Superman Family Adventures 10

Readers of Superman Family Adventures, pint-sized or otherwise, might notice the most recent issue doesn’t begin according to form. Number 10 opens with not a meteor plummeting toward Earth, per usual, but with a Brainiac robot launching itself from the Earth to the Super Satellite. There the robot flips through various disguise program and decides that an unusually flamboyant cowboy costume is the most inconspicuous one. Knowing that Art Baltazar and Franco at all times deploy the entire Superman myth as a single, undifferentiated whole, it is probably not an accident that the robot is now dressed like Terra Man. Rest assured, the monthly meteor makes an appearance elsewhere in the book.

Meanwhile, at The Fortress of Solitude, Clark summons the hologram of Jor-El so that his mother and father can be reunited. Lara wishes she could hug her husband, and Clark uses the red sun chamber from Superman II to turn his virtual father into flesh and blood for 24 hours. Superman’s mother and father leave for Metropolis, and Clark also leaves to have lunch with his parents.

General Zod escapes the Phantom Zone with Ursa, Non, and Lor-Zod. This time he expresses his megalomania by opening Zod Dogs, a hot dog cart in Metropolis. “The people of Metropolis will soon welcome us into their lives until they can’t live without us.”

Over the next 24 hours, Lara and Jor-El do good deeds in Metropolis, and Zod Dogs becomes enough of a hit to be covered by Lois Lane for the Daily Planet News. Clark sees the news segment and zips back to Metropolis, where Zod irradiates his hot dogs with a variant of Red Kryptonite that enlarges them into malicious, gargantuan, frankfurters. The zany battle that ensues is a mash-up of meteors, malevolent foodstuffs, and Kryptonian criminals. It ends on the Kent family grill. As Clark is returning Zod to the Phantom Zone, the General shakes more Red K on Kandor. This causes not only the Bottle City to expand and break free of its glass enclosure, it also smashes the Fortress of Solitude with its rapid expansion. Revealed in the restored Kandor is Braniac, who has enslaved the Kandorians.

Aside from the constant hilarity and the shameless borrowing of the most illogical and beloved parts of Superman I & II, Baltazar and Franco continue to create one of the more internally consistent kids’ books on the racks. This consistency goes beyond the level of plot to the deeper level of world-building which storytellers strive to achieve. There is a sense of form here, even when they’re breaking that form, so that reading each issue is a retreat to a friendly and welcoming world.

There are two issues left of Superman Family Adventures, and they are likely to be the last family-friendly Superman comics for a while. Fortunately, after the cancellation of SFA, you can follow Art and Franco to their creator owned and crowd funded comic, Ah Yeah Comics, which recently made a splash on Kickstarter. In the meantime, don’t pass up the endgame for this series, as we’re in for a few more chuckles before the end. If they are not stocked at your LCS, you can find this series as well as its precursor Tiny Titans on comiXology.