In a slightly distant future, the sons of Superman and Batman are dealing with a world that has a lot of problems. The polar ice caps are melting, and the cities along the coasts are flooding and uninhabitable, despite the efforst of the Wayne Corporation to install flood walls. There is a plan to install a shield of dust over the ice caps, and Superman is recruited, so must spend time away from his family. Jon Kent and his mother relocate inland (as does the Daily Planet), where Jon is given a hard time by local kids who don't want to see "flood runners" in their neighborhood. Damian (call him IAN, please!) Wayne is struggling with the fact that his own father has to go to China to try to work out bugs in the flood walls. When Jon's mother becomes sick with a mysterious malady, the two boys team up with Tilly and Candace (who has some mythical ancestry/powers) to try to solve it. The ice cap issue is being repaired, but there are plenty of evil forces at work for the group to fight. This is the first book in a proposed series, and ends in a cliff hanger.
Strengths: It's hard to get the format for middle grade graphic novels right, but this does. The amount of text on the page is perfect, and the font a bit larger than other graphic novels, which helps with the reluctant readers who frequently pick these up. The science/environmental tie in is a good one, and it's nice to see Batman and Superman off fighting climate change. Of course, this leaves their sons to save the rest of the world in good, unsupervised tween fashion.
Weaknesses: The graphic novel format does not lend itself to deeply developed characters or plot. I love Pearson's writing and was hoping for a good new adventure book, so I was a bit disappointed. While I had no idea that Jon and Damian were established characters, they apparently appear in comic books, and Damian is of Arabic/Asian descent.(https://butwhythopodcast.com/2018/08/04/damian-wayne-isnt-white/) Clearly, this is problematic in the greater scheme of things if you know the story already. I would have been completely clueless if I hadn't read Goodreads reviews. I just didn't understand why he was so nasty. The son of Batman is evil? Not getting that.
What I really think: If Follett does a prebind of this, I will purchase it, but I was clearly not the target demographic. This left me with way more questions than it answered.

Thanks for this ARC. I liked the introduction of the new character, a female person of color. The storyline was fast-paced and sometimes difficult to follow. There was a lot thrown out there but there wasn't much about the background of the new character. I hope the next book in the series slows down to focus on the characters. The plot seemed scattered. Despite these flaws, the book should still appeal to the middle-grade audience.

Jonathan Kent wants to be like his father, Clark Kent, aka Superman, and he is, more than anyone other than his parents, knows. Ian Wayne is already a lot like his father, except with too much arrogance and a lack of experience. But their world is in serious trouble with flooding and other devastating events occurring more and more frequently. In an effort to help, Superman leaves Earth on a mission to Mars, and Bruce Wayne heads for Asia. This leaves the two boys to their own devices, especially when Jonathan's mother is struck down by a mysterious malady. The two combine forces with two girls, Tilly and Candace (who appears to have powers of her own), to track down the source of the malady, and stop it's spread. This graphic novel is full of excitement and adventure as these budding heroes seek to save the world. Like many graphic novels the focus is on plot and not on character development, but middle grade readers aren't likely to care overly much. The art works well for the graphic novel format and the coloring is nice. The book does end on a major cliffhanger, but there is a bit of an ending. Young readers will most likely be eagerly awaiting the sequel as am I. This is the sort of book that is intended solely for entertainment though so don't go into it expecting a whole lot of depth.

Interesting dynamics as the next generation of superheroes is in middle school. Superman and Batman's sons struggle to be like their famous fathers and to establish their own identifies too. Two strong females are also introduced. Hints to Candace's back story are provided.
Book one in a series.
Universal relationship themes.

Hmm. Well I love this creative approach for these characters. I love these characters for a very long time and I just don't know how to give an objective review as I have previously fallen in love with these characters. I t just did not feel like an authentic representation of these characters I have met and fallen in love with.

Teenaged Jon Kent, son of Clark Kent and Lois Lane, and Ian Wayne, son of Bruce Wayne, team up to investigate a mysterious illness befalling many people--including Jon's mom Lois. The story takes place in a future version of Metropolis and other towns in the DC Universe, after global warming has caused massive flooding (Wayne Enterprises is in charge of a giant floodwall, for example). The two girl characters we meet are Tilly and Candace--but Candace has a secret princess backstory that makes her more interesting. There's some basic snooping around and lots of cool action as our kid heroes get involved with a creepy gang that's up to no good, sabotage, etc. I LOVE the artwork, it's a great comic yet semi-manga-style of art, in full color with crisp lines, almost tv-cartoony, just how I like it. :-) It was fun to see the impetuous, temper-prone Ian having to work with the more calm super-powered Jon. They both admire their fathers and want to be like them, but yet strike out as their own separate heroes.

This book just set the series back, but not in a good way. For one thing, it feels like all the magic was sucked out of the room. Where's the banter, the childish hilarious immaturity I've grown so fond of? The bright and colorful detail? Poof! It vanished into dull, adult oriented comics with flat characters and minimal detail.. These are comic book characters who act like adults. They shouldn't be drawn as kids.

This is a fresh take on the super hero story, and it turned out awesome I wasn't ready for it to end. Now that the coastal cities are flooded and the ice packs are melting two unlikely boys come together and become friends, along with a strange girl named Candice, the boys learn to work together to save the town they both now live in and more. Batman's son ( Ian) and Superman's son (Jon) team up in this the first installment of the Super Sons and it is one not to be missed, this is a great graphic novel and I can't wait for more I hope I get to review the next one as well.


This will appear on my blog April 2nd

This was for a younger audience than I anticipated. There's a foreword from the author admitting that he isn't familiar with the current DC canon, which really shows in this work. The story seemed kind of messy, introducing plot threads and new characters but not fully committing to any of them. This might just be because it's for upper elementary kids (I think?) but I didn't care for it as an adult reader. On the upside, they did update the art so that Damian isn't quite so white, which is nice.

I really wanted to love The PolarShield Project, but I just didn't. I liked it, but I didn't love it. I think most of the reason I didn't love it was that it is so different from the rest of the DC Universe, which Pearson readily admits in the introduction, but for those who have read pretty much any other DC comic (and especially the Super Sons series) it's incredibly jarring. I also didn't love the pacing of the book; often the next page jumps ahead in the story and you have no idea that has occured until you're reading the dialogue and see that it has jumped. I will still be purchasing this for my library's juvenile graphic novel collection because I think that many of my concerns will not be concerns for my patrons and Ridley Pearson is also a hit here.

A good read for younger readers who cannot get enough DC. Appropriate for middle school and a little younger, not too much violence and not overly graphic, language is appropriate and no mature situations. Interesting story about the children of Batman and Superman. A common trope about overprotective parents and children rebelling. Predictable story line is action packed for young readers and will leave them wanting more in the series. Recommended for Hi-lo students who cannot get enough comic stories.

I'm not sure if this reads too young for the middle school student, on the fence about how old the kids look. Completely a graphic novel.

The storyline introduces a great new character Candance and then drops her storyline to focus on Jon Kent and Damian Wayne. It even introduces a fourth character who was pretty unnecessary. More focus on Candance!

As a fan, I didn't like the way that Damian Wayne was called Ian, or his homemade costume. He's also white, like whiter than Superboy, when it would have been a good way to introduce another character of color. Here's a good link: https://butwhythopodcast.com/2018/08/...