Ok - so I loved the show Young Justice, and personally thought it was one of the best animated CB based shows ever done. However - the way Superman is portrayed in that series was kind of...well as a douche.

I just re-watched the first 10 episodes over the last couple of days and it really stood out to me just how different the character was. OK - he's barely in it, it's Red Tornado, Black Canary and Batman mostly, but whenever he is there he's always serious, always stand-offish and a complete douche to Superboy.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but in every other variation of Superboy being a clone - hasn't Superman/Clark basically taken him into his family? I mean the main thing I remember is he gets him to live with the Kent's and essentially plays the role of a big brother. Even the "brash" N52 Superman was nice to Superboy during the H'El arc - giving up his own armour to save his life and doing what he could to help him out (not sure if they've had other interactions outside of the H'El arc). In Young Justice however, he barely speaks to him, when he does he basically tells him off (or is reeeeaaallly awkward), does whatever he can to avoid seeing him, and then chucks a tantrum on Bruce when Bruce is telling him to take the boy under his wing (and storms out of the diner on a guy who's supposed to be his best friend?).

As much as I love the show - it's really been bugging me how they've portrayed my favourite hero and I basically felt the need to rant. Thank you

//rant

@wishiwassuperman: You completely correct. Superman usually treated Conner like a son (in the pre 52) so I had no idea why he was a little cold to him in this although they might`ve been trying to make it like how it used to be because when Superman first found out about SB being his clone it was a little awkward but he quickly became his mentor and later a type of Father Figure to him.

I don't think he was portrayed as a douche. He was just scared and didn't know what to do. Id assume that the relationship was eventually supposed to fix itself, but the show ended abruptly

@peppeyhare: he got over during the 5 year time skip between seasons one and two...he was friendly with him and even called him brother before he left for space with the other Leaguers

I agree, i get being shock, but trying to just ignore the problem was mean

If it was just the general awkwardness/avoidance stuff I could take that. But the episode where Bruce tries to address it was just plain "not Superman". When Batman is giving Superman advice to basically be nice and supportive to Superman - IMO - that's just not correct character portrayal. Not knocking Batman, I think he's had sufficient experience as a character with children, but I would never expect him to need to talk to Superman on how to deal with being a brother/father type figure for a protege. I get it was unexpected, but Superman is that type of character who to me, would just accept the fact that it is what it is, and be supportive. (I need to keep watching as I can't remember how it pans out beyond this - the time skip in Season 2 as stated by @danhimself may well have changed it - but that's just poor character development).

Yeah, it wasn't handled very well...
But there aren't many writers who actually care about Superman these days :-(
And the ones who care aren't working with DC.

actually in one of the earlier stories super boy shows up to the kent farm and he was totally rude to him....I can look for scans but people saying he was always nice to superboy are incorrect

I believe it was this issue

@w0nd: you may be right, it's just what I could remember (and I certainly haven't read every Superman comic, not even close).

Though, Superman basically felted violated. So it was kinda understanding.

i think he behaved like most men do when a ex girlfriend shows up with a kid that she says is yours out of the blue. Still he did step up it just took him longer.

Its okay man, we can all hate something that Superman's been in. Lvenger hated MoS, you didnt like him in Young Justice and I hated the animated series.

I always figured he was a bit freaked out to suddenly find himself with what would be considered his "son." It wasn't something he had asked for and I felt that the reason he kept giving Superboy the cold shoulder was out of fear of how to handle the situation. That's probably why, after the five year gap, he refers to Superboy as his brother rather than his son, as it probably made it easier on Superman to look at him as his sibling, like with Supergirl, than as his son. Probably was less awkward too.

@theincrediblesuperhulk8642: No dude pre-52 Supes treated connor like a younger brother not a son

this. and it did fix itself near the end of season one

i kind of agree. id say Kal's situation is a bit more understandable then that.

@z3ro180: He thought of him as a son at times. Although it is kind of awkward since it's his clone.

@theincrediblesuperhulk8642: How was it awekward ? Tycnicaly Connor was his son but he looked at him as a brother

@z3ro180: Superman would act as a big brother towards Conner but in the back of his mind it was his son. It was awkward at the beginning when he found out about him being a clone not to mention that when they found out he had some of Lex's DNA in him yeah it got awkward on occasion.

I didn't mind how the writers handled Clark's reaction to Connor. The problem is that they didn't really delve into why he would be reluctant to embrace a child that had been cloned from him without his knowledge or consent. The relationship was mostly told from Connor's perspective hence why Clark seemed like the unsympathetic one.

I agree that he wasn't handled well, but I also don't think it wasn't that bad.He was just scared, not sure how to handle it. I mean how would you react if you knew your enemies cloned you to make a weapon for the purpose of fighting you.

I mean honestly none of the JL members except MM were anything special. Yeah sure Batman was still handled okay, but all they have to do is show him being dark & greedy and you have your whole batman package.

This. Major missed opportunity.

@w0nd said:

I believe it was this issue

Man... I really hate that guys art :/

@saint_wildcard said:

@w0nd said:

I believe it was this issue

Man... I really hate that guys art :/

on paper I could handle it..it was stylized. But they released a figure run of them with this look and they were so odd in 3d

It was handled great. It was showing Superman's reluctance of suddenly finding out he has a clone, and dealing with that. It was a very realistic, human take, rather than him just immediately embracing. In the second season, they were a lot closer, which made sense to me.