Super-Sons

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The Super-Sons were a pair of fictional characters in an alternate version of the DC Comics universe.

The Super-Sons were Superman Jr. (Clark Kent Jr.) and Batman Jr. (Bruce Wayne Jr.), college-aged versions of their superhero fathers. Their mothers are never fully shown – their faces either being hidden or turned away from the reader – and are never referred to by name by their husbands, but would appear to be Lois Lane and Talia respectively.

Bruce Wayne's butler, Alfred Pennyworth, makes brief appearances in three of the stories, namely Saga of the Super Sons, Cry Not For My Forsaken Son and Crown for a New Batman, while Dick Grayson, the original Robin, plays a major part in Crown for a New Batman. (It is interesting to note that like Bruce Jr. and Clark Jr., Dick is still a teenager in the story – which implies that, in this alternate DC Comics Universe, he and Bruce Jr. grew up together as brothers.) The Super-Sons also get to meet Superman Sr.'s old enemy, Lex Luthor, who appears in The Angel With a Dirty Name.

The Super-Sons, tired of living in their fathers' shadows, were apparently intended by writer Bob Haney to represent the youth culture versions of Superman and Batman, not unlike his take on the Teen Titans.^{[citation needed]} The Super-Sons debuted in World's Finest Comics #215 (1973), and had a sporadic run in that title through #242 (1976).

The Super-Sons look almost exactly like their fathers and wear identical costumes. The characters spoke with a slightly exaggerated version of the slang popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They regard each other as brothers, since both understand the pressures involved in being the son of a living legend. Like his father, Batman Jr. has no superhuman powers and relies on athletic prowess and gadgets. Superman Jr., on the other hand, has inherited his father's powers. Since Superman Jr. is half-human, his powers are lesser than those of Superman, Sr. (but still developing), although it should be noted that the elder Superman's powers were almost limitless.

Although the very first Super-Sons Story insisted that the stories of the Super-Sons were actual stories in the lives of Superman and Batman, a "final" story in World's Finest #263 (written by Dennis O'Neil) revealed that the Sons had never existed — they were merely computer simulations created by Superman and Batman of what might have been. Two decades later, a Super-Sons story by Bob Haney was published in the rare comic special Elseworlds 80-Page Giant (1999) which apparently disregarded the story in World's Finest #263.

Superman Jr. and Batman Jr. are later seen in Infinite Crisis #6 on Earth-154. Whether or not this connects with previous comics is unclear.

1 The Super-Sons Stories
2 Collection
3 John Vance
4 External links

[edit] The Super-Sons Stories

Note: The titles of the individual 'Parts' of the stories are presented here as they were in the comic books. In other words, that of Part Two of Little Town With a Big Secret was actually shown in quotation marks, and the number of The Angel With a Dirty Name Part 3 was in numerical form rather than being spelt out as were the previous two Parts. These variations have thus been reflected below, and are not mistakes.

Unlike the other stories, Saga of the Super Sons and Final Secret of the Super Sons were not divided into 'Parts'.

It should also be pointed out that 'Super Sons' was spelt both on the story titles and on the cover of DC Comics' trade-paperback collection without a hyphen, as here.

Saga of the Super Sons

(World’s Finest #215)
Written by Bob Haney. Art by Dick Dillin and Henry Scarpelli.

Little Town With a Big Secret

(World’s Finest #216)

(Part One is untitled)
Part Two: "The People Without Shadows"
Part Three: Children of the Universe

Written by Bob Haney. Art by Dick Dillin and Murphy Anderson.

Cry Not For my Forsaken Son

(World’s Finest #221)

Part 1: Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth
Part 2: Rendezvous on Massacre Island
Part 3: Just an Ordinary Hero

Written by Bob Haney. Art by Dick Dillin and Murphy Anderson.

Evil in Paradise

(World’s Finest #222)

(Part 1 is untitled)
Part 2: The Human Test Tube
Part 3: Who the Killer, Who the Prey?

Written by Bob Haney. Art by Dick Dillin and Vince Colletta.

The Shocking Switch of the Super Sons

(World’s Finest #224)

Part 1: A Chasm So Wide...!
Part 2: The Mighty Marauder
Part 3: The Breath of Death

Written by Bob Haney. Art by Dick Dillin and Vince Colletta.

Crown for a New Batman

(World’s Finest #228)

Part 1: Avenge Thy Father
Part 2: The Riddle of Smoke Island
Part 3: Tomb of Ice

Written by Bob Haney. Art by Dick Dillin and Tex Blaisdell.

The Girl Whom Time Forgot

(World’s Finest #230)

Part 1: What the Satellite Saw
Part 2: The Silent City
Part 3: Sins of the Fathers

Written by Bob Haney. Art by Curt Swan and Tex Blaisdell.

Hero is a Dirty Name

(World’s Finest #231)

Part 1: Fathers on Trial
Part 2: Unwelcome Allies
Part 3: The Weather Bomb

Written by Bob Haney. Art by Dick Dillin and Tex Blaisdell.

World Without Men

(World’s Finest #233)

Part 1: Big Sister is Watching You
Part 2: The Greatest Hate

Written by Bob Haney. Art by Dick Dillin and John Calnan.

The Angel With a Dirty Name

(World’s Finest #238)

Part One: Those Who Play the Puppets
Part Two: The Plague Giants
Part 3: Between Two Worlds

Written by Bob Haney. Art by Dick Dillin and John Calnan.

Town of the Timeless Killers

(World’s Finest #242)

Part 1: Trio of Fear
Part 2: He Whom Evil Fights
Part 3: The Epitaph That Saved a Superman

Written by Bob Haney. Art by Ernie Chan and John Calnan.

Final Secret of the Super Sons

(World’s Finest #263)
Written by Dennis O'Neil (as Denny O’Neil). Art by Rich Buckler and Dick Giordano.

Superman Jr. is No More!

(Elseworlds 80-Page Giant #1)
Written by Bob Haney. Art by Kieron Dwyer.

[edit] Collection

In December 2007, DC Comics published a trade-paperback collection of the series entitled Batman/Superman: Saga of the Super Sons. It collects the stories from: World's Finest #215-216, 221-222, 224, 228, 230, 231, 233, 238, 242, and 263; and Elseworlds 80-Page Giant #1. The story in World's Finest #263 is written by Dennis O'Neil, all the others by Bob Haney. ISBN 1401215025

[edit] John Vance

Batman Junior is a fictional character published by DC Comics. Had his first and only appearance in Detective Comics #231 In the year 1956, he is introduced as Batman's former sidekick. Batman Junior is John Vance, a boy who once helped Batman as sidekick long before Robin, Dick Grayson at the time, had arrived. In the story, John re-enters Batman's life to solve yet another case, making Robin feel that he is about to be replaced. John Vance seems to have disappeared after the Crisis on Infinite Earths.