Superman #16
Scheduled to arrive in stores: October 9, 2019
Cover date: December 2019
“Superman Featuring Super Sons”
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciller: David Lafuente
Inker: David Lafuente
Cover: Ivan Reis, Joe Prado & Alex Sinclair
Variant Cover: Bryan Hitch & Alex Sinclair
Reviewed by: Adam Dechanel
Robin is fighting a horde of Leviathan’s soldiers in a shipping yard. As he gets the upper hand they escape using a ship’s explosion as cover.
Damian is shocked to find an older Jon Kent has arrived. Shocked by the arrival of his former best friend as a young man Damian surmises it is the trickery of Leviathan or perhaps even Leviathan himself.
Jon explains his disappearance as basically as he can. Damian points out that Jon has only been gone for three weeks and now he’s seventeen so his distrust is warranted. Jon is as stubborn as ever and they are soon bonding over a love of hot dogs.
A siren interrupts and the Super Sons are soon in action. As they foil crime after crime Jon opens up about his offer to join the Legion and as the sun rises Damian gives his friend the thumbs up to chase his dreams that Jon was after.
As Jon arrives in the Fortress to meet his father Saturn Girl arrives from the future. She performs a psychic link to copy her knowledge of the 31st century into Jon’s so he isn’t such a strange visitor when they arrive.
Saturn Girl gives Clark a special device to contact Jon in the event of an emergency and with that they vanish and Superman is alone.
Story – 2: From the very first panel you knew it was an infantile comedic issue. It was quite an insult to those Super Sons stories before it, for the relationship of Jon and Damian to devolve in such a way that they really have no bond at all by the end of it. Damian states that it’s been three weeks since Jon vanished which obviously doesn’t match up with Unity Saga but I can see that the point of this was to kill any ties to the present that Jon has.
Damian and Jon’s last night together is a montage (no I’m not going to joke about South Park or Team America) and a last meal of a hot dog. Sigh. After all they went through as a duo that’s how it ends. I was shaking my head as I read it.
Superman appears on three pages, one as a joke and two for an emotional door to close. As awful as the issue is, the most shocking thing wasn’t how Super Sons was reduced to a joke but Lois Lane NOT coming to see her son leave perhaps forever to be in the future.
She has a quick behind the scenes call with both Clark and Jon but that’s it. There is just no way after all that’s happened that she wouldn’t move heaven and earth to be with him and her husband to support him or to see her son who lost 7 years of his life and is going on a trip where he may well be even older upon his return.
This issue was an insult to the intelligence of the audience.
Art – 3: The art of Jorge Jimenez gave the Super Sons a definitive look but it was never played for jokes or specifically for a young audience, to add to that neither was the writing of Tomasi, Gleason or Jurgens. The problem with Lafuente’s art for me was that the writing was so utterly painful this issue that the art only made it more childish. I honestly wish Lafuente had a better story to showcase his art.
Cover Art – 4: A fun cover except Jon is seventeen on this cover and Damian is nine. As good an image as this is it feels wildly inaccurate to the ages they are meant to be depicted as.
Variant Cover Art – 4: I like the composition here, it’s quite a creative approach with the globe and it must be quite difficult to draw that warp effect of the reflection. I wish I had read DCeased so I’d know why the events in the image are happening.
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Can we point the camera at the Earth where Jon is allowed to just grow up with his parents and alongside his friends? Thing is, Jon reaching his teenage years joining the LSH is not an uncool idea in and of itself but this was all so excessively rushed it’s just awful. We would need to have more stories and years with Jon as a kid before coming to that point so that it felt like a real sort of graduation for the character and not just editorial wanting him out of the way. ..but I guess we should just… Read more »
I saw a rumor saying that Jon will be taking over as Superman after the Legion run
I really wouldn’t be surprised. How about telling good stories with a good character instead of monkeying with the premise or swapping out whose wearing the suit or doing another round of “Everything you know is wrong!” “Nothing will ever be the same!” “The Death/Return/Return of the Death Again For The First Time But This Time We Mean It At Least Until The Sales Drop Again Saga!”
This comic was garbage! Bendis can’t write these characters worth a spit! Sure, there were a few funny moments, like Robin chucking Batarangs at Superboy’s mug, but the rest was unsatisfying and an utterly bittersweet conclusion to the coolest & cutest team-up in modern comics.
#NotMySuperSons! X(
Just WTAF was that? What did I read?? This was honestly *the* worse depiction of the Super Sons in a long time. Don’t even get me started on the nonsical (sp?) way they spoke (was that even proper English grammar?), or the amateurish way Bendis had Jon leave the 21st century for the 31st one even. I agree there’s no way, just no fricking way Lois would be absent from her only child leaving her possibly forever to “graduate” with the LOSH in their era. There’s equally no way that Lois and Superman would trust the 31st century LOSH at… Read more »