Official : Bendis gets both books

[Miles To Go]

If they were booted, that's twice it's happened to Jurgens. But I fear you might be right. We know Tomasi didn't want to go.
Can't see it being them. Lana was depowered when Superwoman got cancelled, so it'd be a real kick in the teeth if she was slain in her next appearance.

Bendis loves writing for black characters. I would imagine Steel having a huge role to play in the books

[SJNeal]

The last time we've had such a long break in publication of the main books was way back in 1993 when we had a three month break between the end of Funeral For A Friend ( Superman vol 2.#77) and Adventures 500. 25 years ago.


Wow. I'm old.

I'd forgotten all about that!

My 11 year old self was still doing most of my buying from spinner racks, and I remember the anxiety that came with running all over town, thinking I'd missed an issue.

[manofsteel1979]

Will this be the Bendis who wrote the first volume of Ultimate Spider-Man? If that Bendis even still exists, I am cautiously optimistic. If, however, this is the Bendis of Avengers Disassembled, AVX, and Iron Man, I'm done. Yet again, DC proves it will give fans what they want but only just so much. "Here's the classic uniform, but we're replacing the creators who have done phenomenal work with the character over the last two years (one of whom has done legendary work on the character in 30 years of working for us) with a guy who seems to have creatively peaked sometime in the first decade of this century."

Kinda where I'm at, although a bit more optimistic.

This does feel a bit like the whole John Byrne thing again. The parallels are hard to ignore. Hot shot Marvel creator crossing companies to oversee the relaunch of Supes, first in a 6 issue miniseries called Man of Steel, then a relaunch of Superman and Action Comics. The differences here are that this doesn't appear to be a drastic reboot to the continuity this time, and unlike Byrne, who was still on a winning streak when he crossed over, Bendis has been a mixed bag of late. This is more like if Spider-Man Chapter One era Byrne had come over rather than Fantastic Four Byrne.

That being said, this could be the kick in the ass Bendis needs to get his groove back.

We shail see.

[Atomic Man]

An interesting thing Bendis mentions when discussing his AC1K story and Man of Steel is a "new status quo." He also says later in the article that he will be following the previous runs on AC and Superman and that this isn't a reboot of the character. The only thing I can see is that whatever's going to happen in AC1K will involve undoing more of Manhattan's tampering. For all we know, that's how the iconic suit comes back (despite those hideous and unnecessary bracelets) and perhaps this also means the Kents return or live longer so as to meet their grandson, participate in the Death and Return of Superman, and witness Lois and Clark's wedding.

[Ascended]

Welp, it at least looks like enough for me to give it a try. The Action Aftermath issues left a whole lot open to interpretation so there could, conceivably, be improvements made to the Secret Origin template so its not actually as awful as Secret Origin actually was. Or I guess it could always be made worse, lol. But we'll see. This was the type of thing I remember talking to Ascended about. The template for the origin is solid enough. The overall mini was crap, but if it can be supplemented within the foundation, which the new continuity allows, there could be a winner there. Conceivably.

Yeah, pretty much.

SO is so terrible there should be warnings on the cover. But when you get past all the crap, what you have left is a check list with all the major moments in Clark's young life, including a few pre-Crisis gems that never should have been done away with in the first place. So to that end, it works because it leaves so much open space for other writers to build on. Like the best fertilizer, SO is made out of complete s**t but beautiful things can grow from it.

But is this really the right time? Doomsday Clock might end up changing things (at least the death of the Kents, grrrr) when it finishes. Conner Kent is still purposefully left out of the origin Death-Return sequence, despite future-Tim remembering him. We JUST finished that terrible Oz BS with Jor-El. And of course, we have that Superman Year One on the way from Millar or whoever.

The current origin could stand to be fleshed out some, absolutely. But is it going to be a story that is rendered moot by Johns and his Manhattan story before the ink is even dry? And why run this when Year One is on the way? We really do not need two origins in the same year. Not to mention all the focus that's been on the origin lately, between Reborn and Oz.

F**k, I wish DC would get over their origin obsession and just tell quality stories. We dont need a new villain suddenly and mysteriously tied to Krypton. We don't need to find out that there's some horrible dark secret in Clark's past that'll suddenly come back to bite him out of the blue. We just need good stories.

EDIT: And we can't actually rule out the idea of this being a reboot of some kind either. Remember how DC said the New52 wasn't a reboot? Then they said Rebirth wasn't a reboot? In both cases they lied. Sure, Rebirth isn't a reboot in the same way we're used to, but Superman's history was completely changed. So was Wonder Woman's. Whether they needed new origins or not is a matter of personal taste, but the fact remains that DC swore to us up and down that they weren't rebooting, and then did.

I wouldnt put it past them to go for the hat trick. And if Bendis isn't completely re-telling the origin, what the hell is he going to fill six issues with?

[manofsteel1979]

Wait, Gleason already is on Super Sons?

I thought he was co plotting with Tomasi. I'm behind on my reading that book so maybe I'm wrong.

[jyamen]

When hes firing on all cylinders, and not relying on lazy long winded pages of "snappy dialogue", he can produce some great work. But his strength is street level books, so I'm definitely hesitant here

[millernumber1]

The thing with working on a character for so long though...you start to run out of things to say. That's where Jurgens is at right now, tbh. Action isn't terrible but its not giving us much he hasn't told before to those who are familiar with his work. Obviously saying brand new things with a character that's over 80 is hard in of itself, but its compounded when its the same guy retelling the same beats.

Tomasi and Gleason on the other hand, they haven't done anything great since last summer. The run has coasted off of good art and constant Bat presence since then. Their bread and butter is clearly the kids, mostly Damian and then Jon. So let Gleason join Super Sons, the place where those characters can feature prominently and more appropriately. Rotate the artists or something (as Jimenez doesn't deserve to lose a spot).

I completely agree with this plan. I would love to see Gleason's influence on Super Sons, and his art as well! And that would stop the fill-ins from being as distracting, as I think Gleason and Jiminez really compliment each other.

[Sacred Knight]

I thought he was co plotting with Tomasi. I'm behind on my reading that book so maybe I'm wrong.

I'd trust you on that, I don't read the book so I'm not in the know.

Yeah, pretty much.

SO is so terrible there should be warnings on the cover. But when you get past all the crap, what you have left is a check list with all the major moments in Clark's young life, including a few pre-Crisis gems that never should have been done away with in the first place. So to that end, it works because it leaves so much open space for other writers to build on. Like the best fertilizer, SO is made out of complete s**t but beautiful things can grow from it.

But is this really the right time? Doomsday Clock might end up changing things (at least the death of the Kents, grrrr) when it finishes. Conner Kent is still purposefully left out of the origin Death-Return sequence, despite future-Tim remembering him. We JUST finished that terrible Oz BS with Jor-El. And of course, we have that Superman Year One on the way from Millar or whoever.

The current origin could stand to be fleshed out some, absolutely. But is it going to be a story that is rendered moot by Johns and his Manhattan story before the ink is even dry? And why run this when Year One is on the way? We really do not need two origins in the same year. Not to mention all the focus that's been on the origin lately, between Reborn and Oz.

F**k, I wish DC would get over their origin obsession and just tell quality stories. We dont need a new villain suddenly and mysteriously tied to Krypton. We don't need to find out that there's some horrible dark secret in Clark's past that'll suddenly come back to bite him out of the blue. We just need good stories.

Possible that this MOS mini IS the post-Doomsday Clock origin. And we just won't know it right away because of that story's ridiculous delays.
And yeah, I'm not really feeling the new Krypton villain. Reminds me a lot of Snyder's Wraith.

[GDC3]

Lame, if Bendis doesn't work then he'll gut the entire franchise. Giving this much power to one person is never a good thing.

Not saying he's on this level, but it worked well for Claremont on the X-men universe for many years. It can be a great thing to have a singular voice. We'll see how this goes.

[GDC3]

DC Nation #0 coming out May 2. by Bendis & José Luis García-López l

Holy Moly, art by José Luis García-López !!!!

This alone has me absolutely giddy.

[manofsteel1979]

Yeah, pretty much.

SO is so terrible there should be warnings on the cover. But when you get past all the crap, what you have left is a check list with all the major moments in Clark's young life, including a few pre-Crisis gems that never should have been done away with in the first place. So to that end, it works because it leaves so much open space for other writers to build on. Like the best fertilizer, SO is made out of complete s**t but beautiful things can grow from it.

But is this really the right time? Doomsday Clock might end up changing things (at least the death of the Kents, grrrr) when it finishes. Conner Kent is still purposefully left out of the origin Death-Return sequence, despite future-Tim remembering him. We JUST finished that terrible Oz BS with Jor-El. And of course, we have that Superman Year One on the way from Millar or whoever.

The current origin could stand to be fleshed out some, absolutely. But is it going to be a story that is rendered moot by Johns and his Manhattan story before the ink is even dry? And why run this when Year One is on the way? We really do not need two origins in the same year. Not to mention all the focus that's been on the origin lately, between Reborn and Oz.

F**k, I wish DC would get over their origin obsession and just tell quality stories. We dont need a new villain suddenly and mysteriously tied to Krypton. We don't need to find out that there's some horrible dark secret in Clark's past that'll suddenly come back to bite him out of the blue. We just need good stories.

EDIT: And we can't actually rule out the idea of this being a reboot of some kind either. Remember how DC said the New52 wasn't a reboot? Then they said Rebirth wasn't a reboot? In both cases they lied. Sure, Rebirth isn't a reboot in the same way we're used to, but Superman's history was completely changed. So was Wonder Woman's. Whether they needed new origins or not is a matter of personal taste, but the fact remains that DC swore to us up and down that they weren't rebooting, and then did.

I wouldnt put it past them to go for the hat trick. And if Bendis isn't completely re-telling the origin, what the hell is he going to fill six issues with?

I'm hoping that if indeed MOS 2.0 is a partial origin retelling, that it only crystalizes the beats of the Post Reborn issues of ACTION and doesn't retell it over again drastically. I'm kinda just hoping it's just a nice primer for new readers filling in the essentials without erasing or retconning anything. If Bendis can do that, then I'm on board.

[manofsteel1979]

This alone has me absolutely giddy.

Yep. This might be a physical buy just for the Garcia art alone.

[Ascended]

I'm hoping that if indeed MOS 2.0 is a partial origin retelling, that it only crystalizes the beats of the Post Reborn issues of ACTION and doesn't retell it over again drastically. I'm kinda just hoping it's just a nice primer for new readers filling in the essentials without erasing or retconning anything. If Bendis can do that, then I'm on board.

I really, really hope you're right.

If that's what it is, great. We could use a little more clarity in the post-Reborn origin. But I have my doubts. DC has developed a habit of taking Superman and building him up until he's actually functioning, and then they tear it apart for a while with utter garbage. Then they repeat the process.

Its been a couple years of relative quality and world building. Granted, they've butchered stuff along the way and Reborn itself wasn't that long ago.....but I worry that DC feels its time to ruin Superman again.

[The Whovian]

Wow. How freaking stupid. I was loving Superman, with Tomasi's writing. Why give him basically control of everything Superman? Why not just Action? I'm ticked.