Superman #7
Scheduled to arrive in stores: January 16, 2019
Cover date: March 2019
“The Unity Saga” – Part 7/The House of El” – Part 1
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciller: Ivan Reis, Brandon Peterson & Jason Fabok
Inker: Brandon Peterson, Joe Prado & Oclair Albert
Cover: Ivan Reis, Joe Prado & Alex Sinclair
Variant Cover: David Finch
Reviewed by: Adam Dechanel
Jon has returned but he is no longer a boy.
Clark is both elated and confused by his son’s return and Lois is equally stunned to find a seventeen year old in place of their little boy.
This isn’t the first time the Kents have dealt with the world of the bizarre and weird but Jon has a lot of explaining to do. Beginning with the departure of Jon, Lois and Jor-El and their arrival onto a gigantic Kryptonian ship.
Almost immediately Jor and Jon find themselves in battle as they foil an invasion of Earth by the deadly alien race called the Dominators. Jon of course is enjoying every second of super heroics and as they return to the ship they decide to find something to eat.
With Lois now wearing a Superwoman suit much like her counterpart did when she and Lana shared the mantle, they head to an intergalactic trading post. Lois is surprised how revered she is just for wearing the crest of the House of El as Jor explains Superman’s exploits have made them galactic royalty.
The trio also attract the attention of Lobo who has a few choice words to share with Jon before disappearing into the approaching crowd. It seems Superman’s reputation also attracts people who want something from the El’s. Lois experiences something Clark did when he saved the space shuttle years ago.
Lois and Jon are torn by their requests but when they learn of a Khund slavery ring on Daxam, Jon and Jor intervene once more. The success of the rescue leads Lois to return home as she realized that Jon really could handle things now, perhaps Lobo was right?
Jon reveals that as his mother left Jor began to change and that’s why he has spent seven years trying to get back to Earth.
Clark is still perplexed as Jon’s tale showed nothing but his enjoyment at being with his grandfather.
Jon turns to his parents and explains that he’s discovered Jor-El is insane.
To Be Continued…
Story – 4: So we finally find out what happened to Jon and Lois after the Man of Steel miniseries.
It’s good to finally fill in the gaps because we’ve been through a bit of a slog to get here.
Were there any revelations? Not really. We knew Jon wanted to experience his powers without restrictions. We knew Lois came back after a traumatic experience (it was nice to see a moment mirrored by Clark’s debut). We also knew from the very beginning of ‘The Oz Effect’ that Jor-El was not well psychologically. So as I said, nothing has happened that we didn’t already suspect had transpired.
There were two scenes that stood out. One was the nod to Phil Jimenez and his phenomenal work on Superwoman and the other was Lobo’s poignant conversation with Jon.
To be honest it was a very, very, very welcome break from Rogol Zaar. We really needed a break from the past 6 months.
I’m a little apprehensive of Jon’s age jump. It still seems unnecessary, especially as we’ve known Jor was unwell for a very long time. This ‘lost years’ chapter which took place over a one week period, given the time passed in the books with Lois’ return to Earth. This issue didn’t do enough to explain it away. The Supergirl TV series did a better, more plausible, explanation in its opening monologue.
The scenes where Clark and Lois run through all the possibilities for the age jump were pure gold and I’d love to see more of that. The character moments were something sorely missed from this series and I’m glad we will get to see more of that.
Art – 4: The art suffered from the bouncing between the creatives. The best example I have is Jon’s physical size and his scar across his face. The consistency across the book is the main issue for me as individually, each section is really well illustrated. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a book where the art chores ‘too many cooks’ wasn’t a problem.
Although I liked seeing Lois in her Superwoman costume again I’m not so impressed with the angles while she was in it.
Cover Art – 4: I liked this cover as it does a fantastic job of conveying the emotional beats for each character this issue. The color palette gives a nice energy to the whole piece. Always good to see a cover depicting a real scene from the book.
Variant Cover Art – 3: Angry and moody Superman always seems to pop up on the covers. A little weird to see as the interior of the book is all about Clark being unbelievably happy.
I really like the art of David Finch so it’s great to see his version of Superman in action wish it wasn’t so dark.
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I loved it but I’m not convinced that “Jon” is telling the truth about Grampa Jor-El. I mean I think Jor is weird and creepy but I don’t know if he is really insane. I’m waiting for a plot twist. Maybe “Jon” isn’t really our Jon. Maybe he is somehow Superboy Prime? I don’t know.
one can hope
What the hell was so bad about Jon being a little boy? Like our popular fiction had a shortage of teen and twenty something heroes with dark backstories? and for that matter what was so bad about Jor-El being a good guy and having died with Krypton? Also, how is Jor-Oz being insane even a discovery? It’s obvious he’s been a couple cans short of a six pack since he showed up! The fact that Clark and Lois ever signed off his little galactic “become a man” trip just makes them look stupid. “The Unity Saga” – Part 7/The House… Read more »
I’m sorry, but this whole issue really left a bad taste in my mouth. First, there’s no way, no way Lois who was apprehensive about Jon being left with Jor-El in the first place (hence why she told Jor straight out she would accompany Jon) would even contemplate abandoning her son. No way, no how. Nope. I can’t believe BMS actually thought that was a good idea to put in for it makes Lois out to be a bad parent. And Lois is anything but that, and second, how is aging up Jon considered a good thing? Its honestly not,… Read more »
Lois and Lana were Superwoman in the title by Phil Jimenez. That Lois was killed but this is (besides the shield) a relatively similar suit Lois wore before she died.
I know all too well about the Phil Jimenez “Superwoman” title, and first: Lois didn’t die for she and New 52 halves of Lois and Clark returned to be reunited with their pre-“Flashpoint”, main DC Universe Earth continuity selves by their son, Jonathan remember? And second: Phil’s costume looked very different from this costume (it had black linings with two different shades of blue) which is the one and same costume post-“Superman Reborn” Supes wore.
And yet, all of this could’ve been done very exceptionally WITHOUT having to age Jon up. Lots of writers can handle children, and of Bendis can’t write kids, then he shouldn’t be writing anybody at all.
Period! >_<
How has Bendis Superman comic book run sales been? I noticed that there are a lot of people who aren’t happy on what Bendis is doing, and I was wondering if comic book sales have been affected by him. Has Superman comic book sales dropped because of him? I haven’t read what he has done yet, but from what I’m hearing, it doesn’t sound good.
Tomasi’s run, on average, sold just as well as Bendis’ run.
Which is disappointing for DC because they were expecting a bigger draw. That’s why they hyped him up CONSTANTLY and gave him so much power over the Superman titles. Turns out Bendis is mediocre enough to be making the same numbers as a guy with scarcely one fifth of his popularity.
the most unbelievable part of the story is Lois leaving Jon alone with Jor El… I don’t buy that for a second, nor do I buy her not telling this to Superman upon their reunion. I don’t know where the story is going, but that part has irked me. While I’ve enjoyed the character moments and one of the better portrayals of Superman’s personality in awhile, the story has been a complete slog. Its starting to feel like Bendis is spreading himself out to thin trying to tell these multiple stories that aren’t really going anywhere. It was annoying to… Read more »
The introduction of Jor-Oz was kind of the beginning of the end and with “Bendis is coming!” it’s pretty much downhill since IMO. Rebirth had been trucking along just fine.
They never went anywhere with mr oz. at first it was an obvious misdirection because many thought it would be ozymandias, then I thought it would be an imposter… then the story just kind of turned into something else. I think it became Superman and Booster fighting the Zod’s or something? I don’t know Jor el didn’t come back until Bendis and there was no way NO WAY any parent, let alone Superman and Lois would ever let Jon go with that guy. I just hope it gets to the point soon.
Superman and Lois are terrible parents for letting their son go with the man who tried to genocide the entire planet.