Superman & Lois Has Quietly Retconned Jordan's Power Level
Warning: Spoilers for Superman & Lois season 2, episode 8
Superman & Lois has quietly retconned Jordan’s power level in the Arrowverse. Alex Garfin’s Jordan Kent has developed an impressive level of control over his Kryptonian abilities. Despite his youth, he already has most of his father’s powers.
Jordan being the super-powered twin of the family has led to the impression that he’s the Arrowverse character with the best chance of becoming Earth-Prime’s Superboy. Over the course of the series, he’s managed to gradually acquire super hearing, strength, heat-ray vision, and ice breath. But though he has a varied arsenal of weapons at his disposal, he's of course nowhere near the power of his father, who is without question one of the strongest forces in the Arrowverse. Plus, it’s been understood from the beginning that his human DNA makes him physically incapable of ever matching Superman’s power level.
Superman & Lois season 2, episode 8, titled “Into Oblivion” permanently changed viewers’ perceptions of how powerful Jordan really is in the show. When Jonathan and Candice were in danger, Jordan used super speed to race to their aid. Not unlike Superman, Jordan reached them in an instant. He was so fast that the human eye couldn’t follow his movements. His remarkable speed didn’t surprise Jonathan or Jordan, which indicated that the character acquired the power offscreen. This, combined with how easily he defeated his X-Kryptonite-powered enemy, serves as evidence that Jordan is much stronger than he was originally thought to be.
In fact, it was only a few episodes ago that Jordan lost a fight to Jonathan, who had inhaled a dose of X-Kryptonite. Jordan losing to him made sense because it was believed that he only had slightly enhanced strength, speed, and durability. That fit well with Jor-El’s assessment of him in season 1. Back then, it was established that Jordan would never attain more than 1/100th of Superman’s power. How Superman & Lois has since utilized the character has allowed him to stay within those limitations, but after “Into Oblivion”, it’s worth wondering if Jordan has exceeded them somehow.
Gaining super speed alone makes Jordan significantly more powerful than he was in recent episodes. As Superman proved in his fights with Bizarro, super speed is one of the most valuable weapons a hero or villain can have. With it, he can end fights before they begin and take out challenging metahuman opponents. While it may be a long time before he has the emotional and mental maturity needed to be a full-fledged superhero, he’s certainly powerful enough to be one at this point (if that’s the path he decides to take). And based on how he thwarted a robbery in an earlier episode and saved his brother in “Into Oblivion”, Jordan does seem set to one day follow in his father’s footsteps.
Superman & Lois releases new episodes on Tuesdays on The CW.