Amanda Waller used Jon Kent as a tool against other heroes in her war on metahumans. Infected by the Brainiac Queen, he hunted down his friends, but now he’s free, recovering on Paradise Island.
Jon’s belief that all cyber corruption is gone proves to be wrong. He relives things he did while under control of the Brainiac Queen, looking out of the cage his body had become.
The memories Superboy revisits include wannabe Pied Piper Drummer Boy
The Rubenesque robber is no problem even in the real world, never mind a dream-cum-memory, but there is a real threat.
It’s the Brainiac Queen, determined to regain control of Superboy. She’s vastly powerful and has her claws into the Teen of Steel… but there is a friend around.
I’m no fan of Galaxy, ‘the prettiest star’, she’s far too flighty, but I laughed at her line about Jon’s approach to superheroing; it sounds as if, like me, she just wants Jon to punch more. While Galaxy doesn’t wish to get involved, Dreamer, with her UDN (Undefined Nonsense Powers), is able to talk Superboy through the pain of his memories and out the other side.
The Good: Jon Kent has had a terrible time over the last few years of his publishing history; the happy tween was kidnapped by Ultraman, an evil doppleganger of his father and brutalised in a volcano for years. Finally reunited with parents Clark and Lois, he’s never really showed the PTSD that has to have come with such an ordeal. Dreamer, the very definition of empathy, helps him confront his pain, and start to deal with it. This is something that’s been a long time coming, and kudos to writers Sina Grace and Nicole Maines for dealing with the long-dangling plotline.
Also good, this moment.
We’ve been told Jon is bisexual for a few years now, but he’s been treated as gay, not noticing anyone but news blogger turned PR person Jay Nakamura. I don’t need him to cheat on Jay, emotionally or physically, but it’s good that he notices girls as well as boys. Even if it is just in a… whatever the heck this is.
Speaking of Jay, he doesn’t react well post-adventure, when Jon is harping on about how great Dreamer is.
I’m with Jay. Given Dreamer can do anything required to move a story forward, she shouldn’t have given in to Waller’s blackmail. Jon is horribly insensitive to Jay’s feelings.
I also love that in one dream/memory a Gone Too Soon character from the days Jon was a cute, fun kid rather than an earnest, angsty teen comes back briefly.
And how good to see a formidable Huntress, the one introduced to the current DC Universe in Grayson, rather than the wet blanket of recent Justice Society of America stories.
The Bad: This is a ruddy confusing comic. I’ve done my best to summarise what I believe happens, but dreamscapes + time = confusion. How is Dreamer here to help Jon in a memory/dream? The last time we saw her, she was being blown up and so is presumed dead (though I’ve been assuming she just stepped into a dreamscape to fool Amanda Waller, who had blackmailed her into lackey status). It’d be nice were the writers to make things clearer.
Look at the state of Jon when he’s dominated by the Brainiac Queen; he’s clearly had his organs – at the very least, his skin – infected with alien circuitry. Its horrific. But one blast from a ray gun in Absolute Power #3 and, lingering psychic damage apart, he’s all clear.
It’s good to go see John Timms handling a lot of the art – he’s been Jon’s main visual man for the last few years so this feels like a continuation of Jon’s journey. But we also get several excellent pages by Travis Mercer – the quickest way to tell the difference is that Jon doesn’t have the telltale Tiny Timms mouth. Timms looks to be in charge of the framing and aftermath moments, while Mercer handles the more intense action sequences as Jon and Dreamer are assailed by the Brainiac Queen.
The anguish Jon feels is there to see, as is the qualified relief when he seems to be free of the Brainiac Queen. The alien tech beast herself looks suitably hideous, and there’s a good likeness to TV’s Dreamer, writer Maines, from Mercer. I just wish Timms would tweak Jay… the pink hair covering the top half of his face, the glasses that often hide his eyes – he looks plain dopey, like a man-poodle.
The colouring by Hi-Fi, Adriano Lucas, Pete Pantazis and Rex Lokus is vibrant, I couldn’t guess at who did what – everyone obviously received the same memo. Dave Sharpe handles all the lettering, with the only thing that caught my attention being the Amazon Io being referred to as ‘Lo’ – given how the letters ‘L’ and upper case ‘I’ look identical in some fonts. It could be that the writers got it wrong, misreading an old Wonder Woman comic.
The full-colour cover by Timms is superb, setting a desperate-to-regain-himself Jon against a montage of key players.
Whether you were a fan of tween Jon or teen Jon, or just want to see how one of the ickier strands of Absolute Power plays out, this comic is worth a read. Maines and Grace obviously know Jon’s full history and they make a good fist out of at least nodding to it all. And the artists pace the story well well visually, with an abundance of small panels for the action scenes and bigger ones when there’s time to breathe. All in all, Absolute Power: Super Son is a fun, good-looking read.
Too Dangerous For a Girl 2 
DC’s 101 on how ruin a character. Jon, for me, is still a kid and I don’t know who this chap is. Aging him (how many years???) didn’t do him any favours, and I never believed him being bisexual, as we barely got to see him have a crush. The changes made have been 100 percent detrimental for Jon: a character that showed so much promise on debut and was well-liked in that instant, not needing the warming over period many characters do. I was hoping with the removal of the Brainiac Queen’s virus, he would be made a kid again. He can’t replace Superman, lead the Teen Titans, or even genuinely inspire the Legion of Super-Heroes, but he can be Superboy. That role is clearly open. Great review as always!
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You’re so right, Jon was wrecked at the altar of Brian Bendis’ ego, Dc should just tweak him back into the character readers liked. I’ve been told DC Editorial daren’t do it for fear of upsetting the bi-audience who became massive fans for about a fortnight. I doubt even longtime fans who happen to be bisexual are thrilled at losing a great character. Tim Drake was declared bi first, DC should have concentrated on letting him date gals and guys rather than have both him and Jon be bis who seem to be gay, and barely that in Jon’s case.
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I was weak and picked this one up in the paper format. I found it pretty inessential, at least to the ongoing AP plotline. It’s decent enough comic book action, and I liked the sequence where Jon remembers taking down the Helena Bertinelli Huntress, but overall, the stakes are low since it’s either fait accompli memories, or a dream sequence. We already know Jon gets better, so we’re just seeing more detail as to how.
Dreamer is still dead, so I guess we’re supposed to believe it’s his memories of Dreamer. More likely, I suspect Dreamer retreated into Jon’s dreams at the moment she supposedly “died,” and she’ll re-emerge eventually, because that’s how comics roll.
The one thing I really liked was the sequence at the end between Job and Jay. Jay gets pretty harsh, being happy that Dreamer is dead. (Understandable, since she was instrumental in the Suicide Squad mission that killed his mom.) They argue for a moment, but at the end make up and decide to move in together when all this is over. This seems like a SPECTACULARLY bad decision to me, and I love it for the soap opera of Jon’s life. Here’s what I’m expecting to happen next.
Dreamer reveals she’s alive. And as you noticed in the dream, there was some heat between her and Jon — some romantic longing. And I think her return will drive a wedge between Jon and Jay, and Jon will start dating Dreamer (a much better match for him, IMO), and Jay will become a full-on revenge-driven supervillain (a much better role for him, too, since as a good guy/supporting cast, he’s a total wet blanket).
At least that’s what would happen if *I* ran the DC Universe…! Whaddya think?
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You left out ‘Jay dies a horrible death that he can’t be revived from because he’s stupid’ but it otherwise sounds good.
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I think you may well be right, Rob. I hope so, anyway, an old-fashioned love triangle could be fun, it’d be good to see Jay show more spark and fight for Jon. Not that Jon these days is worth fighting for, he’s soooooo wet.
At the very least, getting Jon into his own city could be good. it’d give him somewhere to develop away from the million other Supers in Metropolis. And while we’re at it, let’s send Kon-El back to Hawai’i!
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Absolutely! Jon in SF, Kon in Hawai’i, Kara in, oh, I don’t know, Toronto or St. Louis. These people can be together in the blink of an eye. There’s no reason they should be living blocks away from each other. As long as they’re on-planet, they pretty much ARE blocks away from each other, for all practical purposes. Put them in different cities, and creators don’t have to say why they’re not including them in a story, but they can always pull them in with zero effort if the story merits it.
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Exactly! Kara in Quebec could be loads of fun, she was in Chicago, go a bit further woman!
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Ha! While I can’t say I’d shed a tear if we ever see the last of Jay, I think he’s got story potential in him that’d be a shame to waste. Just not as a sympathetic character.
(I also like the idea of a fanboy of Lois Lane who goes bad. Grodd knows I’ve seen more than a handful of journalists & online commentators take some major heel turns in these last few years, and Jay seems well set up for that as well.)
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Didn’t I say from Day One that Jay was a bad guy? He’s just dragging his heels…
Mind, he was better than usual in the recent Steelworks series.
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Oh, he *was* better there! Probably because the story wasn’t based on Jon.
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And that’s right, you called it from the beginning. I hope you’re right!
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