Action Comics #1004 (spoilers)

[Clark_Kent]

You don't need me, you want me...

C'mon guys, are we serious here???

Is this a Lois from another world? Because she certainly doesn't think or talk like the marvelous character we enjoyed reading for decades (except the New 52 version, of course)

And... baby??? What... has Jon aged and Lois got back to her teenage years or what?

I'm 35 & my wife is 36...we call each other "baby" a few dozen times a day, in speech and through text. What's wrong with that?

[Korath]

Jesus, some Clois fans really are the worst...

What the hell do you want Bendis to do with the couple ? Nothing, like nothing of worth happened to them once they left Hamilton to return to their same old "happy couple" of Metropolis.

Lois says in this issue, this very issue, that they are NOT breaking up, that she loves Clark, and you're all losing your **** about what is, in the end of things, minor changes which can make an incredibly boring and stale pairing somewhat interesting ?

Damn, seriously, what do you want for the Superman family which could make it grow instead of retreating to a formol-like writing ?

[Sacred Knight]

I'm potentially a fan of the status quo its heading to but again, you gotta craft good in-story reasons to get there. This issue at least did not provide that. I mean, at the very least if the reason for the redefinition of the dynamic is her job and his job basically, give examples as to why this is coming up now. Because none of this is new since they've been married. So have Lois list off a few examples (hell I'd even take retconned examples), of how trying to live the normal suburban life was just a major struggle in the past and how embracing their strangeness can benefit them. Just things to back up what she's saying. I imagine something like that could have replaced at least one of the afterglow scenes. But basically all we got is, I wanna write, and you gotta be Superman. That's broad as hell and has been their lives from day one. So what, a decade+ into their lives together, warrants the re-examination now? That's why I thought so strongly that Jon would be the catalyst because that's the major change now that he's coming of age and is "in on it" now. And maybe it still is. Again this issue just didn't do a great job building that up if so.

[Supermutant2099]

It's been said many a time in here from people that there are modern families, families who are perfectly happy and committed, who are doing exactly what Lois and Clark are doing. It's not a divorce unless you happen to think in a traditional sense, which is not what Bendis is aiming for. They are not traditionalists any longer.

The marriage is fine. They are fine.

The marriage is not fine. Why does everyone deny what is right there?

[Miles To Go]

(and apparently let Lex buy her a newspaper)

Wasn't she reading the headline on an app?

The marriage is not fine. Why does everyone deny what is right there?

What's right there are two people who still love each other and who are making a promise to work things out together in spite of a paradigm shift.

[andersonh1]

Bendis just lost me as a reader. I've never read anything he wrote at Marvel, so I had no preconceptions going into Man of Steel. While there are things about his writing that I like, mainly Perry White and the Daily Planet newsroom, the pace of the storytelling is glacial, and I strongly dislike what he's done with Clark, Lois and Jon. I really, really enjoyed the Superman books during Rebirth, and to see so much of that happy family dynamic undone is not something I'm willing pay for. Action and Superman are off my pull list for the foreseeable future.

[Clark_Kent]

Never did I imply that she was. The feelings that my significant other felt weren't confined to her age. That was only a component of it. I won't go into more detail or discuss it, specially, any further because that's obviously super gross and inappropriate af (slightly regretting even bringing it up even with as little detail as I did.) But anyways, my point was that I related to this because it hit a very broad and recognizable spectrum of emotions that I was able to extrapolate my specific situation from even though it didn't all line up.

Comics tend to do that quite a bit. Simply because a character's is above or below the reader's age does not mean they can't find an emotional throughline to see a reflection of themselves in. If I'm 15 and I relate to Superman feeling like he's being pulling in 5 different direction and he doesn't have time to breath, and I see my life in there, I'm not somehow implying Superman is a 15 year old. I have no understanding of your personal life what so ever, so however this issues hits is how this issue hits you. How it does or doesn't resonate with you is perfectly fine, and thus the same is true for myself, or the 30 something who found themselves in the work, or the 15 year old, or the 60 year old.

Hopefully this doesn't come off as me snapping, I'm just in a slightly compromised position with the subject matter of the first half of this conversation, and I want to be as clear and direct as possible so there will be no need to expound on the aforementioned first half.

I agree with this, and I'll add this issue connected with me in a way I never imagined I'd see in a comic book (personal life anecdote incoming lol). When I proposed to my wife, I had told her that I needed her in my life. We were both professionals with careers, and busy people. And she said something that has stuck with me ever since...she actually turned me down at first and said "with everything you have going on, if you "need" me in your life then you're not going to be happy because you aren't already a complete person. Please don't put that pressure on me." And I had to look inward and figure out if I really "needed" her to be complete, and if I was proposing out of a sense of need. Eventually I figured out that I was actually a well rounded and complete guy without a ring on my hand, but dammit I WANTED her there and involved and to be my wife.

We're going on 6 years now. So yeah, this issue hit home for me. Clark doesn't "need" anything, he's Superman! But he definitely wants. And Lois wants too. But she also needs this time right now, and Lois & Clark have a healthy enough relationship to make a new status quo work for a while. I thought Bendis turned in another wonderful issue. It's all subjective, but I quite enjoyed this.

[Sacred Knight]

Wasn't she reading the headline on an app?

OH. Just read it again, I misinterpreted the line. I thought she was mouthing an offer from Lex. She's just in awe that "her paper" printed that gossip story. I got it.

[Miles To Go]

Jesus, some Clois fans really are the worst...

What the hell do you want Bendis to do with the couple ? Nothing, like nothing of worth happened to them once they left Hamilton to return to their same old "happy couple" of Metropolis.

Lois says in this issue, this very issue, that they are NOT breaking up, that she loves Clark, and you're all losing your **** about what is, in the end of things, minor changes which can make an incredibly boring and stale pairing somewhat interesting ??

Lois and Clark weren't stale during the Rebirth phase, as Jon added a fresh wrinkle. I can understand people being short with Bendis over ending that abruptly even if I'm fine with what they're doing now.

[Korath]

Lois and Clark weren't stale during the Rebirth phase, as Jon added a fresh wrinkle. I can understand people being short with Bendis over ending that abruptly even if I'm fine with what they're doing now.

When was the last issue Lois had any role in Rebirth, before Bendis ? Around Black Dawn, I would wager. I can't remember anything else, and even then she was fridged more than anything. Bendis is improving on it, at least he's making her have an independent plot.

[Miles To Go]

When was the last issue Lois had any role in Rebirth, before Bendis ? Around Black Dawn, I would wager. I can't remember anything else, and even then she was fridged more than anything. Bendis is improving on it, at least he's making her have an independent plot.

She trained with the Furies and fought side by side with her husband and son on Apokolips in Imperious Lex, and she embarked on that rescue mission of her father in Booster Shot.

She got around.

[Supermutant2099]

Lois and Clark weren't stale during the Rebirth phase, as Jon added a fresh wrinkle. I can understand people being short with Bendis over ending that abruptly even if I'm fine with what they're doing now.

They weren't even stale before New 52.

When was the last issue Lois had any role in Rebirth, before Bendis ? Around Black Dawn, I would wager. I can't remember anything else, and even then she was fridged more than anything. Bendis is improving on it, at least he's making her have an independent plot.

Sounds like someone whose ship got retconned out of existence and is upset

[Korath]

Sounds like someone whose ship got retconned out of existence and is upset

Eh. Sue me for actually like a character, and not a uni-dimensional "independant woman, but not really because she has to come and be saved by Superman all the time, and must ask him permission to do anything".

Because that's what you guys seems to want Lois to be. And what she has been for me since forever.

[Miles To Go]

Sounds like someone whose ship got retconned out of existence and is upset

Steady on there, Korath's a decent bloke, who he likes as a paring need'nt be an issue here. He's very much interested in where Clois is now and that can only be a positive.

[Miles To Go]

that's what you guys seems to want Lois to be.

And that's someone she's rarely ever been in modern continuity

Come on man, I just went to bat for you, the least you can do is show I was justified, this isn't the thread to throw Lois under the bus