Jon Kent also comes from a Superman death, but a much more convoluted one. In 2016’s Superman #52, by Pete Tomasi with Mikel Janín and Miguel Sepulveda, Superman dies fighting an imposter with energy-based powers, a death that is final and unreversed. By the end of that story, we never see him again.
But here’s the thing, that’s the Superman introduced in the New 52 reboot from 2011, an extension of the Flashpoint storyline in which the Flash rearranged the world after an adventure through time. In 2011, DC presented the New 52 as the mainline universe, insisting that all previous stories and iterations never happened. But in the 2015 event Convergence, the New 52 Superman learns that the Superman from the previous reality, the one who has existed since the first DC reboot Crisis on Infinite Earths and remained more or less unchanged through the next reboots Zero Hour and Infinite Crisis (DC reboots kind of a lot), still lives in a pocket dimension. He’s still married to Lois Lane and, more importantly for our purposes, they have a son, Jonathan Samuel Kent.
Before his death, the New 52 Superman reached out to the previous Superman, who had since entered the mainline DC continuity and had been living a quiet life with his family outside of Metropolis. Donning the black costume he wore at the end of the Reign of the Superman storyline, the original Superman joined the New 52 Superman’s fight, and when the latter died, the former slowly made his way back into the world, and is now just the regular old Superman. But as he did, he brought Jon with him, and has become the best version of Superman in years.
Ask any writer or even some fans, and they’ll tell you the biggest challenge facing Superman is that he’s too powerful, too perfect. To write an interesting story, you have to depower him or corrupt his morals, decisions that too often undermine the very nature of the character.
The Adventures of Superdad
With the introduction of Jon, Superman faced a totally new challenge, one not even explored during the brief period when he had adopted young Kryptonian Christopher Kent in 2006 (part of a tie-in to Superman Returns, the movie in which the Man of Steel became a deadbeat dad).
First of all, the addition of a son makes Superman vulnerable in a way that he never was before. Lois Lane generally does not have powers to defend herself, but she’s also a grown woman whose fearlessness is part of her character. She is not defined by the protection offered by Superman, even if he rescues her on a regular basis. The same logic cannot be extended to Jon, even though the boy does have powers. When Superman makes decisions now, he must first consider how it will affect someone who does not have his own agency.
