Super Sons #3 Review

So far Super Sons has been a good addition to both the Batman and Superman family. The tone of the series has been spot on as Damian Wayne and Jonathan Kent are taking full advantage of having the spotlight on them. Though the Kid Amazo part story did not start off as strong as it should have, the second issue did well in progressing things forward for the child villain. Now with Robin and Superboy fully entrenched with fighting Kid Amazon’s robot versions of Batman and Superman it’ll be interesting to see what Peter Tomasi does next. Let’s find that out now with Super Sons #3.

Writer: Peter J. Tomasi

Artist: Jorge Jimenez

Colorist: Alejandro Sanchez

Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10

Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10in and

Overall Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: Several months ago the Super-Duffy’s are able to save Providence, Rhode Island from Titano as a family.

In the present Superboy and Robin struggle in their fights against Amazo versions of Batman and Superman, respectively. They end up call each other for help.

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Before they can help each other out Superboy notices Sara, from the Super-Duffy’s, nearby. Robin is suddenly thrown into Superboy by Amazo-Superman.

Robin and Superboy start blaming each other and end up getting into a fight, causing dust to cover them up. Robin and Superboy then launch a surprise attack on Amazo-Batman and -Superman. The two Amazo’s quickly counterattack and grab Robin and Superboy by the collar.

Sara appears and tells both Amazo’s to drop Robin and Superboy, which they both end up doing and leave the area.

Robin and Superboy introduce themselves to Sara, who says there are more Amazos on the way. Robin leads Superboy and Sara back to his bike.

As they run through the forest Sara reveals she can control to machines after getting powers from the Amazo Virus. Superboy doesn’t know what the Amazo Virus is. Robin explains that last year Lex Luthor released the Amazo Virus, which gave powers to thousands of people but it had a deadly side effect. He continues to mention that the Justice League were able to find a cure with 97% of people exposed losing their powers.

Sara mentions her family were some of the 3% that kept their powers which at first was a blessing but her brother, Reggie, multiplicity powers ended up splitting his mind and made his horrible attitude even worse as he now had the power to back it up. She continues by revealing that Reggie ended up stealing Amazo armor from LexCorp recently and the Amazo Virus in his system combined with it to increase his powers and create Amazo duplicates.

Elsewhere the Amazo-Batman and Superman transform into Amazo versions of Robin and Superboy and joined by several more Amazos.

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Robin, Superboy and Sara finally reach Robin’s bike. Superboy suggest they call the Justice League but Robin says they don’t need them. They end up going back and forth on what they should do. Sara suddenly feels Reggie trying to control her and she ends up using her powers to destroy Robin’s bike.

Reggie suddenly starts talking through Sara about how she tried to send out a message. Sara and Reggie go back and forth in speaking to Robin and Superboy as it is revealed Reggie made their bodies so he can kill his family over and over again. Sara then passes out.

An army of Amazo-Robins and -Superboys appear with Reggie speaking through them, saying he will kill Robin and Superboy and get his sister back. Robin comments to Superboy that they probably should’ve called in back-up.

Sara suddenly wakes up and uses her powers to destroy several Amazo-Robins and -Superboys. She tells Robin and Superboy to find her brother while she buys them time.

Robin and Superboy make a run for it while destroying a few Amazo-Robins and Superboys on their way to Reggie. They eventually stop to fight off all the Amazo robots that have cornered them. They are eventually overwhelmed by the numbers and become defenseless. End of issue.

The Good: Super Sons #3 goes a long way in adding necessary depth to Kid Amazo, who came off as nothing more than annoying in the first issue. This shift of attention was helped by Peter Tomasi’s attention to detail as he brought Geoff Johns’ Justice League “Amazo Virus” story back into the fold. It’s a plot element that has been easily forgotten but one that can help the future of Super Sons series moving forward.

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The “Amazo Virus” was an interesting story arc as it introduced a slew of new characters with superpowers. At the same time the Amazo Virus ended up being a double edge sword of killing those who gained powers from it. Though the Justice League cured the virus effects there were still some people in the DCU left with powers following the cure that were forgotten about after the story arc. Luckily Tomasi didn’t forget and he used this story from Johns’ Justice League run to add some context into his Kid Amazo story.

Giving Kid Amazo and his family the backstory of being one of the few who still had their powers following the Amazo Virus cure was a good choice. It allowed the origin story Tomasi told for the family to focus on how Kid Amazo went crazy due to his multiplicity powers splitting his mind so much it enhanced his aggressive tendencies. This allowed us to build more sympathy for Sara and the rest of her family as they are victims still suffering from what the Amazo Virus did to the DCU.

That aggression of Kid Amazo helped to build on the fact that this version of the character is not as smart or powerful like previous versions. Rather he has used his powers to obtain things from LexCorp that allowed him to have a bunch of Amazo androids at his disposal. In doing so, Tomasi has been able to make this version of Kid Amazo powerful but not overtly that it would be unbelievable that Robin and Superboy could take him down as a duo.

Super Sons #3 also did a great job in furthering the unique dynamic that Robin and Superboy share. Seeing how these two continue to get on each other’s nerves just puts a smile on your face as a reader. Tomasi perfectly captures how big of an ego Robin has while also getting across Superboy’s innocence. It just highlights how much experience Tomasi has had with writing these characters the last few years.

That dynamic allowed the info dump on the Amazo Virus that Robin gave Superboy not feel like pure exposition. Instead, it was a reminder that Superboy hasn’t been part of this version of the DCU for a long time, adding to how naive on the real world of the DCU he is. This also helped to further highlight how much Robin loves to show others how much he knows compared to normal kids his own age. That balance between the two just furthers how unique their dynamic is compared to those shared by other members in the Batman and Superman Family.

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Jorge Jimenez added to the fun of Super Sons #3 with his energetic art style. Jimenez art style is at home with the younger Robin and Superboy with how he draws comics to look like something from a cartoon. That is especially helpful with how much is going on in a page whenever there is a bunch of action sequences happening at once. Some of the over exaggerated expressions he gives whenever Robin and Superboy are reacting to what the other says just further drives how much fun this comic is.

The Bad: Nothing.

Overall: Super Sons #3 was another great entry one DC Comics most enjoyable new series. Peter Tomasi continues to play off on the fun, unique dynamic that Robin and Superboy have. The story was given more depth to this Kid Amazo story arc by applying the events of Geoff Johns’ Justice League work to the villain’s backstory. Jorge Jimenez adds to the fun of this opening arc with his energetic artwork giving further life to the dialogue spoken by Robin and Superboy.