In the coming weeks, DC will be unleashing the first volumes of Rebirth trade paperbacks, and currently available is my favorite superhero’s book Superman: Son of Superman. Collecting the Superman Rebirth One Shot and issues Nos. 1-6, this book is well worth the price tag. It also presents an excellent jumping on point for new readers, or old readers that just couldn’t get into the New 52.
Starting with the Superman Rebirth One Shot, you get this great introduction of a Superman we’ve known forever. He’s old to us, but somewhat new to the current Prime Earth. He’s been hiding out, helping where he can in the shadows, while the younger Superman lives in the limelight. By showcasing his adventures with his family (wife Lois and son Jon) in the Superman: Lois and Clark book (we miss you Dean Cain), we get a personal glimpse into his life beyond the cape. However, the younger Superman is dead, and after meeting up with the New Earth’s Lana Lang, the older, more experienced Superman decides that to honor the fallen hero, he will don the red cape once more and become this world’s Superman.
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He won’t be taking on this adventure alone though; Lois and Jon especially are huge parts of this book. Jon, being half Kryptonian and half human, is learning to control his powers with varying degrees of success. When a hawk attempts to scoop up Lois’s cat Goldie, Jon attempts to stop it by firing a blast of heat vision. He stops the hawk, but kills both it and Goldie in the process. Jon tries to hide this gaum from his parents, but Clark knew about Goldie’s fate. Following a scary visit from Batman and Wonder Woman, Clark and Jon take a trip up to the Arctic to rescue a Coast Guard submarine that’s been trapped in the ice. Moments after being freed, it is then attacked by a giant squid-like creature (this kind of stuff happens all the time in the Coast Guard—join up today!). Clark gives Jon the confidence to use his heat vision and assists him in defeating the creature.
But who was behind the creature’s attack? It was none other than an old 90’s Superman villain the Eradicator, making his Prime Earth debut! Superman and family run afoul of the Eradicator on a trip to the Fortress of Solitude. He senses Jon’s human DNA and wishes to eradicate it, in favor of his pure Kryptonian genome.
The Kents (alias: Smiths) are now on the run from the Eradicator. During a chase that leads them to the moon, they learn that Eradicator is powered by Kryptonian souls that he’s gobbled up over the years. Hiding out in Batman’s Lunar Batcave, The Eradicator catches up with them and swallows Superman. Lois dons the Hellbat armor and she and Jon fight Eradicator to a standstill. This gives Supes enough time to convince the souls trapped within Eradicator to hop inside his mouth for a change.
This depowers Eradicator and empower Supes. He escapes from the belly of the beast and pounds the bad guy into the lunar surface with a 10-megaton explosion. With Eradicator destroyed, Superman releases the Kryptonian souls out into the ether. Superman then properly introduces Jon to Batman and Wonder Woman. Batman is a little sour, due to the $10 billion repair bill on the Lunar Batcave. Still, Superman dubs Jon his Superboy and we get our happy ending.
With an excellent story by Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason, on top of the incredible artwork by Patrick Gleason and Doug Mahnke, this book makes for the perfect reintroduction of the Man of Steel. Action packed, but filled with great character moments that leave you with chill bumps, this is the Superman book we’ve been waiting for. Luckily, for fans, our wait is over.
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