Damian Wayne and Jonathan Kent are going to be grounded for the foreseeable future — after maybe having their butts handed to them for taking on Lex Luthor without parental supervision. Super Sons #2 puts Batman’s blood-relative protégé, Damian’s Robin, and Superman’s son, Superboy, together as a bickering, charming odd-couple of tweens who continue to take on more than they should.
This post contains spoilers for Super Sons #2.
Super Sons #2 opens up right where the first issue left off: with the boys hanging off the side of Lexcorp’s tower in Metropolis and Lex Luthor’s Superman demanding an explanation about why two little hooligans are climbing his company’s building. Damian, tiny troublemaker that he is, throws Jon off the side of the building to distract Luthor — Jon can’t fly yet. As Luthor is rushing to save Jon from going splat, Damian sneaks into the Lexcorp building, pretends to plant some bombs, and then steals Lexcorp’s “complete security log.”
One of these days, Jon's gonna snap and beat the living crap out of Damian.
Jon runs off to buy a snack (with Damian’s money) while Damian works on some intel about the story they’ve been chasing: a newly superpowered family disappearing and one of the family members going rogue. Damian is determined to chase down the story on his own — with Jon’s help, that is — and then turn over all the information to Batman so that it’s Batman following Damian’s lead for once.
This move harkens back to Damian’s usual personal problems. He’s determined, more than anything, to prove himself able to pick up the Batman mantle after his father. The best way to achieve that, in his angst-ridden tweenage mind, is by being brash and living outside the abilities of a 13-year-old.
Damian and Jon speed out to an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of the city to follow the leads they’ve gathered from Lexcorp’s security system. Upon arrival — with plenty of amusing bickering in between — they find what was revealed in the beginning of the issue: that one of the family members has killed the rest of his family and left their bodies for the boys to discover.
Jon is overwhelmed by the sight and demands that they call their dads and let them handle it. Damian refuses and tries to stop Jon — which is exactly what someone shouldn’t do to a half-Kryptonian. With very little of his strength, Jon sends Damian smashing into a cabinet and super-jumps away from the scene of the crime.
Landing in a nearby patch of forest, Jon immediately comes across the one survivor of the now-dead family. He immediately offers to help her. Damian, still at the warehouse, calls Jon a “cry baby” and goes about his business, searching for clues and muttering to himself — clearly hurt — that he doesn’t need Jon’s help.
Superman isn't too happy about Damian basically kidnapping his son; Batman probably thinks Jon is a little goody two-shoes.
Little does either boy know that each other’s dads are looming over them, very much waiting for the right time to say: “Just wait until your father hears about this.”
Super Sons is now available at comic retailers.
