Super Sons: Superman & Robin Special #1

Superman & Robin Special #1 was a great chance to see one of my favourite writers revisit an all-time classic title. But it also serves as a sad reminder of what could have been if Tomasi had continued on Superman and the Super Sons. I hope that this is not Tomasi's farewell to Jon and Damian, and that we will see more Super Sons from him in the future. Read Full Review

It's a fun book that definitely pays tribute to one of the DCU's best friendships in the last few years. I think what works against it slightly is that both these characters are in the middle of all-timer character runs, but for those who preferred the younger versions, this is a great tribute. Read Full Review

Still, I am glad Tomasi and Bogdanovic got this special, a sort of epilogue of all the Super Sons stories that came before. Read Full Review

This is just a one shot. If you don't read this book you will not miss anything in Superman: Son of Kal El or in Robin. In that sense its a bummer that this may not lead to another Super Sons series. Seeing Jon and Damien together here is great fun. But in the context of where their characters move forward after this issue, well not much has changed in this book that hasn't already been happening in there own main stories. There relationship is special, that alone should make this book worthy of a pick up. Read Full Review

Superman & Robin Special is a must-read for fans of Tomasi's previous stories with the Super Sons. It captures the energy and youthfulness of both while building off previous stories during their adventures when Jon was still a boy. However, the overall read feels thin, especially once you put it down and recap to yourself what happened. At its higher price point, there just isn't enough here to recommend this one to casual readers. Read Full Review

I enjoyed this issue quite a bit. It's fun, it's light, and it does what it sets out to do, which is to give Jon some of his childhood back. Through his and Damian's team up, both boys get a reprieve from the more serious goings on in their lives right now and get to have a little fun, running around the Fortress of Solitude, trying to catch an aging creature, and battling Nazis. Really, what more could you ask for? Read Full Review

Picking up this issue will guarantee an action-packed adventure for any reader. Read Full Review

While having the Super Sons back in their current iteration is great and something I hope we can continue in the future, the story that we get surrounding them just wasn't that interesting overall and retreads on what Tomasi has given previously, just with fewer details. The art was great and the characters are what we're all here for but I hope that we can get a deeper look at what the kids are both going through the next time they interact. Read Full Review

Kevin Lainez You can catch up with all of Kevin's thoughts about comics, anime, TV shows, movies and more over onTwitter @TheKevinLainez. You can also watch the fun and silly videos Kevin is making over on hisTikTok @nerdykev. Read Full Review

As this is partially a signal boost for the solo comics these two young heroes are starring in, it is probably best if you read those instead. Read Full Review

While this isn't necessarily the best storytelling these characters have gotten (either together or separately), it is still a fun adventure. Read Full Review

Superman & Robin Special #1 has a decent little adventure tucked away inside of it. To get to it though you have to hack your way through strange continuity clarifications and clumsy dialog. Read Full Review

Stormwrath

Jan 25, 2022

From a common reader pov, this might not be a 10/10, maybe not even close, but I couldn't care less, the Super Sons are my favorite duo and Tomasi is one of my favorite writers of all time. Reading this issue put a smile on my face from the beggining to end. I'm so sad they are not getting a new title but my hope will never die...

Bearf23

Jan 27, 2022

They’re back

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RKS - Jan 28, 2022

No, no they are not. Everything that made the Super Sons fun and enjoyable is gone.

Dave

Jan 22, 2022

With all my heart and soul I want to give this a ten. It was perfect , but my rule is when dealing with Jon Kent no 10 til he is. Until they fix the damage that Bendis did , I can not give any book with Jon a ten. No matter how much they take lemans and make lemonaid I can not. This is a reminder of what Bendis and Didio took away during Didios man crush. We should be reading Jon and Damian growing up together monthly in a Supersons book , but they aged him to prop up Bendis’ sorry ass legion book. Instead of admitting it was a mistake they keep doubling down on it. I do t know if it’s in Bendis contract they can not fix what he messed ( given the size of his ego I would not be surprised) . Tomasi did good on this he always doe s , but it does not make up for the horrible ageing of Jon. Making lemonaid out of lemons is what creators have to do, but why not just admit it was a mistake and fix it. Egos be Damned more

SurvivorLiv

Feb 03, 2022

This was a really fun little special taking place between Superman: Son of Kal-El #1 and #2. This book is just a fun adventure where Tomasi gets to write these characters again and it is amazing. I never read the original Supersons, but as someone who has been enjoying Son of Kal-El I have heard how good the run was and how controversial Bendis' aging up of Jon is. I loved Tomasi's time on the Green Lantern Corps book long ago and his writing continues to be fun here. The art and inks of this book are also whimsical and light. I recommend this book if you are a fan of Jon Kent or Damian Wayne.

KittyNone

Jan 26, 2022

I read this thinking, "Wow the Super Sons are still a joy even with one of them all grown up! It's be great if they made a whole series of this!" and lo and behold, I got to the end and found of that the pilot episode of a whole series! I love Jon and I'm glad his series is selling so well they've decided to give him a second comic

Psycamorean

Jan 30, 2022

I was never that into the Super Sons to begin with, but I gotta say, this issue was enjoyable. I think it captured the charm the original series had. Better than some of the follow-ups did, actually. I really don't think much has been lost by Jon being aged up here. He still acts like Jon. The context of the age up was stupid, but... you guys are complaining for the sake of it at this point.

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myconius - Feb 12, 2022

the only real reason that he still acts like Jon, is because Peter Tomasi is writing. put someone like Bendis writing and ...UHG!

Psycamorean - Feb 12, 2022

Well, it seems like Bendis can't write *any* character properly, so I stand by my statement that Jon is acting as Jon does. In this issue, especially. At some point, you just have to accept that the age up is not going anywhere and take the character for what it is, rather than how you'd rather want it. It's the same with any status quo shift, really. Jon gets aged up, Miles Morales gets a shitty new costume, a new Batman appears, it's all the same really. And it should be treated the same.

Psycamorean - Feb 12, 2022

Although, with most status quo shifts, if they have an indelible effect on the character, they will ironically be short lived. Say one character replaces another. It never lasts. The more benign status quo shifts, like a sexuality change or a parentage adjustment, things that don't directly change the character in a meaningful way. Those tend to stick.

Psycamorean - Feb 12, 2022

Examples of things that won't stick: Azrael Batman, the Four Supermen, legacy heroes replacing original ones. The only times these stick is when the new mantle holder is simply much more interesting than the old one. Like with Flash. Of course, even then, some creator decides they like the worse version more and you get over a decade of the superior character being trashed and disregarded, but I digress.

Psycamorean - Feb 12, 2022

Examples of things that will stick: Tim being made bisexual. Thor's mother being the Phoenix. Tim being bisexual literally changes nothing about anyone's outline for a story with that character. Just replace one underutilized love interest for another, but he's bisexual, so even that isn't actually necessary. Thor's mother being the Phoenix will only matter for the run where it was revealed, and it will be summarily forgotten about or disregarded by everything else. See: Recent Avengers & Thor.

Robin

Jan 25, 2022

As predicted, this is more of a attention grabber of super sons fans to read the superman and like Jon for being old. The writer is trying hard to make Jon likeable unlike the Superman series, but in doing so he is Damian seem so out of character. In super sons Damian is dark and brooding while Jon is light and cheerful, here its the weirdly different as Damian is written dark but goofy and Jon is written light but maturely serious. It's simply just not that great. They should have just given a short series to the writer to write about the proper supersons.

Merlyn

Jan 25, 2022

"Ah, you're no fun anymore!" You're damn right, Damian. Jon isn't fun anymore because he's being made a propaganda mouthpiece for Tom Taylor. This book was filled with very tongue-in-cheek remarks regarding what DC has done to Jon. "Hey, not everybody gets me either" was clearly a hint at Bendis and Taylor. Those first pages were also basically Tomasi expressing his regret that his book got killed along the way because of other writers' egos and editorial choices by DC. Honestly the best thing possible would be to use that cube and de-age Jon and get it back from scratch. His Superman is boring, it doesn't sell, his personality as Superboy was much more charming. But that would actually mean DC admitting their mistakes, so we probably wo n't see that coming to fruition. more

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SenpaifenixJäger - Jan 26, 2022

If DC really wants books for young audiences, I don't understand why they took this series away from them. Once I had to translate a number and I think it was good for children.

SenpaifenixJäger - Jan 26, 2022

Now I don't think it's the same. A friend told me that his mother convinced her son to buy another comic, since Jon taken by Taylor they no longer trust this series (I'm talking about the boy's parents)

Merlyn - Jan 26, 2022

I wouldn't give my child any Tom Taylor book. They're young and susceptible to indoctrination and Taylor is looking exactly for that.

Mingthemerciless - Jan 26, 2022

I know Taylor is the "star" of DC right now but as fenix noted the sales for son of Kal el are not good last time I saw the numbers and I suspect this Jon may end up being an alternate Jon and the young Jon will return. I suspect they'll keep both Jons at that point. Purely speculation on my part but something feels temporary about an aged up Jon Kent taking over Superman comics. Bruce is already on his way back to Tec in April clearly some recalibration is happening.

Merlyn - Jan 26, 2022

I don't think that's going to happen but I am curious how long DC will let that stupid run continue. They've cancelled Wonder Girl and it was better than what Taylor is doing there. Honestly what DC is doing to Superman and Green Lantern, where they let Geoffrey Thorne do all sorts of stupid shit really annoys me. Thing is, temporary or not, with Superman's death in JL #75, Jon will probably keep being Superman for some time, unfortunately.

Mingthemerciless - Jan 26, 2022

Killing the JL is such a stupid idea. Especially if it's an excuse to replace them with Future State characters. None of them have caught on with readers other than maybe Yara Flor for a brief time.

Merlyn - Jan 26, 2022

I seriously hope not. Jon is annoying ever since Taylor has him in his hands, no one cares about Jace Fox, Jo Mullein was bad in her book, I doubt it got better under Thorne, Aquaman's daughter is meh and the non-binary Flash... the less said about that, the better.

SenpaifenixJäger - Jan 27, 2022

@Merlyn Jon's series collapsed to the ground, it is not the same to buy a single comic due to the scandal to resell it later than to really like the series, it was to such an extent that Taylor began to donate to the community perhaps so that they would buy his Serie.

SenpaifenixJäger - Jan 27, 2022

@Mingthemerciless That's why there are people fleeing DC, Daniel left, Tynion leaves, which makes me think that this is a chronicle of a death foretold. Just look at the sales, almost everything is Batman, I think that not wanting to pay royalties will be more expensive.

Merlyn - Jan 27, 2022

Ahahahaha, he began to donate books? Poor guy, he's probably so disappointed no one cares about his woke Superman. The sooner that book gets cancelled, the better. I don't think DC will go bankrupt because guys like Tynion are leaving, honestly, that's a good thing. Lately they've managed to pull guys like Rosenberg and Zdarsky from Marvel, they'll find other writers.

SenpaifenixJäger - Jan 27, 2022

no books money

SenpaifenixJäger - Jan 27, 2022

You know Tynion looks like he's leaving DC

SenpaifenixJäger - Jan 27, 2022

yes, but could it be that they are seeing bankruptcy coming? I don't expect it to be just an economic adjustment, but I think it will hit them more

Merlyn - Jan 27, 2022

Tynion is leaving because he's going to Substack and he's going exclusive if I'm not mistaken. Good fucking riddance! If only Substack would have taken Tom Taylor too, what a boon for the industry would that have been.

Mingthemerciless - Jan 27, 2022

Fenix is on the right track. Taylor is apparently trying to gaslight DC readers by saying his superman book is selling phenomenally well. H3 says issue 5 had "unprecedented" sales warranting a reprint of all 5 prior issues with DCs "pride" branding. However....

Mingthemerciless - Jan 27, 2022

The sales numbers are fuzzy but his 1st issue appears to have sold 68K. For context. Bendis first superman sold 118K.

Mingthemerciless - Jan 27, 2022

By Taylor's third issue it was down to about 34K. Issue 5 spiked in sakes because it was hyped as the "coming out" issue of "superman and as many of us noted the speculators and the curious were going to do that.

Mingthemerciless - Jan 27, 2022

I think the clue lies in Taylor's protesting too much. If the book was selling well he wouldn't need to "debunk" bad reporting the popularity would speak for itself.

Mingthemerciless - Jan 27, 2022

Forget 5he woke shit he's selling in it for a minute...it's a dumb effing book and not in a cool dumb way. Just like batfans with Ridley...superman fans don't want activism and being lectured to in a book they read for escapism and in superman case to read energetic upbeat stories about a hero who defends us all in spite of ourselves and doesn't pick sides.

Mingthemerciless - Jan 27, 2022

By the way. Death of Superman 1 in the 90s sold 6M copies. I'm not sure where Taylir gets "unprecedented" from.

Mingthemerciless - Jan 27, 2022

Correction- Bendis sold 133K with his first superman. Put that into context with the utter shit he had been writing since DC signed him and his books almost universally panned.

SenpaifenixJäger - Jan 31, 2022

Tom. And what if he cries! I wonder if he really is a grown man because he acted like a glass child, and what I think he must have done as blackmail for his Twitter followers to buy his number. He is a baby, that's why he writes like a baby.

DiegoLDUganda

Jan 25, 2022

I really enjoyed this issue. I missed a lot Jon and Damian being themselfs, that friendly bully and cockery between them. Yeah, It's not the most powerful or intriguing story, but this issue makes me realize that Taylor's run is not valuable to pay anymore. I'm definitively quiting of that series.

Crimson Knight

Jan 25, 2022

Liked the Supersons being together again.

myconius

Feb 10, 2022

some nice moments in this, but ultimately pointless. i feel really bad for Peter Tomasi being done so dirty, time and time again. why he puts up with DC's BS is beyond me.

fearUhavemeisenough

Jan 25, 2022

I was discouraged by this number, I expected to see the little super children, not the teenagers (well Jon) grown up abruptly. It is a number that calls for longing, without really being it. It's not to throw away, but it's not what I expected.

RKS

Jan 28, 2022

There is no story in this issue. Jon and Damian get called to the Fortress of Solitude to help an alien creature back to it's dimension and they literally punch Nazi's...The dynamic of aged up Jon and young Damian just doesn't work. Save your money kids, unless you like being served up a big helping of "Cringe"

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SurvivorLiv - Feb 3, 2022

it is a self-contained small story where they get to play off of each other. I think you missed the point. you don't have to like it, but to say there was no story was ignorant. there just was not the style of story you seem to enjoy or prefer.