After months of anticipation, the moment fans have finally been waiting for has happened with Superman’s son finally coming out to his father as bisexual.
The emotional edition of the comic Superman: Son of Kal-El saw Superman discover that his son was in a same-sex relationship with journalist Jay Nakamura.
Jon Kent’s coming out to Superman happens in issue 17 of the comic series, after Superman returns to Earth from his mission on Warworld.
While accepting his son completely, the superhero initially struggles with the idea Jon might not be ready to open up to him about his sexuality before the two eventually talk. When Jon opens up, Superman replies: “No matter what, I will stand beside you.
“I will defend you. I will love you, and I will always, always be your father.”
The issue has been met with widespread praise from fans and backlash from homophobes claiming that Superman and the series were “going woke.”
Speaking about the moment, Son of Kal-El writer Tom Taylor explained that Superman’s acceptance of his son’s sexuality was a given.
“The scene with Clark and Jon took me almost as long to write as a whole comic usually would,” Taylor explained to Polygon.
“I spent days working and reworking and fine-tuning three pages. Of course, the expectation is Superman will instantly accept and welcome his son, but I didn’t want to write a clichéd scene we’d seen many times before.”
Taylor explained that he decided to write the comic from the perspective of Superman’s struggle to get his son to open up to him.
Taylor also adds that artists Cian Tormey and Ruairí Coleman came close to tears while reading the script.
“Cian and Ruairí both took so much care and depicted these scenes beautifully,” Taylor explained.
“I hope what the Man of Steel feels and how he acts in this issue resonates with other parents of queer children.”
