stuck in limbo? What happens if he develops this holier-than-thou attitude that will keep him from relating to those around him when his existence is already SO out of the ordinary?

He'll burn. He'll be betrayed by his own attitude that is slowly becoming more and more isolating.

All that being said...

None of it FEELS RIGHT? Pull any thread here, and it ALL comes undone.

And I know it's just a comic and writing slips a lot, but I want a through line for Kon's character development in my brain. The closest to that though, would be him outgrowing his pride, i guess? I didnt read core four's Titans run fully or the issue where he dies, so I know I'm missing things here.

He seems much more careful and subdued after Apokolips, but I'm not sure if that carries into Titans/the Superboy Prime deatg.

TLDR: I dont get what Kon's nightmare means. Help.

Tim's Nightmare Analysis

Bart's Nightmare

[yvtro]

once again grieving how dc killed everything unique and interesting about kon's story. it was such an interesting concept to introduce a character who is basically a child celeb. such a novel piece of reconstruction of the genre within its universe.

kon was exploited by everyone in his vicinity. and i'm not even talking just about him being used as a weapon. i'm talking about his fame. i'm talking about capitalism.

for people who have never picked up 90's superboy series: there’s rex and roxy, rex as his ‘manager’ who sells superboy merch, organises meetings with media, plans a SUPERBOY WORLD TOUR. roxy is rex’s daughter and she sticks mostly for that reason too. there’s tana, his girlfriend, a whole fucking adult, who’s a journalist, probably the only one who reports on most of his adventures. then there’s dubbilex, who is sent to hawaii by cadmus as a ‘chaperone’. there’s makoa, a local officer, who of course at first despises him, but eventually starts working with him too (because he admits that they need him, not because he suddenly has any respect to the boy). 

not a single person who makes friends with him or becomes his caretaker because of who he is as a person.

in one of the early issues, his manager strikes a deal for a superboy cartoon. at the time, kon is infected with the clone plague. everyone is so into the show and discussing if it's a good production or not, that no one notices that there’s something wrong with him till he collapses in front of them all.

couple of issues later, a superboy impersonator is killed. kon blames himself for it. rex talks about how they can capitalise on it by producing a comics titled ‘a death of superboy’. 

not even mentioning a whole plotline about rex selling out kon to some guy because he was in debt and how the kid almost got killed in the process.

when kon gets sent to school (as a freshman in high school btw) he still doesn’t even have a name, going exclusively by ‘superboy’ and he has a really hard time making friends because his first instinct is to impress his classmates with his power.

oh, since we’re talking about high school, I should mention that tana was reporting on-live his first day at school. speaking of tana, she also calls him almost exclusively “kid” (criminal) and in issue #0 she overhears her co-workers talking about how it’s not ethical to be in a relationship with a boy who’s not even 16 yet, but she quickly brushes it off as them being “jealous”. 

anyway, my point is: there are a lot of stories about how young superheroes become overly confident and snobby because of the media attention. there’s not a lot of stories about them being literally groomed and exploited in every way possible very much like children celebrities are. 

I don’t know how much of it kesel actually intended to be read this way, because ultimately, most of it is played off as a joke, and tana is not the only adult woman who’s interested in kon (look: knockout calling him a ‘jailbait’ and their whole relationship), but there’s so much potential in this story. kon doesn’t seem to realise how wrong everything going on around him is, as he knows nothing else. hell, he doesn’t even have a name till around issue #60 and he doesn’t mind it. he still wears a cadmus earring with his experiment number without a second thought. 

there’s still a lot of stories to be written about it, but dc is too busy with producing copaganda i guess. and the fanon is sleeping on it too.

[querldyke]

@vampiregokudera I’m so glad that someone else is interested in this because I’ve been dying to talk about it. Buffy has been very important since I was little and so Kon loving Wendy is also very special to me.

Kon uses Wendy as a way to get caught up with pop culture since despite being technically 16, he has no real experience in the world (and I sincerely doubt the scientists at Cadmus were concerned with pop culture) and how to act like a normal teenager. This means that sometimes he would try to emulate the characters in order to seem more normal, but anyone who’s seen Buffy, would know that the teens don’t really talk like normal people, so he gets a lot of weird looks especially from Tim, Cassie, and Cissie.

I have this theory/hc that Cassie was redesigned in TT’03 with Buffy/SMG in mind and the in universe explanation being that Kon had a crush on Terri Jewel Jackson (aka fake SMG) who plays Wendy and in order to seem more attractive to him Cassie tried to copy her appearance. (I know the first one is from YJ but it’s so similar I had to add it).

However, I do feel like Kon’s crush on Terri was less a crush and more a projection of his own want. Kon as someone created in the shadow of Superman often feels/felt that he had to be just like Clark. This led to him dating Tana Moon, and shaped a lot of his personality and choices, however having an icon like Wendy who is a hero but also is so set in her ways and who directly defies the feminine/masculine hero dichotomy that a lot of 90’s shows had would give him someone he could connect to, someone he could aspire to be. Wendy who also comes from a line of of heroes and holds up that responsibility (even if she struggles with it at times) while still being herself would absolutely be someone Kon would idolize which is why I think his ‘crush’ is more hero worship than anything.

On a lighter note: Wendy is without a doubt his favorite but when Luella and Clover get together he is beyond ecstatic and loves them in a ‘totally normal, just supporting one of your friends as an actress don’t look into that much way’. He refuses to watch that episode whenever he rewatches the show. He also has an insane amount of WTWS merch including the box set (collector’s edition of course), those weird CD card things, t-shirts, buttons, and the official handbook.