Super Lonely.
Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Michael Bendis
Art: Ivan Reis, Joe Prado
Colors: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Josh Reed
What They Say:
The fallout from the Man of Steel miniseries has Clark Kent looking at the world through new eyes…with new ideas about what Superman could and should do for the city of Metropolis and the planet Earth. His first job? Getting the planet back out of the Phantom Zone!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After the six-issue prologue that was the Man of Steel weekly series, Brian Michael Bendis gets to relaunch with the first issue of Superman. Working with Ivan Reis on the artwork with Joe Prado, the book has a strong classic look (depending on your definition of classic) of Superman with some really great scenes showing his humanity. That has always been one of the strengths of the character in that as much as he’s able to do on such a big scale he grew up human and with all of those emotions and feelings. The stakes are different for him these days when you factor in Lois and Jon and that’s even more so after the events of the Man of Steel series that sent them on a galaxy-hopping mission with Jor-El.
After all of the events of that series and dealing with Rogol Zaar, Superman’s headed off into the big galaxy to try and find them, which isn’t the smartest thing in the world but he’s driven by the emotions a bit. To his surprise, however, he comes across a Dominion fleet headed to Earth some distance away and dispatches that out of the blue, which will confound the Dominators for a while and keep Earth safe. But what it does is remind him that he belongs back on Earth protecting it and working through problems there. This is nicely reflected in just how whole he felt with Lois in his life there and Jon as well, contrasted with the scenes of just him. It’s not often that Superman is really portrayed alone in this way and it works really well to showcase the mood and atmosphere of his life in this moment.
The book does deal with some of the fallout from Rogol Zaar, namely spending some time with the Justice League in ensuring certain things were dealt with that were in the Fortress and the creation of a new one – in the Bermuda Triangle of all places. I’m definitely welcoming of a new location just to change things up a bit and I’m curious to see how long it’ll stick. I’m also curious to see if the push made in Man of Steel by Jor-El will really be tackled here as we see J’onn J’onzz stepping in to essentially say the same thing about being more involved in leading the world. J’onn is feeling a bit closer to him after learning of the real fate of Krypton and the two have always had an interesting relationship because of their pasts. But having J’onn state so clearly that, as we’ve seen elsewhere, the heroes really need to lead now instead of just reacting is something that I’m really interested in seeing explored.
In Summary:
With a lot of quick-hit heroic moments hitting in between conversations, the book brings us to a bigger place toward the end with where the Earth itself ends up. One imagines there are some real side effects to this on a scientific level but we’re willing to overlook that for what kind of fun might ensue. That said, I went into this issue without being fully on board in sticking with it. I struggled with the Man of Steel series in its pacing and structure and found myself wanting to follow Lois and Jon’s story as well as Supergirl’s story more than Superman’s. The big piece that got me here are the areas I don’t see really being explored well with Superman’s loneliness without his family and the whole leadership side. I know they’ll be tackled but in smaller bites while focusing more on big and splashy things. It’s got a lot of potential and I know I’ll revisit it – just not at $4 an issue.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: July 11th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99
