The Man of Steel

The New York Times had an article entitled ‘Can this man save Superman?”. This man being Brian Michael Bendis. The problem was that Peter J. Tomasi and Dan Jurgens were creating some of the best Superman stories since I started collecting in the 1970’s. I went decades without seriously collecting Superman comics because I found the stories so uninteresting but since Rebirth I was eagerly anticipating each Deluxe Edition of Superman and Action Comics and now DC was pulling the plug because of how highly regarded Bendis was in the industry. Bendis didn’t just take over one Superman comic. He’s writing Superman AND Action Comics so if you’re a Superman fan but not a Bendis fan you’re basically out of luck.

The impression I get is that Bendis’ is trying to get back to Superman’s roots as a being of pure goodness. This seems to be quite popular with writers these days. The problem is that as someone who has read Superman stories going back to the 1930’s I can tell you that this Superman has never existed before. Not in the Golden Age, not in the Silver Age and not in the Bronze Age. This is a very recent Modern Age invention and the pure Superman is a very boring Superman. It reminds me of J. Michael Straczynski’s “Grounded” storyline where Superman walks across the United States to reconnect with everyday people. Interesting idea, boring as hell.

I usually like when writers go bold and make characters their own but I really don’t like that Bendis removed Lois Lane and Jon from the comics. This seems like a terrible decision since a lot of readers were really enjoying the Superman family. Bendis is also cleary trying to turn Rogol Zaar into a top tier villain but he comes off as a forgettable throw away character. Zaar isn’t just a villain for the Man of Steel mini-series. Bendis is continuing to use him in the regular series. Zaar is just obsessed with killing all Kryptonians but the explanation for why is pretty weak. Besides Zaar, the other issue Superman is dealing with is an arsonist which is as dull as it sounds and doesn’t get resolved in this series. I can see that Bendis is a superior writer but some of the dialogue is just weird. At one point Superman says, ‘as my ma always said, “fire is fire.” Is that seriously something ma Kent always said? An empty tautological statement?

I don’t hate what Bendis is doing and I’ve certainly seen worse Superman stories but DC must consider this a disappointment. Before Bendis, Superman and Action Comics were selling around 40 thousand issues which really isn’t great. When Grant Morrison took over Action Comics in 2011 it sold over 180k. With Bendis at the reigns of Superman and Action they’ve been selling more in the 60 to 70k range. Morrison’s issues dipped rapidly in sales but stayed well above what Bendis is doing. With the acclaim Bendis received I’m sure DC was hoping for far better but I’m assuming readers saw what Bendis did with The Man of Steel and didn’t have much interest in continuing. Even The Man of Steel sales were mediocre so I guess people just didn’t have tremendous interest in seeing Bendis write Superman.

I wish Bendis success and for whatever reason I’ve continued collecting Superman and Action despite not really enjoying them and I buy very few other comics. Undoubtedly, a great story can be written with an introspective Superman but I just don’t see that happening here and I think the sales numbers reflect it. Besides writing all the Superman comics, Bendis is also writing a handful of other titles so I have to wonder if the workload is causing all his projects to suffer. DC seemed to be drawing some kind of parallel between the arrival of Bendis and the arrival of Jack Kirby in the 1970’s when Kirby took on a massive workload but times have changed and I don’t think the experiment is working very well thus far. I’m going to stick with it a little longer but my patience is wearing thin and I may give up on Superman comics for the time being,

Bendis has to deconstruct and separate Superman from everything that makes him Superman so he can write how he sees fit.

The villain is Doomsday but twist! he can talk and is a fascist who hates Kryptonians. Surprised that Bendis did not force him to be orange with blond hair. Since his lackluster start at DC he has had 1.5 panels that are memorable in over 18 Superman comics at this point. Most the rest ignore continuity or confuse one Flash for the other or contradict his own writing in the previous issue. I wish it was nitpicking and I purchased 18 comics and a trade before I gave up on him writing Superman, but he just does not understand or does not care about he character which is largely defined by a personality that Bendis seems to hate. A boy scout who is married. Past that he has made Superman into a god. Superman has no restraint and instantly takes on any villain anywhere on the globe in a split second and is back to his conversation he was in mid-sentence. That alone makes it boring on top of not anything like Superman. Even Nuperman is a far Superior version than this one.

Perhaps the biggest tragedy is his mischaracterization of Lois Lane. He has turned her into a street walker that says, "baby" 200 times and only shows up to "sex" Superman up when he catches her walking out on him after abandoning his son to one of his villains. So progressive of Bendis. His son will come back soon, based on interviews older, angstier with Twitter's latest politics as a personality rather than looking up to his father and trying to save the planet since he is most powerful Superhero coming of age ever.

Save yourself 15 dollars US and just read a tumblr fan fiction that hates Superman especially Lois and his son Jon and you will be just as entertained if not more entertained since almost anyone can writer better than Bendis.

Bendis gets royalties on his creator own stuff, all the same character over and over again with different hair colors. He gets to tell a long meandering story in both Action and Superman that goes nowhere. His lower sales and half the output of Rebirth is rewarded with him getting control of multiple New52 style comics with Bendis hipster edgy wannabe Californian teens who spill angst in the place of a real personality much less the established personalities of these characters.

Bendis is a great writer, if he were to write gift cards. I think he missed his mark but the art of this book like every book in his career saves him. The best artists for Bendis while superior talents like Tomasi and Jurgens are pushed aside do to name recognition and political alliances.

First and foremost, this is not a thrash talk on Bendis. Also, this review may contain spoilers!!! He has written many stories that have been good, but his taste and dialogue are not well suited for Superman let alone adults. When people hear "Benids" they instantly assume it will be a one of a kind story. He has become a brand name and honestly was a little surprised DC gave him not only Superman but Action Comics as well. This story starts off promising it goes the way I thought it would. A sloppy connection to current DC continuity, art work is inconsistent for two chapters and he has no knowledge on how Superman and other characters talk or act. I've given him this miniseries and multiple issues into Superman and Action Comics and he cannot even stay consistent with his own story! The story is sloppy, dialogue is just bad and overall just a disappointment. I think they should've given him teen titans or something smaller or involving teenagers since that’s what he's best known for. I would not recommend this book to anybody and stay clear of his run on anything superman related.

Man of Steel is Brian Michael Bendis' debut with Superman and his deal with DC allowed him to deconstruct Superman and make the character his own. Too bad. He has decided that Superman is a pure good man, no god, with almost no human qualities and apparently no need of a family - at least judging by this volume. He ships Lois and Jon off in space and leaves Superman to brood about it throughout the volume, his one human quality.

Bendis introduces a villain who wants to rid the universe of Kryptonians. He was responsible for the destruction of Krypton and comes to Earth to kill Superman after discovering he survived. He is basically Doomsday but with the ability to talk and is basically boring. His motivation is never fully explained and all he wants to do is destroy which is not terribly interesting

Unfortunately, that is the best I can say about the entire volume. The art is quite good but the writing is just boring. The best part of Superman’s most recent stories has been his interaction with Lois and Jon and Bendis eliminates that aspect of the story early on. It’s clear he wants the focus to be solely on Superman and but, unfortunately, in making him too godlike he has eliminated all aspects of Superman’s personality that make his stories interesting.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher and Edelweiss in return for an honest review.

So let me start off by saying that I’m a comic book lover and have been my entire life. Superman is that one character who I'll always keep coming back to and will always be #1 on my list for favorite character ever, I love everything about what he stands for and have more Superman comics and graphic novels/trades than for any other character. This book was hyped up with it being Bendis’s debut at DC. Honestly like most people I think he’s rather overrated but I’d take him over Morrison any day. This book contains the mini series that leads in to the start of his run on the actual Superman title so while the plot does come to a conclusion it doesent really close the story and carries over into the ongoing Superman title. The story was ok and there are elements such as Jon and Lois that I’m not really thrilled with what Bendis does with them, but it’s still a Superman story and honestly I’ll read them all. I get a lot of the dislike for Bendis’s writing on the characters and definently not having an understanding of them and making them do things totally out of character. But that said I think you can look past a lot of that if you love Superman like I do. I will say the actual ongoing series of Superman which you can read the first half of the arc in the unity saga hardcover is amazing, there are still issues with the way certain characters are handled but the story is amazing and I’m absolutely loving it.

Excellent jumping on point for new Superman readers. Great storyline.

A good start for Bendis. Loved all the different artists for the series. The new villain has a chance to become a nice new fixture as that’s one thing Superman needs is a few more rogues, especially ones that can go toe to toe with him.

Loved Bendis' work when he worked with Marvel and I couldn't wait for him to finally take a stab at Superman. It's a good start to what I hope will be a great run, since Bendis is taking on both Action Comics and Superman main series. I would of like some more art consistency(more than one artist worked on it), but it was an other wise solid story from start to finish.

Bendis cleans the slate in an entertaining way to set the stage for what looks to be a strong Superman run.

All I've read was just gloom and doom about Bendis taking over the Superman books, so glad I decided to buy this book and find out for myself. I absolutely loved it! Couldn't put it down! Just ordered Vol. 1 of Both Action Comics & Superman can't wait to see what happens next!