Random Thoughts On... Brian Michael Bendis's Run on the Superman Books Part 2

So, where was I? Oh yeah, I was about to talk about villains and controversy.

A Bit Mixed on the Villains

We get some returning villains and new villains here, but I’m mostly focusing on the newer villains. First up, it’s Rogol Zaar who I already said my piece on. He’s okay, and unfortunately, we don’t learn too much about him here. He’s still on his hate boner for all Kryptonians. We don’t even find out how he possibly destroyed Krypton. Next, there’s Symnar Utopica, an alien from a part of the galaxy that has an orange sun. His deal was that his people turned him into a weapon to possible combat Superman. He instead turns on them and tries to kill Superman too. He was a bit on the “meh” side. We do get a villain named that shows up during the Doctor Fate two-parter, but that villain was so forgettable.

Yes, Zod! Beat the lameness out of Zaar!

On Action Comics’ end, we got the Invisible Mafia led by Marisol Leone. Robinson Goode, aka “Red Cloud”, served as the gang’s enforcer. I did like these two. That may have to do with the fact that Bendis just handles this type of storytelling better. Also, they just had more to do than just fight Superman. Heck, Leone didn’t even want to tussle with him since she knew that she’d be done for. They also even have ties with S.T.A.R. Labs who also served as a bit of a villain here, but I know they were more featured in Young Justice. Then, there’s the organization Leviathan who was more of an overall DC villain. They were okay here.

Symnar was interesting, but not much panned out with him. I do know that he shows up later in Bendis's Justice League run.

We only got a few traditional villains to show up, but not too many unfortunately. Zod played a major role in “The Unity Saga,” but he wasn’t too much of a villain there. Heck, he even teams up with Superman a bit. Mongol is your usual “I like to %$%% things up” dude in trying to mess with the United Planets and Earth. Lex does show up in a couple of places, but he was under Scott Snyder during this time in the Justice League series. We even see a couple of old-school Phantom Zone villains cameo, even the Nuclear Man from Superman 4 for some reason. Overall, the villains we had were okay at best with the Invisible Mafia being the ones I liked the most here.

Miss Leone was one bad lady.

Mixed on the Controversial Moments

Bendis’s run had a bit of controversy, and no, I’m not talking about the fact that Bendis started to write Superman. He did pulled a few shocking moments during his run like the destruction of Kandor, having another villain be behind the destruction of Krypton (it’s been done before, friends), bringing back Conner Kent (the cool version, not that convoluted New 52 version), and wiped out most of DC’s Intelligence organizations with Leviathan. Of course, the ones you want to hear about are “The Truth”, Young Man Jon Kent, and ‘ole Jor-El DeBarge.

First, there was the whole thing with Jor-El and Jon traveling through space and time. I can’t really blame Bendis for what happened to Jor-El because it was something Geoff Johns started and Dan Jurgens continued. For those who don’t remember, Jor-El was brought back thanks to Dr. Manhattan and was driven a bit crazy. I guess Bendis had to finish this weird plot off, and he did so weirdly. He also revealed that Jor-El had a hidden past to him, and that he played in creating Rogol Zaar, so that’s fun, I guess. The only thing I do like about this whole plot is Clark’s reactions to his dad being so out there.

Next up is the Jon Kent plot. During his three-week trip in space, he got lost in the timeline and somehow ended up on Earth-3 for a few years until Jor-El found him. How Earth-3’s back is anyone’s guess, but that ain’t the problem. I don’t know how to feel about the big age-up. My guess is that Bendis wanted to have a Superboy in the Legion of Superheroes, so he picked Jon Kent to use instead of Conner Kent… who he also brought back. Kinda convoluted, ain’t it? I will say that at least he writes Jon pretty well throughout the run. Plus, I do like that costume.

Then, we got Superman revealing his double life to the world. As I said before in my review, I’m not the biggest fan of revealing his identity. I also thought Superman’s reasoning were a bit weird but Bendis at least did in a classy way. He didn’t go the New 52 route, thankfully. I also liked the different reactions folk gave in the series proper and the one-shots that were released. I had a little more to say about the whole thing in my review of Superman #18 last year.

 Stellar Artwork… for the most part

The artwork on the books have been pretty good overall. Yeah, I got one hang-up, and you might know who that is. On Superman, Ivan Reis pretty much had the reins on that book. Outside of a few filler issues, he brought his A-game throughout the whole book. There’s a reason I consider him to be one of my favorite current artists, and his work here is just one reason. He also did all of the main covers. You also got some pretty good artwork from artists like Brandon Peterson, Kevin Macguire, and David LaFuente. I will say that LaFuente’s artwork wasn’t my cup of tea though. It wasn’t bad, but it just seemed too weird for me… mainly Superman’s trunks. Shrinkage!

Action Comics had a rotating art team with each arc. While that can be a bit much, a lot of it was pretty good. Patrick Gleeson (left over from the previous Superman teams) started us off with Ryan Sook finishing the first arc. Then, Steve Epting came in and handed the prologue arc to Event: Leviathan. For the Event: Leviathan tie-ins and Naomi’s arc, we had Syzmon Kudranski doing art duties. Never heard of the guy, but I liked him. His Superman bore a resemblance to Tom Welling.

Then, from Action Comics #1017-1028, we had the “tremendous” return of John Romita Jr. and Klaus Janson… yay. If you’re wondering where my problems with the artwork began, it was here. While there were some good points here and there, I just wasn’t a big fan of it all here. Danny Miki did come in for an issue to do inks, and strangely enough, I liked the artwork there! Maybe the problem I have is Janson, man. It only gets worst towards the end of the run with it looking sloppy and muddled. Ah well… at least the other artists knocked it out of the park. Even the one-shots.

I will say this about this double splash: this looked legitimately cool.

 In the End... It Was Okay.

I don’t want this to get too long since it’s almost at five pages, so here’s a wrap-up. The run overall was fine but a little disappointing. While I don’t like every aspect of the run, there was a lot here I liked. Superman looked in charge. It was cool to see the Daily Planet since that tends to get forgotten about sometimes. His relationship with Lois got rocky at first but got good in the end. Couple that with some stellar artwork from Ivan Reis, Ryan Sook, Patrick Gleeson, and… yes, JRjr (a couple of panels), you get a fine run.

As for any other negatives, Bendis has his ways with dialogue at times, and that can be a chore to read. I also think he doesn’t handle the cosmic side of DC well. Heck, he didn’t handle the cosmic side of Marvel well either, so I think it’s just a preference thing for me. Give me some Lanning and Abnett, dang it! Anyway, I do question why Jon Kent wasn’t de-aged at the end of the run. I wonder if that was something that went on above his head with Editorial. I wonder if Bendis had more to do with the books because the last couple of issues felt a bit rushed. Either way, any dejected fans can feel safe now Bendis has come and went. If you want more Bendis, he’s on Justice League now, and so far, it’s okay.

As for what’s going on with Superman now, I’m not too sure. I haven’t caught up with the issues I do have yet. Phillip Kennedy Johnson has taken the reins on the character and has upgraded Jon Kent to be the new Superman while Clark faces off against Warworld. I know that it’s playing off what was introduced in those Future State comics which were pretty nice especially the ones done by Johnson. Also, Grant Morrison has graced us once again with Superman and the Authority. Anyway, I got to cut this off somewhere, so I’m outta here. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there.