Some thought about Superman: Son of Kal-El #5

Superman has lost control.

Jon is suffering the consequences of his encounter with Henry Bendix and now his powers have been expanded to dangerous levels and is up to the person closest to him to calm him down.

Here it is, finally.

I've talked a couple of times about this particular issue before and that's mostly because it was teased waaaaaay before it was actually going to be released, one would think because of how much promotion this chapter got, it was going to launch in the same week such revelation happened but alas, that was not the case, we had to wait a few months later.

I suppose that was DC's and Tom Taylor's plans along, create enough anticipation for this until it happened and for that matter the chapter is... okay I guess? It definitely suffers from the same problems as most issues from this series though.

To give Taylor credit, he doesn't make "the scene" a really big aspect of this installment so he can focus on proper plot progression which is something that this book has been severely lacking for the most part. Then again, it makes you wonder if they were not going to give this moment between Jon and his new boyfriend a bigger emphasis then why did they promote it so much in the first place? I guess we all know the answer. Such moment is appropriately handled to be fair.

On the other hand, is not like the rest of the issue is particularly good. The chapter is mostly centered on Jon dealing with his expanded powers and at times it seems a little pandering, making him look like an even more perfect version of Superman and at that point I can't help but ask: Is this really Jon Kent? Because most of the qualities that I appreciated and loved about the little kid (Yes, still angry about the aging) are basically gone, leaving a guy who has no personality aside from being too good (and not even in a charming old-fashioned way like his father). Then again, I don't fully blame Taylor on this because that was mostly what Brian Bendis did in Legion of Super-Heroes to compensate for his terrible work with kid Jon.

And don't expect plot-progression because for some reason, Taylor still doesn't believe that's an important part of the series. Is just about that angle of Jon's powers, that's all? Don't expect any further encounters with Bendix or even sub-plots moving forward.

Oh, and about Jon's sexuality, I funnily enough have more issues with Tim Drake being revealed as Bi than Jon since with Tim it follows the stereotype of "Of course the quiet guy who barely had any relationships with women is Queer!". Unfortunately, Tim created some sort of trend that made all of this look like a gimmick (and the fact that the thing about Jon was revealed way before time didn't help). Just to get things into perspective, I had ideas about making my favorite hero Bi practically a decade ago because at that time it would have meant something and was according to his personality, I'm afraid that if I did it now it would only look like I'm trying to be trendy.

John Timms' artwork is still decent, the fluid style might be too much at times but it still has an energetic tone.

Wrote too much about an issue that offered too little. Going to focus on others.