The Kent Family farm gets a new status quo thanks to Batman in Superman: Son of Kal-El #18

Superman: Son of Kal-El #18 art
Superman: Son of Kal-El #18 art (Image credit: DC)

Superman (the dad version) returned to Earth in last month after his long adventure on Warworld, setting up what DC promises as a brand new status quo for both the Superman characters (including the restoration of their secret identities) and the Superman titles during the 2023 Dawn of DC publishing initiative.

That kicks off in Action Comics #1050 later this month, but Super-changes are afoot already, including a status quo change the Jonathan and Martha's farm in Smallville, Kansas.

Superman: Son of Kal-El #18 cover (Image credit: DC)

Yes, even the Smallville farm.

As you can see from the below preview pages of December 13's Superman: Son of Kal-El #18 (part 6 of 'Kal-El Returns'), the Supermans and their family get help from their Justice League friends to rebuild the Kent's house.

And as that will apparently be the only type of activity the Justice League will gather for in the foreseeable future, we'll overlook them borrowing the Avengers catchphrase sans proper attribution. 

The gathering is then topped off by a special housewarming gift from Batman that only Batman could provide. But if you think this is all just frivolous fun and games ... well, we suggest you pay attention. These events may play a bigger role in the coming weeks than they may seem. 

We're just sayin'...

Son of Kal-El #18 is written by Tom Taylor, illustrated by Cian Tormey and Ruairí Coleman, colored by Romulo Fajardo Jr., and lettered by Dave Sharpe. 

The cover is by Travis Moore with variants by Simone Di Meo, Nathan Szerdy, and
Jim Lee, Scott Williams and Alex Sinclair.

After December 27's Action Comics #1050, the Superman portion of Dawn of DC will harken back the 'triange' days and include a new anthology approach to Action Comics, with several stories focused on Superman characters in each issue, a new Superman #1 ongoing series with the spotlight on Kal-El, as well Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent, a limited series that focuses on Jon, and Superboy: Man of Tomorrow, another limited series that finds Conner Kent on a cosmic adventure.

In the mood for the Man of Steel? Check out the best Superman stories of all time.

I'm not just the Newsarama founder and editor-in-chief, I'm also a reader. And that reference is just a little bit older than the beginning of my Newsarama journey. I founded what would become the comic book news site in 1996, and except for a brief sojourn at Marvel Comics as its marketing and communications manager in 2003, I've been writing about new comic book titles, creative changes, and occasionally offering my perspective on important industry events and developments for the 25 years since. Despite many changes to Newsarama, my passion for the medium of comic books and the characters makes the last quarter-century (it's crazy to see that in writing) time spent doing what I love most.