Post by Superboy on Feb 4, 2012 18:48:06 GMT -5
CONNER KENT
I don’t want to be just another echo…
”Y'know, everyone says criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot... but how come no one ever mentions the stupidity factor?”
THE BASICS;;
NAME: Conner Kent
AGE: 6 months (appears roughly 16 years)
SEX: Male
CODENAME: Superboy
ALIASES: Kon-El
AFFILIATION: Hero
STATUS: Trying to survive life on a boring farm in Kansas
CANON: Yes… and no…
PLAYBY: Superboy as he appears in ‘Young Justice’, or in his later comic book appearances before the DCnU relaunch. They’re pretty much the same
THE GOOD STUFF;;
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Half of the DNA that Conner was grown from was that of Superman, and so it is no coincidence that they share many aspects of their appearances. Both of them are tall, though Conner is slightly shorter, standing at a still impressive 5’11’. He is also very muscular for someone who appears to be only a teenager, and this can give somewhat of an imposing presence combined with his height.
Like Superman, he has black hair, though his is almost always kept short so as to be manageable and practical, with the only styling being that it is a little messier and spikier than it would be if it just sat flat upon his head. Facially, he has the firm jaw and brow line that add to his recognisably ‘heroic’ appearance, as well as the blue eyes of the Man of Steel, but overall his face is not identical to Superman’s. Even when Clark Kent was 16, he looked notably different to Conner, and that is due to the other donor of the DNA Conner was created from. He is only half Superman’s clone, and this is immediately evident in his appearance, though he looks as though he is perhaps a close relative (which is useful for his cover story of being Clark Kent’s cousin).
Conner has a simple taste in clothes when it comes to both superheroic outfitting and casual wear. His ‘costume’ is simply a black t-shirt emblazoned with the famous ‘S’ shield in red, accompanied by blue denim jeans, a pair of brown boots and a black belt to top it off. He has no plans to upgrade to tights and a cape as such ‘official’ superhero attire simply makes him feel uncomfortable. When it is preferable that people do not recognise him as Superboy, he usually just replaces his t-shirt with one of a different colour bearing no symbol. He sometimes wonders if he should adopt glasses for his civilian guise like Clark does, but usually casts the idea aside after considering how dorky he would look.
PERSONALITY: Conner is still adjusting to a complicated life outside of the growing chamber where he spent the first 16 weeks of his life. While he was growing, he was constantly being ‘programmed’ with facts and figures, so that he has plenty of knowledge about science, history, and the intricacies of mathematics and the English language, but socially he is quite at a loss. He can often find interacting with other people, and especially other teenagers, awkward, and isn’t always sure what behaviour is and is not considered sociably acceptable. He can sometimes be immature, and is still growing up emotionally. It helps to have someone with him who can tell him where the line is and warn him when he’s about to cross it. Being that he never had a real childhood, he can also feel excluded or inhuman by nature, and there are times when he feels utterly disconnected from the human race and the people he is surrounded by.
On the other hand, if one were to meet him without being told he was only about 5 months old and had been grown in a test tube, they might not guess he was anything but a slightly oddball teenager. Like an average teenager, he has a tendency to crack jokes to lighten a situation (though he knows when to be serious), and has been known to revel in his own fair share of angst, and even go into fits of sulking when things just don’t go his way. Like his superheroic half-father, he has an innate desire to help innocent people and do the right thing in any given situation, but unlike Clark, he is also prone to a rebellious streak and a sarcastic wit that perhaps comes from the darker recesses of his genetic birth right.
His relationship with Superman is complex. The two have spent very little time together, and yet Conner was grown to be his replacement, his copy, to perhaps one day surpass him, and due to this fact he is often conflicted with his feelings toward him. On the one hand, he idolises Superman, and holds him as his role model, as the person he is promised to one day become and who he should always strive to be. On the other hand, he feels the crushing burden that comes with the expectation everyone around him has that he should one day be Superman himself. This in turn causes a kind of resentment. How can he possibly live up to the legacy that Superman, in all his solar-powered perfection, will leave behind? It seems like an impossible goal, and one that no other teenager is being forced to deal with. This frustration is then offset by how Clark has welcomed him into his family and accepted him rather than casting him out, for which he is grateful for, and yet he hasn’t been able to spend any real amount of time with him, causing him to wonder if he is being avoided.
He does not know yet that he is not a 100% clone of Superman, but that in fact only 50% of his DNA comes from him, and the other half from another source entirely. That will be another issue he is forced to deal with when the time comes.
POWERS AND/OR ABILITIES: Thanks to his kryptonian half, Superboy possesses some of the abilities a full kyptonian, powered by the energy of the Earth’s yellow sun, is able to unleash. Because he is not a full kryptonian, though, his abilities are somewhat scaled down (though still developing) and some are missing entirely, though it is unknown if more abilities will surface as he ages or not.
Primarily, he possesses super strength. It is unknown how much Superman would be able to lift if pushed to his absolute limits, and the same is the case for Superboy, though it is conceivable that due to his half-human nature, at his peak he will only be able to lift half as much as Superman, and at the moment he couldn’t possibly manage that. He is a powerhouse even compared to some adult members of the Justice League though, able to punch clean through stone and metal, lift large vehicles and rip a helicopter out of the sky. Since Superman himself is still finding his limits, though, the same is the case for Superboy.
He also boasts something of the famed kryptonian invulnerability. He is able to stand hits that would kill ordinary humans without any problem, and keep getting back up in a fight no matter how many times he’s pummelled down. Low-calibre bullets bounce off him, though higher calibre ones or high-pressure (IE machine gun) fire will cause him to be pushed back and perhaps cause some minor physical damage (EG bruising). He is highly resistant to extreme temperatures and atmospheres, and does not easily contract illnesses. He can be hit by speeding vehicles, thrown through walls and be flattened by machinery, and though it may hurt in a way it would not for Superman, he will be able to get back up again and continue the fight.
He is as of yet unable to fly, but, like an early Clark Kent, is able to leap great distances and travel wide areas in a short amount of time.
Superboy also possesses the enhanced vision of a kryptonian, able to see telescopically to an unknown limit, and has shown the ability to see into the infrared spectrum. He has not shown any trace of the heat vision, x-ray or microscopic vision that Superman has used yet. He also lacks the breathing powers such as super breath and freeze breath, but he is able to amplify his sense of hearing like the Man of Steel to hear even the smallest sounds over large distances.
WEAKNESSES: As he has some of the abilities of a kryptonian, Superboy also retains some of their weaknesses. The substance kryptonite will make him weak and sick, and sap his energy, eventually killing him, though since he is half human it would take longer to arrive at this eventuality than it would for a full kryptonian, and he is more likely to be able to fight back against its damaging effects.
Although it takes a lot of physical damage to faze him, he is a lot more susceptible to damage from magical attacks, which his biology is unable to defend him from, and the same is the case for psychic and telepathic attacks, toward which he is not only defenceless, but also quite easy to damage with, since his psyche is so new and underdeveloped when compared to other living creatures of the same biological age.
Superboy’s superpowers are fuelled by solar energy from Earth’s yellow sun, which his body is able to store like a living solar battery. Unfortunately, he has not been alive as long as Superman and his body has therefore not stored as much energy. He is able to use it up if he over-exerts his powers for too long a time, and this is a great danger, because if this occurs it is theorised that his body will begin to rapidly consume itself to compensate for the required energy.
Outside of physical weaknesses, his inexperience can be seen as his greatest fault. Not only does he have a tendency to jump into situations before he fully understands them, but he is also prone to acting on his emotions, and becoming blind with rage that can lead him into serious trouble.
GOALS: To be able to live up to Superman and fulfil the expectations of those around him that he could be a hero of the same stature is an astronomical goal, but it is one that is always nagging at the back of his mind and weighs upon him every day. He knows his original purpose was to be able to replace Superman if ever he was gone, and he knows that that still holds true. To that end, he works toward serving the cause of justice and fighting evil not only because he knows it is the right thing to do, but because it is, quite literally, what he was born to do.
At the same time, on an emotional level, he feels the need to be differentiated from Superman, and be considered fully his own person. Socially, therefore, he tries to be what he is, a teenager, and to enjoy life as he has it, even if he is weighed down by responsibilities that most human beings will never know.
HISTORY: Superboy was a science project, grown by an underground organisation called Project Cadmus. The idea was supposedly to create a creature that could be trained to take the place of Superman, Earth’s greatest defender, in the event that he ever died or went missing. To that end, the scientists of Cadmus created Superboy using a stolen blend of DNA from Superman himself. Their experiments were unsuccessful, however, and it was decided that creating a kryptonian clone was too high a goal to reach, and that perhaps using a mixture of kryptonian and human DNA would hold better results.
Lex Luthor, the genius criminal mastermind who was largely funding the project due to his own interests, was only to keen to offer his services. It is unknown what Luthor hoped to gain from this move. Perhaps he believed that using his own DNA would make the subject easier to control. Given Luthor’s unstable criminal mind, it would not be unreasonable to guess that he wished to raise Superboy as his son, and perhaps train him to hate Superman with as much passion as himself. Maybe he even saw the use of his DNA as a way to hold the subject back if ever he did happen to join Superman’s side – there would always be a part of Superboy that was inherently evil, even if he was never to know it.
Using a 50-50 combination of the DNA from Superman and Lex Luthor, Superboy was successfully created. For sixteen weeks, he was grown inside a laboratory and force-fed data that would prepare him for life in the outside world – this being not social information, but practical facts to do with science, mathematics and history. His growth continued unhindered and his mental and physical powers were developing better than any of the scientists had hoped. If there had not been a leak in the project, it is probable that Superboy would have been grown to full maturity. As it transpired, somebody got nervous, and once word got out about Cadmus and the questionable project they were running, it spread like wildfire, and it wasn’t long before it reached the ears of the Justice League. Although the story was only a rumour, and they therefore were uncertain as to how much stock to put in it, they decided that they should check it out just in case the story held any truth.
Of course, when members of the team arrived at the facility, they quickly discovered how true it was. When they discovered Superboy, aged at sixteen weeks but appearing to be sixteen years, they freed him from his captivity and made sure Project Cadmus was shut down for good, though all the right ties were severed before they could find out who, exactly, was behind it.
Although Superman was taken aback by the sudden appearance of a clone grown from his DNA without his knowledge, the Justice League took him in and explained his situation to him, making it clear for what purpose he had been created and that they had freed him so that he could live his own life without being controlled by some shady corporation. Even as they explained to him that he was free to live a life unburdened by the destiny his creators had sought to force on him, Superboy understood that this wasn’t the case at all. He knew that, because of his DNA, everyone who knew what he was would expect him to be the same kind of hero that Superman was, and quickly the clone developed equal amounts of idolisation and bitterness toward his predecessor. Superman, for his part, was uncertain as to how to handle the bizarre situation, and seemed to be distancing himself from Superboy.
Superboy stayed in the Justice League headquarters for some time under close observation from the team, who were primarily concerned with making sure he was mentally stable, and secondly concerned with figuring out the details of his mysterious creation. It had already occurred to Superman that the boy was not an exact clone of him, and DNA tests eventually confirmed that he was only partially kryptonian, though it was impossible to tell whom the human DNA came from, and this information was kept from Superboy himself, who to this day believes that he is a full clone of Superman.
It was decided after a while that Superboy’s presence in the Watchtower was serving no purpose other than instigating his boredom, and that he was not inherently dangerous. If he was to be placed among humans, he would not be a threat, and yet, although he apparently felt the base drive to help people, he had not had the strong and wholesome upbringing that had instilled a young Clark Kent with his unwavering morals and heart of gold. Knowing that Superboy could never be the hero he desired to be without learning such valuable lessons, Superman suggested that he go to live with his adoptive mother, Martha Kent, in Smallville for a while. Although the idea was not exactly attractive to the teenager, he agreed to the terms simply because he couldn’t be faced with the concept of being cooped up in the Watchtower for much longer. He was supplied with the name ‘Conner Kent’, and the cover story that he was Clark Kent’s cousin, and with that he moved to Smallville to begin his new life.
He has been out of the Cadmus facility now for just over two months, and has been living on the modest Kansas farm for half of that time. Although he is (slowly) learning the twists and turns of leading a human life, Conner Kent is still struggling to figure out exactly what his place is in the world, and he certainly doesn’t believe that this is something he’s going to discover staying in Smallville.
THE NITTY-GRITTY;;
SCREENNAME: Astalakio
Time spent roleplaying: What did I put on the last one? Six years? Yeah, let’s go with that.
Other Characters: Aqualad
RP Sample:
She was the prettiest girl in his class. Hands-down. And she was totally into him.
At least, he was pretty sure. It was hard to tell. He’d caught her stealing glances at him from time to time… but was that just because he was new, and the oddity of the classroom? Or was it that he had been spending more time looking at her, and so, statistically, they were going to make eye contact at some point?
It was very complicated. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to tackle something like this yet, not when he was still in the middle of learning how not to lie for his own benefit. What was it the old lady said? Something about walking before he could run?
Hands-down, Sarah Walker was the prettiest girl in his class. He was pretty sure of that, at least.
She looked up from her notebook and caught his eye, and at the exact same moment a piercing voice rang out at him.
“Mister Kent!” It hollered, and in his startled state Conner’s elbow slipped, and since it was this elbow that was supporting his hand, which he was in turn resting his head on, he almost smacked his forehead on the wooden desk.
“Huh? What?” He mumbled, glancing about for the source of the disturbance. His eyes settled eventually on the withered old crone standing at the head of the class.
“I said,” The old bat said, “Could you perhaps provide us with an answer?”
“Er… yeah!” Conner responded vacantly. The silence that followed compressed his lungs and threatened to drown him in his own inadequacy. Everybody in the room was staring at him. He could hear the clock ticking behind him. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. “What was the question, again?”
“Hrm,” The teacher grumbled disapprovingly, “You could tell you’re a Kent. You’re as much a daydreamer as your cousin was before you. But he had the courtesy to at least pretend to be listening.”
Conner froze at the mention of his ‘cousin’. If time was slow before, it stopped then completely for a split second while this castaway statement settled to rest on his thoughts like a two-ton weight.
“I asked you what the theory of tabula rasa is, and who first suggested it. Now will you grace us with an answer, or shall I repeat it a second time for you?”
It was quite a revelation to Conner. This old, frail looking creature with her glasses on a string of beads and her textbook clutched in this wrinkly fingers… she knew more about Clark Kent than he did. And he was supposed to be him. Just a little detail like that – about how much he paid attention in class. Conner had had no idea, and yet the world was expecting him to be this man’s equal, his replacement… but how many of the people around him, of the people around the world, knew more about Superman than he did?
He stood up, pushing his wooden chair out with the backs of his legs in the same motion. The teacher eyed him with suspicion. Everyone was still staring, but he no longer cared.
“I’m going out for a while.” He told her simply, his voice devoid of emotion.
“I beg your pardon?” The old woman demanded, quirking a wispy eyebrow at him.
He removed himself from his desk and navigated his way through the maze of seats, making his way toward the door to the classroom. He didn’t look at any of the students who were now staring in awe.
He reached the door, and placed a hand on the cold metal handle.
“Now you stop right there, young man…” The old woman warned in threatening tones, as if she could snap his neck in two with the flick of her wrist. Ironic.
“Aristotle.” He muttered.
“What?”
“Aristotle was the theorist who laid the groundwork for the theory of tabula rasa, which is now translated roughly as the ‘blank slate’ theory, and suggests that every individual is born completely devoid of any personal traits, and that every aspect of who they are is defined solely by their experiences during childhood and later life.”
He didn’t look at her, at anyone, but he tilted his head a little,
“It is also wrong. Contemporary studies have shown that a person’s genes can have a direct impact on their traits. On who they are.”
His statement hovered in the air after he had finished speaking. He could sense that the teacher, baffled by the accuracy of his completely correct answer, was fumbling to come up with a response. He didn’t wait for her to get there. He opened the door and walked out.
Once outside in the hall, he leaned against the wall and looked up at the ceiling, recalling another thing that Martha Kent had told him.
’Blending in is all-important. That’s lesson number one, kiddo. Clark learned it like an art, and you’ll have to too’.
Conner smirked. Well. What was the point of having two Clark Kents in the world, anyway? He would get it eventually. Probably.
