The Bendis Tapes. First long form interview is out.

[Somecrazyaussie]

Yeah, I'm a bit more composed now than I was the day I posted that, and I am hopeful things won't be too bad...we know they are together in Doomsday Clock (which is a year later in the continuity) and Lois was there to comfort Clark after his nightmare and they were even sharing the same bed, so even if there's still problems by that point, it's clearly not enough to stop them being close like that.

Geoff's indicated that characters in that series would be "off", so I think they'll probably still be working out problems between them as Doomsday Clock progresses, the worst thing Bendis can do is write them as going through the worst of it, before inevitably building them back up ever so slightly when the time comes to catch up (and he's quite good at rebuilding)

Anyhoo, I might be cautious and gauge reactions from AC and Superman first without buying, just in case it's not what I expect or like, and collect them if I feel reassured. Bendis is very good at relationship drama so I think he'll fill a niche for someone who was bored with Rebirth (like Sacred was), I've just been so used to the "honeymoon" depiction that I have anything that diverts from it tough to take. I'm like that with a lot of couples in fiction. I'm just not interested in tension between mature well-established people who ought to logically know better. If they were only a few months or a year into a relationship, then yes I could understand it and even follow it, but I don't even think you can call it a "honeymoon" period because they've been married for a decade according to the current continuity.

I'm just wired that way as I come from a very stable and loving family. I must come off as a bore to you.

It's all good lol. We all come from different backgrounds. Doesn't make anyone boring. In fact, those differences make us more interesting. I get the trepidation, though. Mostly because we only have the Marvel stuff done by Bendis to compare him by. However, he appears to be saying the right things. Also, he is going out of his way to ensure fans that "everything happened and nothing is being discarded." He might inject some drama into the marriage between Lois and Clark, but I doubt DC would allow him split them up. They've invested too much bringing back that aspect to the Superman mythos.

[Somecrazyaussie]

Too bad House of M, Secret Invasion, Siege, Civil War II, his X-Men run, his Avengers run, his Guardians of the Galaxy run, his Iron Man run and what he did to Sentry, Scarlet Witch along with replacing Tony Stark with Riri Williams all strongly indicate that Bendis is the worst possible writer to write the original superhero. Bendis has ruined almost everything at Marvel and him moving over to DC is horrible news for many fans.

Marvel and DC are vastly different beasts. How you write for one isn't how you'd write the other. That being said, Bendis may have struck out a few times. However, he has proven he can hit home runs given the right character and setting. His Superman book is a dark horse at the moment. His Action though? That is going to be good. Especially if he writes it like he did The Pulse.

[bigstupidjellyfish]

Y'all think the Legion are gonna be involved in this new origin? Calling it Man of Steel makes me think they won't be, but Bendis might wanna make his as different as possible. If they are, I wonder if they'll be updated in anyway.

[LordUltimus]

lol, did you just try to post out of context scans and pass them as valid? Only one of them actually canon, and that just a statement?

Hahaha. That's hilarious.

Statements do not substitute facts, my friend, especially when J'onn has lost against every kryptonian he has ever met.

Most of my scans were removed somehow, including him (and other martians) beating kryptonians. For the sake of the thread, I'll drop it.

(though didn't you do the exact same thing with out of context scans?)

[Superlad93]

Especially if he writes it like he did The Pulse.

I literally just discovered this book, and I'm really, really happy I did. Love the idea.

Y'all think the Legion are gonna be involved in this new origin? Calling it Man of Steel makes me think they won't be, but Bendis might wanna make his as different as possible. If they are, I wonder if they'll be updated in anyway.

I'm gonna say there's probably an 85% chance that Bendis will use the Legion at all in his run. Maybe a 75% chance that they'll be in the origin given that Secret Origin was their first option for an origin. Plus, it should be pointed out that when asked what he'd like to work on if he ever went to DC one of his answers was "a balls out Legion book" along with a weekly Superman comic. Oh, hey look it's a Man of Steel weekly by Bendis coming soon.

There's a really big push for The Legion to come back, and that push seems to also include that they couple them again with Superman given the Rebirth Special and Saturn Girl looking for Superman. There's a good chance Bendis will want to add in some of his Legion stuff into his Superman run. With that in mind, I'd also say we might get some Terrifics crossover because Bendis really, really wants to do Plastic Man some day, and that might be really cool because of the idea behind their group interacting with Superman.

[Kuwagaton]

The idea that he adventured with the Legion and merely lost access to the memory, I think, has us at a point where we never need another origin or recap where his encounters with them deliberately never happened.

Worst case scenario, I'm honestly fine with a redo of Secret Origin with slight tweaks. All I personally even want is a tweak of who Jor El and Clark are.

[Deathscythe]

Predictions regarding the marriage and Jimmy based on this interview:

*Bendis will have Lois and Clark split up. She'll move out of Metropolis with Jon. Even if it's only temporary, it's an awful idea that just reeks of Dan DiDio. Bendis told BC that DiDio had an idea for the "new direction" in the Superman titles after Action 1K. He hates the marriage (and married superheroes in general, as seen in New 52) and now he gets to undo it yet again.

*Jimmy will be outed as gay. It's Bobby Drake all over again. This will be a desperate attempt to "make" the character of Jimmy work by "updating him" and "making him relevant," all the while ignoring decades worth of continuity.

These changes will be more divisive than the New 52 was. I'm just floored that DC is undoing the last two years of great stories and goodwill for the sake of controversial stunts designed to cause a spike in sales.

This is further evidence that Johns' influence at DC is diminished now that he's working only on Doomsday Clock and spending more time at DC Films.

[Sacred Knight]

Well, I'd wait to be floored until you actually have any evidence for your claims. You're just throwing out speculation and then being offended by them.

And I would consider Johns having less of an influence, at least in the case of Superman, extremely good news. But again, I see little evidence of this outside of pure speculation.

[DragonPiece]

Predictions regarding the marriage and Jimmy based on this interview:

*Bendis will have Lois and Clark split up. She'll move out of Metropolis with Jon. Even if it's only temporary, it's an awful idea that just reeks of Dan DiDio. Bendis told BC that DiDio had an idea for the "new direction" in the Superman titles after Action 1K. He hates the marriage (and married superheroes in general, as seen in New 52) and now he gets to undo it yet again.

*Jimmy will be outed as gay. It's Bobby Drake all over again. This will be a desperate attempt to "make" the character of Jimmy work by "updating him" and "making him relevant," all the while ignoring decades worth of continuity.

These changes will be more divisive than the New 52 was. I'm just floored that DC is undoing the last two years of great stories and goodwill for the sake of controversial stunts designed to cause a spike in sales.

This is further evidence that Johns' influence at DC is diminished now that he's working only on Doomsday Clock and spending more time at DC Films.

It's really weird you are getting so mad about your own theories. And lets say clark and lois split up based off of that interview, why would Lois leave metropolis? Shouldn't Clark leave since he can fly anywhere and the daily planet means more to lois?

[Deathscythe]

I'm not getting mad at my own theories, I'm disturbed by comments made by Bendis that suggest a "new direction" for a character and mythos that just got a "new direction" two years ago and that is finally doing well commercially and critically. "Drastic changes" were mentioned in the solicits for the Action and Superman Specials, and similar language is used in the solicit for Action Comics 1000. There's something missing in all this that we don't know yet and it has me extremely worried. Most alarming of all is Bendis indicating that DiDio is behind this "new direction" for Superman and his world. DiDio has never liked the character and has especially never liked the marriage. He wanted to undo it years before the New 52 but was kept in check by Levitz IIRC.

I really enjoyed Bendis' original USM run and I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but this interview is giving me serious concerns.

[Sacred Knight]

When has Didio ever expressed a dislike of Superman? He doesn't like the marriage, no, but that doesn't automatically equate to not liking Superman. Lots of Superman fans dislike the marriage. There's a difference between not liking one's input and ideas for a character and accusing them of not liking the character.

[Miles To Go]

I'm not getting mad at my own theories, I'm disturbed by comments made by Bendis that suggest a "new direction" for a character and mythos that just got a "new direction" two years ago and that is finally doing well commercially and critically. "Drastic changes" were mentioned in the solicits for the Action and Superman Specials, and similar language is used in the solicit for Action Comics 1000. There's something missing in all this that we don't know yet and it has me extremely worried. Most alarming of all is Bendis indicating that DiDio is behind this "new direction" for Superman and his world. DiDio has never liked the character and has especially never liked the marriage. He wanted to undo it years before the New 52 but was kept in check by Levitz IIRC.

I really enjoyed Bendis' original USM run and I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but this interview is giving me serious concerns.

But as you say, should your theory be correct, it'll be a temporary separation...I'm concerned too, but so long as DC assures there is hope and a reconciliation, coupled with Bendis being just as good at reconciling couples as he is at putting obstacles in their way, we should be in for at least one rough year and nothing more.

[Superlad93]

Anyone else find it kind of funny/cool that we're finally sort of turning Action Comics into a sort of team book similar to Tec, but it's a far more organic and obvious of an idea in this case? The team is literally just Clark, Lois, Jimmy, and the Daily Planet crew. The OG team Superman.

I also wanna call some attention to an old Bendis comic that was a continuation of Alias, The Pule. This is the wrap up words from Bendis in Alias issue #28 (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/pzWrajS08b2...g2Js6Hj_=s1600)

See how he describes Pulse? "Marvel was toying with the idea of a CSI in the Marvel universe kind of book." He goes on to say "The Pulse is a Daily Bugle focused series. It will center on a section of the paper that will cover superhuman happenings. It's the mysteries of the Marvel Universe revealed."

So, yeah, replace Marvel with DC, replace Bugle with Planet, and replace Jessica, Luke, Ben, and JJ with Clark, Lois, Jimmy, and Parry, and it seems like we've got some idea of what he might be eyeing for the book.

I'm very, very much down for the DCU equivalent of the The Pule staring Clark, Lois, and Jimmy. That sound kind of perfect.

[The Dying Detective]

Anyone else find it kind of funny/cool that we're finally sort of turning Action Comics into a sort of team book similar to Tec, but it's a far more organic and obvious of an idea in this case? The team is literally just Clark, Lois, Jimmy, and the Daily Planet crew. The OG team Superman.

I also wanna call some attention to an old Bendis comic that was a continuation of Alias, The Pule. This is the wrap up words from Bendis in Alias issue #28 (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/pzWrajS08b2...g2Js6Hj_=s1600)

See how he describes Pulse? "Marvel was toying with the idea of a CSI in the Marvel universe kind of book." He goes on to say "The Pulse is a Daily Bugle focused series. It will center on a section of the paper that will cover superhuman happenings. It's the mysteries of the Marvel Universe revealed."

So, yeah, replace Marvel with DC, replace Bugle with Planet, and replace Jessica, Luke, Ben, and JJ with Clark, Lois, Jimmy, and Parry, and it seems like we've got some idea of what he might be eyeing for the book.

I'm very, very much down for the DCU equivalent of the The Pule staring Clark, Lois, and Jimmy. That sound kind of perfect.

Organic how?

[Superlad93]

Having a "team book" made up of people who have been an established team for nearly 80 years is inherently more organic than the new team in 'Tec. Doesn't mean 'Tec's team is "bad" if that's what you're looking for with that question, but it is inherently less organic a book to make than what Action is apparently becoming. Again, not a slight on the book by any means.