Superboy: The Man of Tomorrow #1 – Kenny Porter, Writer; Jahnoy Lindsay, Artist
Ray – 8.5/10
Ray: It’s been a long time since Superboy got a solo spotlight, with the character having one of the longest absences of any hero since the New 52—so long, in fact, that the 2019 Young Justice series had to come up with a strange work-around about him being in an alternate dimension and missing several reboots in a row! So it’s no surprise that the character had a lot of momentum from fans, which led to this book handily winning the second DC Round Robin tournament. It also means that the creative team has a lot of heavy lifting to do. When we first meet Kon-El in the modern day, he’s struggling to find his place in the new Super-Family dynamic. Anything he can do, there are several other super-teens around to back him up and do it better. The only people he really seems to connect with are Jonathan and Martha Kent, who encourage him to find his own purpose the way Clark did when he left Smallville.
That leads Kon to the Fortress of Solitude, where he looks for crises that aren’t being addressed that he can handle. He doesn’t find any on Earth—but he does in space, where an army of Dominator-led genetically engineered goons are tearing a world apart. He charges in to help the species of hapless lizard-people, but soon finds himself overwhelmed by the strength of the enemy—who seem to have some similarity to him. The story is a little thin, mostly being dedicated to action scenes, but it’s clear Kenny Porter loves the character and does some nice deep cuts to his mostly-forgotten early history. The art by Jahnoy Lindsay is excellent, but draws Kon-El a little too youthful. It’s easy to forget that the character was old enough to play stepdad on Gemworld before his friends found him. Overall, it’s a fun start that does a good job with a very messy status quo for a cult-favorite hero.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
