MAN OF STEEL (2018) Event mini-series Discussion thread (SPOILERS)

[Stardust]

My take on the scene in this issue is this:
An estranged grandfather crashed with his shiny new sports car into the living room of his sons family
The last time they saw him he through no fault of his own had fallen in with a very bad crowd who set him on drugs. Before anyone could sort this situation out he got janked away by said crowd. Nobody knows how and if he managed to get away from them.
He proceeds to insult everyone says that Jon has problems and the best way to solve those problems is driving around the world in his new sports car. Everyone agrees in the end that this is a sound idea, because the 10 year old boy who is clearly an adult wants to go

[Jackalope89]

I've never read a Bendis series/issue before this one, so I came at this one rather neutral to begin with. I wouldn't classify myself as a hardcore anything fan, beyond maybe Lobo (just for the ridiculousness of his stories), but I do like Lois Lane.

That said, the story just felt kind of off. Like, Jor-El never mentioned Kara, despite her even playing a pivotal role in the very same story. Like Supes not asking why Jor-El suddenly existed again. Or how about no mention of the Teen Titans breaking up almost right after the Future Tim arc with it? Hard to join a team that doesn't exist. Or, Lois and Jon being shipped off the story for who knows how long.

Probably a thousand more. Interesting villain and art aside, it just felt off. Not as bad as Batman 50, but that's a whole other subject.

[manofsteel1979]

I've never read a Bendis series/issue before this one, so I came at this one rather neutral to begin with. I wouldn't classify myself as a hardcore anything fan, beyond maybe Lobo (just for the ridiculousness of his stories), but I do like Lois Lane.

That said, the story just felt kind of off. Like, Jor-El never mentioned Kara, despite her even playing a pivotal role in the very same story. Like Supes not asking why Jor-El suddenly existed again. Or how about no mention of the Teen Titans breaking up almost right after the Future Tim arc with it? Hard to join a team that doesn't exist. Or, Lois and Jon being shipped off the story for who knows how long.

Probably a thousand more. Interesting villain and art aside, it just felt off. Not as bad as Batman 50, but that's a whole other subject.

Well Jor-El being alive is something carried over from the previous teams. It's a long convoluted story.

[Jackalope89]

Well Jor-El being alive is something carried over from the previous teams. It's a long convoluted story.

Last time we saw him, he had just realized he had been mind controlled after blasting Clark with Krytponite beams, then vanished into magic space dust. Then Supes decided to pull a Barry and god back in time.

[SplinteringHeart]

Bloody hell! Look, there are/will be comic book reasons, and most likely a story to be told which necessitates Lois and Jon to be separated from Clark/Superman just now.

It doesn't require a real life pov from a real life mother/parent, as much as you're entitled to your views/comments MissLane and Nelliebly..

Under New 52 Action Comics and Superman ran with different perspectives of Superman stories, Bendis is writing both now and surely will adopt a similar stance, he can't/won't write both books with the same storyline/perspective...maybe adventures of Lois and Jon will be given room in one of the books..like Superman, say...let's see eh?

I agree with Man of Steel and Sacred Knights perspective/ view on where Bendis has gone with Lois and Jon.

[SplinteringHeart]

Just read latest on page 182 of thread "Bendis gets both books: Bendis says Jor El being available as a character is "a gift" from Jurgens/New 52..the lynchpin to where Bendis is going for the next year, and that it centres around Superman's family..story to be played out in both Action and Superman..

I think we'll be seeing Lois and Jon stories/characterisation/perspectives...all is not lost from their departure shown in MoS #6..

[Sacred Knight]

Yeah, sounds like there will definitely be cutaways to Lois/Jon stuff in the books, so they shouldn't be missing insofar as the readership goes.

[manofsteel1979]

I fundamentally disagree. On every level. Yes, Lois trusts her son. Yes, Lois feels empathy for what he's going through. Yes, she wants to help him. But, no, a BIG FAT NO, to the idea that any of that means taking a leap of faith on Jor-El. Imagine if your child was struggling with body image issues or gender identity issues. Imagine if your child thought what was best for him or her was an untested medical treatment or spending a summer at a camp run by a person or organization you barely know who has a record of saying nasty things about your child, your husband, and yourself. Would you take a leap of faith just to help and support your child? I don't think so. I think you'd find a way to bridge your child's needs with what is the best approach to meeting those needs. Oh, and I wouldn't make these types of decisions in a matter of hours.

Let's just agree to disagree on this. You've made up your mind about certain things and in some ways perhaps so have I. I hope you eventually find something in the future that's Superman related you can enjoy.

[KC]

I think this was a great wrap-up to Bendis' story. I can't wait for Bendis' two Superman books and the continuation of the Supergirl book.

[Arsenal]

I fundamentally disagree. On every level. Yes, Lois trusts her son. Yes, Lois feels empathy for what he's going through. Yes, she wants to help him. But, no, a BIG FAT NO, to the idea that any of that means taking a leap of faith on Jor-El. Imagine if your child was struggling with body image issues or gender identity issues. Imagine if your child thought what was best for him or her was an untested medical treatment or spending a summer at a camp run by a person or organization you barely know who has a record of saying nasty things about your child, your husband, and yourself. Would you take a leap of faith just to help and support your child? I don't think so. I think you'd find a way to bridge your child's needs with what is the best approach to meeting those needs. Oh, and I wouldn't make these types of decisions in a matter of hours.

I feel like that's a false equivalency since in that situation you would ultimately have final say if gets the treatment or goes to the camp. In this scenario, that's not the case. The child's desire to go is the biggest factor here because he already has somebody willing to provide everything he needs regardless if you approve or not.

So sure, Lois and Clark could shut Jor-El down now but if he knows that Jon wants to go and the only thing standing in his way are Clark/Lois, what's stopping him from approaching Jon when he's alone and making the exact same offer when nobody's around to intervene? They might not trust Jor-El, but would you rather that you went along for the ride to keep an eye on things or be stuck at home wondering where your kid's at and when/if he'll ever come home?

[Nick Miller]

Overall the series was a success, nice moments, exciting action, good voice to the characters.

I’m not happy Lois and Jon are gone for now. But that’s the writers choice. I have to read what’s presented.

One major flaw in the story, don’t know if it’s been brought up, is Jor el, or Lois, don’t tell Superman who long they are going to be on this trip.

How do you let your wife and son leave without knowing where they are going or if it’s 3 days, a week, a month, or what?

And the communicator broke too, how convenient. Cyborg or Mr terrific can probably fix it in an hour, lol

[Superlad93]

One major flaw in the story, don’t know if it’s been brought up, is Jor el, or Lois, don’t tell Superman who long they are going to be on this trip.

Jor-El never sets a time, but both Lois and Jon heavily imply (Jon) and flat out say that it's just for Jon's summer vacation.

Seems like a good opportunity for a title for Lois book, no? "I Spent The Summer With Superboy." A bit of a nod to the older movies.

[rosawater]

I’m just not feeling it.

The first issue of the miniseries had me feeling pretty meh about everything and unfortunately my feelings have yet to change. Zaar’s “defeat” seemed abrupt and anticlimactic. I’m certain that this isn’t the last we heard of him. Especially when the whole earth will end up in the phantom zone. But the problem is, I just don’t care. Zaar is ultra generic and boring and frankly I’ve seen monsters of the week with better characterizations. Additionally, in all honesty, I don’t care about what really happened to Krypton.
And then there is the mysterious fires plot thread. That’s also boring to me. And the twist just doesn’t interest me.
Lastly there is the Lois/Jon subplot. For the last few issues that subplot felt drawn out and grating but it turned out to be the most interesting thing for me in this issue. Lois deciding to leave with Jon is fine and is what I and a lot of other people guessed would happen months ago. However, Bendis did a pretty poor job explaining why Lois and Jon needed to go in the first place. The whole reasoning behind shipping Lois and Jon off planet seemed both flimsy and contrived. It would’ve been much more justifiable if Jor-El was alerted by Zaar’s arrival at the fortress and appeared after the Zaar destroyed Kandor. I could see Jor-el then convincing Supes and Lois that they would only be safe off planet. It would also make the destruction of the communicator much more serious. Or maybe that idea is bad too. I don’t know. All I do know is that the reasoning just didn’t work for me. And I have to agree with the others who said Lois characterization seemed off. Which is disappointing because in the first few issues I enjoyed what little I saw of Bendis’ Lois and Jon.

All in all, I lost all excitement for Bendis’ run. If Superman wasn’t my absolute favorite superhero I wouldn’t even bother picking up Action and Superman. I’m holding out hope that the monthly schedule is better for Bendis and now he’ll have more time to make his story interesting. Or maybe someone whose writing I enjoy will get to write a third Superman title. That would be nice.

[Superlad93]

It would’ve been much more justifiable if Jor-El was alerted by Zaar’s arrival at the fortress and appeared after the Zaar destroyed Kandor. I could see Jor-el then convincing Supes and Lois that they would only be safe off planet. It would also make the destruction of the communicator much more serious. Or maybe that idea is bad too.

I think we all assumed this would be the reasoning early on, and I remember myself and Sacred Knight having a conversation on how feasible it would be to keep that going even after Zaar's apparent downfall, temporary or not. It becomes harder to justify Lois and Jon being gone if the danger is no longer present, imo. You'd have to keep adding on stuff to their end. Or Zaar sticks around as the main threat for a year keeping them away, and we end up resenting Zaar waiting for the story to be over. I remember telling SK that what I wanted above all was Lois having a personal reason to stay, and a thing to do that we know her for.

For me at least, this really hits the sweet spot of that, AND it gives us a relatively lengthy time period to think about, summer vacation. Obviously things likely won't go as planed, but at least the timeline was set before hand.

I guess that's my round about way of saying.....you really don't wanna see Lois do her best Star Trek/Doctor Who impersonation with her son and jerky father-in-law....

[Stardust]

I feel like that's a false equivalency since in that situation you would ultimately have final say if gets the treatment or goes to the camp. In this scenario, that's not the case. The child's desire to go is the biggest factor here because he already has somebody willing to provide everything he needs regardless if you approve or not.

So sure, Lois and Clark could shut Jor-El down now but if he knows that Jon wants to go and the only thing standing in his way are Clark/Lois, what's stopping him from approaching Jon when he's alone and making the exact same offer when nobody's around to intervene? They might not trust Jor-El, but would you rather that you went along for the ride to keep an eye on things or be stuck at home wondering where your kid's at and when/if he'll ever come home?

Can we start a new modus operandi for superheroics?
If a villain wants something give it to him because he might take it by force.

For all Lois and Clark know Jor -El is still under control of the one, who made him a mass -murderer when he last showed up.
Sendung Jon with him to make sure that he doesn't become a mass-murderer himself sounds like the worst thought out idea I read so far in a Superman comic.

But I guess seeing it this way makes me a hater and illogical, or nitpicking
And I should trust Jon's judge of character. When Jon also wanted to go with Jor-El while he was still in his "influence a lot of people to kill other people" mode

It's great for you all that you like the story. But let other people say why they don't.