Who the Clix? is a series of articles featuring information on comic book characters that have been made into figures for the popular tabletop game Heroclix. These articles are meant to help Heroclix players learn more about the characters behind their favorite pieces.
He’s becoming a Superman in his own right: Jon Kent
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Appearances in Heroclix: Rebirth
First Appearance: Convergence: Superman #2 (July 2015)
Team Affiliations: Legion of Super-Heroes, Justice League
Powers/Abilities: Superhuman strength, speed, endurance, reflexes, stamina, and senses; Accelerated healing; Invulnerability; Solar energy absorption; Enhanced vision – Heat vision, X-ray vision, Electromagnetic spectrum vision, Microscopic vision, Infrared vision, and Telescopic vision; Freezing and wind breath; Flight
Created by: Dan Jurgens
Brainiac gains access to Vanishing Point, a metaphysical dimension outside of the normal space/time continuum. Using this as a waypoint, Brainiac is able to travel through the history of the Multiverse and collect cities and their population from universes and timelines that no longer exist. Superman and Lois from the original Post-Crisis Earth are trapped in a bottled Gotham City for nine months. During this period, Superman’s powers are suppressed and the pair conceive a child that is ultimately born. After helping save the Multiverse once again, Jonathan Kent, along with his parents, are brought to the New 52 Earth and live in secrecy for years in California.
Jon grows up with a mostly normal life as Clark hides his powers and Lois becomes an anonymous author. As Jon gets older, he begins to notice small contradictions that make him believe there is more going on. Jon even begins to develop Kryptonian powers just as he and Lois are kidnapped by Intergang. After Clark rescues them, Jon’s parents reveal the full truth to him.
The family move to a farm in Hamilton County where Clark realizes he has to begin training Jon not just in the use of his powers, but what it means to be a hero. After a simple accident, Clark and Lois take Jon to the Fortress of Solitude for treatment only to be confronted by the Eradicator. This Eradicator is part of a wave of robots built by General Zod to seek out and arrest Kryptonian criminals and extract their life force in preparation for trial. Eradicator witnessed the destruction of Krypton and has sought out survivors ever since. Now, faced with Superman, Eradicator informs him that Krypton can be rebuilt. But because Jon is half human, Eradicator feels that the human genome must be destroyed to keep Krypton “pure.”
Eradicator tries to absorb Jon’s life force only for Superman to defend his son. Jon is afraid at first but with encouragement from his mother, joins his father in cracking Eradicator’s outer shell and releasing the Kryptonian life forces within him. The resulting explosion in the Fortress teleports the Kent family to a bar in Metropolist. Eradicator is able to track them down and the Kryptonian ghosts allow themselves to be reabsorbed by Eradicator in order to overload his systems and buy the family time to escape. Superman flies Lois and Jon to Batman’s secret base on the Moon to regroup.
Eradicator is able to temporarily absorb Superman and begins hunting for Jon once again. Lois puts on Batman’s Hellbat armor and fights Eradicator alongside her son. Superman is able to break free of the Eradicator and joins his family in defeating the Eradicator. He gifts Jon a pair of glasses and hat to protect his identity before taking his son to the Watchtower in costume as “Superboy.” After an encounter with Mr. Mxyzptlk with reality bending consequences, Jon teams up with Damian Wayne to form the Super Sons after an educational session from their fathers.
Damian recruits Jon to investigates a series of break ins at Lexcorp but the mission is complicated by Lex Luthor’s attempts to capture them both. They escape only to find a secret family still infected by the Amazo virus. One of the sons has gone mad and calls himself “Kid Amazo.” The pair battle Kid Amazo to a stand still and are saved by the arrival of Luthor and Kid Amazo’s sister, Sara. They escape unnoticed by Luthor but not by their parents. After a stern talking to, they are allowed to adventure without parental supervision, as long as they are together.
Soon, a plot by Manchester Black is discovered to groom Jonathan into his protegee and take revenge on Superman. This involves suppressing Jon’s powers through tainted alien milk. Black is able to take over Jon’s mind and force him to fight his father but Jon proves strong enough to break free and knock Black out with psychic feedback.
After moving back to Metropolis with his family, Jon is allowed to go on patrol with Damian. They run into the Teen Titans and eventually get wrapped up in an adventure that leads them to the living planet, Yggardis. After making their way home and reporting everything to Superman, they are gifted their own base of operations by Superman and Batman which Jon names the Fortress of Attitude.
A few months later, Tim Drake from a dark future arrives to kill Jon in an attempt to stop a future crisis. Jon panics and flies out of the tower just moments before exploding in a “solar flare.” He doesn’t get far enough away to avoid damaging the tower and injuring the Titans, however. Jon grabs Damian and flies off to the Fortress of Solitude where his father is trapped in a cage of Red Kryptonite. Tim and his Titans of Tomorrow arrive, triggering another solar flare build up in Jon. Together, the Titans of Tomorrow, Superman and Damian work to lower the detonation. Future-Tim takes the final act by absorbing the blast and getting pulled into Hypertime. Later, the Titans vote on whether Jon should be made a part-time member. Damian is the only yes vote, much to Jon’s disappointment.
Fearful of what his future brings, Jon is relieved when his grandfather Jor-El visits the farm and offers to take him on an educational trip through the universe. Lois and Clark are hesitant at first but eventually relent, with Lois going with the pair for the first part of their trip.
Jor-El’s ship is pulled into a black hole which leaves the pair stranded on Earth-3. Jon is quickly found and captured by Ultraman, who places him prisoner in a volcano for years. Jor-El eventually rescues his grandson and sent back home to discover that while years have passed for him, much less time has passed on Earth. Soon after, Jon is recruited into the Legion of Super-Heroes and spends years with them adventuring and growing into a young man.
He arrives back and shocks his father with his maturation. Jon also confesses that he learned a lot about Superman while in the future and uses some of that knowledge to possibly protect his father from a possible death/disappearance. Clark decides that Jon is ready to defend the Earth and leaves Jon to act as Superman of Earth while Clark will deal with threats in space.
After his first mission bringing a meta human in, Jon seeks out Damian for advice. The young Superman wants to do more to make a better world and Damian introduces him to an internet stream called “The Truth.” Frustrated by his inability to make more of an impact he travels to the Moon and asks his father why he never did more. Clark explains that while he couldn’t do too much as Superman, Jon can because it’s his home planet. And Clark never wanted Earth to be too dependent on him.
Determined to do more, Jon makes a new costume and saves a boat of asylum seekers. Jon allows himself to be arrested at a protest for the asylum seekers, citing how his father sought asylum on Earth as an infant. Clark bails Jon out and brings his new friend Jay to dinner on the farm. Clark leaves just as Henry Bendix drops a meta human named Faultline on the farm causing a massive earthquake. Jon saves his family and rushes to Faultline. As the Justice League arrives to fight her, Jon stops them, telling them she didn’t do it on purpose. Wonder Woman agrees to take Faultline in and help her as the Flash tells Jon that he’s always there to talk. Jon learns that the meta humans are coming from Gamorra island as part of a project by Bendix. He travels there and defeats Henry, hopefully putting a stop to the damage they caused.
Jon and Jay begin a relationship after this, becoming confidants for each other. Batman also soon gifts Jon a crystal from the Fortress of Solitude that contains an AI based on his father’s brain. The AI tells Jon that he hopes he can avoid making the mistakes Clark made with Luthor, should Luthor return. Soon after, Lex returns to Metropolist and buys the largest building, putting a Lexcorp sign on it. Jon soon defends the building from an attack and teams up with Luthor. Afterwards, Lex asks Jon to finish a chess match that Lex and Superman had begun years ago. Jon agrees on the condition that if he wins, Lex will take down the Lexcorp sign. As they play, Jon tries to appeal to Luthor’s self-interest, linking the future of the world to Lex’s own well being. Jon wins the game and soon leaves.
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