REVIEW: Superman: Father Of Tomorrow #3

Superman: Father Of Tomorrow #3 continues the exploration of the concept featuring Jor-El as Jordan Kent AKA Superman. I am a sucker for an Elseworlds story and this one has had me intrigued from the get go.

But before we get into the issue itself, let’s take a look at the covers. The main cover is by Danny Earls and captures some of the issue perfectly. I love all of the detail in the architecture, with such a simple concept for a cover, it really pays off having all that detail to look at as Luthor embarks on his journey.

Gabriel Hardman’s variant again perfectly captures the contents of the issue, but this time in epic fashion. This cover tells a story of what this Superman is dealing with and the bold colours and contrast go a really long way to showcase how epic this story is playing out to be.

The variant cover by Lucio Parrillo delivers precise details, as always with their covers. I am always in awe of Parrillo’s covers, they are incredibly photorealistic and have no details spared.

Superman: Father Of Tomorrow #3 opens up with an attack on civilians as we see Superman take on Intergang. Here we get to see some of the living conditions that the civilians have to deal with in this world. One thing I really enjoyed about this encounter is how Writer, Kenny Porter brings Superman back to his golden age roots whereby he threatens the criminals into doing better or giving out information and we get a snippet of that here in this issue.

We also get a real sense of the weight that is on Jor-El’s shoulders, he is desperately trying to get this Earth to do better to have a chance of surviving. Not only that but despite him trying to make this Earth a better place and helping people in various ways, they don’t seem to appreciate it or listen. There seems to be a common theme of Jor-El running out of time in fear of what happened to Krypton and in this issue we get a bit of a deep dive into how he is thinking and it is down to those around him to remind him of this. This is a really emotional issue, not only because of the moments mentioned above, but there is an attack on Superman which leaves several casualties and fatalities and it’s the reaction of a young boy who finds his mother in the wreckage that got me.

We then cut to the Tower Of Fate where Lex Luthor visits none other than Dr Fate himself, Luthor wants to learn magic. After seeing how it affects Superman, Luthor is keen to learn all of the tricks in the trade and that a doesn’t bode well for Superman, but Lex Luthor isn’t the only one that Superman should be worried about as the aforementioned attack sees his inventions used as a weapon. The interior art is by Danny Earls, with colours by Nick Filardi and letters by Lucas Gattoni and it captures the emotion of this issue perfectly and considering the depths of it, it had to be done with style. Their art together has some sense of darkness to it but it’s bold and totally unique, which can also be said for the issue and series itself.

(8/10) Superman: Father Of Tomorrow #3 had moments that hit me right in the feels, to the point where I had to pause for a moment. This issue is an emotional deep dive into the weight that Jor-El has on his shoulders and it really adds to the intrigue of the issue.