The time has come for Jon Kent to rise. As the son of Superman and Lois Lane, he fights for truth, justice and a better world, taking on his father’s mantle and figuring out what his legacy means for him. He may just go further than either of his parents ever have in Superman: Son of Kal-El #1, written by Tom Taylor, drawn by John Timms, colored by Gabe Eltaeb and lettered by Dave Sharpe.
Over in Action Comics #1,033, tensions between Atlantis and America rise as each tries to control the mysterious Genesis artifact brought to Earth by Warworld — a place that has just begun to set its own plans in motion. Written by Philip Kennedy Johnson, drawn by Daniel Sampere, colored by Adriano Lucas and lettered by Sharpe, with an ongoing Midnighter backup story written by Becky Cloonan and Michael W. Conrad, drawn by Michael Avon Oeming, colored by Taki Soma and lettered by Sharpe.
Armaan Babu: So the prevalence of last week’s fatherhood themes was pretty good prep, I’d say, for Superman’s son stepping into the spotlight, wouldn’t you say, Tony? I have to say, I’m really glad I joined Super Chat when I did; this is a very exciting time to be a fan of Kryptonian comics, and we’re getting the groundwork for things to come!
Tony Thornley: This was a VERY interesting week, especially compared to the books from last week. Where last week had a thematic throughline, this has a sort of plot throughline — these are both setup for bigger things to come. And that’s not necessarily bad.
A New Legacy Born
Armaan: Jonathan Kent has a very convoluted origin story, one I’m glad they’ve simplified here. Forget that he was the result of a union between the Superman of a prior timeline whose story was merged with the Superman of the new 52 by a 5th Dimensional Imp — Jon’s just the son of two of the world’s greatest champions of truth and justice. Despite the title, the issue does put a lot of emphasis on the fact that Jon’s not just the son of Superman — he’s Lois’ kid, too. What did you think of this retelling of Jon’s birth, Tony?
Tony: Is this the first time we’ve actually seen Jon’s birth? I wasn’t reading around Convergence, so I know something happened around then. But even then, continuity has been rewritten so many times since …
Anyways, I felt like it was incredibly in character for the entire Justice League to be there for Jon’s birth, especially Diana acting as a midwife. The first human/Kryptonian hybrid deserved that level of attention. Being Superman, naturally there had to be an (attempted) alien invasion while it was happening. I did feel like that was a bit of a cliche, but I mean … it’s comics. Life events that are already a little dramatic need to be MORE dramatic. What did you think?
Armaan: This is definitely the first time we’ve seen Jon’s birth after the complicated changes that made him officially a part of main continuity. Speaking of other continuities briefly, though — my introduction to Tom Taylor was his work on Injustice: Gods Among Us. I was immediately sold on that comic by how well he nailed the Bruce-Clark friendship, in a scene announcing Lois’ pregnancy. Things went terribly in that universe, so seeing this story play out in a world where everything went well is incredibly cathartic.
Flash forward to the present, though, and we see Jon doing what superheroes do best: putting out fires. I really enjoyed this sequence as a showcase for the kind of hero Jon is — not only does he do the quintessential talking down of a “villain” who’s simply misunderstood, we get other smaller moments, too. Timms’ art does a lot of things, but what stands out most is how he captures that mix of strength and the celebration of kindness in the heroes we see here. Jon’s grand entrance in beautifully colored reds and blues, his assurances that everyone’s going to be OK, the way he doesn’t upstage the firefighters on the scene but joins them in putting the flames out — like you said in your review over at ComicCon, “this is what a Superman book should be.”
Tony: Thanks for reading it, first of all! I really dug this scene. You get every facet of what makes Superman truly great here. Protecting the innocent, supporting first responders, saving the day more with compassion than with his fists. Timms and Eltaeb really show off why they were the right choice for the title here, especially for how realistic they made the forest fire. I lived in a dry rural area of Utah growing up, and I saw more than one wildfire firsthand. This is pretty much EXACTLY how they looked.
I also dug how Taylor added some nuance to Jon here to set him apart from Clark. Now, do I wish he felt a little more youthful, sort of like Johnson’s Shadowbreed arc? Yes. But does he feel inexperienced and like he’s trying to figure out his place in the world? Definitely, thanks to the ethical conundrum the U.S. military forces him into.
Clark wouldn’t have hesitated to take this misunderstood young man away from the military and give him to a group he trusted, like Triangle-era STAR Labs or Emil Hamilton. Jon, however, surrenders him and immediately begins to regret it. So of course, he consults a friend about it …
Return of the Super-Sons
Armaan: I loved the dynamic of the Super-Sons back when Jon was just a kid too young to even join the Teen Titans, and I’m glad to see that even though Jon’s been aged up, their bond still exists. However, while Tom Taylor normally nails character voices with apparent ease, his take on Robin feels a bit off. He appears to have matured, tonally, possibly to keep up with Jon’s own maturing this issue — or is it just me?
Tony: OK, this was the part of the issue that I disliked. I did like having Jon and Damian back together, especially with the circumstances of both their lives since the Infinite Frontier era started messing with their previous dynamic. Jon felt slightly too old, though, and Damian … This just didn’t feel like Damian at all. He felt way closer to Tim or Dick than Damian. A much colder and callous version of Tim or Dick … but not Damian.
Armaan: It’s especially jarring considering how he’s written in the Robin book this book references. It’s possible, though, that this is a case of their character voices being sacrificed somewhat in service of the message their conversation brings — something I did enjoy. It’s an update to Clark’s mission statement of Truth, Justice and the American Way If You’re Comfortable Mentioning That Bit. Truth, Justice and a Better World is a statement of purpose I can get excited about.
The superheroic default is putting out fires. This is not the first time a comic’s discussed them perhaps preventing fires in the first place. The superhero genre’s been real clunky about having this kind of conversation, more often than not. Just look at Taylor’s X-Men: Red. That doesn’t mean, though, that it’s not something I want to see comics exploring more often. A legacy child, with not just the weight of the world but the weight of the future on his shoulders, Jon feels like the perfect character to explore that.
Tony: Definitely, and let’s be real, the American Way has been heavily compromised for years. Taylor (who, don’t forget, is Australian) using this series to grapple with that a bit is a great idea. Jon working toward a better world is the perfect mission statement for him. Let’s just hope he handles it better than he did Captain America and the Japanese internment camps …
Armaan: It’s the first issue of a new Superman comic, Tony. I’m willing to give it some room. Political conversations aren’t easy, but if you’ve got a hero fighting for a better world, politics are inevitable. Which brings us to the events of Action Comics.
Super-Diplomacy
Armaan: Last month, we briefly touched on how weird it was that an already complicated story was adding in a new thread with rising tensions between Atlantis and America. That plotline takes center stage in this issue, and I’m actually glad it did, because I like seeing Superman as peacekeeper. We see Batman and Aquaman debate diplomacy, and the Superman family fly in to stop a war, and it feels like things are about to break out at any moment — you can feel the sparks flying, like everything’s just one wrong move away from blowing up.
I just wish Wonder Woman wasn’t off the table here — we see Batman being brought in for tactics or mysteries all the time, or the Atom being called in for his scientific expertise, but the one time we could use an honest-to-Greek-gods diplomat, she’s unfortunately off having her own adventures in the afterlife. You’d think Hippolyta’d be able to step up, though.
Tony: Hell, this would also be a good opportunity to see how Black Adam may be growing as a member of the League. The opening act of the issue was just a lot of fun. I am a little concerned that Johnson is trying to cover too much ground, but he’s balancing it just right on the edge here.
The tenuous situation between the U.S. and Atlantis is a great setup, and I think this goes back to what I said in the first issue Johnson did with Sampere — Johnson knows how to balance a Superman story with a DC Universe story. After years of a heavily siloed DCU, it’s a refreshing change of pace.
Armaan: Yes, although I do feel the pain of having to do one’s best with a Justice League roster someone else has picked — this is not the most conventional League, nor is it a roster I expect to see for a long time, and a part of me is a little regretful this lineup’ll be gone before other creators really get to know what to make of them.
Of course, it’s one thing for Superman to use his voice of command on his friends and colleagues — it’s another thing entirely to have to use it to stop two hackles-raised armies from breaking out into war. Which is why Kal, Kara and Jon’s entrance pulls out all the stops in a GLORIOUS page from Sampere and Lucas. Capes in the wind, the evening sun positioned just behind them mingling red with heaven’s gold, floating high above the scene with their fists not raised … but ready. Not a sign of violence, but power — authority.
Like you were saying earlier, Tony, this is comics — everything needs to be just a little more. Sampere and Lucas have consistently been drawing a world that takes my breath away, and people who do the same.
Tony: When Cori McCreery showed us this page in the CXF Slack, I was so hyped to find the context. This arrival was one of those pitch-perfect Superman moments, and having the family alongside him gives it a stronger impact.
And look, I get why DC reduced the number of Kryptonians back at the end of Crisis, but Superman works so well with a family. … This isn’t even a comment on legacy and the dad vibes from last week. Having a good superheroic supporting cast alongside the normal supporting cast just makes the franchise better.
Which is a long way of saying, this is great, but also let’s get Conner, Karen, John Henry and Natasha in here, too.
Tightened Chains
Armaan: Last issue, I’d mistakenly assumed Thao-La’s attachment to her chains was her being unable to let go of her past trauma, but this issue reveals there’s more to it than that. Each link in the chain represents a battle she’s won, which is an interesting metaphor. Under Warworld, freedom is a zero-sum game — hers comes at the cost of her opponents’, and at the end of the day? She’s still bound, and so deeply entrenched in this system she’s actually proud of the chains she’s won. It’s a layer of complication to a character who would’ve otherwise just been another victim for Superman to save, and considering how much Warworld’s being built up, I like that as a story choice.
Tony: You know, that’s a terrifying and apt metaphor for so much terrible real world stuff. “If you do my bidding you’ll get more leeway, more autonomy” is the most fascist metaphor I could possibly think of, and the people are so beaten down by it that they see it as a good thing. It doesn’t change one important element to that though — they are still slaves to a fascist regime.
Holy shit, I totally see why DC brought in Morrison to do Superman and the Authority now. DC is doing Superman, Nazi puncher. And who better to put the team together than Grant Morrison.
Dang.
But we do get more than just background on Thao-La here. Mongul has apparently been watching what’s been unfolding in the Fortress all along. (Do we know how? Let’s imagine it’s nanites until we hear otherwise.) And he’s not happy that his plan isn’t unfolding as he expected.
So that means sending Warzoons back into the Fortress to push things along … by forcing Thao-La to complete the mission Mongul sent her on! I was a little surprised by this, but it makes sense that Mongul would make these retreating Kryptonians a trap for Superman. … That just makes so much sense. It’s very specifically his kind of evil.
Armaan: Yes — even though this Mongul has only been around for so long. I am beginning to suspect there’s been some time travel involved with these Kryptonians, but that’s a story that’s still unravelling slowly.
What we’re being shown this issue is a Thao-La who’s a lot more nuanced than we’d originally thought. At some point in her history, the hope that Superman gave her was corrupted to the point that she agreed to whatever world-destroying mission Mongul laid out for her. Maybe she’s been blackmailed into it, or maybe she’s doing it for more links in her chain, but either way, she’s a character who currently does not have the Superman family’s best interests at heart.
It’s looking like Lois is going to be a big part of that story, and I’m glad she’s being given a more central role in these events. While she’s not truly been a damsel in a long while, there aren’t enough stories of her taking an active hand in events like these. It’s about time she got more of this kind of spotlight, and I can’t wait to see her go up against superpowered baddies all by herself in the next issue.
Super-Thoughts
- The trope of Superman casually hovering and holding a conversation with a Batman who’s in the middle of an intense action scene has been passed down from fathers to sons, and I could not be happier about it.
- Shilo Norman increasingly becoming Superman-adjacent is good.
- The backup remains a weird and intriguing delight.
- We forgot about the evil baby in a tank that’s the head of some machine warrior. Mongul’s allies are weird.
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.
