Comic Review: Superman: Son of Kal-El (Vol. 1 -2)
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In November 2021, Superman: Son of Kal-El #5 hit the stands, and there was much to say. Even before the issue went on sale, the Internet was abuzz with “discussion” about it. Alleged fans crying out in anger and rage over a perceived betrayal. Predictions of the imminent end of the mainstream comic book industry. Accusations of pushing radical politics and inappropriate relationships.
Of course, there was also praise. Celebration. A sense of pride and a feeling of unity and togetherness. There was breathless (and often inaccurate) coverage from mainstream sources not understanding the context of what they were reporting. And confusion from “normies” wondering what the fuss was all about.
For it was in that issue that Superman–the ur-example of the superhero–came out to the world as bisexual.
Well, that’s a slightly misleading statement. But hey, so was a lot of the coverage and conversation about it.
As the name implies, “Superman” in this case isn’t the original Clark Kent that debuted in the historic 1938 Action Comics #1. It’s Jon Kent, the 17 year old son of Clark and Lois Lane. In the story, he’s found his own “Lois Lane”, so to speak, in the form of independent journalist Jay Nakamura.
Superman and Jay Nakamura
The backlash was immediate and immense. Far right conservative culture warriors came out in droves to mock and attack “Gay Superman”, their numbers large enough to defend a small mountain pass from an invading Persian army. Anti-woke comic book “fans” whose sum total knowledge of superheroes was watching The Dark Knight trilogy ten years ago raged impotently in their YouTube videos and on their message forums, breathlessly reporting the imminent end of superhero comics due to “wokeness”.
With all the drama and discussion surrounding the new Superman being in a same-sex relationship, it’s easy to forget that there was an actual story written in this comic.
I think we should check it out.
And without further ado, let’s review the first two volumes of Superman: Son of Kal-El, written by Tom Taylor and spanning issues 1-10, the Superman: Son of Kal-El Annual #1, and Nightwing #89.
I’ll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, but beware of the occasional one.
ART
I’m not really good at reviewing comic book art. I know what I like and what I don’t.
That said, I like the art in this.
The first volume keeps to a traditional “realistic” art style, complete angular jawlines and small eyes and mouths in the early parts. Superman (Clark Kent) especially has a very lantern-shaped jaw in line with what we’ve come to expect from the character in over 80 years of comic and cartoon appearances. But I prefer the style change in the latter half of the book in which there is a shift to a slightly more cartoony, anime-esque appearance that doesn’t sacrifice realism or make a noticeable departure from the previous issues in the volume. Wild changes in art from issue to issue are something I hate, and it was one of the drawbacks in my years reading IDW’s run of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
The second volume departs from the slight, nearly imperceptible switch to an anime style to return to the more traditional Western comic art of the first volume, but with softer and rounder facial features in contrast to the angular lantern jawlines.
There’s also a lot of beautiful and hyper-realistic cover variants throughout the comic and separating each issue. I think they’re great, but so many artists imagine Jon with that poofy Gen Z haircut that I just think looks terrible.
The action scenes are simple and easy to follow, but dynamic and showcases Superman’s power and speed. Panels where he moves from point to point in seconds, grabbing endangered civilians or destroying deadly falling debris, have a clear logic to them that can be followed. Too often, those kinds of panels just have multiple drawings of the character all over the place, but here you can get a feeling of line of motion even when one isn’t specifically drawn, making the scene feel more alive and real.
Character designs are pretty cool. Jon wears an updated Superman costume that echoes that of his father’s while being distinctly his, sort of like Ben Reilly’s Spider-Man costume from the 90s. Clark wears his traditional Superman costume just the way I like it, with no modern “updates”. Gamorran President Henry Bendix looks like what Lex Luthor would have looked like if he had been conceived as a mad scientist today. Other characters are introduced that definitely have a modern look to them that look appropriate for their position in the story (such as technologically advanced government strike force). And Batman looks fantastic every time he enters a scene. Dark and gothic, as Batman should be.
Ironically, given everything I started this review with, Jay’s design is kinda the only sore spot for me. Despite the pink hair, he looks kind of bland and dainty. I always hear the voice of Coby from the first couple episodes of One Piece coming out of his mouth.
But all in all, I’m liking the art here.
STORY
Jon Kent is the son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane. And with Clark leaving the Earth forever, as seen by Jon during a trip to the future some time ago, the teenage Jon is taking over as Superman.
But he doesn’t want to just fight crime, stop supervillains, play super-cop, and enforce the status quo. He wants to do more. He wants to solve big picture issues such as climate change, mistreatment of immigrants and refugees, and unchecked political and corporate power. And in exploring how to do that, he finds himself allied–and then romantically involved with–Jay Nakamura, a reporter for the underground news site “The Truth”, and targeted by Gamorran President Henry Bendix and billionaire supervillain Lex Luthor. What starts out as an attempt to rescue refugees from the “resource-rich” nation of Gamorra turns into an investigation into a mysterious conspiracy called The Rising.
The themes of social justice are strong throughout the story. The books all but outright officially label Jon a Social Justice Warrior (which is still cooler than the Culture Warriors that were throwing a tantrum over the gay kiss). But there’s a surprising amount of restraint that the book shows in avoiding preaching. These themes are themes. Outside of a variant cover, Superman doesn’t lead a “school strike for climate”. A monster whose ocean habitat has been made uninhabitable rises from the deep and heads toward Metropolis. Gamorra is allowed to mistreat its citizens without condemnation from the developed world because it deals in critical resources. Lex Luthor, who holds massive wealth and influence due to his corporate power, is able to use the media to push a narrative and twist the truth. Police and military forces respond heavy handedly to humanitarian crises.
And the bad guys bring up social problems as well. Ironic, but valid, problems for a dictator and a megacorp CEO raise. The inherent problem of a “superteen” with unchecked demigod powers. The inability of nation-states to safeguard their borders and populations without de facto permission from a self-appointed global Justice League. Sometimes, the worst people are able to correctly diagnose a problem.
They just prescribe terrible solutions.
Honestly, the only thing I have trouble believing is the idea that Jay’s underground news organization, the Truth, has the level of journalistic ethics and standards that a mainstream news source does. Despite what some would like you to think, most major media sources have editors and fact-checkers to ensure their output is as close to true and unbiased as possible, though this is far from perfect. Independent media does not have nearly as rigorous standards, and it’s hard to believe that anyone would take seriously an underground news podcast operating in secret out of a boat with anonymous reporters who wear masks and use codenames.
Still, at the end of the day and in spite of all of the real world issues at the forefront, it’s a superhero story. The primary villains–President Bendix and Lex Luthor–square off against Superman and Metropolis in pursuit of their own selfish ends, committing dastardly acts of villainy. Superman fights powerful squads of supervillains and giant monsters from the deep when he’s not stopping disasters both natural and manmade and saving countless lives all the while.
There’s a lot more that happens during the course of the story, but I don’t want to spoil it. I’ll end this with saying that the ending of Volume 2 hints at something that will shake the relationship dynamic among the main cast.
Leave it to Batman to ominously deliver bad news.
CHARACTERS
For so many of the characters in this work, there isn’t much for me to say. Not because they are bland or uninteresting, but because you know who they are. Do I really need to tell you about intrepid reporter Lois Lane?
The people worth talking about more than anyone are those that were introduced or specific to this story. Jon Kent, Jay Nakamura, and Henry Bendix.
More than anyone, I really like Jon’s portrayal in this book. Some might read these two volumes and see him as nothing but some naive SJW too obsessed with climate change or whatever else these kids today are spiraling into depression over, but I think that template does work really well for him. He’s a kid who sees problems with the world and nothing being done. And he feels a massive responsibility to do something about all of it. As the new Superman, he doesn’t just have big shoes to fill; he’s got the biggest shoes of them all to fill.
The symbol on his chest is a symbol of hope for all, and he has to live up to it. When you’re Superman, you can’t just save most people, solve most problems. You need to save them all. We see this in Jon’s unwillingness to allow himself to feel anything but immense guilt when faced with a situation where not everyone can be saved.
When you can literally see every one of the world’s problems, hear every cry for help, it’s only natural to feel the responsibility to do something about it.
Jon is like his father in that he wants to tackle the major problems facing the world today. Since his debut in 1938, Clark has tackled worker exploitation, the Nazis, domestic racism, and unchecked corporate greed. Jon may be “getting political”, but that makes him more like his father than he could even begin to imagine.
And there’s the feeling of loss that pervades the story. Clark Kent leaves Earth to battle evil elsewhere, with the knowledge that he won’t come back. Jon has to step up and be Superman, but he doesn’t know how. He doesn’t just miss his father; he doesn’t know how to do the most important job on the planet. His adventures in these two volumes is him finding his footing, being trained and given tips from his more experienced peers. Cue team ups with Aquaman (Kaldur'ahm/Jackson Hyde) and Nightwing.
Less interesting to me is his love interest, Jay Nakamura. I don’t know why, but I never got fully onboard with his character. When Lois Lane debuted in the old comics in 1938 and the Max Fleisher animated shorts in 1941, she was an intrepid reporter that put herself at risk to expose wrongdoing and get the story. Sure, this meant she got captured more often than Princess Peach and had to keep getting rescued by Superman, but that was the result of her bravery and proactive nature. She was out there taking on the bad guys just as much as Clark, and her credibility and reputation at the end of the day was earned.
Jay doesn’t really do that. He owns or runs an underground newscast called The Truth which just reports on things. And that’s fine; the Daily Planet just reports on things. But Jay doesn’t get involved all that much. He doesn’t really do all that much but give his broadcasts while wearing a gaudy mask and calling himself “Gossamer”, and much of that involves narrating the story we’re reading. There’s only really one proactive moment from him, and it kind of amounts to nothing.
There are three sides to Jay’s portrayal. The mask-wearing independent truth teller Gossamer, the stoic and introspective provider of information, and the sweet love interest, and it’s only the last one that really feels like it lands.
Fortunately, there’s more to Jay than what I’ve described, and the ending hints at something that’s going to shake up that dynamic and make him far more interesting. But as it was, I found myself far more engaged with Jon’s team up with Nightwing and his activities saving people from disasters than I was with Jay’s strangely popular and influential news show.
Last to mention in all this is the villain, Henry Bendix, President of the nation of Gamorra after a coup. He was already wealthy and influential when he came to the country, and after being elected President, he ousted his political opponents from the country and seized power for himself as a newly crowned authoritarian. He’s a man of science and wants to use the nation’s vast wealth to create and experiment on superhumans for his own ends.
With all those attributes and his bald head, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Henry Bendix was actually just some alternate universe Lex Luthor. That made it really redundant when Luthor was brought into the fold in Volume 2 to share the spotlight as Jon’s primary antagonist.
I was initially disappointed, but Luthor was as great as ever. That said, Bendix really does come off as a copy/paste of him. I guess it’s better to be a carbon copy of a great villain than a carbon copy of a lame one.
Lex Luthor and Henry Bendix
Still, hopefully there will be something that sets Bendix apart as his own character. He’s a great villain and I just wanna see him get flung off a building, but he’s just a reskinned Lex Luthor at this point. You’d be forgiven for not being able to tell them apart if they were in the same panel.
CONCLUSION
All good things come to an end. And no, I’m not talking about this review (but here’s a sarcastic thank you if that’s what you were thinking).
Superman: Son of Kal-El was ended after only 18 issues. That means two more volumes after the two I reviewed here.
Despite the gleeful claims of the “Go woke, go broke” crowd, the series wasn’t actually canceled due to low sales. Or at all. One story arc ends, a new one begins. Under a different title and numbering, of course.
Not an approach I like, personally (I prefer the simplicity of linear chapters like many manga series), but the fact that the adventures of Jon Kent continue after this shows that I’m not alone in my enjoyment of this book.
It allows us to follow a younger, teenage Superman who isn’t yet the wise and upstanding paragon of justice. A Superman that is tackling the world’s issues in his own way, learning how to be the hero he needs to be in the process. A Superman that knows that social justice and stopping the bad guys aren’t mutually exclusive, but are in fact intrinsically linked.
Hopefully, the second half of this series improves on the first half by giving its original characters more of their own identity. Jon Kent should have his own Rogue’s Gallery and his own circle of friends. The last thing we want is just him replacing his father but keeping everything else the same.
If nothing else, it pissed off a bunch of obnoxious whiny babies by having him come out as bisexual and fall in love with another boy. And that will always be good enough for me.
For exciting superhero fiction written by me, be sure to check out the BLUE EAGLE Universe!