Superman#8 Discussion & Spoilers

[Tony]

How did editorial not pick up on this?

Is this really from the issue? lol OK Bendis got a laugh from me then.

[Miles To Go]

Is this really from the issue? lol OK Bendis got a laugh from me then.

Yeah, nabbed it from Bleeding Cool.

[Tony]

The pointing finger may be a bit much but the line is good

[LordUltimus]

I do like the costume Jon is wearing in the flashbacks.

[HeroVladimir93]

This issue felt much better than issue #7. The good things about it:
The Kents' reunion was well-done. Superman and Lois express the very real sentiments of sadness of missing Superboy's crucial development and resentment towards Jor-El, even considering the possibility that he manipulated them into letting Superboy come with him into space. One of the best things about Bendis is that he writes Superman as a deeply layered, multidimensional character instead of a vanilla goody-two-shoes who never gets angry, never gets sad, always has the right answers and easily solves every problem he comes across with almost no opposition. Mongul's appearance felt forced and too convenient, but I would never say no to a good action scene involving our beloved Man of Steel.

The art in this issue was extraordinary. Reis and Peterson's designs compliment each other without really stepping into each other's toes. I'm interested to see how Peterson would draw Superman, but for now, I'm glad Reis is the main artist in this book.

The mystery of Jor-El keeps growing in this issue. It looks like at some point in his journeys, Jor-El ran afoul of the Green Lantern Corps, given how quickly Arisia and Kilowog leave the scene after finding out Jor-El is keeping Superboy company. While that scene doesn't degenerate into a brawl, it still leaves you wondered what happened between Jor-El and the Green Lanterns. Superboy is confused but he decides not to press the issue, either because he respects his grandfather's privacy or he is afraid he won't like the answers.

The ending was amazing and it left excited for issue #9. After the events of Forever Evil and Darkseid War, it would appear we saw the last of the Crime Syndicate, so I'm interested to see how did they return from the dead. DC still owes me a big Superman vs. Ultraman battle.

The bad things about this issue is Bendis' trademark humor. It feels forced and out of place, especially when the characters make jokes in the middle of a life-changing event. I get it, Bendis, you are trying to bring some levity to a series of dramatic moments, but that levity shouldn't come at the expense of pathos and gravitas.

The other bad thing is that Superman barely gets six pages of screen-time in his own book. Let me remind everyone in this forum that the book is called Superman. I get it, Bendis, you are trying to develop the supporting cast as much as possible, but you do not deviate from the protagonist. Ever.

Out of the two Superman books under Bendis' control, Superman feels like the stronger title. I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again. Hopefully, Superman #9 will keep up the momentum from this issue and deliver an amazing story.

[Journey]

Again the more these issues the continue the more it makes Clark and Lois look like terrible parents for letting their 11 year old son fly off into space with a stranger.

And his attempts to justify it just fell flat like, "oh we made a mistake" no **** sherlock...

And at this point I'm convinced the age up was just for shock value, it has no point. I keep waiting for this to all come together and make sense but it doesn't hopefully the next author fixes this because so far at this moment it serves no point. Their's no need for 2 teenage Superboys, nor 2 Supermen

[Sacred Knight]

The ending with Jon telling Superman that "what happens next isn't his fault" makes me more confident that its Ultraman who gives Jonathan the scar. Jon can't bring himself to fight him and he gets hurt really bad. He's afraid when Superman hears that he'll blame himself.

[Leaf57]

how to delete

[Superlad93]

Any takers on what the cool purple energy arm Jon uses during his fight with the hawk people is?

We've gotten a few swerves on the idea of Jon getting a new power not shared by his father, but given the fact that I see no other obvious indication of where that energy arm is coming from other than Jon himself, and the the fact that neither Jor-El or any of their comrades seem to be doing anything remotely similar, I'm gonna just guess that it's a new power.

Wonder what else he can do? Hope to see more on the space road trip in a few issues.

[Korath]

How did editorial not pick up on this?

I don't get the reference.

[Yoda]

He essentially kidnapped Jon, it was pretty much agreed by everyone from start that the whole space adventure with Grandpa was only a temporary thing (hence the summer part) yet he's had Jon in deep space for several years clearly against his will and when Jon attempts to go home his response is to not communicate with him for seemingly an entire year.

What part of any of that reads as sane, rational or normal behaviour to you?

No he didn't. These events are at the beginning of the trip. Time dilation in space travel doesn't work that way. Jon would be experiencing days while Clark and Lois experienced years. It's not the other way around. The time travel part has to be connected to the black hole. And there's no "clearly against his will" part shown. If it's Bendis' intent to show that time was passing faster for them, there's no indication in the book (Jon doesn't look older than he did last issue, he just didn't have a costume last issue). Superman and the Justice League travel through space all the time and don't age 7 years every three weeks:

The reciprocity of the phenomenon also leads to the so-called twin paradox where the aging of twins, one staying on Earth and the other embarking on a space travel, is compared, and where the reciprocity suggests that both persons should have the same age when they reunite. On the contrary, at the end of the round-trip, the traveling twin will be younger than his brother on Earth. The dilemma posed by the paradox, however, can be explained by the fact that the traveling twin must markedly accelerate in at least three phases of the trip (beginning, direction change, and end), while the other will only experience negligible acceleration, due to rotation and revolution of Earth. During the acceleration phases of the space travel, time dilation is not symmetric.

Lois would have been gone from Clark's perspective for a lot more time on her short trip, and Jon would come back the same age whereas Lois & Clark would have thought he was missing for years.

It's also appears Jon is exaggerating because nothing Jor El has done tracks with "crazy" so far. He's not a reliable narrator. He's recounting his experiences as an 11 year old after 7 years. This is similar to when you ground a 10 year old for video games for a weekend and they complain that they are gone "forever."

[Leaf57]

Where’s Jor El been shown to be a maniac in this run? Setting aside Oz, which we don’t know how that fits with the Man of Steel continuity, he definitely hasn’t been shown to be anything close to a maniac here. Going on what Bendis has shown Jor El is trying, but having his own trouble finding his place.

I’ll retract my defense if he intentionally dropped them into that black hole, but otherwise his actions are exactly what he said they would be and he’s done nothing so far that’s put Jon in any more danger than Clark did routinely in the last runs or that Jon’s gotten himself into with Damian.

He kidnapped Jon, the whole space trip with Grandpa was agreed from the start by everyone to be only a temporary thing (hence all the referencing of summer). Yet not only does he have Jon in deep space away from his home and family for years against his will with seemingly no end in sight but when the boy tries to get away from him and return home his response is to not communicate with him at all for seemingly an entire year, essentially several months of isolation as punishment.

What part of any of that reads as sane, rational or normal behaviour to you?

[Truman Burbank]

Again the more these issues the continue the more it makes Clark and Lois look like terrible parents for letting their 11 year old son fly off into space with a stranger.

And his attempts to justify it just fell flat like, "oh we made a mistake" no **** sherlock...

And at this point I'm convinced the age up was just for shock value, it has no point. I keep waiting for this to all come together and make sense but it doesn't hopefully the next author fixes this because so far at this moment it serves no point. Their's no need for 2 teenage Superboys, nor 2 Supermen

Age-up isn't for shock value. It's to ship Jon off to join the Legion and remove him from the books entirely. And it's not stuff that will be fixed; Bendis's story is unfortunately becoming a central part of the DCU over the next year, per that announcement DC made.

[Superlad93]

It's also appears Jon is exaggerating because nothing Jor El has done tracks with "Crazy" so far. He's not a reliable narrator. He's recounting his experiences as an 11 year old after 7 years.

I wouldn't call it an exaggeration. Well, maybe it's an exaggeration if you place it next to what most of us expected to be "crazy Jor-El." But this is a legitimately not well person, and Jon got a sense of that when Jor-El nearly broke out into tears while having an existential crisis over the idea of the universe being nothing but a chaos. That's Jon realizing that the the grown ass adult literally piloting the ship is wondering if life is even worth it/has any point to it.

But yeah, it wasn't a year of Jor-El not talking to Jon. It was a "summer" by Jon's estimation. For all intents and purposes, Jor-El seemed to keep his word at the start, but he grew more distant and cold for the lion's share of the trip, then the black hole happened. Had that not happened it seemed like Jor-El was gonna have Jon back in a "summer" (Jon's time) and in like a week or two (Clark's time).

What I'm guessing happened is that once Jor-El felt like the only other being in the universe that felt just as out of place as him, Jon, pulled away from him Jor-El retreated into himself and either tried to kill the both of them (ending both of their troubles in his eyes) or he genuinely made a mistake in his compromised state of mind, but realized too late and could only apologize to the boy. Either is pretty freakin heart breaking.

After that I'm assuming Jon finds his way back to Earth-0 (props to the little man for that!) and has to go it alone from there. Thus, in his view, he only spent a few months with Jor-El, but several years on his own.

[Miles To Go]

I don't get the reference.

It's a continuity error. Jon is referring to a different sector, not the one spoken by the Lantern