You’re reading The Complete Infinite Crisis, a Comprehensive and Encyclopedic look through the universe-changing superhero event published by DC from 2005 to 2006. Shelfdust are proud to provide a complete overview of the story, and everything that happens in it. Just as we were really starting to explore the story, however, we’ve had to ask for a bit of help about the first issue from an expert in the area.

We’ve reached the third page!! Exciting times, to be honest. It starts off with a scene showing Wonder Woman snapping Maxwell Lord’s neck, which we’ve already had explained to us before. But… hey, who is that kid sat on the couch over in Smallville? Jay Rincher, please can you explain this for us??

This scene in Smallville has a kid sat on a couch watching TV. Who is he? 

Jay Rincher: It’s the boy of steel, aka Kon-El, aka Connor Kent, aka the Metropolis Kid – Superboy! Kon was a member of Young Justice, leader of the Ravers, sometimes member of the Legion of Superheroes, defender of Metropolis and uhhhhhhhhhh Hawaii sometimes.

How is he actually connected to Superman? Is he related – he calls Martha “Aunt Martha?”

Rincher: He is Superman’s clone (sort of) created by Cadmus Labs. Connor debuted during the “Reign of the Supermen” event that followed the “Death of Superman” as one of the four replacement Supermen that sought to carry on Superman’s legacy.  For years there was a sort of back and forth on whether or not him and Superman could really have a parent/child relationship the way Batman does his with his sidekicks but by this point writers decided a different kind of family relationship worked best. During this period Kon lives in Smallville posing as a distant Kent cousin, hence referring to Martha as “Aunt” Martha. Also half of his DNA also comes from Lex Luthor.

At the end of the scene it says he should go “help his friends” and this T-Symbol lights up? What’s the T-Symbol for??

Rincher: That is Kon’s Teen Titans emergency communicator. Due to some events involving his Lex Luthor mind controlling him into nearly murdering the rest of the Teen Titans, Kon had been taking a break from superheroics and trying to get in touch with himself at the Kent family farm. Superheroes tend to bounce back pretty quickly from mind control, but a previous encounter with an evil future version of himself and a struggle to figure out if he (being a clone) had a soul, compounded to take him out of the game for a bit.

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Thanks so much, Jay! As a foremost Superboy expert, I think that clears him up! So now we just need to know – what are the Teen Titans up to? They’re fighting demons? Oh boy, who’ll be able to explain this for us??

 

Jay Rincher is a writer and critic who has written for publications including The MNT and GWW. You can follow him on Twitter here!