Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Illustrated by Ivan Reis,
Brandon Peterson, Jason Fabok
Published by DC Comics
Brian Michael Bendis has been quite the powerhouse over on the Superman line of books. His run is reminding me of the John Byrne era of Superman titles from the 1980s. It’s very well thought out and everything correlates. Bendis also has a handle on the character that is unlike any run that has preceded it.
It’s truly a magical time for the character month in and month out.
The first moment of this issue is freaking beautiful. It’s just a splash page of Superman hugging Jon. The dialogue is “Dad?” with Superman responding, “Nope. Still hugging.”
It’s a simple yet, beautiful scene with a lot of power. And the issue just gets better from there.
Jon is now a teenager. He’s been out in space for a long time (even though it’s been about three weeks here). Clark and Jon catch up and there’s some nice dialogue between the two.
Bendis really makes these characters human and I love his take on these events. He’s taking his time and really strengthening all of the characters as he goes along. He’s making them all very relatable.
From there, they go to see Lois Lane. There’s a really funny moment where she tries to be seductive to Clark and has no idea Jon is there. I laughed out loud as Clark covers Jon’s eyes. From there, we see Lois’s reaction to seeing Jon. It’s all handled extremely well and felt honest. And I absolutely love that.
We see a flashback to when Jon and Lois left Earth. The shuttle attached itself to a bigger spaceship. And off they went into the universe! We get to see Lois and Jon fly around with Jor-El. He shows them the galaxy. He supplies Lois with a Superman costume. They fight in a space war! They stop at a place to eat! They encounter Lobo! This flashback sequence is very well handled artistic wise by penciller Brandon Peterson as well. We then see Lois coming back to Earth.
We cut to the present.
Then we have a real shocking ending. It looks to set up a future storyline and man I can’t wait for it . This is another great issue overall.
Honestly, just when I think it can’t get any better, it does. This is just some fantastic top tier comic book storytelling.
RATING: A
