DC Nation #0 (SPOILERS) - free release on Reading Apps

[Embryonic Superman]

The most weirdly reassuring bit in the story was the reference to President Luthor. That's one storyline I figured the Rebirth era would never explicitly reference again, and I actually assumed they'd blatantly establish it never happened at all.

[Jackalope89]

The most weirdly reassuring bit in the story was the reference to President Luthor. That's one storyline I figured the Rebirth era would never explicitly reference again, and I actually assumed they'd blatantly establish it never happened at all.

Until Doomsday Clock is over, and whatever Wally and Barry do over in Flash, I'm just assuming that a lot of the timestream is still in flux.

[Sacred Knight]

Unfortunately this is probably true on multiple levels. I can only pray that the Superman mythos is left largely unaffected in the wake of another Flash "the whole DCU is affected!" story, and Watchmen 2: The Neverending Story. Its in fact one of the things I'm hoping Bendis's name attached to the franchise achieves: a by-and-large immunity to the rest of the DCU's shenanigans and staying pretty self-contained by virtue of his name.

[RepHope]

Unfortunately this is probably true on multiple levels. I can only pray that the Superman mythos is left largely unaffected in the wake of another Flash "the whole DCU is affected!" story, and Watchmen 2: The Neverending Story. Its in fact one of the things I'm hoping Bendis's name attached to the franchise achieves: a by-and-large immunity to the rest of the DCU's shenanigans and staying pretty self-contained by virtue of his name.

Heh I'm not sure I've ever thought Bendis' disregard for continuity could be a good thing, but I guess I can see where it might be a strength. Although the Superman books haven't really been involved with the big events outside of Superman: Reborn and The Oz Effect.

[Superlad93]

Regarding Lois: I can 10000% appreciate and empathize with where fans are coming from when they voice their worry after reading this preview. And I myself am largely in a wait and see sort of mode, not leaning one way or the other. I'm probably as chill and open as I am about this because I keep a few things in mind. 1) we've only had a grand total of 20 some odd pages of glorified preview material to go on 2) I keep reminding myself that we've gone from 6 Superman world books down to 3 (soon to be 2), and that's all but confirmed not to stay that way 3) Lois is just straight up getting TV show centered around her, and as DC has proven with Supergirl, Justice League, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Flash (and other characters) they're bout that synergy life to some extent. All but assures plans for her imo. I just look at those factors and figure I'll let it unfold. Not at all implying that will work for everyone or frankly anyone that's not me, and I 100% respect that.

And as a personal quibble, regardless of Bendis' sex, gender, race, or religion he should be able to write whomever he wants. As Christopher Priest (writer who happens to be black) so aptly put it "don’t tell me I can’t write a Chinese lesbian superhero. That’s bullshit. I can write anything." And also "a writer writes. Tom Clancy, rest his soul, could write anything. A writer writes. All of the sudden I was no longer qualified to write anybody that didn’t look like me, and I resented that." And finally "I wrote a novel about a black female New York City arson investigator. I know nothing about being a firefighter. I know nothing about their apparatus or tactics, but you research, you get on the phone, you track people down, and you talk to actual firefighters." Link: http://comicbook.com/comics/2018/02/...-black-comics/

Bendis has worked at a newsroom, and has been open about how much research he's been doing on it in his hometown. And if his product falls short of that then it's a failing on the part of his research rather than some inherent inability rooted in his gender, sex, race, or religion because he is a writer and flying people and dragons aren't real. That said, I'll speak my ass up if he sucks as a writer on this. Please believe that. But as a person of color myself, never been good with hearing that everyone needs to stay in their own lane when it comes to writing or liking fictional people of all things.

[Kuwagaton]

If Bendis maintains that ace reporters have window decals of themselves, for now I guess I'll go with it lol

[Patrick Gerard]

Heh I'm not sure I've ever thought Bendis' disregard for continuity could be a good thing, but I guess I can see where it might be a strength. Although the Superman books haven't really been involved with the big events outside of Superman: Reborn and The Oz Effect.

How much of Bendis’ “disregard for continuity” is him having a disdain for it and how much is editors saying “You’re an asset at dialogue and we don’t want you to waste time on research; just write and we’ll make the continuity fit whatever you give us.”

[Patrick Gerard]

I’m gonna say that, PERSONALLY, my preferred status quo might be to pull an Iris Allen with Lois and Jon and have them stay with the Legion with her as the POV character in a Legion book.

Because she’d have a totally fresh perspective on a corner of DC that could lack accessibility. Because having a kid work with the Legion while their mom supervises is semi-new and Lois is probably the only non-super-hero the Legion would extend that courtesy to.

And you could have her and Clark have date nights and such and treat it as a temporary long distance thing.

But I don’t see how you could just have Lois and Clark run around and either pass off Jon to someone else or shove him into the background without an active parent figure. I don’t care about technical realism but that’d be emotionally inauthentic.

[SiegePerilous02]

I read this at the store. The dialogue was Bendis-y in some parts, but not in an annoying way. I liked it, I am intrigued by the new characters and I am willing to see where this goes.

I am not (yet) concerned for Lois. Those scenes were practically screaming "FUTURE LOIS RELATED PLOT POINTS" at the top of their lungs, so as yet I see no reason that Bendis will do anything bad by her.

[JasonTodd428]

But I don’t see how you could just have Lois and Clark run around and either pass off Jon to someone else or shove him into the background without an active parent figure. I don’t care about technical realism but that’d be emotionally inauthentic.

In this case I do care about technical realism. Jon is only ten, whether he has powers or not, and he's going off with someone he barely knows to parts as yet unknown. Personally I wouldn't trust this Jor-El as far as I could throw him right now because he has some sort of connection to the guy coming after Clark and Jon. Hell yes Jon better have Lois or Clark with him and since it can't be Clark, because obviously he's drawing all the attention of the enemy to him, then the next logical choice is Lois. She is his mother and, as we've already seen in the last run, she is also very protective of him as parents are with their children. I don't see that as demeaning to her character at all or that it's somehow Bendis being sexist by sending her with her son. Who else is Clark going to trust enough to watch their son's back while he's wherever it is he's going and who would be willing to drop everything to do that for an unspecified amount of time? Personally to me it makes a lot of sense for Lois to be the one to go with Jon and Jor-El since his father is unable to.

[Restingvoice]

I like Perry's voice.
I like Clark's voice because he sounds like someone pretending to be shy and clumsy like in the movies.
The part where he thought "humans are amazing" threw me off. It sounds like he's an alien that just recently join humanity, and doesn't match the rest. He may be just making a general observation as a writer though.
The new reporter is "eh" because I don't know what kind of significance it will have over Clark's life. Bendis saying she's his favorite type of character just sets off alarm bells.
I'm not sure what rumor flies about Clark and why he thought Trish Q is his human kryptonite. That part is only a panel and unclear.
I don't understand why people are so worried about Lois when all we had is she's writing a novel now. That doesn't mean she's not in the book or in danger of kidnapping or something. Where is Lois and what she's doing is actually the most interesting part of this teaser for me.

[Superlad93]

Can't help but bring up how Bendis' potential plans remind me of the Superman 2000 pitch (https://sites.google.com/site/deepsp...-2000-proposal) minus the eventual end. Remember they added in the idea that Lois became a foreign correspondent, and they did that in the interest of creating physically separation. They made a point to say that they "they still meet often, taking the occasional romantic weekends." There was always something I liked about that (minus the eventual end obviously). Both of them having responsibilities that made keeping a traditional marriage hard, but they made a point to still take time out for each other, and the idea that they played their relationship across the whole world seemed so cool to me. Seemed like something only they could swing.

(possibly) Upgrading things to like a galaxy away sounds nuts, and likely plays into the "challenge" Bendis has been talking about. I've also gotta wonder how this affects Jon and Clark's relationship (kid's had to move a bunch already and is leaving a second best friend behind). Presumably a limited window to be a husband and also a dad. And since Lois had the correspondent job in the 2000 pitch, I really hope Bendis give her stuff to do wherever she is. It would only make sense. If it's Jor-El's Super Planet then what would Lois Lane do there? The idea is fascinating especially because Lois is the one out in space rather than Clark.

Intergalactic skype calls with bad reception, weekend romantic getaways that are all to fleeting, and possibly missing some milestones. I don't envy Bendis' task one bit. He's brought it on himself, and I commend the ambition, but this (possible) set up would be hard for any writer, imo. Good luck, bruh lol

PS Sorta reminds you of Invincible too, right? Just me?

[Restingvoice]

It's equally as insulting and upsetting that Bendis is pushing new original female character essentially taking Lois's place (as in Bendis's most recent interview as his "friend" and "rival" at the Planet) because it assumes that women cannot co-exist. This was an opportunity to FINALLY have more than one woman actually interact in this book. Lois has virtually no female friends. In 80 years, she's barely even had the chance to work with or mentor another woman. Writers pit her against Cat Grant which was always terrible. This was an opportunity to show that women can co-exist in the same place and work together. The fact that Bendis had to get rid of Lois to push this new character is not a good thing and it makes me feel TERRIBLE as a female reader. The same thing happened when Greg Pak created Lee (who was great) during his ACtion Comics Run but because DC banned Lois was from being in the book (and so Lois and Lee never interacted and Lois was marginalized) a good portion of the reading audience that was female didn't respond to her, didn't read it and didn't care about her. This is not a good thing for female readers long term when they do this to us. It puts women in a bad spot.

This one I understand.

The other crappy thing is that Bendis has set this new female character up from the outset as an obstacle that people are going to reject because of what he's done to Lois. And that is not a good thing. Because we WANT more women in these books and more female characters. But when you treat women like they can't interact and can't co-exist and are replaceable it makes your female readers really, really angry. And it makes the fandom really resistant to embrace the new character because of that hurt and anger. In the long run, it hurts the franchise and it hurts your fanbase. I would welcome a new female reporter at the Planet because I would love for Lois to actually get to work with a woman. And I welcome a new Black woman reporter too because God knows these books need some diversity (though I'm super wary about Bendis being the one to try and voice a black woman again. Super wary.)

Look, I'm not trying to be difficult here but you need to understand that Bendis has put a lot of the fanbase in a terrible position here. He's asking women to embrace this new female character when, at the same time, he's essentially telling us that he can't write two women at the same time and that he wants to redefine Superman and the Daily Planet but without Lois in it. That's insulting at best and really problematic at worst which is why the larger fandom outside of the small group here are rightfully pissed off. It puts the female fans (who are paying customers just like you guys) in a terrible spot and it puts all the WOC who comprise Lois's fandom in an even worse spot.

This one I don't. Not really. Partial. I get the part of wanting more female reporter especially black women. I don't get the problem about pitting Lois with this character, or the impression that Bendis want women to embrace this character. She's set up to be a villain, so she is supposed to be an obstacle, not someone to be liked. If she's someone set up to be liked, then yeah, it will be problematic, because it will be pitting fans of Lois with possible fans of her, but since she's a villain, no.

[Atlas]

Agreed. The art is second to none. He is truly a legend and I wish he had more opportunities are more books. And it is ALWAYS so great to see the Daily Planet get focus.

I said a lot of what I felt in another reply above but all I can say is I feel uneasy and sad about this whole thing and I'm dreading this book.

Same here, and I agree with everything you said as well. I was skeptical since it was announced Bendis was taking over, but I've been trying to stay positive. His defensiveness in the Word Balloon interview (which also sees him claim to have "always" been a "Superman guy"), the notion of sidelining Lois and Jon for the sake of "focusing on Clark again" (as if having them around means Clark can't focused on and vice versa) and the two (admittedly small) bits of his working on the character has only increased my fears. This all feels like a desperate sales and hype grab on the part of Dan DiDio, who should not be allowed near the Superman family in any way.

[Atlas]

I'm sure there are ways to spin this, BUT I feel this is extremely problematic in light of Bendis' claims to Forbes and his response to John Siuntres' admission that he was perplexed that Bendis was going to write Superman and not Batman. I'm starting to get a picture of how this has all come to be: DiDio and Lee (for whatever reason) return from two years away from hands-on influence on the DCU. DiDio looks at Superman's performance in Rebirth, sees that the stories have been generally well-received and sold well, but still feels there's something wrong/lacking/in need of "tweaking" as he told the NYT when it comes to Superman.

Enter Bendis. DiDio decides that Superman needs a "shake-up" to be "relevant" (he apparently thinks the character needs this constantly because it's lacking something) and then goes to Bendis and says "hey, what ideas do you have for Superman?" Bendis and DiDio are spinning it to appear as if Bendis asked for Superman, but I highly doubt it at this point and in light of these comments. Does Bendis want to write Superman? Probably, but the connection he's claiming to the character seems tenuous. "Well, I'm Jewish and from Cleveland and so were Siegel and Shuster, so I have an affinity for Superman."

I haven't read every interview with Bendis over the years, but I've read many. He always spoke about his interest in writing Batman and even that interest seemed tied to convincing Bob Wayne to sanction a DD/Batman crossover.

From InsidePulse.com:

(1) Bendis’ Past Comments On Superman.
WHAT’D YOU THINK OF RUCKA’S SUPERMAN?
I am not a big Supes guy but I will read Rucka’s. I did get the Gotham Central trade and its gorgeous.

IF YOU COULD DO WHATEVER YOU WANTED ON A SUPERMAN BOOK, NO CONTINUITY, USE PROFANITY, WHATEVER, WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
Realize the character has no value in our more modern culture and cancel it.. Then USM would be the number TWO book ��

YOU STATED THAT SUPERMAN WASN’T A RELEVANT CHARACTER ANYMORE. WHY?
No, I said I didn’t think he was identifiable. Peter Parker is totally identifiable, I wonder if Superman is.

Notice that he contradicts himself even in this interview, first saying the character has "no value in our more modern culture" and then walking back his comments and saying "no, I said I didn't think he was indentifiable."

Granted, the comment about Superman having no value is in context of his support of Ultimate Spider-Man, but the other comment seems to ring true. I think DiDio and Bendis are feeding us a narrative instead of the truth about the latter's interest in Superman. This concerns me because it's dishonest but more important, it's another instance of DiDio/DC editorial putting creators on Superman who have name-recognition but no real affinity, understanding, or love of the character. Azzarello is another example of this.

Superman doesn't need to be "shaken up," he needs creators who understand and love him to write his books consistently. Despite those who didn't care for it, it can't be argued that we had that for two years with Rebirth. If it's not broken, it doesn't need to be fixed. I'm not saying we couldn't have added another title and another voice (maybe Meltzer or Dini), but I am saying we didn't need another shake-up that will ultimately diminish the character in the long run.