Comics Review- The Man of Steel #1

Man of Steel (2018-) #1 by Brian Michael Bendis

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


In July of last year in these very pages, I suggested that Bendis was in a rut that could probably be only fixed by jumping to DC. But even i was shocked when he did the same exact thing four months later.

I have been a Bendis fan since just about the very beginning. But he has been the defining writer for Marvel for the last decade. My beef was that he was writing the same characters over and over again. Although, it might make sense to have Bendis write characters like Daredevil, Luke Cage and Iron Man (and Spiderman, of course too), hadn't he done it ad infintum. I was less than thrilled to read the Defenders and newest Jessica Jones first issues, and his Avengers work before that was wearing out his welcome. Now, I can say in retrospect, I actually really enjoyed Jessica Jones and his recent less-than-loved Iron Man-less Iron Man stories had enough stuff that I actually liked.

In any case, if it wasn't obvious, he needed a change, and so writing Superman is definitely that 'next step'.

It is a six-issue weekly. My comic book shop owner friends say that the weekly and biweekly titles do well for him and is a 2018 fresh take on the standard comic industry. Who wants to wait a month for a tile in a binge-weekend world? Personally, I don't ever want to do a long-term weekly comic ever again, but at 6 issues, I am in.

Man of Steel got less than five star reviews even from people who I expected such things from. Trying to see it with my own fresh eyes, I was less than excited.

Not that it is bad. Bendis is not a hack, and brings some fresh eyes and creativity. It's just that it's a bit of a slow burn. My take on Bendis back int he day was that he could write a dynamite start of issue, but have trouble plotting the overall arc.

This doesn't fell like a 'moment'. Yet, there is an argument that can be made, that it's the right way to tell a six-issue series. Ivan Reis, Joe Prado and Alex Sinclair (art, colors, and letters respectively) make it feel like an epic DC book.

I have read quite a bit that the intention is to make this other-worldly "Larger than Life" DC, which seemingly runs counter from what we expect from Bendis- which is David Mamet-style "real" dialogue.

There is no one true answer. You could go a few different ways with this. But Reis et al are a good choice for what they are attempting (and based on the sneak peaks, this is definitely what we are to expect).

This book is best when Bendis does what he does best- the characterization of Superman and his interaction with other characters. The weakest points seem to be the DC mystical sh*t. the new'big bad' did not really connect with me. But, I really have no complaints. I am happy to see Bendis push himself to do something that is new to him. I don't know that we will look back and remember this fondly in a decade like other Superman stories (we will likely just remember the buzz about Bendis going to DC), but there's enough here to give the potential that maybe we will,



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