Superman #8 Review and *SPOILERS*

Weird Science

Written By: Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason
Art By: Doug Mahnke, Jaime Mendoza, Wil Quintana, Rob Leigh
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: October 5, 2016

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

After getting that day in the life of the Superman family issue we got previously, it feels like everyone and their sexy ass mamas should be on the Superman trolley and picking this book up.  I know I say over and over again that I refuse to give a comic a perfect 10/10 because if that happened, what would be the point of continuing..... it would all just be downhill from there, but even with that, Superman #7 was probably the closet I came to wanting to give that score in a long time and because of that, I'm super excited about this issue.  This is usually where I give a lead in by telling you what happened previously, but that doesn't really matter going into this, except for the fact that Jon has been given an extension on his science project............ because goddamn is that pretty significant here.  Let's jump into this issue and see what our favorite Superman family is up to in this new story arc, Escape From Dinosaur Island.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with Superman and Jon at the Fortress of Solitude in the arctic circle........... and me wondering if Superman only uses his one in Colorado as a sort of Man Cave........ or Man Fortress because we keep switching back and forth between them with the Action Comics and Superman titles.  It's in the Fortress that Superman is..... helping Jon with his science project?  I say it like that because it seems that Jon is doing everything himself with his flying saucer he created that's based on a concept that he saw in a dream and it's this part in the beginning that throws everything off for me for the rest of the issue.

You see, the big characteristic that we've seen of the Pre-Flashpoint Superman since he started kicking it in the New 52 is that he's all about protecting his family, but here he's allowing his son to build a science experiment that not only flies........... but also assimilates the crystal font of the Fortress of Solitude and teleports people to some strange island full of dinosaurs.  The reason I'm so thrown off by this is because Superman never once stops to ask Jon about how the fuck he created this thing and up until they were transported to this strange place, Superman was going to allow Jon to present this to his science class.  Everyone else is making models of the solar system and keeping Pluto out of it to my dismay or making volcanos and here's the new student, who's supposed to be keeping a low profile with a highly advanced alien tech like flying saucer.  It just doesn't add up to me.

In the end, after realizing that the only way back to their home is a tracking down the speeding flying saucer that has now turned itself into a flying cube, our Super father and son team attempt to get it back, that is until they're attacked by giant fish and flying dinosaur like creatures and after they're taken care of, it seems that our heroes quickly forget about the cube.  It's strange, but we end this issue with the two walking into a cave and realizing that this strange island is the final resting place of the Golden Age characters "The Losers" because of a message written on the cave wall.  This could also be tying more into what we're dealing with in Rebirth because it also mentions Rick Flag's grandfather in the message, but Superman's standing in front of most of that part of the message so it's kind of hard to put completely together.  

That's it for this issue of Superman and even though I was excited as hell to jump into this story for what we got previously, I have to say that for the most part it was kind of a let down because I spent the entire issue wondering when Superman was going to ask his son how the hell he built a device that could assimilate the Fortress of Solitude and then transport them to a Bermuda Triangle type parallel world/island.  Yeah, it's cool to have this mystery on our hands and the inclusion of The Losers in it, but with Superman being so overprotective of his family, you'd think he would have been a little more hands on with what Jon was making or even told him to cut the high tech shit and make something normal so that they could continue keeping a low profile in Hamilton County.  For all that though, it was kind of fun seeing Superman and Jon being super in this strange world and taking on dinosaurs with the help of Krypto, but me wanting to know more about this science project kept me from really enjoying it.  The art in this issue though was great and I look forward to the next issue simply because I want Jon to explain himself a little more and maybe get a little insight into this dream he had that got him to create this strange device in the first place.

Bits and Pieces:

While this issue is full of action and mystery, I found myself a little too preoccupied with Superman seeming to be a little out of character by allowing the events of this issue to even happen.  Yeah, it's still a fun issue with great art, but I hope we get some more answers about how this was allowed to happen in the first place......... Superman's slipping with his fatherly duties. 

7/10