Tuesday, February 8, 2022

Superman: Son of Kal-El #8 Review




Can't Protect Everyone


Written By: Tom Taylor
Art By: Cian Tormey, Raul Fernandez, Federico Blee, Dave Sharpe
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: February 8, 2022


Jon Kent has been making major moves in showing us what kind of Superman he wants to be while his father is away on Warworld and in doing so we're seeing that's more involved with the smaller scale of making sure that people have their rights and are being treated decently than simply punching asteroids in space and while this aspect has shown us how naive Jon can be at times, it's a learning curve that I've enjoyed seeing. Previously though, we saw Jon and Jackson Hyde trying to reroute an awakened kaiju from heading to Metropolis only to have their peaceful acts disrupted by the trigger-happy Post-Human group known as the Gamorra Corps. Let's jump into this issue and see if Superman can save the day and make sure the violence is stopped before things get out of hand.


Superman continues his attempt to not only save Metropolis but the kaiju that threatens it this issue and while the over the top eco message that we got in the previous issue is still apparent here, the way that this issue handles what's going on focuses more on the emotions of Superman and its because of that that this issue shines brighter than the previous. Not only do we see Superman's fear, love, and frustration when he's not able to complete what he wants to do but we have Jay Nakamura's details of the event being displayed as narration that really works like a one-two punch to really get you in the mindset of the young Jon Kent.




While I did like the Jon Kent stuff a lot this issue, not to mention his continued team-up with Jackson Hyde, the Gamorra Corps stuff in this issue just wasn't doing it for me as much as I would have liked because "The Rising" as its called here just kind of feels like Lex Luthor's everyman project at first but becomes a weird bio-weapon, sell to the highest bidder fare that at first comes off as legitimate means to protect countries and organizations that want it, but the presentation of this aspect is full of men in suits wearing masks so I'm not sure how I'm supposed to feel about the whole Post-Human side to this story. Yeah, obviously it's bad, but it felt like originally it was supposed to be presented as a legit thing.  




All in all, this issue of Superman was really good in my mind, beyond my not completely understanding Henry Bendix and Luthor's "Rising" plan but everything that we dealt with in Superman this issue is everything that I actually wanted this series to be and it was too preachy while showing us that Jon has what it takes to be the next Superman and do things in a way that his father never did while doing very Superman things that we've come to love over Clark Kent's illustrious career. The art in this book is pretty great and I look forward to seeing what Jon does next and hoping that I can get on board with what Henry Bendix and his Post-Humans are putting down.


Bits and Pieces:


While I was a bit iffy on the way that the previous issue was handled, this continuation really allowed Jon Kent to shine while not letting its message blast you in the face the entire time. We've got real character emotion here and a story that's well down. The art is great and I look forward to what's coming next..... mostly because I want to understand what "The Rising" really means. 


7.8/10

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