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It's Tough to be Father and Son in Today's Comic Books (Marvel and DC Spoilers)

Published Wed, 18 Sep 2019 12:09:17 -0500

Last updated Wed, 18 Sep 2019 12:10:25 -0500

Is it me or are Marvel and DC Comics writers going through a little bit of a mid-life crisis? Worrying about mortality, legacy, having children, their relationship with their kids, and freaking out into comic book form? I only ask because there seems to be a hell of a lot of it today.

The first is, obviously, JJ Abrams and Henry Abrams, father and son working on a comic book together with Sara Pichelli, Spider-Man #1, in which we get a dead mother, a deadbeat father and a son acting up – who also happens to be the next Spider-Man. A Peter Parker whose sense of responsibility was exploded when Mary Jane died, and a son who is – unbeknownst to him – burdened with that spider responsibility. Is this a comic or is this family therapy?

Then in Superman, Jor-El is sentenced to his death by the United Planets and Superman has to just stand there nodding bleakly. All the while, his own son is planning to leave (again) to the far future with the Legion of Super-Heroes.

As General Zod rubs it in with his own family…

In Absolute Carnage, Eddie Brock is still not telling Dylan Brock that he is his father, not estranged elder brother/uncle/cousin or whatnot. While Venom is doing all it can to deal with its own son, Carnage.

In Guardians Of The Galaxy, Peter Quinn's dad has been taken over by a religious zealot of an evil intelligence, looking to bring about mass destruction of the Earth before doing far worse elsewhere.

The Wally West Flash's kids are no longer part of reality, and he's rather mopey about that.

Professor Xavier is creating clones of his mutants to replace those that have died, including his own genetics to (for some reason) revive Proteus on a weekly to daily basis, creating a series of proto-sons of himself, as he keeps getting used up.

While Luthor creates his own proto-son relationship with a younger version of himself for similar reasons.

In comparison, Batman, sending his son into mortal danger against his own father in Gotham, while hanging out on the beach with Catwoman seems relatively normal and healthy.