Superman #16 Review

The Boys Are Back

Written By: Brian Michael Bendis

Art By: David Lafuente, Paul Mounts, Dave Sharpe

Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 9, 2019

Now that Jon is back from the past of Earth-3 and finished dealing with Jor-El and Rogol Zaar, it's time for him to consider the Legion of Super-Heroes' offer in him joining their team in the 31st Century.  To do that though, he needs to return home and talk to the other Super Son, Damian Wayne about the idea and see what the Boy Wonder thinks about not only this new opportunity, but also.... he kind of needs to show his best friend that he's aged seven years in three weeks.  Let's jump into this issue and see the reunion of the Super Sons.

Now this is going to be a weird issue to talk about because really......... I have mixed feelings about my own feelings.  See the thing is, Jon goes and visits Damian Wayne to talk to him about what's been going on in his life and what he plans to do and....... Well, Damian is a great kid.  The Damian Wayne that we get in this book doesn't feel like any Damian Wayne that we've ever really had because he's sweet, fun and seems to have a real mutual respect for Superboy...... Essentially, it's the Damian Wayne that I always wanted him to become after getting that chip off his shoulder.  It just doesn't make sense for what we've had for the years in every other book.  I mean, he was never this nice even in the Super Sons book........... but I kind of love this version of the character.

Yeah, beyond Damian not feeling like himself, there are some problems in this book, like Bendis thinking that Jon was never taller than Damian before his forced aging, when the joke was always that he was taller even though he was younger and another bit of nitpicking is that the two take on a Catman that hasn't looked the way he does in this book for a long ass time.  I'm still not a fan of all the dialog we get in this book, but having this stop gap before Jon heads off to the future was pretty nice and showed a friendship that I always wanted Jon and Damian to have, not to mention a nice moment between Superman and Jon at the end....... It just doesn't feel right for what we've had leading up to this moment....... I'm so torn.

All in all, there's a more cartoony look to the art this issue than we usually have in this book and for the lighthearted nature of the story it really worked and I came away really appreciating this style for how it portrayed our characters.  As for the story and the characters involved........ I had fun this issue.  Yeah, some stuff was wrong, characters didn't act right, but we got a version of Damian that I've always wanted to see and the interactions between the two boys worked left me wanting more by the end and wishing that we could have had more of the Super Sons, but with the way these two young heroes acted here.  

Bits and Pieces:

Damian Wayne is sweet as hell this issue and while it feels really wrong........ I actually really liked this portrayal of the character and wish it was normal.  Yeah, there's some heartwarming stuff here, but there's also some things that aren't right as well, but if you can put that aside and are someone who enjoys a more cartoon style of art I think you could really enjoy this issue of Superman.  I know I did, even with all my hangups. 

7.3/10