Super-Sons #12 – Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, Writers; Tyler Kirkham, Artist; Tomeu Morey, Colorist
Ratings:
Ray – 5/10
Corrina: It’s Still Not Over?
WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW
Ray: The fifth chapter of “Super-Sons of Tomorrow” unfolds in Super-Sons #12, as Tim Drake of the future is gone (we see him in the opening segment, catapulting through time past dozens of familiar DC stories and realities – including one that many people will not be happy to see again), but the fallout from his violent visit is still unfolding. Bart, Conner, and Cassie are still in the present day, and the awkward reunion between them and the other heroes – who don’t remember them – is the best scene of the issue. It’s all downhill from there, though, as it becomes more and more clear that these Teen Titans just don’t work very well. Kid Flash, the biggest rookie on the team save Jon, takes a picture of the departing future Titans and promptly gets reamed out by Raven for it, seemingly destroying their friendly (even possibly romantic) dynamic.
The tension continues, as Superman gathers Robin and Superboy to determine if he should allow them to continue operating as a team. Unlike the dreadful Titans issue last week where the Justice League broke up the Titans after a similar battle with evil characters from the future, Superman actually has some sound reasoning, and I did like seeing him listen to his son when Jon made some good points about how he and Damian look after each other and can work together to prevent that bad future from happening. Damian and Jon seem to be less hostile towards each other this issue, but that leads to a bizarre subplot at the end of the issue where Damian puts Superboy up for membership in the TT, and the rest of the team votes him down. Percy’s take on the Teen Titans is fairly dysfunctional itself, but this version barely feels like a team at all.
Corrina: So much is happening in this comic and very little of it is coherent. Mainly, it suffers from sidelining Jon and Damian, whose teamwork should be the heart of this book. Instead, we have the Titans of Tomorrow tossed in, a nod to many DC pasts in Evil!Tim’s travel through time (which may or may not be followed up but seems perhaps editorially inserted to tease long-time DC readers?), the current Titans debating Jon’s membership, and Superman and Jon talking to each other.
The only segment that works is Clark and Jon talking out the issues with Damian. Jon is young and it’s right for a parent to be concerned about his child’s friends, especially when that friend was trained as a murderer and assassin. However, the problem is that only a very short time ago, Batman and Superman built Damian and Jon a headquarters and decided to send them to the same school. One would think Clark would have worked past those objections by now.
As for the other Titans, present and future, they simply crowd the book.
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Disclaimer: GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
