Superman #11 Review and *SPOILERS*

Team Building

Written By: Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason
Art By: Patrick Gleason, Mick Gray, Mark Morales, Christian Alamy, John Kalisz, Rob Leigh
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: November 16, 2016

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

I love young heroes and I love getting the chance to see them grow into the heroes that they are....... which means that I should love the hell out of this book because heroes don't get much younger than Damian Wayne and Jon Kent or as they prefer to be called, Robin and Superboy.  The previous issue really hit all the right spots when it comes to me liking a comic and I hope beyond hope that it continues here because from what we got that issue, I don't think I've been as excited for a comic as I am for Super Sons, which we see the beginnings of here.  So we've got Damian Wayne, not trusting Jon Kent and after their fathers got involved in Damian's little kidnapping of Superboy, it looks like these little rascals are going to have to go through some crazy ass boot camp so that they can prove to their fathers that they're able to work together.  Let's jump into this issue and see if they can pull it off or if this pairing is doomed to fail before it ever begins.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins on a mountain top boot camp area that Batman apparently has and where our two young heroes have to get back to Gotham from, but even though they're clearly on their way, it doesn't impress their fathers any because the two just refuse to work together to get the task done.  Speaking of tasks, this is more than just a simple hiking trip, which we realize when Maya shows up as an obstacle for our heroes and even though they don't really defeat her because of her helpful nature, we find out that Batman and Superman have set up a whole bunch of things for our boys to overcome......... and some of them are pretty damn dangerous.  Yeah, Damian is pretty damn dangerous too, but this is all pretty new for Jon.  

Once our boys fight through Maya on the mountain and Goliath on a train, they end up losing overall when they argue about the correct way to fly Goliath through a hurricane that Superman created, but it seems that they'll have one more shot at this whole teamwork thing when they finally make it back to the Batcave and find Batman, Superman and Alfred being attacked and strung up by a mutation containing the genetic material of Clayface, Joker, Mr. Freeze and Killer Croc........ Yeah, this part is pretty silly, but our boys do work together to free their elders and are given the right to wear their capes again and with that, graduating boot camp.

In the end, our two father and son teams go back to Hamilton County to go get a Christmas tree like Clark and Jon were supposed to do when this arc began last issue and even though it seemed like Jon and Damian were able to put aside their differences and work together, we see as this issue closes that boys will be boys.......... and when Jon's involved that means heat vision........ and possibly a forest fire.

That's it for this issue of Superman and while I found the beginning of this book a little monotonous with the boys arguing over and over again during their tasks, there was a spot towards the end of this section that made all of that worthwhile and that part offered up some true emotions out of these two that went far beyond the simple posturing we saw throughout this story and really, their bonding time atop Goliath was something really special.  The tasks were pretty silly though, especially the monster at the end, but all in all I loved seeing Damian and Jon here and Tomasi and Gleason prove that they're the best to tackle these two characters and I can't wait to see what we get out of Super Sons because of what we saw here.  The art was fantastic all the way through and I just felt really happy by the time I was done reading this issue.

Bits and Pieces:

While I loved this issue of Superman, what it really did was make me really impatient for Super Sons to finally come out because I need more of what this issue is offering up.  Yeah, there were some pretty silly elements to this story that felt unneeded, but I still found myself really having a good time with this book and the excellent art didn't hurt either.  

8.5/10