Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Michael Bendis
Art: Ivan Reis, Joe Prado
Colors: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Josh Reed
What They Say:
The world quakes and shakes as it begins to succumb to the effects of the entire planet being moved into the lifeless realm known as the Phantom Zone. As Superman works with the World’s Greatest Heroes, an old enemy trapped in the same prison returns to stop the Man of Steel and escape.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The early stages of Superman under Brian Michael Bendis has been interesting though most of my exposure was just the miniseries until we got this book up and running on DC Universe. It’s one that definitely works to take us into the character to understand how he exists, which is standard protocol for Bendis coming onto a book, but it can add extra nuance in good ways. Bendis is also getting a good run in on the character thanks to Reis and Prado’s artwork as we get a version of him that has the sense of strength and presence that he needs to exist within all of this and be the person that he is while also ensuring there’s a good bit of humanity shining through as well so we understand both his resolve and his empathy.
That said, I’m still not thrilled with the whole “let’s throw the Earth into the Phantom Zone” storyline because it’s such an across the board shake-up that would impact everything in significant ways. Bendis does draw in on the League a bit here so that while it’s in this space we have Barry keeping it spinning while the others try to keep things calm where they can. But that sense that everything is going to just fall apart soon is there and the uncertainty as to how a world can remain cohesive in the Phantom Zone looms large. But it is, I suspect, questions that will not be answered and instead, the focus will shift elsewhere. But Superman’s narration on it all, the assembling and working with the team, and the exploration of how he handles seeing and hearing everything is well-handled in establishing more of the baseline of the character under Bendis.
While this is going on, we also shift the narrative to Rogol Zaar as he moves about the Phantom Zone. The cold open actually gives us a couple of pages going back 500 years to when he lead an attack on Tameran that was fun to see as his reputation is significant. Here, he’s struggling with recent events and is still burning hot to deal with the Kryptonian rot in the universe and his distaste about the Phantom Zone, calling it a home for hidden mistakes of Krypton, is fascinating since he encounters and seemingly obliterates the villain from the Superman IV film in comic form. But his gaze is turned towards Superman in the distance where Earth is and a world to cleanse and an army of angry beings all around means he’s now primed to really just go all out while Superman is on defense.
In Summary:
While the main concept that we’re running with here about Earth in the Phantom Zone makes me cringe, it’s the kind of thing that fits into the larger Superman mythos from the silver age that at the same time makes me grin. I like the audacity of it and I’m frustrated with my adult brain working through all the reasons it wouldn’t work right. There are a lot of fun bits in delving into who Superman is here and I really like what we get out of Rogol Zaar after some lackluster moments in the miniseries. It’s shaping up well enough that I can get behind the character and want to see more. There’s plenty of earned faith with Bendis for a good run on this series and he’s delivering strong in general along with Reis so that this is a very easy pickup and largely enjoyable read.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: August 8th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99