A new and yet familiar direction for Superman…single
While you were reading about the events of Batman #50, writer Brian Michael Bendis just removed Superman’s wife, Lois, and son, Jon from the equation.
During the Man Of Steel mini-series, Superman’s biological father, Jor-El, came back with a proposal for Superman: To take his son Jon, AKA Superboy, on a tour of the galaxy, help train Jon to use his powers better, and to teach him more about his Kryptonian heritage. Superman, like any father, is not thrilled with this idea. So Lois agrees to go along with Jon and Jor-El, and again, Superman isn’t thrilled with this. Jor-El gives Superman a communicator so they can stay in touch. Jor-El, Lois, and Jon go along their way, leaving Superman by himself.
This is all the subplot to the Man of Steel mini. The main plot had to do with the appearance of Rogol Zaar, who claims to have destroyed Krypton and is now determined to destroy all remaining Kryptonians. This causes a battle between Superman and Rogol, which ends up destroying the Fortress of Solitude and ends up killing all residents in the shrunken city of Kandor. And of course the communicator the Jor-El gave Superman just happens to get smashed. I’m at a loss of words here.
This is what I was worried about when I heard Bendis writing for DC Comics. I followed Bendis work at Marvel. If Bendis was unable to write something, he’d completely change it to make it easy for him. I’m not saying that I hate Bendis and this isn’t trying to be a case of “nerd rage”, but yeah, I’m in shock. I actually love some of Bendis’ stuff. His creator-owned titles like Powers is one of my favorites. His runs on Ultimate Spider-Man, Alias, and Daredevil were pretty amazing. It’s when he took over the Avengers is when his ego started getting too big. He had no clue how to write Hawkeye, so he kept messing with him. Didn’t even bother to look at the history of the character, but that’s a topic for another day.
I loved the idea of Superman being a dad. Patrick Gleason and Peter J. Tomasi’s stories were just amazing and filled with wonder. Many of the stories were kind of told through Jon’s eyes and how he deals with his father being an icon. It also showed Superman’s upbringing of his father Pa Kent and how to deal with Jon’s growing powers due to his half-Kryptonian heritage. I think I really related to it because I’m a dad myself. It was a great run and I’m going to miss it.
Now if you are wondering why I called it “One More Day”, because back in 2007, Spider-Man was married for about 2o years. The powers that be at Marvel didn’t like the idea of Spider-Man being married and felt it took away from his characters. So they “forced” then Spider-Man writer, J. Michael Straczynski, to end the marriage. The way they ended the marriage was to have Spider-Man give his love for his wife to the devil to save his aging aunt. I still don’t get it to this day. But anyhow, Bendis was one of the architects of that situation. With Superman “losing” Lois and Jon, it felt similar to One More Day.
The bigger issue here, of course, is the way DC acted like perfect magicians and forced us to blink. Yes, Batman #50 was a big deal with the wedding of Batman and Catwoman…not happening. I’m a bit of a conspiracy theorist and it seemed odd to me that the ending of Batman #50 was spoiled by the New York Times, and the lack of concern of DC Comics. It was just one big distraction of the real crime. Batman is a creature of travesty so what happened is no shock. Superman is the best of the best. The big blue boy scout. A son, a husband, and father. This is the true shock.
Now, I can’t see the future, so I have no clue if Jon and Lois will be totally written out of Superman series or if we’ll see them as a subplot. But based on my past exposure with Bendis, I’m not sure I can trust him.
In the end, I’m only one reader and it’s a simple choice for me. Keep reading or walk away. In time we will see.