Why the hell is Kon so needy? An investigative essay by me.
Buffy said it best. Of course, it's been a while and I can't remember what exactly she said. It was something like 'geez, Kon, you're a good looking guy and I love you. You don't need to hear this every five minutes.' To which Kon's reaction was probably his 'Timmy's fallen down the well?'-icon and to go 'but ... D: .' Yeah. Kon's got everything -- he's good looking, he's confident, he's got friends, his superpowers are nothing to sneeze at, he has a history of girlfriends and he is the clone of the greatest hero in his world (ignore that this is up for debate). So -- what's the deal?
Kon is a clone.
Well, obviously, you say. Tell us something we don't know.
Yes, I say, but being a clone is crucial to who Kon is. He's never existed without knowing he was made from Superman to be Superman, and even if he doesn't show it in daily life, it's there informing all he does. His earliest source of pride was in being Superman, and even though he's now Kon, he still derives a lot of his self-image from Superman, whether it's identifying with him or against him -- see Kon's many efforts to establish himself as different from Clark. See also Kon's attempts at convincing Clark to be 'cool.'
Kon's very conscious of being a clone. But what is a clone? He's not a carbon copy of Clark -- he's half human, half Luthor, and his powers are lesser -- he started out with just the TTK and the biological enhancements, grew into the strength and the flying, recently gained the heat vision and hearing. So along with the pride in the Superman legacy, Kon's got the sense of being lesser. That's partly why Kon's so insistent on having his own personality and style and doing things his way -- not being as good as Clark is okay so long as he's different than Clark (hence Kon continually competing with Clark, and hence them always being on opposite sides of the football field).
Back to the clone thing, Kon not being his original doesn't make him a special case -- Match and Dubbilex are clones but not exact copies. Guardian and the news boys, among others, are. The clones fall in this sort of greay area -- they are feared and mistrusted at points, totally and cheerfully accepted by others at different points, referred to as goods by Amanda Waller, something which is almost hysterically contested by Kon both when he throws his little temper tantrum and second when he destroys the Jim clones (and Jim?) to fulfill Jim's wish to rest in peace. Furthermore, Kon knows that Superman's distrust of clones and CADMUS stems from the fact that it was a group of clone extremists who led to the destruction of Krypton (go go existential crisis, go). Kon prefers not to think about this if he can. Why stress when you can repress? But just because Kon is ignoring his issues, don't mean they're ignoring him.
Kon's issues generally go undercover and surface, unexpectedly, somewhere else. This is why, Somewhere along the line of playing him, I realised that Kon views himself primarily as a body. He was made to look and be as much like Superman as possible, he's got the powers, people value him for his strength, when A.G.E.N.D.A made Match, they put more priority on powers than personality (though to be honest, Westfield did the same). He derives a considerable amount of self-staisfaction (and satisfaction in general) from helping people -- he's acknowledged, at least to himself, that he's in the hero business for the feeling of having done good as much as for the danger or the adrenalin rush. That is why he is, at one and the same time, incredibly vain and very insecure.
Do I need to say why Kon is insecure? He defines himself against Clark and he's his own harshest critic -- I don't do a very good job of bringing out Kon's caustic and sarcastic commentary of the Superboy run, but his side-comments and reactions suggest to me nothing so much as the fact that Kon views life as a sit-com (at worst, a soap) and himself as the title character. This would suggest a good amount of ego, were it not for the fact that so much of Kon's sarcasm is directed inward -- 'It's moves like that got Tana killed.' Again, he's holding himself up to a rigorous standard, and falling short and he's very conscious of it.
Of course, being Kon, he blames other people, and looks to other people to solve this problem -- in other words, Kon looks to other people to validate his existence. Superman, Buffy, Bart, Tim (or maybe Robin -- I'm not sure which is more appropriate), even a girl that at that point he'd met once, ie. Bianca. I think Kon blaming Bianca for his rut and expecting her to fix it shows us a lot about Kon's views of himself and his expectations of other people; Kon is a big baby.
Most kids as they grow up first develop awareness that they and their mother are seperate beings, followed by the slow discovery that other people have needs and understanding different to their own. Kon knows this. It was part of the ingrained knowledge. But I don't think he feels this. Our own problems are more absorbing to us than other people's, Kon just turns the notch up a little. This is why his first reaction is always the selfish one, and the caring (while sincere and genuine) the afterthought. The rare occasions Kon is genuinely selfless and concerned, he's very bad at it. This is, of course, fascinating but a little off-topic.
Anyway, Kon needs people and attention to be a happy Superboy. He's big on physical contact, compliments, even a little casual flirting -- he tends not to make friends with people who make him feel inferior. The one exception to this is Tim-Robin. He gets worried when he doesn't get attention from friends. He does stupid stuff to provoke them so he does get attention. He sulks when the attention he gets isn't great. He rationalises it and claims different stuff is going on, prevaricates and blames. But really he's just being massively insecure.
The moral of the story? Kon's not going to stop acting the way he does anytime soon. He's not aware of how deep his issues go, and I think he instinctively hides them. You'll notice that he hypes himself up -- acts over-confident rather than cool, makes a lot of himself (hairgel), makes a lot of bluster and does a pretty good job, at least to the casual observer, of appearing like what he would like to be. But I thought that knowing what was going on beneath the surface might interest people. YOU NEVER KNOW.
Kon is a clone.
Well, obviously, you say. Tell us something we don't know.
Yes, I say, but being a clone is crucial to who Kon is. He's never existed without knowing he was made from Superman to be Superman, and even if he doesn't show it in daily life, it's there informing all he does. His earliest source of pride was in being Superman, and even though he's now Kon, he still derives a lot of his self-image from Superman, whether it's identifying with him or against him -- see Kon's many efforts to establish himself as different from Clark. See also Kon's attempts at convincing Clark to be 'cool.'
Kon's very conscious of being a clone. But what is a clone? He's not a carbon copy of Clark -- he's half human, half Luthor, and his powers are lesser -- he started out with just the TTK and the biological enhancements, grew into the strength and the flying, recently gained the heat vision and hearing. So along with the pride in the Superman legacy, Kon's got the sense of being lesser. That's partly why Kon's so insistent on having his own personality and style and doing things his way -- not being as good as Clark is okay so long as he's different than Clark (hence Kon continually competing with Clark, and hence them always being on opposite sides of the football field).
Back to the clone thing, Kon not being his original doesn't make him a special case -- Match and Dubbilex are clones but not exact copies. Guardian and the news boys, among others, are. The clones fall in this sort of greay area -- they are feared and mistrusted at points, totally and cheerfully accepted by others at different points, referred to as goods by Amanda Waller, something which is almost hysterically contested by Kon both when he throws his little temper tantrum and second when he destroys the Jim clones (and Jim?) to fulfill Jim's wish to rest in peace. Furthermore, Kon knows that Superman's distrust of clones and CADMUS stems from the fact that it was a group of clone extremists who led to the destruction of Krypton (go go existential crisis, go). Kon prefers not to think about this if he can. Why stress when you can repress? But just because Kon is ignoring his issues, don't mean they're ignoring him.
Kon's issues generally go undercover and surface, unexpectedly, somewhere else. This is why, Somewhere along the line of playing him, I realised that Kon views himself primarily as a body. He was made to look and be as much like Superman as possible, he's got the powers, people value him for his strength, when A.G.E.N.D.A made Match, they put more priority on powers than personality (though to be honest, Westfield did the same). He derives a considerable amount of self-staisfaction (and satisfaction in general) from helping people -- he's acknowledged, at least to himself, that he's in the hero business for the feeling of having done good as much as for the danger or the adrenalin rush. That is why he is, at one and the same time, incredibly vain and very insecure.
Do I need to say why Kon is insecure? He defines himself against Clark and he's his own harshest critic -- I don't do a very good job of bringing out Kon's caustic and sarcastic commentary of the Superboy run, but his side-comments and reactions suggest to me nothing so much as the fact that Kon views life as a sit-com (at worst, a soap) and himself as the title character. This would suggest a good amount of ego, were it not for the fact that so much of Kon's sarcasm is directed inward -- 'It's moves like that got Tana killed.' Again, he's holding himself up to a rigorous standard, and falling short and he's very conscious of it.
Of course, being Kon, he blames other people, and looks to other people to solve this problem -- in other words, Kon looks to other people to validate his existence. Superman, Buffy, Bart, Tim (or maybe Robin -- I'm not sure which is more appropriate), even a girl that at that point he'd met once, ie. Bianca. I think Kon blaming Bianca for his rut and expecting her to fix it shows us a lot about Kon's views of himself and his expectations of other people; Kon is a big baby.
Most kids as they grow up first develop awareness that they and their mother are seperate beings, followed by the slow discovery that other people have needs and understanding different to their own. Kon knows this. It was part of the ingrained knowledge. But I don't think he feels this. Our own problems are more absorbing to us than other people's, Kon just turns the notch up a little. This is why his first reaction is always the selfish one, and the caring (while sincere and genuine) the afterthought. The rare occasions Kon is genuinely selfless and concerned, he's very bad at it. This is, of course, fascinating but a little off-topic.
Anyway, Kon needs people and attention to be a happy Superboy. He's big on physical contact, compliments, even a little casual flirting -- he tends not to make friends with people who make him feel inferior. The one exception to this is Tim-Robin. He gets worried when he doesn't get attention from friends. He does stupid stuff to provoke them so he does get attention. He sulks when the attention he gets isn't great. He rationalises it and claims different stuff is going on, prevaricates and blames. But really he's just being massively insecure.
The moral of the story? Kon's not going to stop acting the way he does anytime soon. He's not aware of how deep his issues go, and I think he instinctively hides them. You'll notice that he hypes himself up -- acts over-confident rather than cool, makes a lot of himself (hairgel), makes a lot of bluster and does a pretty good job, at least to the casual observer, of appearing like what he would like to be. But I thought that knowing what was going on beneath the surface might interest people. YOU NEVER KNOW.