10 Superheroes With Awesome Super-Powered Kids

Superhero comics have been going on for so many decades by now that, even in the weirdly timeless world of comic books, we've seen many of our favourite heroes grow up. Over the years, we've followed them from the early days of their superheroism, where they generally struggled to balance their everyday lives with their alter egos, to the point where they had longterm partners and even kids. Naturally, these super-sprogs take after their parents and often inherit the heroic instinct and desire to wear colourful tights. More often that not, they eventually take up their parent's superhero mantle. For instance, Connor Hawke replaced his pops Oliver Queen as Green Arrow. On the other hand, they can sometimes rise higher than their ma and pa; in the future, Danielle Cage - daughter of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones - will become the next Captain America. These are just two examples of the many super-powered kids in Marvel and DC comics, though. From Superboy to Spider-Girl, join us as we take a look at the best superhero sons and daughters. As always, if we've missed one of your favourites, be sure to remind us in the comments section. 10) Earth-2's Huntress (Helena Wayne) Before we begin, a brief history lesson: when the Silver Age came along, a new continuity was established and the stories that made up the Golden Age were shifted into Earth-2, a world where the characters were older than the regular universe. One outcome of this was that Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle were married and had a daughter, Helena Wayne. With two vigilantes for parents, Helena naturally grew up to follow in their footsteps. When her mother was blackmailed by a criminal, something that led to her tragic death, Helena took on the mantle of the Huntress and fought crime in Gotham. She's known for her close friendship with Power Girl, a parallel version of Supergirl. After Crisis on Infinite Earths shook up the multiverse, Helena was erased from continuity and replaced by Helena Bertinelli. The New 52, however, brought Helena Wayne back into the fold. As of DC Rebirth, the Bat and the Cat might be getting hitched in regular continuity as well. Who knows? Baby Helena could be on the way soon. 9) Speed And Wiccan (Tommy Shepherd And Billy Kaplan) Simply put, Wiccan and Speed are the twin sons of Vision and Scarlet Witch. But seeing as their dad is an android and their mother is a super-powerful witch, their origins aren't quite as clean-cut as that. Wanda actually used her reality-warping powers to create her two boys. However, she unknowingly made them out of fragments of the broken soul of Mephisto - think Voldemort's Horcruxes in Harry Potter. Thankfully, Tommy and Billy were able to defeat Mephisto and were reborn as 100% themselves. Despite their head-scratching backstory, Wiccan and Speed are actually two great characters. Both serve on the Young Avengers team consisting of other junior legacy heroes like Miss America and Iron Lad. Speed takes after his uncle Quicksilver and is impetuous and head-strong at first, later entering into a relationship with teammate Kate Bishop (Hawkeye). Wiccan, meanwhile, inherited his mother's powers and is one of Marvel's few gay heroes - he develops a bond with Teddy Altman AKA Hulking. Teddy himself could get a spot on this list, too, as he's the son of Kree hero Captain Marvel and Skrull princess Anelle. 8) Superboy (Conner Kent) His origins aren't as complex as Wiccan and Speed, but Conner Kent also isn't your average Super-Son. In the wake of Superman's death at the hands of Doomsday, Project Cadmus made a half-Kryptonian/half-human clone of Superman. And guess where the human DNA came from? Supes' longtime nemesis, Lex Luthor! What makes Superboy such an interesting character is the conflict between his Kryptonian and human halves and his attempt to embrace Superman's heroism and not be tempted by his Luthor dark side. Conner's finest hour comes in the Young Justice TV series, in which he was pretty much the breakout character. Despite being a brilliant hero, though, we don't feel we can put Conner up any higher on this list due to the varying portrayal of his relationship with Superman. Sometimes he's treated like a son, but they usually have a strained relationship of a big brother and a younger brother, or even cousins (like Supes and Supergirl). 7) Franklin Richards Who would have thought that the son of Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman - two heroes with helpful abilities, yes, but not particularly powerful - would be one of the most ridiculously powerful characters in the whole Marvel universe? Franklin Richards doesn't possess stretchy skin or the power of invisibility, but instead has incredibly vast reality-warping abilities that put him beyond the category of an Omega-level mutant. He's so powerful, in fact, that he was instrumental in defeating Ultron when he was still just a toddler and has been sought after as a doomsday weapon by the likes of Annihilus and Onslaught. To demonstrate just how god-like he is, Franklin once subconsciously created his own pocket universe. It's also been said that eventually Franklin will become so omnipotent that even Galactus will be subservient to him. Franklin also has a (much less powerful) sister - Valeria Richards, so named because she was raised by Doctor Doom in an alternate dimension (weirdly, she still refers to the supervillain nemesis of her parent as "Uncle Doom"). 6) Spider-Girl (Mayday Parker) Though Peter Parker has never had any kids in mainstream Marvel continuity, he's had a couple of baby Spider-sprogs in the various parallel worlds out there. Recently, the ongoing Renew Your Vows series showcases a timeline where Peter and Mary Jane had a daughter named Annie who's inherited her father's powers. In effect, Annie Parker's an update of another daughter of Spider-Man. First created in 1998 as part of the MC2 universe imprint, May 'Mayday' Parker was likewise the result of Peter and M.J.'s marriage. After Peter lost his leg in a brutal final battle with Green Goblin, he left behind the Spider-Man mantle and didn't tell his daughter about her inherited powers until she was a teenager. Like father like daughter, once she found out Mayday became Spider-Girl. The character was hugely successful back in the day, with her solo series outlasting various attempts at cancellation thanks to the support of the fans. In the end, Spider-Girl was crowned as the longest-running Marvel comic series with a female lead. 5) Superboy (Jon Kent) The most recent creation on this list, Jon Kent is only two years old - well, in real-world terms. First appearing in the Convergence arc, Jon is the ten year old son of the pre-Flashpoint versions of Lois Lane and Clark Kent. When those characters merged with the New 52 incarnations to become the only Lois and Clark, Jon remained the same and looks to be here to stay. Since the advent of DC Rebirth, Jon has made quite the impact. Now operating as Superboy, the young Kent is being mentored in the ways of Superman by his dad and has formed an uneasy partnership with Damian Wayne's Robin (more on him in a moment). He's been kidnapped by Mr. Mxyzptlk, brainwashed by Manchester Black and survived General Zod's wrath, but through it all he's demonstrated his father's immense courage and his mother's fierce spirit. Despite his arrival marking a massive shift in Superman's status quo, Jon has gone down incredibly well with fans since his debut. Let's hope that the adventures of Superman and Son keep unfolding for a long time yet (and don't fall victim to another pesky continuity wipe). 4) Robin (Damian Wayne) Before Superman became a dad, writer Grant Morrison went and gave the Dark Knight a son back in 2006 (inspired by a non-canon story from 1987). The result of a tryst between Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul, Damian Wayne is every bit as volatile and unpleasant a 13 year old boy as you would expect from the progeny of a moody vigilante and an assassin. Genetically perfect and grown in an artificial womb, Damian has a massive superiority complex and an ego the size of Gotham City. When he's first placed in his father's care, Damian is little more than a sociopath - he attempts to kill Robin to get close to his dad - but under Batman's influence he grows into a hero and forms a close if fraught relationship with Bruce. Nowadays, Damian has mellowed into a loveable brat. He might still think he's the best superhero in the world and belittle his friends - mostly Jon and his teammates in the Teen Titans - but we know his heart's in the right place. 3) X-23 (Laura Kinney) Like a small handful of characters before her, Laura Kinney AKA X-23 did not originate in the comics but on TV - specifically, 2003 animated series X-Men: Evolution. The clone daughter of Wolverine, Laura proved to be such a hit that she was quickly brought into the Marvel universe and her importance has continued to increase ever since. For one, she recently made her big screen debut in Logan. Created as the perfect killing machine, Laura worked as a brainwashed assassin before she crossed paths with her father and the X-Men, who rehabilitated her and set her on the hero path. With Logan's regenerative abilities and retractable claws - Laura has two on each hand and two on each foot - X-23 is every bit as fierce and deadly as her dad. She's also one of the few super-kids to have successfully replaced their father's mantle: with Logan dead in the comics right now, Laura's the current Wolverine. And with Hugh Jackman hanging up his claws after Logan, Dafne Keen could be about to follow suit in the movies at some point in the future. 2) Batman (Terry McGinnis) From one TV creation to another, Terry McGinnis was invented for 1999 animated series Batman Beyond. Trained by an elderly Bruce Wayne to take on the mantle of Batman in a futuristic Gotham City, Terry was just too awesome to be kept out of the DC comics universe. If you've only seen the animated series, you're probably confused why Terry is appearing on this list. It was only in the season 2 finale of the Justice League animated series when his true origins were revealed, after all. It turns out that Amanda Waller genetically engineered him out of Bruce's DNA to be the perfect replacement for Batman. The project was later abandoned, though, and it was just a twist of fate that Terry became Batman after his parents were murdered (a' la Bruce's origin story). Somewhat like Damian, Terry doesn't have the same temperament as his father and often comes into conflict with him due to their different approaches. However, he's just as much of a hero as his old man as he's inherited Batman's most important traits: his immense courage and heart. 1) Cable (Nathan Summers) If you thought Speed and Wiccan had a complex origin story, then wait until you learn about Cable. The son of Cyclops and Madeline Pryor (Jean Grey's clone), Nathan Summers was flung into an alternate future where he grew into a hard-bitten warrior with cyborg enhancements. He then returned to the present where he often butted heads with Scott Summers - who didn't realize Cable was really his son. And that's not even getting into Cable's half-siblings Rachel Summers and Nate Grey and his evil twin Stryfe. Hiding beneath this ridiculously convoluted biography is a terrific character, though. Once the epitome of the trend for gritty anti-heroes in the 1990s, Cable has stood the test of time and remains one of Marvel's most popular non-mainstream heroes. At last, Cable is about to make his cinematic debut in next year's Deadpool 2, where he'll be played by the perfectly cast Josh Brolin. Seeing as the Deadpool movies are there own thing, though, we're not sure how much the movie will delve into Nathan Summer's parentage. It's our hope that he might appear in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, as well, to meet his folks when they were young.