Wednesday, July 4, 2018

The Man of Steel #6 Review and **SPOILERS**


I Know What You Did This Summer

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis 
Artist: Jason Fabok 
Colors: Alex Sinclair 
Letters: Josh Reed 
Cover: Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Sinclair 
Associate Editor: Jessica Chen 
Editor: Michael Cotton 
Group Editor: Brian Cunningham 
Cover Price: $3.99 
On Sale Date: July 4, 2018

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

Now we come to the payoff! The final issue of the inaugural miniseries marking Brian Michael Bendis’ landmark run on Superman, the most famous and first superhero on the planet! No pressure, though! Have a look at my review of The Man of Steel #6, commencing now!


Explain It!

There have been two burning questions we all hoped would be answered by the conclusion of this miniseries: one, what happened to Lois Lane and Jonathan Kent? And two, how badly is Brian Michael Bendis going to fuck up Superman? The latter question was answered first, and I think we can safely say that Bendis isn’t going to fuck things up too badly. Yes, his ancillary DC characters might not ring perfectly true, and there does tend to be a little more cute patter than I’m used to in my DC comic books. But it appears that he intends to write a heroic, empathetic Superman, which is a good sign in the twenty-first century. I mean, it wasn’t too long ago we had Superman running around in a t-shirt, thumbing his nose at folks.
As for the initial question, we find out about what happened to Lois and Jon in this issue. And it takes all issue. The two-second interludes of the past five issues, revealing another increment of the event that would eventually take Jon and Lois away, come to fruition here, in what looks like a six day-long conversation between Clark, Lois, Jon and Jor-El. Er, Mr. Oz. Whatever you wanna call him. Seems Jor-El wants to take his grandson for a summer jaunt across space, and Lois insists on going with him. There’s a lot of hemming and hawing, and vacillating between letting Jon make his own decisions and actually taking parental responsibility for an eleven year-old, but ultimately Jon and Lois make off in Jor-El’s scarab ship, and that’s the end of that. Lois says she’ll write a book about her experience, which only raises more questions…but we’ll save those for the series proper.
As for Rogol Zaar, he and Superman brawl a little bit more, then Kara shows up and flips him into the Phantom Zone. The end! That was easy. While I’m sure we’ll see this guy again, Rogol Zaar will be on ice for a little while, so Clark can get back to his normal humdrum routine. The issue looks absolutely terrific, Jason Fabok renders everyone with aplomb and even the painfully dull conversational pages look dynamic, thanks to Fabok’s angles and plotting. But overall, this miniseries is a waste of twenty-four bucks. Everything important to know is contained in the last issue, and will probably be reiterated in the first returning issues of Action Comics and Superman. It was nice to see how Bendis intends to handle Superman going forward, but for the privilege of spending four-and-twenty dollars to find out, I could have just waited for the main series.

Bits and Pieces:

Our burning questions are answered, and we're left with the feeling that it was more interesting not to know. Isn't that always the way? The character Superman seems to be in capable hands going forward, but it looks like these stories may be taking the scenic route.

7/10

6 comments:

  1. I’ll chalk up the pacing to Bendis writing a weekly series. I didn’t hate it as much as many GFCers. I’m interested in seeing where the story goes, and Rogol’s backstory interests me. 6 for the series. A few issues were 6.5s. The last one was a 5. I’m happy I read this.

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    1. Also, we now know solar flares are in continuity because Jon talks about the Titans of Tomorrow arc, which makes what happened in issue 4 more confusing since Clark is flying in space in issue 5. Partial flare?

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  2. Really you could've skipped this mini-series and not missed much other than Superman is now free and single for the rest of Bendis' run, I guess he wasn't a fan of the Super-family. Shame as I and a few others were. It was okay series but nothing to recommend.

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  3. Doesn't it seem kind of out of character for Superman to not ask Jor-El exactly where he will be taking Jon & Lois, just in case, oh, I don't know, the communicator gets damaged or lost & he needs another way to find them? Which of course Superman says it did get destroyed in the fight at the Fortress. And is there a time differential? Does time pass the same on Earth or faster or slower? Maybe he'll be in his late teens or Superman will be older & Jon & Lois will be the same age...who knows. I just hope we see Jon & Lois again. And this book Lois is going to write about her trip in outer space...sounds intriguing. I wonder who the kid is who claims he saw Superman start the fires. A plant from this mysterious enemy or just mistaken?

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    1. I thought the whole conversation while Jor-El was in the kitchen was sort of odd...a lot of back-and-forth without going anywhere, when they might have used a panel or two for--as you've mentioned--details about Jon Kent's Space Camp

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    2. I read somewhere that Jon will return as a teenager, which would mean Lois ages 4-7 years too. Which will be awkward if true. This (another) new take on Superman isn't filling me with excitement

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