Tuesday, August 9, 2022

Superman: Son of Kal-El #14 Review




The Battle Begins


Written By: Tom Taylor
Art By: Cian Tormey, Federico Blee, Dave Sharpe
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: August 9, 2022


Like normal, I'm not sure if The Rising has happened yet or is currently happening, but what I do know is that Jon Kent, Superman has finally taken the battle to Bendix. After the previous issue where Superman and Jay Nakamura fought off a Bendix-controlled Senator, who turned into a giant octopus monster, the war between our hero and villain is going to kick off proper because, by the end of that issue, everyone in the world discovered that the person behind The Truth broadcasts was none other than Jay Nakamura, the son of the former President of Gamorra. Believe-you-me, Henry Bendix wasn't happy to discover this bit of information and may just take it out on Jay's prisoner mother. Let's jump into this issue and see what Superman is going to do to end this war before it escalates. Let's check it out.


It's all hands on deck as Jon Kent puts together a plan to take on Henry Bendix once and for all. Sadly, the way our heroes did this was to have Lois Lane throw out a lot of accusations on television, which while we know are true, I'm not sure if she or The Truth is actually able to back them up with evidence. Nonetheless, this sets off our final conflict where Bendix puts the Island Nation of Gamorroa on high alert, which even includes a domed shield around the country. From here on out Jon with Jay's friends, the Revolutionaries plan their attack and if that wasn't enough, we also get one of Jon's friends tagging along for the battle, which really leads to a sweet moment between the two.




While we're waiting for a battle to go down though, we do spend a lot of time just standing around in a submarine talking about what we're about to do...... and what Jon doesn't want our other anti-heroes to do and we also spent a lot of time standing in the Fortress of Solitude, where Jon tries to get Jay Nakamura ready for the incursion but when it comes to actually enacting the plan....... Well, we actually get pretty far, but it only takes like a couple of pages and the book is over with a horrifying cliffhanger that I'm not sure Jay Nakamura will be able to get over any time soon.




All in all, if you were missing the Revolutionaires from Tom Taylor's Suicide Squad run then you're in luck because they're all here to help Jon and Jay and while there's no new progression for characters like Deadly Six or Thylacine, who always just kind of filled up space, the gang is back together at least and they're ready to help Superman take on a nation of Post-Human weapons. The art in this issue is great and there are some sweet moments between Jon and Jay and Jon and Damian that will make people smile, but overall there again wasn't much to this issue. It seems once we actually get to some excitement the book is over and we were left with characters only standing around and talking about what they wanted to do. That being said though, there was some enjoyment to be had within those pages so it's still a fun read, even if I'm always wanting more from this book each month.


Bits and Pieces:


The final battle against Bendix has begun. It's just too bad that it's going to have to wait again and all the exciting parts of this book were relegated to the end of the issue. The art continues to be great and there are some sweet moments between our hero and his friends and I just hope that with the over a year build-up of The Rising that it just doesn't fizzle out to simply get us an ending so we can move on to something new.


7/10

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