Adventures of Superman Jon Kent #2: You Can’t Go Home Again

The team of Taylor, Henry, and Bellaire has conspired (once again) to create something extraordinary. This story comprises equal parts of character development and plot without sacrificing quality in either area and the words and art function together beautifully. The plot (getting Jon into the multiverse) was relatively simple, but this isn’t a flaw. This simplicity allows for a stunningly vulnerable moment (a meditation on worry as the cost of love) between the ordinarily stoic Lois and Jon’s new passion, Jay.

Once Jon steps through Mr. Terrific’s interdimensional portal, the sh*t meets the fan in a delightful spatter. The threat that initiated this chase turns out to be something of a false flag, as it (and Jon’s ticket home) are both summarily disposed of, but this allows for an excellent discourse on the value of compassion, as well as providing the setup for what appears to be the real multiversal problem Jon will have to solve if he is to return to the people who love him.

The pacing of this story is a thing of beauty all by itself. Events fall into place as quickly as numbers in an e.e. Cummings poem (that bit in ‘Buffalo Bill’ springs instantly to mind: break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat), but there’s no sense of confusion, no muddled strands of the plot for the readers to untangle. The art, as I mentioned, is phenomenal. Henry’s facial expressions are as considered as his vivid depictions of action. There’s a physicality to his work, a profound understanding of the mechanics of bodies, that is often absolutely lacking in modern comics. Jordie Bellaire has a phenomenal eye for color. He knows how to tint the environment the perfect, unsettlingly ominous shade. He knows how to capture the brutal luster of a single spilled tear.