Children of Superheroes in the DCU

[Mahou Otaku]

I am trying to understand why some work and some don't. Actually, I'd say about 95% of children conceived or adopted by a superhero parent or parents tend to disappear.

I don't have a huge knowledge of non-manga comics, though I have read a bit. Here's a list of what I know.

Chris Kent didn't work (story wise, not popularity wise; not sure how popular he was); I believe the character ended up in Phantom Zone or dead after the War of the Supermen? My memory of that story is fuzzy.

Damian so far has worked out rather well as he's now Robin and appearing quite a bit, though apparently not enough to merit his own book.

Wonder Woman never had a child (well that I know of at least). I suppose Cass could be a surrogate daughter in pre-Flashpoint, though it's doubtful they even know each other now.

Animal Man has two children, and I suppose we'll have to wait for Rotworld to finish to see their status.

Barry had children, twin tornadoes, who gave birth to others like Bart and Jenni. That's all but gone now I think, though I am a bit fuzzy on the LOSH stories too.

So out of those I could think of, really only Bruce and Buddy have been ongoing parents, though feel free to add to the list. There seem to be many more failed attempts than successes.

Why do you think some attempts to create a family or child/ren for any particular hero fails and others succeed? What does Batman and Animal Man have that apparently Clark and Hal and Barry etc doesn't have?

[Yttrium]

The problem is that aging doesn't take place normally in the comics, and kids would stay kids permanently without author/editorial meddling. Give enough time, some writer is going to kill off the kid, or send him through a time warp to age him up, or whatever. This is the same problem with marriages. Some writers just can't resist the temptation to mess up marriages.

[Ood Omega]

Do Jade and Obsidian count?

[Ultradav]

I am trying to understand why some work and some don't. Actually, I'd say about 95% of children conceived or adopted by a superhero parent or parents tend to disappear.

I don't have a huge knowledge of non-manga comics, though I have read a bit. Here's a list of what I know.

Chris Kent didn't work (story wise, not popularity wise; not sure how popular he was); I believe the character ended up in Phantom Zone or dead after the War of the Supermen? My memory of that story is fuzzy.

Damian so far has worked out rather well as he's now Robin and appearing quite a bit, though apparently not enough to merit his own book.

Wonder Woman never had a child (well that I know of at least). I suppose Cass could be a surrogate daughter in pre-Flashpoint, though it's doubtful they even know each other now.

Animal Man has two children, and I suppose we'll have to wait for Rotworld to finish to see their status.

Barry had children, twin tornadoes, who gave birth to others like Bart and Jenni. That's all but gone now I think, though I am a bit fuzzy on the LOSH stories too.

So out of those I could think of, really only Bruce and Buddy have been ongoing parents, though feel free to add to the list. There seem to be many more failed attempts than successes.

Why do you think some attempts to create a family or child/ren for any particular hero fails and others succeed? What does Batman and Animal Man have that apparently Clark and Hal and Barry etc doesn't have?

It's what Yttrium said, the obsessive focus on keeping the heroes young and not letting them change too much. As said, you could say the same for superhero marriages.

The following DC characters have had children(mostly Golden age heroes), and I always enjoyed those interactions and that dynamic:

Red Tornado
Alan Scott
Wonder Woman(GA)
Atom (GA)
Wildcat (GA)
Batman & Catwoman (GA)
Donna Troy
Hawkman & Hawkgirl (GA)
Wally West
Lightning Lad & Saturn Girl
Aquaman & Mera
Cosmic Boy & Night Girl
Tempest
Speedy
Hourman (GA)
Liberty Belle & Johnny Quick
Catwoman
Power Girl
Stripesy
Starman(GA)
Johnny Thunder
Black Canary (GA)
Fury I & II
Iron Munro
Phantom Lady

That's just off the top of my head, there are many more. Some of the above didn't know their kids until they were adults, or we were never shown many interactions between adult and child.

The worst was what happened to Roy Harper & Donna Troy's children... Lian especially.

As mentioned, most of those kids are now dead or wiped out. :/

The best and longest term kids also one of the longest-lasting marriages was for Animal Man. Probably thanks in no small part to Grant Morrison. It's a shame, I quite enjoyed the marriages between Lois & Clark, Ralph & Sue Dibny, Jay & Joan Garrick, Wally & Linda Park-West to name a few. Others were terrible though, I never warmed up to Donna Troy & Terry Long, for instance.

[Morgenstern]

Booster Gold and Rip Hunter did work..though I don't think you could call that a typical Father-Son relationship.
Also Manhunter (the cop frmo Gotham, not the Martian one) also had a son iirc. Thoguh after her rather short series I don't think we saw either very often again.