Jon: It's the Summer of Super!
Damian: Seriously, I will pay you eight million dollars to stop saying that.
The boys are back!
Following on from Super Sons, Adventures of the Super Sons is a twelve issue maxi-series that began in September 2018. Set before Man of Steel, it chronicles the continuing adventures of Damian Wayne and Jonathan Kent. Their first adventure? Battling a younger version of the Injustice Gang known simply as "The Gang," led by Rex Luthor.
Whilst Peter Tomasi retains his role of writer, Jorge Jiminez is now drawing for Justice League and therefore only draws the variant covers for this series. The new artists are Dan Mora and Art Thibert.
This series provides examples of:
- Age-Stereotypical Food: Jon tests his future self by asking what his favorite ice cream flavor is. Older Jon replies with "double-double chocolate-chocolate in-a-cup, with chocolate sprinkles on the bottom and the top". Damian chides Jon for eating like a 10-year-old, but Jon points out that he is a 10-year-old.
- Anachronic Order: Since this is before Man of Steel (2018), Jon is still on Earth and has yet to go into space with Lois and Jor-El.
- An Ice Person: Ice Princess.
- Artistic License – Biology: Damian claims he can have half of his brain napping at any given time to stave off a need for sleep. As any neurologist can tell you, you need both halves of your brain on at all times for simple functions like depth perception, memory, and motor skills.
- Ascended Meme: Damian gives Jon a Get A Hold Of Yourself Man slap which looks like...well...
◊ - Bound and Gagged: How the bandage cocoon Damian finds himself trapped in in issue one works.
- Card-Carrying Villain: The Gang are all supervillains the same age as the boys who are all inspired by supervillains on Earth, such as Rex Luthor and Kid Deadshot. Averted with Joker Jr., who is actually being forced by Rex to be a bad guy and actually idolizes Earth's heroes instead of its villains unlike the rest of the Gang.
- Chekhov's Gun: Jon's belt, which he says his dad gave him in the first issue, turns out to create forcefields in issue two.
- Cliffhanger: One at the end of every issue so far.
- Issue one ends with Jon being exposed to gold kryptonite.
- Issue two ends with the red kryptonite splitting Jon into Superboy Red and Superboy Blue.
- Issue three ends with Superboy Blue badly injured, the red krytonite being destroyed, and Joker Jr. showing up with Space Cabbie to help the Super Sons.
- Covers Always Lie: As typical for the previous series, the covers rarely relate to anything going on in the book itself. In particular, all the covers portray Joker Jr. as a villain as opposed to the ally he is in the actual series.
- Deceptive Disciple: As much as Rex reveres Lex Luthor, he ultimately plans to betray him once he helps him defeat Earth's heroes and take his place as its greatest villain.
- Declaration of Protection: Jon's reaction when The Gang threaten a tied-up Damian in issue one.Jon: If you hurt him, I'll tear you apart.
- Enfant Terrible: Rex Luthor is the leader of the Gang and also the most dangerous and crazy out of all of them. According to Joker Jr., Rex dedicated his planet's celebration of Earth to its supervillains and wished to emulate them, resulting in him actually forcing a Death by Origin Story for Joker Jr. by murdering his parents in front of him.
- Foregone Conclusion: The series begins with Jon losing his powers to Gold Kryptonite, but him being fairly active and still powered in Man of Steel pretty much acknowledges that this isn't going to last. Issue 2 has Joker Jr. reveal to Damian that the Gold Kryptonite is synthetic and its effects can be reversed.
- Good All Along: Joker Jr. is revealed to be the Token Good Teammate of the Gang, as unlike most of the other members he was forced into villainy by Rex.
- Headbutting Heroes: Jon is this with himself after he's split into Superboy Red and Blue, who accuse each other of being the evil clone and get in each other's way.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: While they still bicker, Jon and Damian seem to have grown into this by the beginning of Adventures of the Super Sons.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Kid Deadshot.
- Insufferable Genius: Damian is not only the highest marked student at the West-Reeve School, but he wrote a hundred-page, college-level thesis about Schrodinger when assigned a paragraph for extra credit out of spite even though his grades are already flawless.
- Kryptonite Factor: Gold kryptonite is used against Jon in issue one and Damian converts it into synthetic red kryptonite to restore Jon's powers, albeit at the cost of painfully tearing him into Superboy Red and Superboy Blue.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The very first issue opens with Jon remarking that he's back and that he's sorry for being late.
- Locked Out of the Fight: In issue one, The Gang take Damian out quickly by using some sort of alien tech to cocoon him in bandages. He might not be able to move, but he has a front row seat for Jon getting beaten up and exposed to gold kryptonite.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: The Wonder Machine at the House of Secrets and Mysteries gives its captives a future they desire. Jon is shown a future where he and Superman eradicated all crime and he's a father. Damian is training an army of Robins who aren't afraid to take lives. Both boys are upset by these.
- Married in the Future: The future Jon claims that in his timeline, Kid Bane and Doomsdame marry and form a family of villains that fight the Super Sons.
- Mythology Gag:
- The Superman statue Damian and Jon fight is explained to have been designed and sculpted by one Alan Swan.
- Superboy Red and Superboy Blue are based on the two stories where the same thing happened to Superman (one Pre-Crisis Imaginary Story and one Post-Crisis final twist to an
Audience-Alienating Era).
- Never Say That Again: Jon excitedly refers to his and Damian's summer break as the "Summer of Super." Damian repeatedly and politely asks him to stop saying that.
- Nice Guy: Jon is sweet, caring and self-sacrificing. Even while they're butting heads, Superboy Red is touched by Blue's willingness to suffer through motion sickness for the both of them. Lampshaded by Damian.Damian: Oh my God, Kent, you're such a goody-two-shoes you're inspiring yourself!
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: The boys come across a version of Jonah Hex who's a robot cowboy bounty hunter. Jon thinks he's cool.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Bizarrokid is forced to take after his namesake's speech patterns, but finds it difficult due him being an intelligent child prodigy.
- People Puppets: Jon is subject to this when his forcefield belt is hijacked by the same technology used to control the Superman statue earlier, being forced to give The Gang access to the Fortress of Solitude.
- A Rare Sentence: "Am I really here kicking a teenage female Doomsday in the face? Yes I am."
- Road Trip Plot: The series is essentially Jon and Damian wandering around the DC universe while fighting the Gang.
- Rooting for the Empire: Invoked. Rex and the Gang's home planet has its society revolving around Earth's superheroes. However, Rex is more enamored by its supervillains, leading to him being one of the few denizens of his planet to prefer the villains instead.
- She's Not My Girlfriend: Superboy Red when Superboy Blue insinuates that he likes Ice Princess.
- Shipper on Deck: The future Damian's comments about his father and Selina and the fact that he's a product of a Lotus-Eater Machine implies that Damian wants the two of them to get together, on a subconscious level at least.
- Synchronization: When Jon is split into Superboy Red and Blue, each can feel everything the other is feeling, but one of them can stop the transmission and take the brunt of it for both of them. This is why Blue gets sick and pukes all over Space Cabby's cabin while Red is fine.
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: At one point, Damian threatens to throw Brainiac 6 out of the airlock. Brainiac 6 points out that superheroes don't kill no matter the circumstances. Damian assures him that he can be much worse, right before using a bout of Deadly Dodging to let Rex punch Brainiac 6 with a Power Fist.
- Touché: Damian calls out Jon and by extension the Superman Family's random insistence on slapping the prefix "super" to things to make them superpowers. Jon fires back by pointing out batarangs. Damian promptly shuts up and changes the subject.
- Ungrateful Bastard: As the ship crashes, Robin, Superboy Red, and Superboy Blue work to ensure that everyone gets out alive. Immediately afterwards, the Gang smash the red kryptonite, which means that Damian can't put the two Superboys back together again.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: As usual, Jon and Damian. The story opens with Jon sitting back and watching as a man controls the statue of Superman to attack Damian until the latter asks for help with a "please". After this, Damian takes control of said statue to make it hit and stomp on Jon. They're still best friends.
- Throughout the first issue, Jon repeatedly chants about how their vacation is going to be the "Summer of Super", knowing full well that it grates on Damian's nerves. This continues for two hours.
- Worthy Opponent: Kid Deadshot admits to Robin that he's a fan of him...while aiming to shoot him in the head.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Superboy Red and Superboy Blue each accuse the other of being an evil clone. In most comic books, one of them would be correct. Not in this one though.
- Your Mom: Both Superboy Red and Blue pull this retort on each other, only for the other to point out that they have the same mom.
