Official : Bendis gets both books

[Korath]

My only question is how will Talia be a threat to Superman ?

I mean, Leviathan has geared up since Morrison's era, as seen in The Silencer, but even then, they don't really have heavy hitters able to go toe to toe with Superman.

Harassing him and his allies, using psychological warfare and terror tactics, sure, but outright defeating him or putting him in difficulty will be hard to present in a logical way.

Plus, Talia is Leviathan for all intent and purpose, so if she's caught, it's all over.

I can't wait to see Bendis tackling all of this.

[MeGrimlock420]

My only question is how will Talia be a threat to Superman ?

I mean, Leviathan has geared up since Morrison's era, as seen in The Silencer, but even then, they don't really have heavy hitters able to go toe to toe with Superman.

Harassing him and his allies, using psychological warfare and terror tactics, sure, but outright defeating him or putting him in difficulty will be hard to present in a logical way.

Plus, Talia is Leviathan for all intent and purpose, so if she's caught, it's all over.

I can't wait to see Bendis tackling all of this.

Maybe she has a stash of kryptonite.

[Yoda]

As they take out all these other secret groups they should be amassing a pretty sizeable arsenal and bench of bad guys. I haven't been reading Silencer, but someone had said they had magic users and people who's abilities were a good match for some of Suoerman's tactics.

It'll be interesting to see how Lois gets involved in this. Maybe through Jimmy reaching out. I don't think she's coming back to the Planet this soon but it'd be nice to be wrong about that.

[MeGrimlock420]

As they take out all these other secret groups they should be amassing a pretty sizeable arsenal and bench of bad guys. I haven't been reading Silencer, but someone had said they had magic users and people who's abilities were a good match for some of Suoerman's tactics.

It'll be interesting to see how Lois gets involved in this. Maybe through Jimmy reaching out. I don't think she's coming back to the Planet this soon but it'd be nice to be wrong about that.

I forgot about magic hurting Superman.

[LordUltimus]

Why does he refer to Leviathan as a "new power"? Is this a new Leviathan, or is it just referring to Leviathan's new role?

[Yoda]

More just a new and expanded role. It sounds like they want to consolidate all the secret societies and organizations under one.

[LordUltimus]

More just a new and expanded role. It sounds like they want to consolidate all the secret societies and organizations under one.

Wonder why they picked Leviathan, then, rather than an older one like HIVE or Kobra.

[Korath]

Well, leviathan had magic user (it's not clear if Lady Whisbone is still able to perform magic currently) and Raze and The Silencer could be good "psychological terror" weapons against Superman since one can become invisible (like Nobody) and the other suppress all sounds in a given area. But neither of them is able to go toe to toe against Superman, and they are supposed to be Leviathan's best killers.

Now, I guess Bendis can and will introduce new toys for Talia to use (either recruited villains, new metas, or weaponry from other organizations) as you said Yoda, but I just find it strange that Superman could come close to Talia, as hinted in the cover of April's Action Comics, and not end this in seconds.

[manwhohaseverything]

Maybe it is just a street level investigation story with Clark and Lois as protagonist with superman making a guest appearance to clean the mess up. It doesn't need to be an action packed story for it to be good.

[Jared S]

My only question is how will Talia be a threat to Superman ?

I mean, Leviathan has geared up since Morrison's era, as seen in The Silencer, but even then, they don't really have heavy hitters able to go toe to toe with Superman.

Harassing him and his allies, using psychological warfare and terror tactics, sure, but outright defeating him or putting him in difficulty will be hard to present in a logical way.

Plus, Talia is Leviathan for all intent and purpose, so if she's caught, it's all over.

I can't wait to see Bendis tackling all of this.

Bendis has actually been quite clever with this. They have a mix of groups with different abilities to counteract Superman. Contrary to common opinion, Superman has a variety of easily exploitable weaknesses that they could take advantage of.

1) Superman is limited in where he can be. If distracted, he can be prevented from arriving at a situation in time to do any good. Bendis highlights that his primary method of identifying where a problem IS involves superhearing. However, Leviathan has people like the Silencer who can completely negate sound, and others who can turn invisible. They can move completely undetected. In addition, their cyborg branch is apparently capable of creating people who are completely indistinguishable from ordinary humans, yet strong enough to provide a suitable challenge. (I suppose he could identify them using X-ray vision, but they might still get the drop on him the first time.)

2) Superman, while not precisely "weakened" by magic as he is by kryptonite, bears no particular immunity to it. Furthermore, his primary response to most weapons is just to shrug it off using invulnerability (think of all those scenes where he just stands there and takes the bullets). Really, if I wanted to kill him, I would pretend to be someone relatively innocuous and fake a minor domestic quarrel involving a sword. Then, when Superman gets in close to try to calm everyone down (expecting he can just shrug off the sword), I promptly stab him through the heart with Durendal. Magical swords enchanted to cut through anything don't care if your an alien with invulnerable skin.

[Ha, I lie. Actually I would let someone else stab him through the heart. If I were a crazy enough villain to insist on being there when he dies, I would come in as a fake first responder afterwords and put Aqua Regia mixed with kryptonite dust in his wound as I did the obligatory villain monologue. I would, however, lie through my teeth during the villain monologue to throw him off when he inevitably recovers.]

Leviathan has a variety of powerful magic users. Imagine if they were able to place whatever charm was on Durendal on ordinary bullets. Superman would have to completely change his ordinary fighting style and worry that any random criminal might be a plant with the power to kill him.

Superman-in-DC-Universe-vs-The-Masters-of-the-Universe.jpg

3) Finally, Superman is more vulnerable to situations where you can't directly fight an opponent. He's primarily a brawler, which means, unlike Batman, he's weak on dealing with more carefully thought out, nonphysical threats. Leviathan appears to have corrupted the Metropolis mayor, but Superman can't just punch someone like that out, even if he knows the mayor is corrupt. He would have to use some other skill to prove the Mayor is a criminal. Given Leviathan's secret nature, it is no surprise that they would be able to create subtle criminal schemes that can't be directly brought down using force. (Hence Bendis' emphasis on Clark's journalism, which I suspect will ultimately save the day at least once.)


Edit: I also think, after the current war in Leviathan, Talia being captured won't cause them to fall apart instantly. Most of the more rebellious have been destroyed and the others won't want to go back into a full on war again. I would personally worry more about Superman securing the safety of Silencer's family if I were in charge of Leviathan's battle strategy. I suspect her actions will be key to the plan (or Talia wouldn't want her so badly).

[Superlad93]

Ever since Jon was introduced, the possibility of the father/son space road trip (and, ironically, the "Jon lost in space" story) has been one of of my most anticipated story premises, so seeing it unambiguously solicited (and teased in an interview) is pretty cathartic for me.

Conceptually the idea tends to just scream Pixar-style cute and emotionally honest, but taking that simple and incredibly obvious idea and using it as just-what-the-doctor-ordered for Clark and his son to have the time and room to navigate hash out a new relationship is pretty great. Moreover, it'll likely have a fascinating give and take of experience in space between the two that, and galactic lore building. I also love that this is a family crisis played out on a galactic scale.

______

I guess this seems to answer the question of "how does Clark justify leaving Earth now but not before?" The sheer scale of whatever Jor-El is doing is too big to ignore. Bendis has also confirmed that he would be diving into Jor-El's heavily implied links to Dr Manhattan, and if I remember right he said he'd dive into what happened to Jor-El after Oz Effect. That'll likely be motive for all of what he's been doing.

[Yoda]

It was the second Word Balloon interview where he said he was being very careful not to spoil what Geoff Johns was doing in Doomsday Clock but that once they revealed everything there certain things in his book would "click" for readers. He refused to say what characters, events, etc. he meant but when Suintres mentioned Jor El, Bendis immediately changed the subject.

[DragonPiece]

It was the second Word Balloon interview where he said he was being very careful not to spoil what Geoff Johns was doing in Doomsday Clock but that once they revealed everything there certain things in his book would "click" for readers. He refused to say what characters, events, etc. he meant but when Suintres mentioned Jor El, Bendis immediately changed the subject.

hmm that's definitely interesting, how do you figure this will happen?

[Yoda]

hmm that's definitely interesting, how do you figure this will happen?

I think Bendis' run is taking place after Doomsday Clock's conclusion. So Jor El will be freed from Manhattan and there will be some sort of reconciliation/reunion between him and Clark that will take place before Man of Steel.

Alternatively, the conclusion of Doomsday Clock will have some sort of time shenanigans that cuts the whole Mr. Oz episode out of the timeline. Meaning when the missing 10 years or whatever is restored to the DCU timeline Mr. Oz's manipulations and the events of the Oz Effect storyline will be cut from the timeline. Making Jor El the quirky grandpa Bendis has written him as instead of a reformed terrorist leader.

[Vordan]

We’re thinking that Talia is actively targeting Supes but I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. More likely she’s targeting all these other secret societies and Lois and Clark catch wind of it and start investigating.