Superman #6
Superman (Vol. 5) #6 serves as the dramatic capstone of the 'Unity Saga: Phantom Earth' arc — the opening statement of Brian Michael Bendis's high-profile tenure on the flagship Superman title — concluding the Phantom Zone crisis while delivering one of the most consequential character pivots in the Superman family in years: the return of Jon Kent as a teenager. That final-page reveal, with a visibly older Jon calling Clark 'Dad,' permanently aged Superboy from a pre-teen into a young adult, a decision that rippled through DC continuity for years, paving the way for Jon's membership in the Legion of Super-Heroes and eventually his own run as Superman. The forced growth of Jon Kent was among the most debated editorial choices of the late 2010s DC era, illustrating how a single issue's closing page can restructure an entire corner of a shared universe.
ComicBooks.com Value
This exact issue on ebay
More listings for this title
Read it digitally
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
Superman (Vol. 5) #6 was written by Brian Michael Bendis — who had made his name at Marvel on Ultimate Spider-Man and the Avengers line — as the finale of his first arc on the relaunched Superman title, which launched in mid-2018 following his six-issue Man of Steel weekly miniseries that introduced Rogol Zaar. The creative team of penciller Ivan Reis, inker Joe Prado, additional inks by Oclair Albert, and colors by Alex Sinclair carried through from the arc's opening chapters, maintaining the cinematic visual continuity Bendis and DC editorial had established as the hallmark of the new run. The issue was published on December 12, 2018, carrying a cover date of February 2019, and was edited as part of DC's concerted effort to position Bendis's Superman work as a sister series to his concurrent Action Comics run.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Ivan Reis (pencils), Joe Prado and Oclair Albert (inks), and Alex Sinclair (colors); published December 12, 2018 with a February 2019 cover date.
- Concludes 'The Unity Saga Part One: Phantom Earth,' the opening six-issue arc of Bendis's Superman (Volume 5) run.
- Central action takes place in the Phantom Zone: Superman and General Zod form a reluctant alliance to battle Rogol Zaar, who claims responsibility for Krypton's destruction; Superman rallies Zod by shouting 'For Kandor,' revealing Rogol also destroyed the bottled city.
- Superman is extracted from the Phantom Zone by the Atom using S.T.A.R. Labs technology, ending the arc's primary crisis.
- The issue's final page delivers the shock ending teased throughout the arc: Jon Kent — Superboy, Superman's son — reappears as a teenager, having aged years during his space travels with Jor-El, shocking Clark who had last seen him as a child.
- Jon's accelerated aging (depicted as roughly 17 years old) was not presented as artificial; Bendis framed it as real lived time due to relativistic and dimensional anomalies during his journey with Jor-El.
- The aged-up Jon Kent's return set in motion years of subsequent DC storytelling: his Legion of Super-Heroes membership, his bisexuality reveal, and his eventual run as Earth's Superman in Superman: Son of Kal-El (2021).
- Collected in Superman Vol. 1: The Unity Saga — Phantom Earth (ISBN 9781401288198), which reprints Superman (Vol. 5) #1–6.
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Clark Kent : Superman #1 (2019), Superman #1 (2019), Superman #9 / 32 (2019), Superman #1 (2019)
Variants (1)
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.