Titans’ Superboy Treatment Risks Turning Him Into Lex Luthor, Not Superman

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Titans season 3 episode 13, “Purple Rain.”

Titans needs to decide on Superboy’s personality after the events of season 3. While the hybrid clone of Superman and Lex Luthor was introduced in the second season of the series on HBO Max, it hasn’t felt as though Conner Kent has quite landed on the kind of person or hero he wants to be. Likewise, there are several moments where Conner is working alongside his friends and his behavior has been somewhat unpredictable, and even irrational. Is this a sign that he could be headed for a more villainous role in the future?

Conner Kent has largely been a wasted character, as his contemporaries were certainly given more of a spotlight throughout season 3’s winding battle against Scarecrow and the rise of Red Hood. When he is featured, it’s less as a fully realized character and more of a romantic sidekick, which isn’t a great look for a super-strong cloned Kryptonian who likely could have located and disposed of Scarecrow in a matter of minutes if the show ever allowed him to fully explore his abilities. While there are moments where he’s happy to help his team and protect Gotham, there are other moments where he lashes out—like after his failure to help save Hawk, or the 30 seconds it takes for him to turn his back on the Titans after Blackfire is shot in a struggle with the GCPD.

As it stands, the moments that Superboy has in Titans season 3 feature a handful of seeds for some dynamic character development, but they ultimately don’t go anywhere. As such, it feels as though there’s a reluctance to have Conner pick a lane with his personality. Will he continue to be a hero and work with the Titans in his desire to emulate Superman, or will he eventually give into the darkness of Lex Luthor that has been teased, but ultimately never acted upon. The continued struggle between a character’s inner demons and a desire to do good works for an anti-hero like Jason Todd’s Red Hood, but Conner’s sudden 180-degree outbursts often feel more like whiplash than inner turmoil. The way showrunners have depicted his actions, particularly towards the end of season 3, makes it all the more likely that Superboy will have to be dealt with sooner rather than later.

Conner Kent has been Titans most inconsistent character since his introduction. Because he was technically created very recently he has the least amount of experience on the team dealing with his emotional issues, and that makes sense, but his unsteady relationship with the Titans in season 3 falls squarely at the feet of the show’s inconsistent writing. Conner displays wild mental swings and makes rash, nonsensical decisions that are far more in line with the characterization of a supervillain, lending even more credence to the idea of him potentially giving in to his Luthorian roots.

A bizarrely villainous moment that saw leader Dick Grayson incapacitate Superboy (and Krypto) with Kryptonite dust—a potentially lethal move considering his weakness to the meteor rock—should have been met with outrage. Between that and his girlfriend Blackfire being shot, Conner was fully ready to walk away and spent most of the season’s penultimate episode acting like a teenager on Red Kryptonite. Instead, he blew up Blackfire’s ship later on in that very same episode in a moment of extreme selfishness (another incident that was completely glossed over later) before turning around and forgiving Dick in the season finale, without so much as a second thought. Where is the consistency?

All in all, Titans needs to decide on a personality for Conner Kent, rather than having him constantly going back and forth. Superboy is the most powerful member of the team, and he needs to become a fully realized member that either benefits from the Titans more than he has, or leads him down a darker path. Hopefully, the recently announced Titans season 4 will feature a better-developed Superboy with a more concrete personality for the future.