4 issue test #40 - Super Sons

Robin has an ego, Jon Lane-Kent has powers. They’re the sons of Batman and Superman and they get on like a house on fire. And by that, I mean the fight that would inevitably ensue between them would leave the house on fire. And boy was it fun to watch them play off each other. Superman did a 2-part story featuring the both of them learning to get along, not extremely successfully, but it’s been hinted since the beginning of Rebirth that they’d be getting a title between them and here it is.

In the writer’s seat is Peter Tomasi who already has experience writing both Robin back from when he was writing Batman and Robin and Jon-Lane Kent from his Superman title. He was the one who wrote the initial crossover, and instigated the dynamic between them. In the art department we have Jorge Jiminez who has a wide range of credits from DC, having done Arrow and Smallville Comics to Earth 2: Society and issues of Superboy and Superman.

Does the gimmick wear or is this a new classic team-up? Let’s take a look at #1-4

#1 with a prologue where a boy somehow manages to make his family and friends do anything he wants. Next we see that Robin and Superboy are running away from heavy fire, after a while Robin calls them to stand their ground as of course they go through their usual banter.

We cut to 2 days earlier, where we see a day in the life of Jon Lane Kent, the schoolbus has a substitute driver, a couple of jerks are bullying the one black kid on the busy with spit-balls, Jon goes to intervene and gets a few spit-balls in the face for his troubles before the driver tells them to sit down.

Later that day Jon’s preparing to have a snowball fight with his friends but the bullies arrive with snowballs at the ready to declare war. To make things ‘interesting’ they put rocks in the snowballs and injure the black kid. Jon’s tempted to use his heat vision but ultimately stops himself. The bullies approach but a giant snowball falls from the roof to pummel them. Jon sees the busdriver on the roof. And only now do we find out the black kid is called Alan as he’s taken to the nurse. The driver is Damian in disguise, Damian reveals he’s home tutored and was a substitute teacher for his Geology class in third period, he could’ve had a doctorate but Talia killed the Professor. He also has been learning to drive since he was 5.

That evening Batman forbids Damian to go out with him since he skipped a home study session and is behind on 5 homework assignments. The Kents are playing cards as Clark and Lois congratulate Jon on standing up to the bullies, his actions mean more people might decide not to turn a blind eye. Lois wins, she has a brilliant poker face but Clark gets a league call and has to leave, so at the late time of 9pm, Jon has to go to bed.

Or does he? Robin shows up in his room, and the debate on how the fight between them could’ve gone. He wants Superboy’s help with an investigation in progress. There have been break-ins at LexCorp facilities, so they’re heading to Metropolis with a Dark Knight Returns homage to inspect a potential target. Of course, they’re not the only ones. #1 ends with Lex Luthor confronting the pair.

The prologue for #2 is with the kid from the earlier prologue murdering his family, his sister survives, managing to hide away from him. Robin drops Superboy, letting Luthor know he can’t fly. As Luthor rescues him and a chase ensues, Robin breaks into the lab. Luthor catches Superboy and then finds Robin planting an explosive. In 5 seconds, they’ll go off, all 12 of them. Robin and Superboy escape, but the explosives were fake and just a diversion so Robin could gain access to LexCorp’s security footage. Why isn’t Luthor investigating the robberies anyway?

So, after Jon gets Robin some coffee, they discover the robber focusing on an android before the security feed goes dead. Superboy discovers using his super-vision that the kid they saw is everywhere, Robin then identifies the kid as Reggie Meyer, one of the victims of the AMAZO virus, a synthetic plague Luthor created using the AMAZO android that gave superpowers to people before the league put a stop to it. 5% of the survivors kept their powers, including the entire Meyer family. They encounter a warehouse made of strong metal which Robin plans to burn through but Superboy kicks the door open.

Upon finding the dead bodies though, Superboy is disgusted and leaves to inform Superman. Robin notices that there are 5 chairs but only 4 bodies, Superboy encounters the survivor but behind them are the lurking gaze of the other’s father.

The prologue for #3 is the Meyer family acting as super heroes against Titano, the technology enhanced gorilla. Reggie had the power to multiply.

In the present, both Robin and Superboy deduce they’re androids and try and fight them, Robin is tossed into the area where Superboy is, they’re still on the ropes but the girl manages to get them to stop. She warns them more are coming and they need to move. They head to Robin’s bike and find the girl can control machines and in what I think is one of only two narrative flaws in this series, they explain the AMAZO Virus again, except this time Superboy doesn’t know anything and the % of survivors retaining their powers has gone down from 5 to 3.

The girl’s name is Sara, her brother was never exactly nice to her but once he got his powers, his abilities split his mind and drove him nuts, he stole the original AMAZO body so he can create android duplicates of nearly anyone in the Justice League. As she explains this the android Batman and Superman recreate themselves as Robin and Superboy for some reason.

Sara wants to try and save her brother, Superboy wants to call in the League but Robin refuses too, Superboy twice almost says his name as he tries to force Damian’s hand, he won’t listen because he’s a stubborn jackass, they argue as Sara begins to feel the affects of being too close to her brother and blows up Robin’s bike. She’s an android like the others but a part of Sara is inside it and regains some control before passing out.

Android Robin and Superboy arrive, with what looks to be some back-up, wanting Sara in exchange for quick deaths, Robin hear admits he may have been wrong. Maybe. Sara stops the robots, blowing a couple up. The real Sara and the rest of them are alive in the warehouse, Reggie’s been blowing up body doubles over and over again. Robin manages to detach the head from one of the Superboy robots and begins fiddling with it whilst Superboy carries him.

We’re back to the opening pages, they’re fighting but they’re becoming overwhelmed with robots.

Issue 4 opens with Lois and Alfred discovering their missing children. According to the caption boxes in the first issue, it’s been 2 days since the school-bus thing, you’re bad parents! Robin and Superboy are chained up in the HQ and of course, arguing. They finally meet Kid AMAZO, who thinks they’re family for some reason. He rants about his plans because petulant kid, Superboy tries to break the chains but they’re cutting into Robin when he tries. But Robin knows they were going to escape in 3, 2, 1

Lex Luthor bursts in, Robin had used the android head to make contact with him. Luthor easily handles the robots, whilst Robin and Superboy prioritise getting Sara and the rest of the family out. They are successful but one Superboy robot approaches, Superboy blows it away with his miraculously functioning super-breath.

Robin asks the real Sara if she can stop this, she can but she needs one target, not hundreds. Robin and Superboy head back with her and taunt Reggie into merging his AMAZO androids to his own armour, that’s enough as Sara manages to remove the armour off him entirely. Luthor offers the two of the ‘delinquents’ 3 minutes to beg for mercy or something. He promises Sara that the family will be taken care of and be put in a position where they can do more good. Robin and Superboy are gone.

As they continue to argue, they return to Hamilton County and find Lois and Alfred waiting for them, wanting an explanation.

So that was Super Sons #1-4. Was it worth the wait? Let’s take a closer look.

Peter Tomasi is a good writer, but there are 2 glaring problems with this book. The first being the repeat of the AMAZO origin, and the second being the length of time it takes for Alfred or Lois to react. It’d make more sense if it was the next morning over a day later, in fact it’s implied in #4 that it was. Both problems are easily fixable and I’m not going to judge too harshly on either. I think these were genuine mistakes rather than plot-holes.

But the positives. Peter Tomasi has a unique voice for both Damian and Jon, this was clear in Superman and it’s just as clear here. This makes their banter and arguing feel very natural and that’s not always easy to pull off. They work together when it counts though and one of my personal favourite scenes in the book shows off just how quickly they go from arguing to kicking ass.

Kid AMAZO, a villain from Young Justice was a clever choice of villain for the first villain for the pair, his dysfunctional relationship with his family represents an extreme version of the dysfunctional relationship between the protagonists. It’s interesting that he could never quite bring himself to kill his actual family, settling for robot duplicates.

It’s also clever how they’ve brought in the AMAZO Virus and Luthor having the AMAZO armour into the story. In fact, Luthor was an interesting addition to the story in general. Underused perhaps but interesting, especially given his new status as hero in the DCU.

The art is good, one goof I noticed is Superboy being in civvies when he brought Damian his coffee but otherwise it’s very good.

Ratings

#1 8/10

#2 8/10

#3 7.5/10

#4 7.5/10

Overall 7.75/10

Recommendation: If you like the dysfunctional relationship between these two characters, I hope you love this title as much as I do. I’m looking forward to everything coming next.