The Time Trapper has been all over the Superman series recently and now his super-son Jon Kent gets his very own chronal crook.
After time tossing the teenager fails to rattle him, Master Txyz – the ‘arch enemy’ Jon never knew he had – tries another approach… destroying his confidence.
From the past to the far future, Jon amounts to nothing, says the Fifth Dimensional demon. Finally, the self-declared Superman loses it.
Tell us more.
Master Txyz is ticked off.
He gives up the ghost and declares that as undisputed, inevitable winner of the rivalry only he understands, Jon gets a gift.
And that’s how we have young Jon Kent back for this month’s cover.
It certainly sounds like a win, but since when do tricksters from Mr Mxyzptlk’s realm play fair? Big Jon, who survived years imprisoned inside a volcano on Earth 3, hugged by the boy he was, rescued from that same prison?
Did someone say paradox? This won’t end well.
Getting to the end, though, should be entertaining. Writer Dan Slott is more than decent at building character through action, and he enjoys dipping in and out of old continuity.
Which makes it surprising that he gets a big bit of Jon’s history wrong here.
Slott is referencing Brian Bendis’s terrible story beginning in 2018’s The Man of Steel #6. Jon was not taken into the future, a few issues later we learn he was thrown into Earth 3’s past, and lived to catch up to the present. Perhaps this is a deliberate change, but I can’t see why that would be…. If you’re going to alter this part of Jon’s past, wipe the whole ruddy thing away!
Seeing a young Jon again does give hope that the disaster that’s been older Jon is being set aside, that this ‘Reign of the Superboys’ serial will end with kid Jon staying, and ‘Tomorrow Man’ going heaven knows where. But, paradox. If L’il Jon doesn’t wind up back in the volcano, Big Jon will cease to exist, because he’s ’grown from’ the kid.
And would DC Editorial really wipe out the character we’ve been following since 2018? Well, they did exactly that with the New 52 Superman, who was killed off, then merged with Jon’s Dad, the post-Crisis Superman.
Still, I can’t see it, much as I’d love to have L’il Jon around full-time. Big Jon, as written in this series of late by Slott, is less annoying than in his series of a couple of years back, not so sanctimonious. Heck, he even punches the bad guy first here.
I suppose that’s a sign he’s losing his calm in the face of an annoying demon, finally getting mighty melodramatic and nicking some poor future fella’s shirt to, er, prove he’s his own man. I look forward to seeing what he does next – he’s already seen off a Fifth Dimensional imp who scared even Mr Mxyzptlk.
The art is just glorious; we’ve seen the strong compositions and sharp finishes of Lucas Meyer in this series previously, but I think this is the first time Giuliano Peratelli has contributed to Superman Unlimited. His colours are positively painterly, with marvellously realistic skin tones and a lovely balance between background and foreground. And Meyer is so good that even when he goes the very obvious route – such as in that panel of Big Jon being overshadowed by Superman – it’s absolutely the correct one.
Dave Sharpe helps dial the drama up and down with his well-chosen and applied fonts, while Dan Mora provides the splendidly straightforward cover illustration.
It looks like we won’t see Superman in this book for a few months, but if the quality of this issue is any predictor, I don’t doubt we‘ll be thoroughly entertained.
Too Dangerous For a Girl 2 
I can let Slott’s error/retcon with Jon & Mr. Oz slide. Maybe Jon was taken and held not just near a volcano on Earth-3, but also in its far future, which is why no one was around. What I can’t let slide is Slott delivering what is clearly a classic 5th Dimensional imp (even with the same naming structure and powers as other 5th Dimensional imps), but accidentally writing that he’s from the “FOURTH DIMENSION.” Not sure how that slipped by the editors.
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It isn’t accidental, Mxy and Jon had a conversation about that last month.
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Is it that much of an error, though? I read “being taken to the future” to be short-hand for “crashed on a version of Earth 3 where time worked differently and he was stuck there for years until he was able to make his way back to earth prime where he found that only a couple of weeks had passed”
But you’re right… it’s easy to side-step that kind of detail. The important bit of information (Jon was a kid and now he’s not) is there without bogging the story down in details that lots of people would like to forget.
I’m curious to see where this story goes. I like seeing the young Jon back in play. At this point we’ve got way too many Supermen/boys kicking around. It would be cool if we could find a way to streamline that a little bit. Keep Connor, de-age Jon and let Clark be the main Superman moving forward.
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Am I the minority to not want Wittle Jon back? That last maxi with him and Damian tuned me off on Jon and I’ve never and never will be a fan of Damian.
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Yep. You’re a minority. 😉
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I’m happy to see little Jon back briefly, in time travel stories or in flashbacks. There’s plenty of room for that stuff. But I hate when a plot element just completely backtracks, even when it was one I didn’t enjoy when it happened.
Getting little Jon back…but having his parents having memories of him grown? Maybe himself having memories of him as an adult, too? And Damien, too? That just wouldn’t be the same character, no matter how much it looked like him. Nor would they be the same relationships. What’s done is done.
But there’s plenty of space for stories of Jon and Damien in a “some time ago” past, treated like World’s Finest, etc! There’s no reason not to have new Jon & Damien stories from that era!
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You seem to be in a minority in terms of folk who express opinions, but yours is as valid as anyone’s. Speak out!
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Hhmm, the time paradoxes abound. If Jon is brought to the future from the volcano, older Big Jon should have ceased to exist immediately. Since Big Jon still exists, L’il Jon must have been returned to the past. . .but he has no memory of this as Big Jon, so that didn’t happen. Wait, if Big Jon ceases to exist, then Master Txyz doesn’t have an arch enemy in Tomorrow Man, so he effectively removed his life-ending threat by bringing L’il Jon to the present. Wait, Tomorrow Man wears a mask, so how do we know it’s actually Jon who defeats Master Txyz in the singularity? Wait, wait, is the reason why we don’t see anything of Big Jon in the future, is because he bypasses the whole thing to fight Master Txyz? Wait, wait, wait, how can past Jon and current Jon exist at the same time??? Great review!
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Brilliant work, tane8! You had me giggling away there.
I think DC doesn’t have the rule that the same person from two different times can’t be in the same place any more – which is a shame, I enjoy people turning into phantoms!
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Considering the cells in your body being one hundred percent different over time, that restriction never made sense to me. BTW, is it possible Kryptonian invulnerability under a yellow sun is their cells become denser rather than being replaced?
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I guess that prompts the question: are you more than just the aggregation of your cells? Past you and current you are still you. I totally understand the physical reasoning you’re stating, but I never took it as solely that.
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I’m with you, tane8. I never understood that Star Trek theory that the transporter beam kills, then ecreates you, I thought it was just moving cells and atoms and things in space.
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The two Rykers was a great story to come of that. Too bad they only used him once more and did what they did.
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I shall have to look up that story, whether it’s comics, prose, audio, it sounds intriguing.
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Ys, the resonance of identical souls and minds could be problematic if a modern day writer chose to go that route. That kind of thinking came after the phantom because of time travel was used. It would be more of a Scwartz type plot device.
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Why is there never a super-scientist around when I need one? I think the classic restriction is as much to do with soul as body.
As for question 2, maybe the cells get denser, THEN are replaced?
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Anj here.
Great review.
I will echo your love of this Jon. As you say, his sanctimonious solo books were such a slog to read. Glad to have this guy back.
And love having the little guy back. Missed young Jon. Wondering how he will get back to that volcano … maybe never? Wipe the slate clean?
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If they cloned the wee little brat for one story they could have the leftover stick around when the chronal charge wears off. Maybe they can say that his supposed grandfather was already a duplicate (I’d call him Bor-El) and erase the stain on Jor-El’s name in the process. Just ignoring that arc or saying its non-canon leave the door open to a future ewriter to slip it back in. I thought he would have been great story fodder if he just wasn’t Jor-El. I don’t need Jor-El to be the Silver Age saint but Bendis went too far with. BTW, I think Jay deserves worse than just not appearing on panel again. Who else wants to see him die in the background of a panel in a future Crisis?
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I’m definitely for ‘Jor-El IS Mr Zod’ to be wiped out, it’s ridiculous how much rope DC gave Brian Bendis to hang Superman. Mark Waid and Dave Wielgosz made a start in erasing his claims in the recent New History of the DC Universe Timeline part 4: ‘Mr. Oz [Superman (2011) #32], secretly observing Superman on behalf of Dr. Manhattan, presents himself as Jor-El, whom Manhattan allegedly brought to Earth immediately before Krypton’s destruction. [Action Comics (1938) #987]
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Never would be nice… maybe Jon and Jon could become the Super Time Twins… it’s not like Otho and the other one are actually twins anyway.
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I had dropped this book, but picked it back up for this storyline due to the promise of little Jon’s involvement. However they do it, I can only hope that they will bring him back for the long-term. Older Jon got on my bad side by complaining that his Dad “should be doing more” for humanity. I think it was in the first issue of the Son of Kal-El. Sanctimonious is the perfect word to describe it.
Super Captain
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Oh yeah, that was a terrible bit of characterisation, Super Captain. It wouldn’t be so bad had Jon grown up and developed such attitudes, but I doubt they’re from his years on Earth 3.
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Eh, I don’t see that so much as bad characterization as a recognition that young people are REALLY influenced by the opinions of their boyfriends and girlfriends. Those first loves hold a LOT of sway, and it’s only human for Jon to adopt a few of Jai’s half-baked opinions. Even aged up five years, he’s still pretty young, and capable of believing even stupid things passionately for a while. He’s still learning.
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That makes sense.
Also, you are a very kind man.
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