Superman: Father of Tomorrow #1 Has a Lot of Potential That It Never Lives Up To (Review)

Comic book continuity has always been a nebulous thing, often changing to fit the current day or stories at hand, but origins tend to stay the same. Superman rocketed from the dying Krypton to Earth and was raised by the loving Kent family. No matter how Superman’s stories change, that will always be true. However, that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun to explore what the DC Universe could be like if things went a little differently. That’s the main draw for Elseworlds, or stories that take certain aspects of DC’s mythos and switch them around to create an all-new story. 

Superman has been the subject of countless Elseworlds, from exploring what would happen if Krypton had never exploded or if he had landed in Soviet Russia. Today, one of the most-requested Elseworlds finally hit store shelves, showing a world where Jor-El landed on  Earth instead of his son. Watching Jor-El adapt to Earth as a fully-grown adult and come to terms with the death of his world as he works to save another has the potential to be endlessly interesting, but as it stands, the initial execution in Superman: Father of Tomorrow leaves a lot to be desired.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

PROS	CONS
Very interesting world with lots of potential	Fast-paced plot whose speed neuters its own narrative
Gorgeous, bombastic spreads	Occasionally stiff poses

A Powerful Concept That Glances Over Its Most Interesting Ideas

The first issue of this miniseries imagines Jor-El crash-landing on an Earth far more ready to tackle alien invasions, with a whole division set to track alien activity. Jor-El’s ship destroyed their satellite base, leaving Sam Lane in charge. Jor-El was cared for by the Kents, given a home and the name Jordan Kent, and treated like Jonathan’s brother. Jonathan’s death spurred him to come out of hiding and use both his incredible powers and scientific knowledge to help turn Earth into a paradise. He became Superman over a decade before Clark would, putting him in a new position to help heroism and advancements in technology happen much, much earlier than they should.

This is all very interesting, but the book only gets here by rushing through all of its best moments. We hard-cut from Jor-El’s crash to right before Jonathan’s death, so we never see how their relationship developed, or get to explore how he adapted to Earth, which is arguably one of the biggest draws of a book like this. Jonathan’s death was also annoying, as it clearly happened to spur Jor-El, but it lacked any impact or emotional depth. The book has the groundwork for a fantastic parallel between Jor-El and Sam Lane as failed fathers, but it never spends any time on developing that theme despite clearly wanting the audience to draw that connection. It’s too rushed to explore its best ideas, and that drags the whole story down.

Another small but persistent thing that annoyed me about the issue is that it tied so much of Jor-El’s debut as Superman to death he indirectly caused. His ship killed an entire space station’s workforce, and then Metallo only attacked Metropolis because he was in the area. Sure, none of this is Jor-El’s fault, but Superman is meant to be a symbol of hope, so I never like it when his arrival directly causes destruction. This is definitely nitpicky, though, and I can see how a much more grizzled or less hopeful Jor-El accidentally causing destruction with his arrival can make sense for his story of loss and growth.

Beautiful Destruction With One or Two Stiff Poses

Danny Earls tackles the cover and interiors for this book, and it’s definitely a great showcase of his work. He’s a phenomenal up-and-coming artist, and his drawings here definitely fit the atmosphere of the book. The highlight is definitely the large, destructive, action-packed set pieces. The best art in this book, by a landslide, is when Earls can draw stuff that’s in the midst of exploding or being torn apart. Jor-El’s ship tears through the satellite with beautiful weight, making the reader feel it as the station cracks apart from the impact. 

The movement on the page with Jonathan’s heart attack is superb, and the raw fear and pain on Jor-El’s face show us that Earls is good at more than just capturing momentum. One of my favorite visual things is when comics play with the title, and tying it into the rubble from Jor-El’s crash was genius and painful in the best way. The stand-out, to me, is when Jor-El rips apart Metallo in the most visceral, punchy display of heat vision we’ve had in years. 

The only complaints I have are that, at times, with small, personal movement, characters had the chance to look stiff. The moments that stuck out to me with this here were when Jor-El walked through the farmers’ market, when he reached out to his dying family from his ship, and when he wrestled with the doctors. All of them had Jor-El moving, but they felt more like he was posing than he was moving with purpose or passion, which at least two of those scenes should definitely have. Still, those are minor nitpicks. Overall, the art is awesome, matches the story perfectly, and definitely is the highlight of this issue for me.

Overall, this issue is a mixed bag for me. It has a lot of potential that it flirts with constantly, but its rushed pacing killed a lot of my interest and stymied some of its greatest strengths. This could just be a problem with establishing the status quo, however. I can easily see it correcting this problem by issue two, and spending more time in Jor-El’s head, and developing his relationship with the world around him. This issue wasn’t for me, but I’ll definitely check out the next one to see how it handles its new status quo.

Superman: Father of Tomorrow #1 is on sale now!

What’s one Superman Elseworld you would love to see? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts on the ComicBook Forum!

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