Super Sons #11

Super Sons of Tomorrow Part 2 Sondown

Peter J. Tomasi & Patrick Gleason Writers
Ryan Benjamin Penciller
Richard Friend Inker
Gabe Eltaeb Colorist
Rob Leigh Letterer
Francis Manapul Cover
Dustin Nguyen Variant Cover
Andrea Shea Assistant Editor
Brittany Holzherr Associate Editor
Alex Antone & Paul Kaminski Editors
Brian Cunningham Group Editor
Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.
Superboy created by Jerry Siegel.
By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.

Our main cover shows the Super Sons — Damian Wayne and Jon Kent — battling Batman with guns?! Well, this actually isn't Batman. It's the evil version of Tim Drake from the future we've seen a couple of times. Or, more precisely, another evil version of future Tim Drake. There's lots of similarities to the old Titans of Tomorrow storyline, but enough things have changed for me to just call him a brand new character. Anyway, this cover is wonderful, living up to Manapul's high standards.

Our variant cover is everything I want a variant cover to be. Unique, experimental and gorgeous. It's a quiet watercolor profile of Superboy in front of Titans Tower and I can't get enough of it.

Our story involves future Tim Drake coming back in time to prevent Jon Kent from losing control of his powers and killing millions of people. He breaks into Titans Tower, just as the team is debating whether Jon should be a Titan. Tim knows the Tower's defenses inside out, as well as the Titans' powers. He fills the room with air molecules that prevent Raven from teleporting away and Kid Flash from vibrating through the walls, and he coerces Raven into reading his mind to show the others that he's telling the truth.

After the Teen Titans relive Tim's memory of an older Jon destroying Metropolis, Tim covers Jon in a sticky black goo. But this only makes the boy panic and do the very thing Tim was afraid of — lose control of his powers. At Damian's coaching, Jon is able to fly up into the air to minimize the resulting energy blast. Raven and Kid Flash do a decent job protecting the Titans from this blast, but they are all knocked out, as well as the top floor of the Tower.

More significantly, though, Jon's energy blast disrupted Tim's cloaking device, enabling the future versions of Bart, Cassie and Conner to finally locate their time-lost former teammate. Bart worries Tim might have died in the explosion since Cassie can't get a read on his vitals. Bart asks Conner what they should do, and he says they need to do what Titans do — find him and bring him home, together.

Remember that adult Bart in the yellow suit? In 2005, a good version of him earned the Best Supporting Character of the Year award from me. Later, we met an evil version of this adult Bart (one that had been cloned by future Tim). Is this one good or evil? We'll soon find out. In the meantime, I am really enjoying this ride. The post-Rebirth Teen Titans weren't too exciting, but the Super Sons were delightful. It's great to have an excuse to dip back into this series.

Our first ad is for Doomsday Clock, a fantastic story that unfortunately still isn't done yet two years later. It's supposed to wrap up later this month (December 2019), but that's an awfully long time for a 12-issue miniseries.

We then get eight full pages previewing the new slate of comics produced by DC's Master Class — Damage, The Immortal Men, Silencer, The Curse of Brimstone, Sideways, New Challengers, The Terrific's and The Unexpected. I don't know if any of these really caught on, but DC sure promoted the heck out of them.

Next time, our story continues in Teen Titans #15.