THIS WEEK: A different member of the House of El escapes Krypton’s explosion in the debut of DC’s new Elseworlds series, Superman: Father of Tomorrow!
Note: the review below may contain spoilers. If you want a quick, spoiler-free buy/pass recommendation on the comics in question, check out the bottom of the article for our final verdict.
Superman: Father of Tomorrow #1
Writer: Kenny Porter
Artist: Danny Earls
Colorist: Nick Filardi
Letterer: Lucas Gattoni
Cover Artists: Danny Earls & Nick Filardi
DC’s Elseworlds revival has been humming along for a few years now. It’s a line I’ve always enjoyed the concept behind: taking familiar characters and tweaking things to put them in new situations. This week’s Superman: Father of Tomorrow #1 kicks off the latest of these books by asking a simple question: what if adult Jor-El escaped the destruction of Krypton and came to Earth instead of Kal-El? It’s a solid premise, and the debut issue gets the series off to an interesting, if somewhat slow, start.
Writer Kenny Porter wastes no time getting to the interesting part of the story. There’s no long preamble on Krypton explaining why Jor-El was the one to leave over Kal-El or Lara, just a crashlanding on the Kent Farm and the emergence of a fully-grown alien. It seems likely to come up at some point, but the hows and whys of Jor-El’s departure are less important right off the bat than what happens after he arrives on Earth. After a time jump Porter establishes a relationship between Jor-El and the Kents that’s very different from the one readers are used to, more brotherly than paternal, and it works well. One might wonder why the Kents and Jor-El bothered with the family pretense at all, but as a contrast to Clark’s relationship with Jonathan and Martha in the main universe, it works. The grounding of the issue in Jor-El and the Kents gives an issue that is otherwise a lot of plot setup some necessary emotional heft.
Artists Danny Earls and Nick Filardi and letterer Lucas Gattoni are a solid team with strong storytelling chops. Earls’s characters are stylized and emotive, capable of conveying both the lightness and the weight of the scenes between Jor-El and the Kents. His designs for Jor-El’s sci-fi technology are a little polished for presumably having been cobbled together from Earth parts, but they show off Jor-El’s engineering abilities effectively. The action in the latter half of the issue is exciting and energetic, and the reactions of those around Jor-El are nicely-rendered. Filardi’s coloring fits Earls’s linework nicely, adding depth to the characters, filling out the environment around them, and setting a strong tone for each of the issue’s scenes. Gattoni’s letters serve the story perfectly, emphasizing the big moments well while remaining unobtrusive during the quieter, emotional moments. It’s very good visual work all-around.
Superman: Father of Tomorrow #1 is a solid setup for the rest of the series. Porter, Earls, Filardi, and Gattoni establish a unique tone for the series, one less interested in superheroics than it is in character development. It’s not the most exciting DC comic you’ll read this week, but it is a very well done dramatic story, and puts pieces of the rest of the series in place without feeling overly expository. With all the table-setting out of the way by the end of this issue, the series is well-positioned to be a fascinating look at a Metropolis with a very different kind of Man of Tomorrow.
Final Verdict: BUY.
Round-Up
- This week’s other big DC release is Batman #163, which after numerous delays finally wraps up Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee‘s H2SH storyline. Or, rather, Part 1 of H2SH. People throw the word ‘debacle’ around but there’s really no other way to describe whatever this has been. This finale repeats beats we’ve seen in previous issues, which means nothing is being moved forward storywise. It also doubles down on the odd characterizations Loeb has been using throughout, particularly for Red Hood. Overall there are no real stakes to any of what’s happening, and it’s not even that enjoyable a read, which just makes it feel like a waste of everyone’s time. I’m sorry that Jim Lee pushed himself to the point of exhaustion for this. Will H2SH Part 2 (or, as the issue’s finale brands it – and this is real – H2SH2) redeem the series? We’ll see, if and when it ever comes out.
- Whew. On to better things. Absolute Wonder Woman #20 closes the Zatanna arc in fantastic fashion. Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman put Diana in a really rough situation, and then find a way to make it worse, and it’s spectacular. This series just keeps getting better and better.
- The Flash #33 continues Ryan North and Gavin Guidry‘s run on the series. If two people were more born for working on a Flash series, I would love to see it, because the work North and Guidry have done so far is just superb. It’s nice to see Wally and his family back to fun superheroing, and the interaction between him and Captain Cold in this issue is great.
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