Superman Son of Kal-El #1
Jon Kent is ready to take a stand and become his own man in Superman Son Of Kal-El #1, by writer Tom Taylor, artist John Timms, colorist Gabe Eltaeb, and letterer Dave Sharpe. Taylor and company spin a wonderful yarn, guaranteed to put a smile on anyone's face.
The issue starts in flashback, on the day Jon was born, as Superman is forced from alien invasion by the League to be with his wife while she's birthing Jon. It moves to the present, with Jon saving people from a forest fire. He discovers the source of the flames- a metahuman under attack by the military. He defuses the situation but feels wrong about it. He finds Robin, and they talk things out, with Robin giving him an underground news stream to listen to, and Jon embarks on his new quest to make the world a better place.
Taylor does a marvelous job in this issue right from the word go. The opening scene is peak Clark- trying to save the Earth even though he also has something else more important to attend to. It also has the feel of a man who doesn't really know what to do when his child is being born. Superman is a lot of things, but he goes with what he understands, and he understands alien invasions. There is a great recurring joke about him calling it an alien invasion and the Leaguers calling it an "attempted alien invasion". It works wonderfully.
From there, Taylor takes it to Jon, and right away, there's a feeling that this will be a different kind of Superman comic. Jon isn't interested in just fighting the results of bad actions- sure, he'll put out the fires, but he wants to know why they were started and how to deal with them. The entire portion of the book of him and the forest fire is a metaphor for the kind of Superman he'll be, and it works brilliantly. He doesn't punch the metahuman to make it stop- he hugs him. He calms him down. He feels remorse for turning him over to the authorities. He wants to make the world a better place, but he wants to do it in his way. Robin puts this in perspective for him- seeing these two together is never not fun- and then it's off to the races. Taylor kills it.
Timms's art is excellent. He captures the alien invasion spectacle, the humor in the Leaguers' response to Superman, and the tender moments between Lois and Clark. It only gets better from there as he and Eltaeb make the forest fire scene look straight-up amazing. Finally, the exchange between Superman and Robin is superb, from the character acting to the incidental ninja fight. The book starts with a great splash page of Clark as Superman and ends with one of Jon as Superman, which is fitting, and both look amazing.
Superman Son Of Kal-El #1 will make a believer out of anyone who doesn't think Jon is ready to be Superman. Taylor looks to be telling a different kind of Superman story with a different Superman, and if he can nail it as well as he did this first issue, this book will be incredible. Timms is the perfect artistic partner for him on this one. Where this book goes, only they know, but one thing's sure- it will be amazing.
