Conduit (comics)
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Conduit, alias Kenny Braverman, is a DC Comics supervillain who became obsessed with the idea that he was always second-rate to Clark Kent.
[edit] Fictional character biography
On the night he was born, Kenny suffers a high level of radiation poisoning due to exposure to kryptonite when Kal-El's starship passs over the Braverman's car, which had skidded on ice caused by a snowstorm on their way to the hospital. While his health fails from time to time, he always manages to recover. He even becomes a remarkable athlete at Smallville High, although he always comes in second place in sporting events after Clark Kent. In order to learn how to manage the changes his body goes through, he volunteers to be thoroughly examined by the CIA. He accepts a covert job in France that is thwarted by Clark, unknownst to him.
Kenny always despised Clark and once he learned to control his powers by focusing them through his suit, he tries to kill Clark and Lois Lane with metal gauntlets on each arm that can emit beams of kryptonite radiation. While he fails to kill them, he ends up dueling Superman (not knowing that he is Clark Kent).
When Conduit discovers Superman's secret identity he proceeded to stalk Clark, sending him notes saying "I KNOW" and planting bombs intended to kill his friends and co-workers. Kenny is convinced that when they had raced as children, Clark had possessed all of the powers he possesses as Superman, and thus had 'cheated'. Seeing no other option, Superman attempts to forsake his identity as Clark Kent and go into hiding, but Kenny eventually tracks him down and knocks him unconscious.
Kenny then proceeds to place Clark in a fake Smallville set twenty years in the past filled with android versions of its citizens programmed to hate Superman. Several of them attack Superman, including imitations of Jonathan and Martha Kent and Lois (the only one who doesn't appear younger because Kenny hadn't known Lois in those days). Once Superman figures out Conduit is waiting for him at the high school football stadium, they fight one-on-one as Clark versus Kenny; no powers. Kenny resorts to using his kryptonite powers and the hand-to-hand escalates to an all-out brawl that heavily damaged the stadium. In a desperate attempt to defeat Clark, Kenny channels the stadium's electrical energy powering the robot audience (all of which were built in the image of Kenny's father) into himself. As a result, Kenny overloads and dies. Saddened by the loss of his old friend, Superman returns Kenny's body to his father, where he criticizes the man for only focusing on Kenny's losses rather than congratulating him for what he did achieve in life.
[edit] Other media
Kenny Braverman also appeared in an episode of Superman: The Animated Series. This episode ("New Kids In Town") featured Clark Kent as a teenager, becoming aware of his super powers. In an attempt to destroy Clark before he took on the identity of Superman, Brainiac traveled from the 30th century to Smallville during Superman's high school years (a reference by Martha Kent to the "Dukes of Hazzard" television show places these events in the early 1980s.) Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy and Chameleon Boy, three members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, also traveled back in time to stop Brainiac. In this episode, the arrogant, athletic Kenny Braverman taunts Clark Kent at a high school dance and is both humiliated and physically injured when Clark responds to his provocation with an unsportsmanlike display of super powers. Later, at a roadside diner, Kenny is set upon by Brainiac who demands to know Clark's home address. Kenny eventually gives in and is hurled through a neon sign for his troubles.
Although Conduit was never featured in Superman: The Animated Series, the high-school rivalry between Kenny Braverman and Clark Kent clearly referenced their comic-book conflict.
