Oh Brian Bendyman, the rule is that you start titles well and then taper off into forgettable dross after a few good books - you’re not meant to begin crappy!
Superpants is sorta looking for Lois and Jon, whom his dead/hologram (I can’t keep up anymore) dad has taken on a great space coaster or something, before suddenly winding up in The Phantom Zone - along with Earth whaaa!
Superpants is sorta looking for Lois and Jon, whom his dead/hologram (I can’t keep up anymore) dad has taken on a great space coaster or something, before suddenly winding up in The Phantom Zone - along with Earth whaaa!
It’s not the best premise, not least as it’s STAR Labs putzing about that’s caused the mess and has nothing to do with Superman, but because it’s just a bad excuse for Superman vs Rogol Zaar: Round Two - this time with added Zod! I know Bendis is trying to make Rogol Zaar this ultimate nemesis of Superman’s but all I see is another big strong monster for Kal to punch - he’s not interesting at all.
There’s a couple of weird (and probably unintentional) references to small comics publisher Valiant thrown in superfluously: the subtitle is “The Unity Saga” (no idea what that is, by the by) and Valiant’s superteam is called Unity; and there’s a pointless cameo by Livewire, and Valiant have a character of the same name. Bendis also surprisingly references the awful movie Superman Returns in the opening chapter!
Bendis writes a really good Superman - he’s got the voice down cold - he just hasn’t come up with a good story for the character yet. I appreciate he’s a difficult character to write for but it doesn’t change how bored I was reading this for the most part.
Out of the many other DC characters appearing here, I liked Bendis’ Adam Strange the best though he bizarrely chooses to write Martian Manhunter as a fascist in that scene where J’onn tries to convince Superman to forcibly take control of the human race - WTF?! Ivan Reis’ art is fine too - it’s competent and skilful, it just doesn’t excite me. The story ends so anticlimactically and suddenly though and it wasn’t exactly gripping up to then either!
So Bendis is 0-2 in his DC books thus far. If all you’re looking for is a mindless slugfest between overpowered characters, you can fill your boots with Superman, Volume 1: The Unity Saga: Phantom Earth: Too Many Subtitles as that seems to be all Superman’s about these days - boo!
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