DC's new Superman series is drawing parallels to another famous father-son superhero series, Invincible. Superman: Son of Kal-El chronicles the life of Clark Kent's son as he becomes his own man while following in the footsteps of his legendary father. Preview pages for the second issue have been released courtesy of AIPTcomics, and they draw deliberate comparisons to Robert Kirkman's popular comic - with all the accompanying implications therein.
Jonathan Kent, the son of Superman, has adopted his father's image and title as he makes a name for himself as a superhero. He's already faced a wildfire in California, stood between the military and a pyrokinetic metahuman, and fought off ninjas with Batman's son Damian Wayne - but he also wants to live a normal life outside of his hero duties. Thus, preview images for Superman: Son of Kal-El #2 show Jonathan taking the next step in life: college.
Jonathan begins the day wearing a blonde wig and a sweatshirt that conceals his Superman suit - but it appears that both will be lost in some sort of accident, and his secret identity subsequently becomes public knowledge. It's at this point that Superman, with nothing left to hide, picks up his car rather than drive it and flies to one of the few places he knows where no one can possibly bother him: the moon. But even Superman can't run away from his responsibilities - or his father, as the two share a conversation on the lunar surface while looking at the distant Earth below.
This seems to be a deliberate nod to a memorable early scene in Invincible, in which the titular hero converses with Allen the Alien on the moon. Invincible also has plenty of scenes where Mark Grayson talks to his nigh-invulnerable father Nolan about the duties and responsibilities of someone with powers far beyond the realms of mortal men. Of course, in Invincible, Nolan (called Omni-Man by the rest of the world) also turns out to be an evil emissary of the Viltrumite Empire, and is furious when his son refuses to join him, resulting in a brutal one-sided fight. It's highly unlikely that this series will follow a similar plot point (though evil Superman is quite popular among writers when alternate universes are concerned).
Along with Superman and Lois, it appears that the Superman mythos is finally read to tackle father-son relationships. Clark has never lacked in maturity, but him being a father brings a new dimension to the Man of Steel. Along with Invincible, the superhero genre as a whole is growing up. Perhaps that's because the writers who began their careers at a young age have finally become parents themselves. But what lessons will the new Superman learn from the old? Readers will find out when Superman: Son of Kal-El #2 releases on August 24th.
Source: AIPTComics