Eight Scans of Solstice: Favorite Retcon: Ma and Pa Kent live

[lordultimus]

Comments

[mazway_75]

Yep, say what you will about Byrne but having the Kents around was genius. They ground Clark, give him a place to talk and relate to and the advice that reminds him of who he fights for. That Jonathan could get through to his son with old-school experience was great and loved it.

Also, have to love the occasions they'd show Bruce Wayne dropping in and realizing just how damn lucky Clark really is and openly saying how different he'd be with someone like the Kents in his life.

I recall a good comic on Batman musing that "the greatest break in human history wasn't Clark crashing on our world. It's that if he'd landed with anyone but the Kents, he wouldn't be Superman."

[remial]

I think Lois and Clark's Ma Kent was slightly better with her comment of "Well, at least we know they won't be looking at your face" the first time he put on the suit.

[katefan]

Ma and Pa Kent were my favorite thing about Lois & Clark. The actors did such a wonderful job. My two favorite scenes, where Ma Ken patiently explains to Lois that yes, they have a fax machine out here in this remote hick town of Smallville (I'm paraphrasing quite a bit.) and when Pa, to convince an amnesiac son that he is indeed Superman, interrupts Ma's patient explanation by taking a baseball bat to Clark's chest, shattering the wood in the process.

The more I think about it the more I might have watched a television series about those two...

[bradygirl_12]

Always love the Kents being around!

Didn't the latest reboot kill them off again because DC didn't want Superman running home to talk things out with his parents but work things out himself? *rolls eyes*

[kd_the_movie]

It doesn't help that Mark Waid, Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison all aren't fond of the Kents being alive either. Very few editors would argue them down on it.

[tripodeca113]

But how can he be a superhero without a dead parent? Where is the angst? Where is the brooding? Where is the darkness and whats with the bright colours?

Superman already has dead parents, so why kill off his adopted parents?

[strejdaking]

What brooding or angst? When was Clark broody about Kent dying? Most people live to see their parents die. It's not as if their deaths was ever a reason he became Superman. By this token, why not retcon Krypton from being destroyed if any loss means needless darkness?

Because he never got to know them, their loss is too abstract.

[zylly]

It didn't come up super often (heh, pun not intended), but Silver/Bronze Age Clark actually did experience bouts of angst over the deaths of Ma and Pa, since he believed their deaths to be the results of his actions (it involved ancient pirate treasure and a plague).

[strejdaking]

Sure, but it wasn't like a part of his origin story (it afterall happened after he was already a superhero) or important and repeated point the way say, the retconned in death of Barry Allen's mom is.

[zylly]

I hate Bryne's version of Krypton with a fiery passion... but keeping the Kents alive and recontextualizing Clark as who Superman really was were absolutely fantastic decisions.

[philippos42]

That's a good way of putting it.

[katefan]

At the time I loved it because I really was not into the whole Silver Age Krypton stuff. by the early eighties it looked really dated so when Man of Steel came out I was very much on board.

But over time I came to miss it more and more. I missed the fantastical elements, the Fire Falls and the Scarlet Jungles, those telepathic beasts that projected the thoughts of their prey, and I missed Krypto.

God how I missed Krypto.

[bradygirl_12]

The Silver Age Krypton was a civilization whose loss was worth mourning. That cold, sterile world Byrne dreamed up? Not so much.

[katefan]

True. It looked interesting but ultimately did not have any depth.

[scorntx]

Wasn't Krypton being cold and sterile something the movies first came up with?

[lordultimus]

Not really. It was presented as more "High Elves", like this was the highest civilization the seventies could think of.

Though there is something sterile about it. Maybe that's why I dislike the Donner Fortress so much.

[zylly]

I've seen some analysis that suggests that was kind of the point. Making Krypton kind of awful was supposed to help ground Clark as an Earthman.

[scorntx]

See, I'd have thought that maybe it was to not bum out audiences.

If Krypton kind of sucks, then people aren't going to spend time thinking about how bad it is that it got destroyed.

[strejdaking]

It was very much the point. Personally, I'm not really a fan. I get it, they wanted to modernize and streamline the Kryptonian shit and they wanted to make Clark more relatable. But even ignoring you are writing an immigration story that's 100% pro assimilation, I think it's ultimately needless and character limiting. You can have Clark seeing Earth as his home and emphasize his connection to his adoptive parents and upbringing, without having him reject his kryptonian heritage outright, as proven my more modern takes. It doesn't really make Clark more relatable or heroic, just less complex.

[john_wyatt]

I've been enjoying the heck out of Krypto in the current Supergirl.