Superman August 2021 Solicitations

[SuperCrab]

Superman: Son of Kal-El #2

Does this costume remind anyone else of anything?

High collar.

Body armor.

Hands partially covered.

No trunks on the outside.

Hmmmm.

I mean, obviously, it's different (more red, among other things), but is there any chance there's a black "S" on the back of that cape?

[Vordan]

Lol yeah quite a few of us have remarked that Jon seems to be their attempt to “reboot” the franchise again without actually having to reboot it. Between the outfit, the whole “how can I tackle serious issues like climate change or corruption?”, and the young unmarried Superman who had a “Smallville” upbringing plus the Legion, it’s hard not to see him as their second attempt.

As for your previous post, Superman continuity is still a mess, some stuff from the New 52 like the t-shirt and jeans era has been referenced, Xa-Du is still canon, but I don’t think New 52 Truth is. Basically writers can pick and choose what to reference.

[garazza]

The only positive thing about the age up I will ever say is that I liked the initial costume Jon wore when he came back. I liked the armored look and it had all the trappings of a n52 redesign with none of the crappy little details that ruined the whole aesthetic. His newer costumes have sucked tremendously, only adding to the failure that is the age up. And I don't think they ever bothered to explain the costume change, either.

[D.Z]

Stuff that works and fits in will stay. Stuff that don't...bye bye,

[manwhohaseverything]

Does this costume remind anyone else of anything?

High collar.

Body armor.

Hands partially covered.

No trunks on the outside.

Hmmmm.

I mean, obviously, it's different (more red, among other things), but is there any chance there's a black "S" on the back of that cape?

I didn't like new52 armour..i can't wait for the new costume for jon...Superman of metropolis is far superior look and no capes for jon..

[Prime]

So Jon is supposed to be Superbro without giving us the actual Superbro?

[DABellWrites]

Is the Superman Red and Blue cover a tribute cover to Superman's history?

[Vordan]

So Jon is supposed to be Superbro without giving us the actual Superbro?

More or less, that’s what a few of us have theorized. People lost their **** about Clark getting some of his original edge and grit back, so they’re trying to give that stuff to Jon who doesn’t come with the same baggage of “this is how Superman is supposed to be” because he’s not Clark.

Is the Superman Red and Blue cover a tribute cover to Superman's history?

Yep it’s a showcase of Superman in all his various incarnations throughout the comic multiverse and some outside media ones as well like Fleschier Superman.

[oneveryfineday]

Bringing this over from a different discussion since we’re on the topic of Jon being N52 Superman without the baggage-

Then what broke the Superman cycle prior to the '90s? He was the king of DC up to that point and had the greater fanbase.

I’ve seen someone say this:

The honest truth is that there’s a fundamental rift in how fans want Superman stories to be presented and this might be the way out of DC’s decades-long Clark problems.

The post-Byrne rift that saw Batman definitely replace Superman as DC’s best-selling character, as the fandom largely split into groups of those who like to read about a more serious Superman dealing with complex, morally ambiguous modern life or the platonic escapist Superman.

https://twitter.com/PitchAFett/statu...729966090?s=20

I wasn’t even alive during the 80s Byrne reboot, but is there anyone who knows comics history that can give more context? I’m curious about this as well. Although in the modern day I can see that same rift around Zack Snyder’s Superman.

[Vordan]

Dispenser wrote some interesting posts on that topic:
https://davidmann95.tumblr.com/post/...ere-john-byrne
https://davidmann95.tumblr.com/post/...-than-superman

[oneveryfineday]

Dispenser wrote some interesting posts on that topic:
https://davidmann95.tumblr.com/post/...ere-john-byrne
https://davidmann95.tumblr.com/post/...-than-superman

Thanks! This was just what I was looking for.

[Sacred Knight]

So Jon is supposed to be Superbro without giving us the actual Superbro?

Seems like it. Wildly misses the point in my opinion but this seems to be their "solution". That there was workable stuff within the New 52 ideas, but that Superman himself can't have them. Obviously I question their logic and think ultimately their plan will fail, but at this point they're doing what they're doing and we can only watch it play out to see for sure.

Its why I'm still so wary of the direction for Superman going forward. Yeah as it turns out Superman and the Authority looks really interesting. But what happens afterwards, when that story (and most notably Morrison, who's always a trusted caretaker) is done? Where does he go for them there? How far can you age/evolve a character before they're not that character at all anymore? These are my questions and my fears if they're putting most of their modernization efforts for the general idea of Superman into Jon instead of Superman himself.

[kryptonian]

Dispenser wrote some interesting posts on that topic:
https://davidmann95.tumblr.com/post/...ere-john-byrne
https://davidmann95.tumblr.com/post/...-than-superman

What is so interesting about this essay is that is more or less conforms to my beliefs that bringing back post-crisis Superman with a son pales in comparison to bringing back pre-crisis Superman with a son.

Alan Moore created the perfect motivations for why pre-crisis Superman would want to keep himself hidden, he doesn’t want to put his Jordan Elliot persona and his son in danger, as he and his wife live together in the 21st century dc universe trying to fit in.

Jon Kent having a post-crisis type of personality(viewing himself as a human with no emotional connection to krypton and whose more rough around the edges) can be the perfect foil to pre-crisis Superman that sees himself as an alien first and foremost but nonetheless wants to fit in with these flawed little humans and to keep them safe.

Superman’s identity reveal would have packed a more emotional punch as pre-crisis Superman realizes that expressing his real self without worrying about what other people think is the only thing that will make him truly happy, and he would have been even more conflicted because of what happened last time in *whatever happened to the man of tomorrow?*


Jon Kent and Clark Kent’s post-crisis vs pre-crisis personality differences would have provided an interesting character dynamic that would have thrived from bendis’s creatively bankrupt age up

[SuperCrab]

Lol yeah quite a few of us have remarked that Jon seems to be their attempt to “reboot” the franchise again without actually having to reboot it. Between the outfit, the whole “how can I tackle serious issues like climate change or corruption?”, and the young unmarried Superman who had a “Smallville” upbringing plus the Legion, it’s hard not to see him as their second attempt.

As for your previous post, Superman continuity is still a mess, some stuff from the New 52 like the t-shirt and jeans era has been referenced, Xa-Du is still canon, but I don’t think New 52 Truth is. Basically writers can pick and choose what to reference.

So Jon is supposed to be Superbro without giving us the actual Superbro?

More or less, that’s what a few of us have theorized. People lost their **** about Clark getting some of his original edge and grit back, so they’re trying to give that stuff to Jon who doesn’t come with the same baggage of “this is how Superman is supposed to be” because he’s not Clark.

Yep it’s a showcase of Superman in all his various incarnations throughout the comic multiverse and some outside media ones as well like Fleschier Superman.

Seems like it. Wildly misses the point in my opinion but this seems to be their "solution". That there was workable stuff within the New 52 ideas, but that Superman himself can't have them. Obviously I question their logic and think ultimately their plan will fail, but at this point they're doing what they're doing and we can only watch it play out to see for sure.

Its why I'm still so wary of the direction for Superman going forward. Yeah as it turns out Superman and the Authority looks really interesting. But what happens afterwards, when that story (and most notably Morrison, who's always a trusted caretaker) is done? Where does he go for them there? How far can you age/evolve a character before they're not that character at all anymore? These are my questions and my fears if they're putting most of their modernization efforts for the general idea of Superman into Jon instead of Superman himself.

What is the best jumping on point reader wise for this (arguably, it sounds like) "Jon as a New52 Superman type character" direction? Where does the attitude take hold and at what point does the costume change to the one in Son of Kal-El #2? Is Superman: Son of Kal-El the beginning? Future State? Is there an indication that the SoKE #2 cover is going to a long-term costume, or are we looking at an alternate cover/one-off?

As a big fan of New52 Superman who never could get into the Rebirth and Reborn Superman and hated the early character of Jon as a young child and what it did to the rest of the characters and the way it dominated both Superman books, I could see myself enjoying his adult adventures if he is really going to go around wearing a New52 Superman type costume and acting like New52 Superman with the serial numbers filed off (Even that for me wouldn't be an adequate replacement for the New52 Superman, but it might be worth reading.). It's sort of odd to see the potential for a comic book character who was my least favorite thing to ever happen to Superman comics potentially become a character who's adventures I'd like to follow, but I might be willing to give it a try.

Basically, I've been long trade-waiting some of the Bendis era of the two main Superman books as they appear digitally on my library's site (Hey, it's 100% legal and I don't really want to sacrifice financially to pay to support the post-New52 direction. I don't think I'd be reading them at all if I had to buy them. At least they get whatever my library pays them. I gave the Rebirth stuff a chance where I bought them for what seemed like a long while hoping they'd get better, and they didn't until Bendis came along [Gave up before then, but then I saw what my library was doing and figured I'd give Bendis a shot], and even then, not great [Though Bendis did make several positive changes, and one course one negative one. The negative one was the return of the trunks.]), but that's now like a year behind.

Essentially, I did read the comics where Jon comes back as a teenager after a summer exploring the galaxy with Jor-El that was subjectively longer for him than for the people living on earth. I also read the ones where he was absent because he'd gone to join the legion (Didn't read the actual legion book, because, Jon.). I think I read something where he founded sort of a galaxy United Nations or a DC Comics version of Star Trek's Federation, but in the present, as well.

At that point, to me, he wasn't really showing a ton of New52 Superman type qualities (Though his general presence was less annoying because he was aged up [Good in and of itself] and didn't dominate the books as much- could be absent for long stretches, etc.). Do people feel like the change happened sometimes after that, or had already happened by then? Maybe that will give me a better gauge on whether it is worth a shot for me to try to see if the character has grown up with a personality that would appeal to me as a reader. His childhood personality didn't appeal to me as a reader at all, but sometimes annoying kids turn into cool adults.

It does occur to me that after the events of Superman: Reborn, with Superman's timeline rewritten, that Jon could be seen as the son of New52 Superman as well as SuperDad. Retroactively, he was born to a combination of the two, in an era we haven't seen played out as this Superman experienced it, but where we know he was wearing the New52 costume during Jon's revised birth. Maybe he got a few extra Superman Red/New52 Superman qualities that didn't manifest until he was an adult. Actually, though he wasn't written like it, one could argue that the change to Superman's timeline could have fundamentally changed Jon's inner being.

He doesn't have the ability to use a super-flare by any chance, does he? Does he think Wonder Woman is hot?

[D.Z]

Superman (well early golden age version) is expected to hit public domain so one of these new takes of him will solidify hopefully.