I’ve been asking myself this question for awhile. Why is it Superman and Louis had a boy? Why does Jon Kent exist? It’s not that I dislike him I just don’t see the purpose in another Superboy when Conner Kent doesn’t have anything to graduate into. What is he supposed to do? Who is he supposed to be now?
It makes more sense if Superman and Louis had a girl and made her Supergirl because Kara has something to graduate into: Power Girl. They’re literally the same character. And even when the child grows up, Superwoman, hello! “But then who becomes Superman?” IK, IK… and the answer is simple: Connor and if not Superman literally doesn’t age like a normal person. It takes longer for him. And I mean, there doesn’t need to be a Superman. Just like there doesn’t need to be a Batman. Their respected families can take over for them, that’s why they exist. DC just wants the marketing even though they’d be better off.
I really just don’t understand the logic of creating a new character to take a name/mantel when someone is currently in that position.
I think that it was just to show a family man side of Superman that would be heartwarming. Also, readers loved Jon and it added new possible stories for him too.
Wow, mind blown.
While Jon could have been a Lara, I think they wanted to capture more of a young Clark type character. He had a happy life on a farm. He had wide-eyed innocence. He was very different than the versions of Connor I’d recently (ever?) seen in that regard, and Connor didn’t actually appear in Rebirth until the recent Young Justice series. Kara shares a lot of Jon’s qualities and already had her own Rebirth series and TV series.
Or maybe they just really didn’t want another Martha!!!
All that being said, Jon in his current accelerated aging to be in his upper teens makes no sense to me. I suppose it’s a plot device to set up 5G, but I feel like Jon’s character lost a lot of his magic in the transition. Granted, I didn’t really keep reading the Superbooks too long after that.
As an aside, I’ve never viewed Power Girl as a step up from Supergirl… more of an alternate offshoot. Karen has quite a few fans, so replacing her with Kara wouldn’t be great.
I also don’t think the term girl has to graduate to woman. The words ‘woman’ and ‘girl’ are much more interchangeable than ‘boy’ and ‘man’ at least in the places I’ve lived. For example, calling a man a boy can be used as a put down to question manliness/maturity/readiness, but the same isn’t true for girl. Additionally, I personally think Superwoman doesn’t flow as well as Supergirl/boy/man. It has too man syllables for my taste (without alliteration! 
).
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike the character. I think his design is cool but haven’t read any of his stories so I’m not one to complain.
Superman needs that family man aspect imo. But why a boy? Why another Superboy when there already is one? Why couldn’t he have had a girl? It just makes more sense to me.
I’m just trying to get people thinking.
Well you never know about Supergirl/Power Girl until you try. It could turn out great! Who knows? It’s never happened.
another Martha nice BvS joke god that movie was terrible.
I didn’t mean to suggest that the term girl must graduate to woman, I was just looking for a super name and that was the only one left.
I’m just trying to get people thinking. If Superman has a girl it would be one more female in a place overrun with male heroes and I think the positioning of who becomes what works out better that way, instead of creating another Superboy when there’s nothing else for the current one.
I think that part of it is (or was) for the Supersons story. He went well with Damian and it helped add a bit of maturity to both characters. He has been aged up so he can be part of the Legion of Superheroes.
Ah, I guess what I mean is that for Rebirth launch there was a Supergirl (Kara), who pulled a lot from her TV counterpart (so they probably didn’t want to replace/rename her) and a similar positive/upbeat voice. There wasn’t really a Superboy except Jon as part of the launch. The new52 Superboy run had ended, and Young Justice started a year or two later with Bendis. Also, New52 Superboy was a lot different from Jon personality-wise from what I remember.
They may have also wanted to recapture the father-son bond that Clark had with his father (Jonathan). Also, a son would parallel Damian as someone mentioned.
All that said, a little Supergirl could also be fun to explore. Lois and Clark can go work on that! Although, we may get a lot of baby-napping adventures now that the secret ID is known…
That’s one thing that needed to happen for a LONG time. The glasses ain’t fooling nobody.
They fooled me. I couldn’t ever figure out who he was.