Super Sons issue #1 discussion (spoilers)

[Jadeb]

I loved the tone of the book. Nice to see young superheroes having fun. In that sense, it reminded me a little of PAD's Young Justice.

[rui no onna]

Lol, anyone else wonder how badly these two are gonna get grounded? ^o^'''

[Kuwagaton]

It's been kinda vague really, but now Jon says he can't fly. Wonder if Tomasi and Jurgens have discussed that.

[Superlad93]

This is purely speculation, but I imagine Tomasi, Jurgens, and Gleason treating flight like this big insurmountable goal for Jon while he's a kid. This goal likely won't ever be fully reached while he's a 10 year old kid.

To expound a bit, the power of flight is clearly in him, but due to the very direct link his powers have to his emotions/confidence, I don't think it's a power Superboy will be using regularly. It's like a more extreme version of Jon wondering when he'd get x-ray eyes in Action Comics (we see that when he's confident enough he gets it) a while back or his durability cutting not always being at it's strongest (till he's confident enough in himself).

It's like Gohan where our character technically has the means to reach far greater power(s) than he assumes himself capable of, but due to his powers being directly linked to emotions, the greater powers remain out of reach outside of bursts.

So I could see Jon activating his flight when he's REALLY feelin' himself, but then later when he wants to do it on command he's out of luck.

The out of story reason for this is likely to keep Jon a rough and tumble little scrapper that has to find work-arounds to compensate for the powers he's not ready for yet. It's sort of the same thinking that gave us New 52 Superman jumping into space with little more than an oxygen tank and tons of moxy. This lets you keep Jon and Damian on a slightly more level field so they play off one another a bit better, and share the knee scrapping adventures of running jumping kids.

Lets also not forget that in addition to having all of Clark's powers, Jon is hypothesized to gain new "mutated" powers. This possibility along with the idea that if Jon is feelin' himself enough he can gain the rest of the normal set for a while, makes him the sort of explosive wild card of not just Super Sons but also the Superman family as a whole.

I can just imagine Damian using psychology to manipulate Jons emotions to make him weaker or stronger in order to fit the situation. There could even be an issue where Damian uses the placebo effect to make Jon extremely powerful so they can get out of a bind, but then later as Jon is gloating about his new boost in power, Damian shuts that sh!t down by telling him that he didn't give him some sort of power boosting pill.

Lot of fun to be had with this, I feel.

[fanfan13]

^Second that.

But the mutated power thing... from where does this hypothesis come? Is it when Batman examined Jon back in issue #10? To think that there is possibility of him becoming a wild card is overwhelming. Still, good idea though. Talking about Jon's power, the solicit says in Superman Reborn aftermath, Batman and Robin will discover that Jon is losing his power. What is your opinion on this?

Damian will definitely do that. Furthermore, I believe he will be some kind of a mentor to Jon to be the real fighting hero.

PS: I love that Super Sons review threads are present in both Superman and Batman forum. Each discussion interestingly tends to focus more on each boy (Jon in Superman, Damian in Batman) so I can talk about both!

[SmokeMonster]

Perfect comic. Tomasi has such a great voice for these characters and I couldn't have asked for better art.

Also, anyone else hope in the future we get to see these guys become the new Batman and Superman?

[rui no onna]

Also, anyone else hope in the future we get to see these guys become the new Batman and Superman?

Nope. Don't wanna see them grow up anytime soon. They're just so much fun as kids.

[Superlad93]

But the mutated power thing... from where does this hypothesis come? Is it when Batman examined Jon back in issue #10?

Yeah that's the place. There's also the fact that Jon has already demonstrated that his powers are not completely like his dad's. As of issue #17 of Superman, Jon has demonstrated basically every power that Superman normally has.......and he's only ten. His powers are even stronger than Clark's were at his age (see Jon's speed and so on). It would be thematically strange and underwhelming to imply the idea that he may have new powers down the line, but then not act on it.

To think that there is possibility of him becoming a wild card is overwhelming.

The best analogy is Gohan from DragonBall.

Talking about Jon's power, the solicit says in Superman Reborn aftermath, Batman and Robin will discover that Jon is losing his power. What is your opinion on this?

I'm cool with it. It sounds like an interesting story, and it likely spins out of Jon's capture during Reborn. He'll probably just get his powers back, and he might even get a new power once he regains them.

Damian will definitely do that. Furthermore, I believe he will be some kind of a mentor to Jon to be the real fighting hero.

I think Tomasi will likely make it so Jon and Damian teach one another valuable lessons, but neither will fully admit to gaining from the other in the early days.

The character Nobody will likely act as the mentor to both.

[fanfan13]

Oh, I remember Jon is even faster than Superman

But the thing about Gohan is after he went full power and even stronger than his father, the creator had to have all those power taken from him. Then in later sagas, he lost the important role he had when he fought Cell. Even in Dragon Ball Super, his character has been downplayed. I read somewhere back then (I could be wrong), the reason the creator did that was because fans didn't really appreciate Gohan taking his father's place and they wanted Goku to be the strongest.

I'm afraid the same thing happened when it's revealed that Jon is actually stronger and be a key player somewhere soon. People will complain and they have to somehow downgrade his character development after that.

Jon may have those great powers, but I'd like it more if they also tone it down by having Jon unable to fully control it or something, like he is right now. He's still a kid and inexperienced. He still has a lot to learn. That's one of the aspects I like about Jon. If he is indeed set to be a key player in big arcs someday, I'd prefer it not happening soon because they need to develop him first.

I like the idea of Nobody be their mentor. I heard it somewhere Maya will appear in later arcs.

[Superlad93]

Oh, I remember Jon is even faster than Superman

Eh, more like Jon is considerably faster than Clark was at his age (10) lol

But the thing about Gohan is after he went full power and even stronger than his father, the creator had to have all those power taken from him. Then in later sagas, he lost the important role he had when he fought Cell. Even in Dragon Ball Super, his character has been downplayed. I read somewhere back then (I could be wrong), the reason the creator did that was because fans didn't really appreciate Gohan taking his father's place and they wanted Goku to be the strongest.

I afraid you might be taking my Gohan analogy too literally. While I'm speaking just about the characters inherent power, and how half saiyans are, in canon, filled with more potential than full saiyans; you on the other hand are speaking of the outside politics and odds and ends of manga work.

The fact of the matter is: Jon is half human and half alien, and so is Gohan. Jon's powers are largely based on his emotional state, and so is Gohan. Jon is shown to outclass his dad when he was his age, and so too did Gohan with his dad. The comparison doesn't go beyond this because Jon will never grow up in semi real time to outclass his dad or not, and take the title of Superman, so the point is moot. Jon will be roughly 10 to 14 (maybe 15) years old for all of his publication because Superman must remain Superman and relatively in his prime. Dragonball's characters age far more than any DC or Marvel character will ever age.

The closest Jon will come to being Superman is in a future timeline (and there is one where he is Superman) that runs alongside our current one. Over there they'd be free to make Jon as powerful as they like because there'd still be Clark Kent Superman in the main DCU timeline. DBZ doesn't do this.

I'm afraid the same thing happened when it's revealed that Jon is actually stronger and be a key player somewhere soon. People will complain and they have to somehow downgrade his character development after that.

Doubt it because 10 year old Jon will far more than likely never be stronger than his dad at 30 something. The most they'll harp on is likely Jon's great potential to be stronger, and the fact that he's stronger than his dad was at 10. That doesn't get in the way of Superman being the strongest in the here and now, so no reason to complain really.

Jon may have those great powers, but I'd like it more if they also tone it down by having Jon unable to fully control it or something, like he is right now. He's still a kid and inexperienced. He still has a lot to learn. That's one of the aspects I like about Jon.

I agree, and that's why you'd classify him as a wildcard. His powers CAN be great, but do to lack of control (physically and emotionally) their more powerful state is rendered unreliable. So Jon has to settle for the relatively low to mid side of his powers, and he's always gotta make sure to keep his emotions in check. Plus he's very new to this whole superhero thing.

If he is indeed set to be a key player in big arcs someday, I'd prefer it not happening soon because they need to develop him first.

Someday won't really come though. Just like Damian will never be Batman in main continuity/present time, Jon will never be Superman. We can do super fun stuff like having the Super Sons meet their future selves, and we can head into the multiverse and find older versions of them that are now Superman and Batman, but that's basically it.

I'm pretty into having it this way, because we can see the contrast between them now and them later. I'd love for older Jon as Superman to visit the past like older Franklin Richards did with the FF. Tomasi did say that FF was one of the inspirations.

I like the idea of Nobody be their mentor. I heard it somewhere Maya will appear in later arcs.

I' sure she will. Gleason created her, she was in Super Sons prologue in Superman, and Tomasi and Gleason are likely gonna work pretty synergisticly on these two books.

[fanfan13]

So I take you words a bit wrong. My mistake then I agree about the part that the comparison between Gohan and Jon can't go beyond what you have mentioned and most likely won't at least in current continuity.

The idea of having current Super Sons somehow meeting their future counterparts from the future/another universe is interesting. I hope there is actually one universe that will have them as Batman and Superman. The closest existing universe is earth-16 but then again the Superman in that earth is not Jon, but Chris, and I really don't look forward to Super Sons meeting them.

[Superlad93]

It's no worries, I wasn't clear enough with my original anlogy, so it's my bad

I'm actually super into Earth-16, but I get that it's not for everyone lol. Regarding there not being a Jon on many of the other worlds, I actually have a theory. So like, you remember how Jon was born outside of multiversal time and space on Talos, right? So even more so than his dad, Jon is multiveral anomaly. Reborn is set to fix all of this for both Jon and Superman. The two will be firmly part of the multiverse, and in the multiverse basically everything has a vibration. Jon will then be generating a vibration that's "in tune" after Reborn.

So what if more versions of him start to pop up around the Multiverse because of this? Some of them are Superboys and girls, but others are Supermen and women. Why, you ask? Because Superdoom ate a bunch of them. Guys like Optiman of Earth-36 are straight are straight up dead (Red Racers world). So what if a "Jon Kent" took up that role? That would be a new Superman and a new Jon in the Multiverse. It's like the Multiverse is using Jon to heal the Multiversal concept of Superman.

Hell, you could even add in a Jon over to Earth-16. He'd be like Chris' younger brother, and Chris might harbor some soap opera-like feeling of resentment for him that he won't admit to himself. Make Earth-16 Jon silver spoon 12 year old Jaden Smith type (since Green Arrows daughter is literally modeled after Miley Cyrus). It'd be fascinating to see Jon play off an older brother in Chris and a cracked more immature mirror version of himself. It would also be really fun to see Damian play off his older alternate self who dates the daughter of a super villain (lol he'd probably think it was cool).

[dietrich]

Perfect comic. Tomasi has such a great voice for these characters and I couldn't have asked for better art.

Also, anyone else hope in the future we get to see these guys become the new Batman and Superman?

I don't think that they'll ever become the main Batman and Superman but I sure would welcome a spin off series based in the future where the boys have taken over from their parents.
Failing that some supersons arc's where they meet future grown up versions of themselves would suffice.

[Browncoat Alex]

Perfect comic. Tomasi has such a great voice for these characters and I couldn't have asked for better art.

Also, anyone else hope in the future we get to see these guys become the new Batman and Superman?

I definitely feel like they might want to replace Supes with Jon eventually, similar to how Dick became Batman.

However I don't think this is going to happen for a really long time.

[Patrick Gerard]

^Second that.

But the mutated power thing... from where does this hypothesis come? Is it when Batman examined Jon back in issue #10? To think that there is possibility of him becoming a wild card is overwhelming. Still, good idea though. Talking about Jon's power, the solicit says in Superman Reborn aftermath, Batman and Robin will discover that Jon is losing his power. What is your opinion on this?

Damian will definitely do that. Furthermore, I believe he will be some kind of a mentor to Jon to be the real fighting hero.

PS: I love that Super Sons review threads are present in both Superman and Batman forum. Each discussion interestingly tends to focus more on each boy (Jon in Superman, Damian in Batman) so I can talk about both!

I think we're being setup for a Green Lantern crossover where we see how Jon is a battery for emotional spectrum energy. Lots of ways to go from there.