Superman: Son of Kal-El vol. 3 — Battle for Gamorra

They’ve been building to the title event for two volumes now, and vol. 3 begins by having Jon Kent… confront his boyfriend Jay Nakamura about whether or not he’s an actual terrorist.  He’s not, of course, as the Revolutionaries are a fighting-for-freedom group whose members will look a little familiar to those who’ve read Tom Taylor’s “Suicide Squad” run.  After that, they try to get some info on Gamorroan president Henry Bendix’s ties to Luthor, take on the activation of a senator sleeper agent, meet up with the Dreamer to learn about the fate that awaits everyone if they fail, and then, finally, does the titular battle get underway.  I’d say more, but you can probably guess how it’s going to go.

Not that seeing a vicious little upstart like Bendix get what’s coming to him isn’t satisfying, but vol. 3 of “Son of Kal-El” suffers from the feeling that things wind up going a bit too smoothly for the title character.  Even with all the threats arrayed against him and his friends, it never really feels like they’re in any real danger as most everything is taken care of with a minimum of fuss.  The scene where Jay appeals to the better nature of some Gamorran scientists and they help him without hesitation is a good example of this.  I can understand that some people in the country would be against what their president is doing, but you get the feeling that there would be at least some reluctance, or outright resistance by those who’ve drank the Kool-Aid Bendix has been serving up.

The art from Cian Tormey is mostly fine as it conveys the story well enough with a minimum of fuss and flash.  There are the occasional panels where things look “off,” such as the full reveal of Dissident One at the end of the fourth issue, but they don’t occur that often here.  In this sense, the art complements the writing quite well here.  We don’t get any scene or story idea that’s outright bad here, yet there’s nothing to surprise or truly impress the reader here.  While I can’t say that people who’ve been reading this series so far shouldn’t pick up this latest volume, anyone who was waiting to see how the “Battle for Gamorra” would turn out before jumping on won’t find anything to convince themselves to do so here.