bedsitter23

Superman: Leviathan Rising Special (2019-) #1 by Brian Michael Bendis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

(I take a week of vacation and I feel like I can't get back on track. This is a few weeks old now, but here goes)

10 bucks for 80 pages, and no telling the quality inside?

It’s a wonder I buy any books.

This is an Event that is spinning out of Action Comics and spilling into Lois Lane and Jimmy Olson individual books. I have read Bendis’s run on Action, and it’s all across the board. At time, it has paid off on the promise of “Bendis writing for DC”, at other times (and yes, the seeming Leviathan timeline) its been confusing and convoluted and just not that fun.

So, I approached this with some trepidation, though the lineup of Bendis, Rucka, Fraction and Andreyko was promising.

The book doesn’t really tell you what to expect, but the first half -30 or so pages is pretty great.

The book tries to make it seem seamless. The first part is clearly Bendis and Rucka based on the characters featured, but the scenes move cleanly

It’s also pretty great. The opening hits all the right notes. Everything in the Leviathan storyline to this point has been clunky- but this hits the right notes - sharp dialogue, insight, characterization, plotting, a solid blending of the old (established characters) and new (plot line).

It in quick succession has a snappy one on one scene, which transitions into a Lois story. All combined, it’s as strong as an open as I would have ever imagined before picking this up.

It’s not always clear who wrote what, since it twists and turns and one could even imagine the writers plotted it together (surely not). In any case, it hits notes crisper than the average DC book

There is a drastic art change as we get a Jimmy Olson story. I love the art, but I thought the story suffered from ambition, and quite frankly, kind of stank.

Things plateau as we get the Supergirl story and work through the denouement. It is fine enough, but suffers in comparison to the strong start. (I suspect Rucka and Bendis take a couple pages at the end as they tidily wrap up the ending.

It sells the books which I will be picking up next.

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