Bends is awful

As a new collector and only started in April 2018, I was super excited about Bendis coming into Superman having read his Spider-Man in Middle School. This run of Superman has been awful. From Bendis breaking up the family for "reasons"that still are poorly explained, even in issue number 7. To his obsession with poop jokes and having Batman crap himself in the Batmobile. He literally has pooped on the good will of Rebirth in the name of poor story telling.
DC needs to get there editors to edit and stop this train wreck of storytelling or we as readers will stop buying. If this is DC Comics direction for our beloved characters I will quit buying as a Wednesday warrior. It’s insulting.
We as reader’s deserve better story telling instead of the drivel that is Superman #7.

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Apologies for the run on sentences hard to type on a tablet.

Spoilers

Superman 7 was not terrible as a story, but there were some very strange parts to it

  • Superman’s son is now 17, making him eligible for Teen Titans, while before he was 10.

    Damien is 13 now. I can’t see Damien and Jon doing Super Sons again, though some might argue there was a 3 year difference between their ages and now there are 4. Also, Damien was interacting with adults as a semi adult. But Jon is still acting and sounds like he is still 10, like in the Movie Big.

    Maybe Jon will be friends with Billy and his family in Shazam, though Mary Marvel and Jon would be sorta creepy, like Billy and Stargirl in Justice Society. Mary is how old now? In the Backup story in Shazam 1, she looked 12.

  • The response of Lois in knowing all those years with Jon growing up was realistic. Her actions in leaving Jon quickly once they were in space and then coming home and not seeing Clark is totally out of character for her. Also Jor-el is crazy and a murderer. Some reviewers said he was a mass murderer

  • Jon’s statement at the end of the issue that his grandfather is crazy, sounds like Bendis was going for a surprise statement. Outside of Bendis, there was every indication that Clark and Lois should never have allowed Jon to go with Jor-el, because of his previous behavior.

  • The way Jon and Lois has been handled so far, is that he needed them out of the way for plot purposes, Lois and Clark did not act rationally here. If Jor-el reverted back to type, what could Lois do? Yell at Him?. Her Leaving Jon? Why? Space Sickness? Feeling incompetent? Not going back to Clark when she returned? So she could write? That’s what she does for a living? Abandoning the job at the Daily Planet she spent decades wanting? Wasn’t that why they left the farm, which was a place better for security and bringing up Jon? The way Clark was raised? So Clark would feel isolated and maybe not at his best in detecting what was wrong, where he could have the support of his wife, with her abilities as a world class investigation reporter? And isn’t he a world class reporter himself?

  • Superman is revered a cross the universe? Why does Supergirl need a space ship, because it sounds like Superman is continually going from planet to planet.

    This version of Superman can exist in outer space, by not having to breathe for a long period of time and he certainly has been on other planets, but not to the degree stated her.

I think Jor-el paid the group off, for some reason, to say the things they said, to mislead Lois and Jon.

Other than that, it was better than usual

Bendis works better with grounded characters. That’s why he did so well with Marvel. They should have stuck with Peter Tomasi with Supes and Super sons.

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Kicking Tomasi off of Superman and giving it to Bendis is the worst mistake DC has made since new 52.

They have actively destroyed everything people loved not just about Superman Rebirth but the re launch itself.

For fucks sake they killed Wally. He was literally the main character of the rebirth issue 1 launch of this entire thing.

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My theory is this: Bendis still works for Marvel and is a secret agent sent to destroy all the goodwill and sales Rebirth brought about as Marvel’s comic sales decline ever faster.

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I haven’t read it but Young Justice #1 isn’t bad from what I’ve been reading from sites. I believe Bendis is attached to this. I wonder how long he can mess this up. Lol.

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I wish they would take him off of all the Superman titles. But Bendis name still carries a lot of weight I personally think he is overrated

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I believe he can do better. I think it’s just that DC fans expected more. I mean, he was with Marvel for such as long time that he needs time to adjust with DC history. He probably didn’t read my DC comics when he was with Marvel. Haha.

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*any DC comics

Tobias-RCO2, you nailed it right on the head. You made me laugh out loud.

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Bendis wrote some good stuff for Marvel years and years ago and somehow he is still ridding that wave. DC should get rid of Tom King also. Horrible writers for their two big books.

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Bendis Superman is what got me back into comics. I’ve really enjoyed it so far.

I’m really enjoying his Action Comics — though I may be a little biased. The Question lives!

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I honestly don’t get all the Bendis and Tom King hate those are my too favorite writers so far but I’ve only been reading for about 2 months after about a 15 year hiatus from reading comics.

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King’s run on Batman is nearly unreadable for me. Under the attempt of being highly profound it is just an illogical mess where nothing seems to happen at all. Cat woman decides suddenly she can’t marry Batman because… Bane decided to tell her not to through other villains? That’s his big plan? Ten books of so of just Batman and Catwoman alternately saying “Bat”. “Cat”? That was their entire relationship? Geez. 5 issues stretched out into 50. And I don’t hate King. There were a couple of decent issues, such as the Freeze trial issue. Heroes in Crisis isn’t bad. His Vision book was excellent. But his style does not work in an ongoing for one of the Trinity.

Bendis’ run on Superman and Action is pretty great so far. Unfortunately the great parts are the backstory mythology he’s creating with Rogol Zaar and his style bringing Action back to the 90s retreading history. Great read though despite that it’s not moving forward. Aging Jon is a bit of a travesty too. Hopefully they figure out a way to reverse it? The other travesty of this all is that Tomasi got kicked off the book when he was moving Superman forward and creating one of the best new characters in ages in Jon Kent. It would have been great to have Jon and Damian age ‘naturally’ the way Dick did. While Bendis is overall doing good stuff here, losing Tomasi is a massive shame.

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I haven’t read Bendis’ run on Superman, but I can’t agree that King is a “horrible writer” on Batman. His run is not action-focused but investigates deeply into Batman’s heart.

Catwoman decides not to marry Batman not because Bane or anyone, but because she realizes that a happy, married Batman will not be the Batman Gotham needs anymore, maybe it’s not even what Batman himself needs. King spent many arcs to develop this point, and I think the narrative is pretty awesome.

The recent Cold Days story arc is also one of my favorite. Bruce Wayne, as a normal Gotham citizen, reveals the flaw of Batman and reminds people that the Caped Crusader is only a human behind the mask and can make mistakes. Great story IMO.

And let’s not forget it’s meant to be a 100-issue run. I don’t think the big picture in King’s mind has revealed to us yet.

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Catwoman made that decision ‘on her own’ but it was a large part of Bane’s overall plan somehow. Just makes no sense. Plus her realization essentially comes out of nowhere and seemed quite lame to me. I understand it was 50 issues, but nothing really happened except them talking to each other saying ‘Bat’ ‘Cat’ etc. But that’s just the dialogue I don’t like. As far as action, the books don’t need to be all action, but there seemed to be no action at all. Or rather, it’s all ‘Tell, don’t show’ rather than ‘show, don’t tell’. Now I’m the last one to say there needs to be ‘rules’ in how to write a story… I actually complain when people say or imply there are rules… but it in this case I would have rather seen more than been told throughout this run. Maybe if I read the whole thing in one sitting it’ll work better, but so far I’m not digging it much at all. That being said, the Freeze arc was great and there have been bits I’ve enjoyed.

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Catwoman made that decision ‘on her own’ but it was a large part of Bane’s overall plan somehow. Just makes no sense. Plus her realization essentially comes out of nowhere and seemed quite lame to me. I understand it was 50 issues, but nothing really happened except them talking to each other saying ‘Bat’ ‘Cat’ etc. But that’s just the dialogue I don’t like. As far as action, the books don’t need to be all action, but there seemed to be no action at all. Or rather, it’s all ‘Tell, don’t show’ rather than ‘show, don’t tell’. Now I’m the last one to say there needs to be ‘rules’ in how to write a story… I actually complain when people say or imply there are rules… but it in this case I would have rather seen more than been told throughout this run. Maybe if I read the whole thing in one sitting it’ll work better, but so far I’m not digging it much at all. That being said, the Freeze arc was great and there have been bits I’ve enjoyed.

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Catwoman’s decision to not marry Batman continues comic book writers strange uncomfortableness with not wanting to write an actual marriage. Like how Marvel made a weird convoluted plot so Peter Parker wouldn’t marry MJ. Comic Book writers seem to be too afraid or simply lack the skill for it, but Tom King had a chance to remove that bad rep by being brave and presenting an actual marriage between comic book characters but instead he blew it.

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