Superman issue #18 preview/discussion (spoiler) thread

[Superlad93]

Kents find him at birth. As long as kents are alive, i don't particularly consider clark an orphan. It is same logic i use for myself . Postcrisis guy is definitely not one. Being an orphan myself at one point in my life and now again after my aunt's departure last year .it is something i could connect with in New52 superman. I just don't get that vibe from this guy. Ofcourse, kents death are still in continuity. But, we don't know if action comics is still canon in anyway.

I think you're zeroing in a bit too hard that word as you see it. You're forgetting that, unlike most people, Clark finds out he was left orphaned later in life. That's also the knowledge he takes going into becoming Superman and wearing the crest of a dead house on his chest. And most importantly that's when he learns that there's no one else like him anymore. And for a while that knowledge defines a large part of him. It's only really after he starts to make a life for himself and become less guarded that he feels adopted on a planetary scale. The term and the feeling associated with are things that each individual has to work out on their own. Doesn't matter what incarnation, Clark, well after being adopted and even being Superman, has a journey to feeling like he's part of this world rather than being a visitor. Him having the courage to reach out to Lois and share everything he is with her is him moving past being a visitor.

I think that's what Strange, and, ultimately, Bendis is getting, and I think that's why always works well for Superman down to the conceptual level.

[Robanker]

I liked it. I’m impressed Bendis had enough restraint to let Reis do the heavy lifting with the reveal to Perry, that was a great moment. Now we’ll see where he goes with it. Also lmao at the ending is Lex going to go into denial mode again or will he accept it?

You know, I get the feeling he wrote dialogue, got the page and then tossed it when he realized he'd only get in the way of Reis on that page.

Bendis does strike me as a strong enough collaborator that he'd absolutely bow out to let his artist tell a story, but I can't imagine he resisted writing Perry shouting some variation of "Great Ceaser's Shades of Elvis!" Probably just thought the better of committing to it.

[Vordan]

You know, I get the feeling he wrote dialogue, got the page and then tossed it when he realized he'd only get in the way of Reis on that page.

Bendis does strike me as a strong enough collaborator that he'd absolutely bow out to let his artist tell a story, but I can't imagine he resisted writing Perry shouting some variation of "Great Ceaser's Shades of Elvis!" Probably just thought the better of committing to it.

There WAS apparently a line at the end that Bendis cut when his friends and co-workers told him it worked better if he just left conveying how Lex felt to Reis’ artwork, which was the right call.

[Nick Miller]

Bendis wants it to feel triumphant.

WW was NOT happy.

[Yoda]

Ah, you mean because of Doomsday Clock, right? Very true. That'll be a really fun way to end off the semester lol

Yup. I don't expect there to be much clean up for Bendis' plots. But I think we'll get a mention of Jor El and the Kent's deaths are the Chekhov's Gun that still needs to play a role. I'm curious if we'll get that from the Manhattan/Superman confrontation or the Lex/Lois plot line.

I always thought he did a great job on that front, especially his work with Geoff Johns.

I remember a lot of memorable expressions and subtle stuff from his work particularly on Green Lantern, Blackest Night and Aquaman. He always really delivered on the emotional moments (at least in my opinion).

It's all opinion and personal preference. And t me he's more expressive than like, Jim Lee for instance, and a lot of others. But I think it's more his "acting" in the panels that hasn't always worked for me. Even in this run there are a lot of times where the characters facial expressions don't necessarily line up with the scene or the dialogue. Like I think the Lois scene in this issue was a little off to me. And some of the stuff with Jon and Lois scenes in like 7-10 also seemed off. Honestly, I think he struggles generally with women's facial expressions the most.

[adkal]

Going to have to ignore the use of the double-page spread from Action Comics 1017 (on Lois' phone). Meh

The fallout from this for all the people at The Daily Planet is going to be huge (unless a lot of things get waived).

Any Superman-related awards won by Lois will likely be revoked (breaching journalistic ethics), Perry will probably get fired (and his own standing as a journalist will get battered).

Clark will probably get blocked (as a journalist) from all sorts of things.

Things are going to get messy.

[lotchj]

WW was NOT happy.

Why would WW care ??? Since rebirth are WW and SM even friends??

[Stick Figure]

Bendis is good. There are so many directions he can go in with this. All the Planet people will have there lives thrown upside down. How does the average person on the street feel about Superman. So many areas Bendis can explore with this. Lots of possibilities. Bendis is clearly rejuvenated with his DC work.

[LordUltimus]

Why would WW care ??? Since rebirth are WW and SM even friends??

The theory is that WW will be Rucka/the doubting part of the fandom's stand-in and say that this isn't good for Clark.

[daBronzeBomma]

I was looking forward to this issue. And honestly, add an opener to what is sure to be more than a year-long storyline, it has my interest for a little while longer at least.

But two scenes absolutely infuriated me as a reader.

Jimmy and Lois.

If we're going with the Clark going public as a coming out of the closet analogy (and it's not a bad analogy tbh), then Lois betrayed Clark by outing him to Jimmy. That was NOT her secret to tell. At all. And her pathetic defense that it was "our" (hers and Clark's) secret so she could unilaterally tell Jimmy without Clark's knowledge was so toned- deaf that it hurt my eyes to read.

Bendis simply cannot write Lois well or even adequately.

If Rucka could be brought in to handle all Lois scenes in Bendis' work, we'd be spared these scenes that make me dislike Lois (and I love Lois). She should and does know better. And Jimmy is hardly her bff.

Speaking of Jimmy ... I want him dead now.

I'm talking brutally and painfully murdered on-panel.

Hey Lex, you're seething right now, right? Well Dorkus Maximus just told the world who he's close to, and they don't have superpowers. Here's Jimmy's home address, here's his work schedule, go on and capture him, torture him and introduce his skull to the business end of a crowbar.

I never liked Jimmy, and him now shitting on what was clearly an important personal moment for Clark, well, screw him.

Jimmy deserves the diminished status that Conner, John Henry, and then Jon gave him. And now he deserves death on the pages of the Superverse.

#killjimmyolsen

[Digifiend]

Clark DID tell Lois off for that faux-pas. You could see he wasn't pleased about her telling Jimmy.

[Yoda]

It's not a 1:1 analogy though, and even if it were, in the context of the relationships it's not that far out of bounds (if at all). I've known married couples where one spouse came out and they both told their respective friends individually. It is a secret that directly involves her with enormous ramifications on her life. Outside of Clark, no one else will experience ramifications as much as Lois. They are married, have been working together for decade or more, and Clark's decision to come out to the world will directly impact her career, civilian life, and safety as much as his. So no, it's not just Clark's secret to share in this context.

And in the context of the way Jimmy and Lois' relationship has been presented in Bendis's run, Lois and Jimmy are far closer friends than Clark and Jimmy and Superman and Jimmy. Jimmy is Superman and Clark's friend, but Lois and Jimmy have been shown in the books to be very very close. It's Lois that Perry calls in when Jimmy is having issues with Leviathan, after Clark ignored him for several. And she's the only one he listens to and gets him to explain. Jimmy also calls Lois when he's in trouble in his own comic and it's Lois that runs to him and helps sort it out. So they've known each other longer and are far closer friends.

The "I called" excuse is weak, because she's been shown to just be able to talk to him from almost anywhere, but the fact that she want to be the one to tell Jimmy makes sense. Bendis wanted the joke of Jimmy already knowing and Clark being surprised, and I don't think he carries out those plot points where it was logical or if it makes it a little distasteful. Clark was annoyed, but he wasn't angry or "betrayed" there. So it obviously isn't wholly out of bounds for whatever pre-reveal conversation they had had about things. Likely, something along the lines of you can tell your friends in advance of the press conference and I'll tell mine.

[Superlad93]

The way I read it was that Bendis was paying special care to treat both reveals (Perry and Jimmy) as an almost encapsulation of who both those characters are and what they are to Clark in terms of character and actual publication.

In Perry's case, he's defined by the newspaper he's built and the job and life he's given Clark, so Clark meets him as Clark at the paper, and just before going in he takes a look at his desk and the hustle and bustle of the people he's come to see as family. Then he listens for Perry's heart as both a callback to Perry's health issues and an indication of Perry in his default yelling mode. Then when he's inside his office it's shrouded in a noir black with an "off all the offices in town, he decides to walk into mind" shot composition. It's a love letter to Perry himself.

With Jimmy we start off in the inherently ridiculous situation of a crime scene for a dead penguin, and, of course, our guy Jimmy is not supposed to be there. Then Bendis leaves a throw away line about Darkseid (created in the pages of Jimmy Olsen), and has Superman solve the mystery ridiculous crime that would've been a red herring/miss direct like all classic Jimmy covers. But most importantly Clark meets Jimmy as Superman because that is where their relationship is based. And Jimmy, similar to Lois in All Star, assumes the reveal to be a hoax. A call back and comeuppance for decades of conniving disguise Superman and Jimmy have used. And Jimmy's skepticism would've been enough, though derivative of All Star, Bendis (I expect with input from Fraction) does what Jimmy does best, and subverts the expectations and takes the air out of the overly dramatic. If you've read Jimmy's current book then you totally get that, and you get why Clark is such great friends with this dude. There's a release to tension with Clark and Jimmy's friendship that isn't really experience in any other relationship he has. It ends with Jimmy getting one over on Superman, and immortalizing it with a picture. Classic. Perfect.

The only thing I could possibly think to add would be an "ok, you got me" smile from Clark in the picture Jimmy took. The two scenes work as fanatic and distinctive vignette storytelling.

[Digifiend]

Well this is embarrassing for Bendis. In at least one shop, Supergirl outsold Superman. Which also got soundly thrashed by the X-Men books.

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/12...revealed-sell/

[Superlad93]

And at my main and back up stories I couldn't get a copy because I came in just a day after (got it digital day of). I'm told I'll most assuredly have to wait for the second printing.

Bleeding cool loves a troll-y click bait headline. Should've counted their wins after comicbeat partially vindicated them on 5G.