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Tuesday 26 January 2021

Event Leviathan Review (Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev)


Kobra, Task Force X, ARGUS, the DEO, Spyral - all the spy agencies of the world get ‘sploded by Leviathan. Except it weren’t Talia al Ghul ‘cos she’s been usurped by a mysterious someone. Who is the new head of Leviathan and what do they want? Find out in: Event Leviapants!

I’ve read enough of Bendis’ DC stuff at this point not to have high expectations for any of it and, yeah, unfortunately Event Leviathan is another boring Bendis book. I think after this many strikeouts DC needs to send him back to Marvel!

Event Leviathan is a follow-up to the storyline Bendis started in Superman: Action Comics, Vol 2: Leviathan Rising so it’s probably best to read that before this - to see all these spy agencies get taken out, why Lois’ dad/Amanda Waller are in the positions they are, and so on, but I guess you don’t HAVE to given the extensive exposition provided here.


The book opens on the bumper Superman: Leviathan Rising Special which I’ve reviewed separately so I won’t go into it any more in this review - suffice it to say it still holds up and is the highlight of this volume.

Then we’re into the unremarkable whodunit/chase plot that comprises the main story. Batman, Lois Lane, and a whole buncha masks’n’capes run around while Leviathan pops up here and there to taunt them/blow up some more stuff. It’s really… dull.

Not to mention astoopid! Why bother setting up people like Steve Trevor and Red Hood as patsies when everyone knows Leviathan’s behind it all? Why does Steve shoot Lois? Why does Jason Todd run when he’s innocent and could just tell Batman and the mob that rather than run/have an elaborate fight? Why doesn’t Superman just use his superspeed to whip off Leviathan’s mask when he meets him? Because superhero comics tropes. Le sigh. This one’s a long way from Bendis’ better writing efforts.

I kinda liked Leviathan - not for his insane method of achieving his goals but for wanting to change the world and being proactive about it. He’s a bit like Kylo Ren in The Last Jedi in wanting to destroy/remake the corrupted power structures and going about it in a violent fashion. And Alex Maleev’s insectoid character design was cool - referencing Star Wars for the last time, he looked a bit like one of Palpy’s Red Guards.

Who he turns out to be though is underwhelming - nobody was ever going to guess who it was, which makes the whodunit element redundant. It also felt artlessly contrived of Bendis to insert another obscure character into this story - who, as far as I know, doesn’t appear in any other recent DC book - when her inclusion has everything to do with Leviathan’s identity.

The ending, like the rest of the book, is unexciting and flat, leaving zero impression behind. I guess Leviathan was thwarted this time - or something? Eh, I didn’t care anyway. Bendis’ Marvel event books were almost always messes and his Event Leviathan for DC turned out to be no different.

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