“Rora to the Rescue”
Creative Staff:
Story: Peter J. Tomasi
Art: Jorge Corona
Colors: Luis Guerrero
Letterer: Rob Leigh
What They Say:
The Super Sons are trapped in the past – locked in deadly combat with noted jerk and recipient of “worst person to ever be granted immortality” award Vandal Savage! In this second installment of Superboy and Robin’s adventures in the past (before returning to the present to save the Justice League from certain death), you’ll witness a harrowing escape, a SUPER ugly monster and the origin of Rora: Jon and Damian’s spell-wielding ally!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The series turn to the past wasn’t unexpected based on the first issue itself and what happened there but I really liked the way that Peter J. Tomasi changed expectations when it came to Rora. While we saw her as the old woman at the start, the boys heading back in time ended up when she was a young slave to Faust who is in cahoots with Savage. What also worked really well was Jorge Corona’s artwork as he brought something really crazy and distinctive to the pages with the designs for everyone, especially Savage as he looked like he came out of a Sam Keith book, while in this one we get some really great magical creature design material that has me excited for more of his work.
With the boys knocked out here early by Savage and left to hang, they’ve done some surface-level memory viewing and have an idea of what some of their future is like, but it leaves them with some serious questions about it and the desire to leapfrog the here and now to get to that future. While they go and research, they leave Rora to do the clean-up and watch over the prisoners, which she does until she falls asleep. Suffice to say, the boys are able to break free easily enough and head out into the town, wondering how they’re going to find Rora since the connection is not obvious to them at this point as it shouldn’t be. The dialogue between the two continues to be an absolute delight, especially as Jon wonders if people like Savage and Faust were ever kids.
What the two end up having to deal with is a giant magical creature, however, as they seemingly hit an invisible wall that stops them and then it appears and manages to gobble them up. But not before the boys feel some pain from it and even Jon realizes just how bad his powers are against magic once again. I love that the realization comes less from his heat vision not doing anything and more from feeling the pain of his and Damian’s heads being knocked together. It’s a lot of fun seeing them swallowed and spit out, especially as Jorge Corona delivers a great looking design for the creature, but it also allows for Rora to show up and make clear her intentions in getting help from the boys in order to survive what her life has become. That may come full circle in an interesting way by the end of this storyline.
In Summary:
This series continues to be just a delight to read. It’s got a familiar and straightforward plot that has options to get twisty when it wants to but right now it’s just delivering the kind of buddy-action-comedy that fans want from Damian and Jon. It’s got a great look to it once again thanks to Corona’s dynamic artwork and very distinctive designs while Tomasi keeps the humor just right and slowly teases out more of what’s going on or at least how things are going to be taken advantage of by bad actors in order to achieve their goals.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: January 11th, 2021
MSRP: $0.99
