A surprise third hero joins the Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent series

Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent #2 cover art
Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent #2 (Image credit: DC)

Last month writer Tom Taylor told Newsarama his former series Superman: Son of Kal-El was getting relaunched and rebranded as the six-issue limited series Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent "for a specific reason that we can't talk about yet."

"There's something very exciting happening with Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent that we won't reveal until a couple of issues in," Taylor told us. "It's very exciting; sorry to be so mysterious."

And while DC and Taylor have yet to reveal what this "mysterious" and "exciting" specific reason for the new series they can't talk about yet really is, this first look at the covers and DC's full description of April 4's Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent #2 (that Newsarama readers get to see first), is at least another bread crumb.

Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent #2 cover (Image credit: DC)

We already know Jon will face off against his father's evil Earth-3 counterpart Ultraman (who was responsible for Jon aging from a pre-teen to the young adult he is now), who now seems to be murdering Kal-Els from around the Multiverse. Jon will team up with Earth-2's Superman, Val-Zod, to try to stop him, but another superhero will team up with them, and it may have something to do with Taylor's teaser.

"Kal-Els across the Multiverse are being murdered…and the culprit is the man who stole Jon Kent's childhood!" reads DC's description.

"Jon is joined by Earth-2's Superman, Val-Zod, and a surprise third hero to try to stop Ultraman’s killing spree. But when Jon comes face-to-face with the man who tortured him and kept him imprisoned, he discovers an even greater threat!"

That surprise third hero seems like it may have something to do with the "something very exciting happening" ...  "a couple of issues in."

Who could that third hero be that (*may have) caused Taylor and DC to rebrand the series?

Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent #2 cover (Image credit: DC)

A few guesses include the younger version of Jon himself since Ultraman is the foe and pretty much anything and everything is on the table at DC continuity-wise these days.

Or how about the Kal-El Superboy that was written out of Earth-Prime continuity after Crisis on Infinite Earths but was kinda-sorta restored to continuity in Doomsday Clock?

Superboy-Prime would also be a big surprise, especially if DC is following up on his hero turn at the conclusion of Dark Knights: Death Metal.

Whoever the third hero is, Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent #2 (of 6) is written by Taylor with art and a main cover by Clayton Henry and variant covers by Zu Orzu, Tiago Da Silva, Mike Perkins, Henry, and John Timms.

Check out the covers below:

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I'm not just the Newsarama founder and editor-in-chief, I'm also a reader. And that reference is just a little bit older than the beginning of my Newsarama journey. I founded what would become the comic book news site in 1996, and except for a brief sojourn at Marvel Comics as its marketing and communications manager in 2003, I've been writing about new comic book titles, creative changes, and occasionally offering my perspective on important industry events and developments for the 25 years since. Despite many changes to Newsarama, my passion for the medium of comic books and the characters makes the last quarter-century (it's crazy to see that in writing) time spent doing what I love most.