Jonathan-El

"That's the thing, Dad. It's always, always about me understanding you. Maybe for once in your life you should think about how I'm feeling."

—Jonathan-El to Kal-El^[src]

Jonathan "Jon"-El (born 2006), also known as Superboy, is a member of the Inverse Society and a former vigilante. He is also the son of the late Kal-El and Lois Lane, the twin brother of Jordan-El, the grandson of a late unnamed woman and Sam Lane, the nephew of the late Tal-Rho and an unnamed woman, and the boyfriend of Misty.

Biography[]

Early life[]

In 2006, Jonathan and his brother, Jordan, were born to the superhero Kal-El and his wife, Lois Lane. When they were born, their parents moved from Metropolis and went with them to a farm in Smallville, where Lois took the two babies to their uncle Tal-Rho's wedding to Lana. As the son of a superhero, Jon grew up as a media personality and one of the most famous people in the world.

In late 2021, when Jon was fifteen, he attended an event with his family and saw a man falling from a building. His father was distracted so Jon decided to use his powers to save him, surprising the audience and his family. His family then decided to turn him into a superhero. Jordan suggested he use the codename "Superboy", but Jon thought it was ridiculous. He chose a dark jacket, a shirt with the symbol of the House of El, and red pants as his suit, and began to fight crime as his father's sidekick, giving interviews and gaining more popularity than his father. When Jon decided to fight it alone, he infuriated his father and they had an argument.^[1]

Following Ally Allston[]

Later, Jon went out with his girlfriend, Misty, who introduced him to Ally Allston. He asked if she was behind the Star City riots, but she declined and offered him a chance "to be whole", and he agreed. At some point after joining Ally, Jon and Lana attacked his grandfather Sam at the DOD and demanded to see Project 4377. Sam denied his request and Jon punched him, but Lieutenant Rosetti was on his side and helped him. Months later, Jon, Ally, Lana, and Anderson waited in the Shuster Mines for Ally's Earth-TUD25 counterpart to arrive, but only Anderson's counterpart arrived, making Ally furious. When they tried to merge, Ally ordered Jon to kill Anderson and he did, using his fire breath, but Anderson's counterpart escaped. Jon was thrilled as this was the first time he had killed someone.

Later, Jon found his father's counterpart in the fortress in the Arctic and took him to the farm, where he claimed to be a safe place and questioned Superman about the pendants and his father. Superman responded that he was dead. Lois appeared and informed Superman that Jon worked for Ally, making Jon push her with his super strength. Jon revealed his true intentions and asked for Anderson's whereabouts, demanding the pendants. Then Anderson appeared and punched Jon, knocking him out. Lois tied him to a chair with X-Kryptonite, but he eventually managed to escape and froze his grandfather's weapon with his freeze vision, joining the two Allys, Tal-Rho, and Lana outside the farm. Jon fought Anderson and ended up killing him. The two Allys got the pendant and began merging. Jon was then ordered to go through the portal to the other world and merge with his counterpart.^[1]

In another dimension[]

Jon was able to travel to Earth-TUD25 through the portal connecting the two worlds and went to the Kent Farm to tell Lois Lane and Jordan Kent that Superman was too late.^[2] His Earth-TUD25 counterpart later arrived at the farm.^[1] Realizing that Jon wanted to merge with Earth-TUD25 Jonathan, the Jordan of that world tried to stop him, but Jon knocked him out and began to merge. Superman then passed through the portal and, seeing the bright light from the two Jonathans attempting to merge, arrived in time to separate them. Jon flew away and tracked down this world's version of Lana at a diner in Smallville, but Superman appeared and he fled.

Jon then went to Lana's house and after a brief conversation with Sarah Cushing, he kidnapped Lana, planning to use her as bait to lure Superman. He took her to a slaughterhouse and built a bomb out of Green Kryptonite. He placed the pendant on Lana and through it was able to communicate with Lana from his world, telling her to come. Superman tracked him to the slaughterhouse and Jon detonated the bomb with his fire breath. Superman protected Lana and was hit by the Kryptonite shards. Jon then stabbed him in the chest with a larger fragment and left for the Kent Farm to merge with Jonathan. Jordan tried to stop him again and fought him in the sky. Jordan won the fight and knocked Jon unconscious. He was then imprisoned in a military facility.^[3]

Later, Jon was visited by Superman in his cell. The hero tried to reach out to him, asking him to help save the two worlds from Ally, but Jon refused. He told Superman that when Ally realized he had failed, she would come from the Inverse World.^[4]

Eventually, Lana-Rho freed Jon from prison and they went to Smallville High School. Jon confronted Lois, Jonathan, Sam, and Superman after a town hall meeting. He attacked Superman, planning to kill him just as Jordan and Lana crashed through the wall. Jon faced off against Jordan and was defeated again, being taken into custody by the DOD along with Lana.^[5]

Powers and abilities[]

Powers[]

• Human-Kryptonian hybrid physiology: Because of Jonathan's human-kryptonian hybrid genetic structure under the effects of a red sun, he possesses the same potential powers as any Kryptonian.^[1]
  • Red Solar Absorption: While Jonathan's powers are dependent on the energy spectrum from a red sun, the stored up energy allows him to use his powers.
    • Superhuman strength: Similar to his father and uncle, Jonathan has immense strength.^[1]
    • Superhuman speed: Jonathan is able to move at immense speeds, able to match other Kryptonian and X-Kryptonian powered individuals.^[1]
    • Flight: Jonathan is able to fly at tremendous speeds.^[1]
    • Invulnerability: Jonathan is incredibly durable. He is bulletproof and able to endure hits from Superman and the X-Kryptonite empowered Mitch Anderson with little to no harm.^[1]
    • Freeze vision: Like his father, Jonathan is able to produce very cold blue colored beams from his eyes, that can freeze his target. His freeze vision is strong and cold enough to counter his brother’s counterpart’s heat vision; to the point that they canceled each other out and disoriented both of them.^[1]
    • Fire breath: Also like his father, Jonathan is able to produce fire from his mouth.^[1]
    • Telescopic vision: Jonathan has telescopic vision.
    • Superhuman hearing: Jonathan can hear things that ordinary humans can’t hear. This allows Jonathan to spy on his enemies as shown how he heard Clark Kent talking inside the Smallville high school.
    • Green Kryptonite empowerment: As an inverse of his Earth-TUD25 counterpart, exposure to green kryptonite makes Jonathan stronger instead of weakening him.^[1]

Abilities[]

• Skilled hand to hand combatant/Brawler: Jonathan is an adept and cruel fighter through the use of his powers. As shown when he fights against Jordan whose also a Kryptonian hybrid with proficiency in boxing, Jon dodges and evades incoming strikes to land blows of super strength on the latter that manage to briefly have him overpowered until the effects of the yellow sun weaken his powers for him to get the best at defeat. In the second encounter, alongside inverse Lana, almost defeated Jordan by repeatedly throwing punches and a kick strike until Natalie came in and helps beat the two counterparts. However, while Jonathan is a scrappy fighter, he appears to be incapable of taking a hit like Jordan can, as when Jordan hit Jonathan just once, he became incapacitated and was incapable of fighting back, allowing Jordan to beat him.
• Skilled tactician/deception: Jonathan-El also seems to be a clever strategist and deceiver with wits in apprehending his enemies. When he kidnapped Lana Cushing to lore Superman in a warehouse, he uses his fire breath to cause a gas tank to explode knowing Clark would protect her from it only to realize that Jon tricked him as he planted shards of Green Kryptonite to embed in his chest before stabbing a huge shard on him temporarily weakening the latter.
• Bilingual: Like the rest of the people on his world, Jonathan is fluent in his mother tongue of speaking backwards, and after traveling to the other world, Jon learned to speak forwards to communicate with his doppelgängers.

Weaknesses[]

• X-Kryptonite: As Jonathan has an inverse biology to Earth-TUD25 Kryptonians, rather than empower the being, X-Kryptonite weakens him.
• Yellow sun energy: As Jonathan has an inverse biology to Earth-TUD25 Kryptonians, yellow sun energy weakens him to a degree rather than increasing his power, similar to how red sun energy weakens Kryptonians native to Earth-TUD25.

Appearances[]

Superman & Lois[]

Season 2[]

• "Tried and True" (pictured)
• "30 Days and 30 Nights"
• "Bizarros in a Bizarro World"
• "Truth and Consequences"
• "Lies That Bind"
• "All Is Lost" (mentioned)
• "Worlds War Bizarre"

Comics[]

EARTH-PRIME[]

• "Controlled Burn" (name seen)

Trivia[]

• Jonathan's outfit is a nod to Kon-El/Superboy from the DC comics.

Behind the scenes[]

• In the DC comics, Boyzarro is the son of Bizarro and his wife Loiz. He debuted in Superman (Volume 4) #42 (May, 2018).

References[]