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  1. #1
    Invincible Member Vordan's Avatar
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    Default Superman Speaks His Truth *Spoilers for Superman #18*

    Those of us guessing Supes would be outing himself were right
    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nyt...endis.amp.html

    The Man of Steel will go through changes in December that will ripple through the DC universe. (Approach with caution, comic-book fans, because — Great Krypton! — there are spoilers ahead.) When Issue No. 18 of Superman arrives in stores on Dec. 11, the hero will be going public about his alter ego.

    Superman has been around since 1938, so it is hard to imagine something that has not been done, including revealing his secret identity. In 1991, he told Lois Lane, which seemed fair since she and Clark Kent were engaged. In 2015, Lois wrote a front-page Daily Planet story that revealed Superman’s secret. Comic-book shenanigans later erased that knowledge from the general population of the DC universe.

    “On some level, this is what DC brought me here for,” said Brian Michael Bendis, who is writing Superman and Action Comics, among other DC books. He was referring to his departure from Marvel, DC Comics’ rival, in 2017. He began working on the Superman titles last year, juggling space adventures, the inner workings of the Daily Planet, and how Lois and Clark related to their son, Jonathan, in his preteen to teenage years. “I didn’t want to stir things up right away,” he said. “I had to earn my place.”
    More at the link. Bendis compares this to his outing of Daredevil which was the status quo for 15 years. So he clearly intends for this to be the long term status quo. But then so did the people who did Truth and we all saw how that ended. Well let’s see how it turns out this time lmao.

  2. #2
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    I guess DC wanted to try a story where Superman reveals his identity on his own terms.

  3. #3
    Astonishing Member DochaDocha's Avatar
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    Fourteen years until Superman enters public domain. This might be the beginning of the end.

    [Being intentionally melodramatic]

  4. #4
    Invincible Member Vordan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DochaDocha View Post
    Fourteen years until Superman enters public domain. This might be the beginning of the end.

    [Being intentionally melodramatic]
    Disney’s lobbying will keep that from happening man. They keep getting the laws regarding that extended. And even if it did happen it would only be the Golden Age Superman who was available.

  5. #5
    Ultimate Member Jackalope89's Avatar
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    I'm not even surprised. My standards for Bendis' storytelling had already fallen low enough that this doesn't surprise me.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by DochaDocha View Post
    Fourteen years until Superman enters public domain. This might be the beginning of the end.

    [Being intentionally melodramatic]
    Uhm.

    The public domain doesn’t affect trademarks.

    In terms of COPYRIGHT?

    Yeah. Action #1 hits in 14 years and once a month every year thereafter.

  7. #7
    Ultimate Member Ascended's Avatar
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    Well it's always fun when we guess things correctly and figure out where a story is going....I guess.

    I have my concerns about this of course. The dynamic between "Clark" and "Superman" is what the character is built on, after all, and stories where he loses either "side" tend to work only as very short-term arcs; any time it lasts more than six issues it falls apart. This is perhaps the most central concept to the character as we understand him today and screwing with that could undermine the whole mythology.

    But I'm willing to see where it goes. If this is spun as the "next step" in Clark's evolution and growth and not a shock-value change coming in from out of the blue (and the writing's been on the wall since Bendis started), then perhaps Bendis can make it work. His run *has* been all about moving things forward, after all, and this *could* play into that theme of "Clark's next step/s in his life's journey."

    We'll see. This feels more organic and earned than Truth, if nothing else. And while we're losing that core dynamic in the character, Bendis is adding new elements (like earth president) which might help keep a balance and make it feel like a transition instead of just a loss.
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  8. #8
    Astonishing Member Blue22's Avatar
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    I'm just trying to figure out what reality Bendis lives in where the very start of his time on these books counts as "not stirring things up right away".

    My boy All you've done since you got here is stir **** up. **** stirring is what you've done best since your days in Marvel. And they're usually changes that stick but don't work until other writers get a hold of them.

  9. #9
    Astonishing Member DochaDocha's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vordan View Post
    Disney’s lobbying will keep that from happening man. They keep getting the laws regarding that extended. And even if it did happen it would only be the Golden Age Superman who was available.
    Quote Originally Posted by Patrick Gerard View Post
    Uhm.

    The public domain doesn’t affect trademarks.

    In terms of COPYRIGHT?

    Yeah. Action #1 hits in 14 years and once a month every year thereafter.
    Being mostly facetious here. The only serious point I can make is that maybe Bendis wants a serious era-defining change to the character, kind of like in 1991 when Superman revealed his ID to Lois. I think eventually one of these changes are going to stick for the long run.

  10. #10
    Father Son Kamehameha < Kuwagaton's Avatar
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    Eh you know, I'm old enough to just be stubborn at this point. Sure I have 80 years of the old status quo. Plenty of times I've said in the past that what happens isn't as important as how well it's handled. That's true to me. It's also true to me that Bendis on Daredevil, and the resulting Brubaker arc, are hands down the best Marvel comics of the last 20 years. But then he says he held off until proving himself here and that's where I get cynical. The titles have been spinning their wheels from big shock to big shock with half hearted, watery follow through. I don't think "Out" Bendis has made himself seen since Man of Steel at the latest and the other related story here, Truth, was far below the potential of its own creators. I'm gonna sit and wait for something to make me feel better.
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  11. #11
    Invincible Member Vordan's Avatar
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    On the surface this is a repeat of Truth but there are some key differences:
    1. He’s not losing his powers
    2. Lois isn’t the one outing him so there won’t be drama between the two
    3. He’s getting a new job that lets him still interact with civilians (hopefully)
    4. This is his choice

    I’m annoyed that we’re losing the Planet again, I’m worried about Action which has mostly focused on Metropolis and wondering what the focus of that book will be, Bendis hasn’t impressed me with how he’s handled cosmic matters so I worry he’ll squander the opportunity President Superman offers, and I question whether people will stick with this since tons of people left for Truth.

    I’m excited about Superman taking a hands on approach to building the United Planets, this is something cool that could actually justify Superman’s status as the GOAT superhero in-universe, if this sticks around Supes being the founder of the United Planets could be a huge milestone and achievement that he hasn’t had in forever, other creators could do a lot of good stuff with this set up, Truth had a ton of potential that it never delivered on and I don’t mind seeing another go at it.
    Last edited by Vordan; 10-18-2019 at 09:38 AM.

  12. #12
    Moderator Frontier's Avatar
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    It's hard for me to take this seriously when we know 5G is coming and Bendis is already comparing it to when he outed Daredevil. You shouldn't compare it to the last time you did the exact same thing, even if the context of the outing is different.

    Does Bendis really not like secret identities? I didn't think so before, but taking his work as a whole it kind of seems like he doesn't care for them much given how often he outs characters or just has every person or villain know who the hero really is.

    But, yeah, I imagine this will be the status quo until we get 5G and Jon becomes the new Superman.

    To be honest this seems like a lot with teen Jon, United Planets, and now Superman outing himself.

  13. #13
    (formerly "Superman") JAK's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kuwagaton View Post
    Eh you know, I'm old enough to just be stubborn at this point. Sure I have 80 years of the old status quo. Plenty of times I've said in the past that what happens isn't as important as how well it's handled. That's true to me. It's also true to me that Bendis on Daredevil, and the resulting Brubaker arc, are hands down the best Marvel comics of the last 20 years. But then he says he held off until proving himself here and that's where I get cynical. The titles have been spinning their wheels from big shock to big shock with half hearted, watery follow through. I don't think "Out" Bendis has made himself seen since Man of Steel at the latest and the other related story here, Truth, was far below the potential of its own creators. I'm gonna sit and wait for something to make me feel better.
    I'm of two minds - I want to see where this goes, but I also don't want it to be permanent. So I'm half with you, there. And... I'm 39, aren't you younger than me? lol


    Quote Originally Posted by Vordan View Post
    On the surface this is a repeat of Truth but there are some key differences:
    1. He’s not losing his powers
    2. Lois isn’t the one outing him so there won’t be drama between the two
    3. He’s getting a new job that lets him still interact with civilians (hopefully)
    4. This is his choice

    I’m annoyed that we’re losing the Planet again, I’m worried about Action which has mostly focused on Metropolis and wondering what the focus of that book will be, Bendis hasn’t impressed me with how he’s handled cosmic matters so I’m worry he’ll squander the opportunity President Superman offers, and I question whether people will stick with this since tons of people left for Truth.

    I’m excited about Superman taking a hands on approach to building the United Planets, this is something cool that could actually justify Superman’s status as the GOAT superhero in-universe, if this sticks around Supes being the founder of the United Planets could be a huge milestone and achievement that he hasn’t had in forever, other creators could do a lot of good stuff with this set up, Truth had a ton of potential that it never delivered on and I don’t mind seeing another go at it.
    That's kinda the ironic thing. He's potentially tossing away the part that I loved the best about his run (besides his voice for Clark himself, anyway): the return to the Daily Planet and it's staff. That's one thing that made "Action" so good. So that's a huge disappointment.
    Last edited by JAK; 10-18-2019 at 09:46 AM.
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  14. #14
    Astonishing Member stargazer01's Avatar
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    but will we still have amazing shirt rips??


    I love his secret identity, though. Being just Clark is his chance to be "normal" and not get all the attention.

  15. #15
    Invincible Member Vordan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Frontier View Post
    It's hard for me to take this seriously when we know 5G is coming and Bendis is already comparing it to when he outed Daredevil. You shouldn't compare it to the last time you did the exact same thing, even if the context of the outing is different.

    Does Bendis really not like secret identities? I didn't think so before, but taking his work as a whole it kind of seems like he doesn't care for them much given how often he outs characters or just has every person or villain know who the hero really is.

    But, yeah, I imagine this will be the status quo until we get 5G and Jon becomes the new Superman.

    To be honest this seems like a lot with teen Jon, United Planets, and now Superman outing himself.
    Well the upside to all this is that when you make dramatic big changes, it’s pretty easy for the next guy to undo them. Preferably not with a big reboot but we’ve seen DC go do that route with Superman just recently. Getting his secret identity back is easy when you’ve got a reality warper with Mxy.

    And yeah Bendis is a Marvel guy and Marvel doesn’t do secret identities primarily because of Bendis. His reign over Marvel is when you saw Marvel heroes ditch their secret identities and go public.

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