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Superman variant for DC Nation #0 by JLGL |
With DC's
Rebirth event now a couple of years in the rear-view mirror and a status quo set-ish for the DCU at this point (at least until the next reboot), the Superman books seem to be on solid ground, even as they head into the next series of changes as Brian Michael Bendis arrives at DC and takes over both
Action Comics and
Superman.
I've been considering writing more often on Superman comics the past year, but it was impossible to write about them without spending half the post explaining to anyone not reading Superman titles what was going on - continuity wise - in the comics. Tomasi and Gleason's take on
Superman and Dan Jurgens and a rotating group of artists' run on
Action Comics worked very well for me, messy continuity and all - but getting past the "now Superman is married to Loid with a 10 year old son" bit - not that hard, but he's from another dimension (no he's not!), he lives on a farm except when he lives in Metropolis... all that stuff was hard to talk about, and, frankly, when Superman and family didn't just make the jump back to Metropolis and the Daily Planet the way I expected, began to feel a bit like a holding pattern awaiting some coming change. Still, the tone was right, the adventures depicted hit the right Super-buttons, and I returned to regularly reading comics (because I always start my stack with my Super-books).
Ancillary titles have been shakier, with occasional highlights. Supergirl isn't exactly critical reading, but found footing in recent issues. I am so far behind on Superwoman and New Super-Man that I can't comment.
Bendis's first pages showed up in
Action Comics 1000. While there's a novel hook to get folks interested in the
Man of Steel mini in June
Action Comics #1001 and
Superman #1 arriving in July, if someone was expecting Shakespeare on the page in the few pages penned by Bendis - what we did get was pro-level comics, Bendis' first pages of set set up that actually kinda worked, and a feel for "Superman is back in his regular environs".
Action Comics Special #1