Awesome

THE GOOD:

-This was good. I liked it. It's definitely my least favorite issue thus far, but still, not bad.

-The art was pretty great. I'm loving the look of this book.

-I think the first page was my favorite part. Amazing emotion, with very few words. Well done.

-Zombie Birds of Prey was a great moment.

-The Atlantis scene, while mostly used just to give us an update on that character, was still pretty damn awesome.

-Zombie Clayface may be the best zombie yet. Just such a cool portrayal. Also, genuinely creepy.

-Damn, can this man write endings or what?

THE BAD:

-I didn't really like Harley Quinn here. I thought her portrayal was good in the last issue, but here she was really annoying. Still miles better than HiC's take on Harley, though.

-I'm hoping this series will become more than just a collection of scenes in the future. The comic is losing it's flow. The plot isn't advancing very quickly, which definitely makes the unnecessary scenes stand out more. more

Man I never expected such good story from Tom Taylor. The series has been an absolute blast for me.

Only time will tell if this event is based on a shallow gimmick, or is it something surprisingly deep and complex. Look at Injustice - a simple concept quickly evolved into a long multiversal conflict. DCeased has all the potential to become a new elseworldwith its own mythos, but it also can end up being a self contained one-off story.

The story didn't progress much in this issue, which actually was a good creative choice. We have a chance to delve into few main characters' lives, and see how are they dealing with this global disaster. That's a very important narrative element, which good writers utilize properly (look at Geoff Johns' Doomsday Clock) and bad ones either ignore completely (Scott Snyder's No Justice, for example) or don't create anything but it (Tom King's Heroes in Crisis trainwreck).

Similarly to the last issue, which I find a bit weaker than this one but still pretty decent, it's a comic I generally feel okay with, but I'm not mesmerized with it by any means. I could be, if it becomes something more than what it is now. So, worth picking up? Why not? Give it a try if you have nothing better to read. more

I'm a sucker for cosmic stories and exposition dumps, so this issue was definitely for me.

Honestly, this issue is filler. But it's filler in the best way where the B-stories are still interesting even if the A-story moves very little

I enjoyed this quite a bit. Like others have said this is a filler issue. But it's a great one.

Strong, great start. Looking forward to issue #2.

Rucka continues to prove how talented he is.

This series is off to a great start. It's been years since I've seen a characterization of Lois this good. I'm also very excited about a certain guest appearance.

Good start for the series. Super excited because Rucka has always has a knack for writing good grounded characters

I came for Crazy Steve, but what I got was Steve From Accounting.

This was dull and underwhelming mess with some odd and dated dialogue and views of women thrown in for good measure.
Yes, I know that this is an Elseworld and is supposed to be the origin story for a younger version of Miller's Dark Knight Superman, but I have to say that this still didn't feel like a Superman story. It really just felt like a homemade comic written decades ago that stars an obvious rip-off Superman except he ( and his supporting cast ) has neither Superman's charm nor personality. Pa Kent's characterization was a bit off, I didn't see much Clark in this version of Clark Kent, Ma's characterization felt flat, and Lana started out okay-ish but soon her characterization eventually morphed into just being "The Girlfriend". Also Ma and Pa and at times even Clark's dialogue and character seemed like a caricature of people from the Midwest. I'm from the Midwest and the dialogue made me cringe. Besides that it's just boring. Aside from an odd or bad choice here or there, there isn't much in this book you haven't seen before in other Superman origin stories, and those other origin stories did it better.

The art while wonky at times is Romita's best work yet.

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It’s almost a joke how bad this is. The story does not flow organically and everything seems forced. Almost every character that appeared was “off” and yet another emotional scene devoid of impact occurred.



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Spoilers Follow
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I’ll start this off by saying Perry White is not J.Jonah Jameson, and making the former try to fit the mold of the latter is just dumb. This made Jimmy texts, which were meant to be “humorous” just be dumb. His reaction to Jimmy could be seen as Jonah berating Peter Parker and again was not necessary as they are notable enough characters to present as their own people.

Regarding the “villains” seen in the issue, Kobra, I believe their presence in Gotham but to hold gatherings like the one shown in Metropolis of all places, I call bs. Superman’s hearing should have been able to pick up their chants and identify them with ease or at the least notice the explosion that took them out.

Waller’s inclusion was to create a build-up to Leviathan being a mejor player and kick-off this upcoming “event”, but I find myself hardly invested in finding out what’s going. They’ve barely dealt with the Metropolis fires and now they just jump to the next thing without addressing the first although these things will now undoubtedly be connected.

On to the meat of the issue, the meeting between Sam and Lois Lane. To summarize what happened I just need two words “contrived drama”. It’s understandable to see Lois want a closer relationship with her father and reach out, as she did so before, but I find it hard to believe she would truly reveal as big a secret as Superman’s identity to a person who has been nothing but antagonistic towards him and has the capacity to act against him with this information. He has not been shown as reluctant when it comes to dealing with Superman, regardless of the situation.
Her statement that she’s seen paternal drama/conflict, clearly alluding to Jor-El and Superman, it makes their decision to let Jon join him all the more unreasonable. Adding that he’s doing “great” is also ridiculous since she left before the journey even really started. Not only does this make where these events fit in continuity questionable, it also makes their actions seem senseless. That is one of bendis’ flaws in clear display, lack of consistency and cohension.

Overall this issue is just another poor title in what is remarkably lackluster run and I would not recommend anyone read, much less buy, this title. more

This could have been decent if it wasn’t for Lois. Lois’s character is very problematic in this series.

This sure was a thing that exists. I think Lois is being insanely irresponsible, and her character usually isn't that. The stuff with Jimmy was fine, although Perry White comes across like J. Jonah Jameson, if he didn't know how to properly berate someone. The hell is "Out of this multiverse"? I'm severly uninterested in the plot revolving around the blue bombs, assumedly set by Leviathan. This issue was like a clip show, of all sorts of plots, but none very interesting. more

This review is just straight spoilers, people.

I’m too pissed to be vague.






The assassination of Lois’ character continues as Bendis has her confess to her father that she’s in love with Superman and he is the father of Jon. Which means Bendis wrote Lois as giving way a massively important secret about their lives to a person who’s antagonistic toward Superman’s very existence… without consulting neither Clark nor Jon. It also likely means that the book she is writing is about her marriage/relationship with Superman like the desk image suggests.
I don’t think I have to say this to Superman fans that this is incredibly out character of her, but hey for the sake of being thorough, THIS IS OUT OF EFFING CHARACTER! As a matter of fact, everything he’s written about her since Man of Steel has been out of character and it only gets worst with each additional issue.
I get that Sam Lane may not react nearly as bad to this as his past would suggest, but it still ignores the little detail that she didn’t tell Clark or Jon she would do this before she told her father. She asked for this meeting, she planned this meeting. If Lois was in character, she would've consulted and tried to convince Clark first before even contacting her father. I’m actually okay with Sam knowing, and I’m okay with Lois telling him. It ’s the mishandling of Lois’ character that’s pisses me off. Actually, that’s my problem with everything in this run. Poor characterization and badly executed plot points. Well that and decompression. And boring villains. And just plain bad ideas.

Now for positives. I enjoyed that bit with Jimmy. That was great.
But it also makes me feel even more salty since it seems that it has the capacity to write at least ONE person in Superman’s supporting cast in character, just not the will. But hey, let me not get ahead of myself. An issue featuring Jimmy betraying or badmouthing Superman because he thinks Supes is having an affair with Lois or some other contrived drama maybe just around the corner.

Oh, and the art is nice. But the issue overall? Wouldn’t recommend.

I can't enjoy or recommend a book where poor characterization and out character actions are used to create drama.
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This issue started off promising. Steve Epting is a solid choice and does a remarkable job of depicting the characters emoting. Seeing a snippet of Jimmy's crazy life was amazing. He's been MIA lately and I always appreciate when he's included. Jimmmy and Clark's interactions were amusing and I also enjoyed Perry and Jimmy's scene.

However, like the other issues in this run this book suffers because in it, Lois makes an OOC decision just so the plot can advance. To be fair, she's actually better written here than
her previous appearances. But the fact remains that this is yet another OOC act for Lois. Lois is fiercely protective of Clark. And while Jon is a fairly new addition to the family, she's been just as protective of her son. So what's missing from this issue is her deliberating
and debating with herself whether she should tell her father and her having a conversation with Clark. Had that been included this issue would have been much more stronger.

But it wasn't.

And so this yet another issue where Lois is seemingly mischaracterized. Hopefully in future issues we'll see that she was debating with herself before meeting her father and that she talked to Clark beforehand. If that happens I'll happily change my rating. But for now this continues a worrying pattern of Bendis seemingly not understanding Lois' character. I have more hope than I had before because he's seems to be on the cusp of grasping her character. I can hope that he continues to improve in the future. more

Wow, way to ruin all 3 Kents in one story Bendis. It's one thing to completely squander Jon Kent as character, but having Lois and Clark effectively ruin their only son's life by abandoning him in space with a murderous madman?? 1/10, this is as bad as OMD, maybe worse.

No era necesario que Jon fuera un adolescente Ni que Lois fuera una mala madre y mucho menos que Superman sea un mal padre

Any hopes I had that this will make sense are gone now.

Superman’s decision to let his wife and kid leave with Jor-EL, and Lois’ decision to leave Jon with Jor-EL makes even less sense due to the “shocking reveal ” that’s not really a shocking reveal. Not to mention Lois reasoning for leaving Jon behind and not telling Superman she’s back is not properly explored or explained.

Lois reaction to seeing Jon again completely contradicts her behavior in Action #1004.

Both the dialogue and Lois’ characterization continue to be extremely off.

If what Bendis done to the character is not reversed, it will damage any chance he has of sticking around.

I stuck around because I thought things would get better.

It has not.

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Tl;dr I did not think it would be possible for bendis’ writing to get worse on this book, he proved me wrong. Please save yourself the physical pain it will cause on your eyes and do not read it, buying it would be far too much and contribute to one of the worst books out there.

On to the actual contents now, so know spoilers will follow:

Issue ends on another “big twist/reveal”, because apparently bendis cannot continue a story without one. This is itself a showcase of a his lackluster writing in this book. About the “reveal” itself it’s basically “Man who was a villain is stated to be bad”. I stare blankly into space because it’s the only way I can react at something so blatantly obvious from even Man of Steel. There was no reconciliation had between Superman and Jor-El or anything to indicate that after their last encounter he was not a villain.

From what little we get to see from the journey the Superman Family took we now know Lois left her son in space with his “grandfather” after a single mission deciding she was not needed. Because I presume that ensuring Jon would not be influenced into following in the footsteps of Mr. Oz and continuing to instill in him the proper values and ethics of the person his parents want him to be is unnecessary in the face of just having superpowers. Great parenting shown here, thanks bendis.

Going by that we’re meant to believe Jon is not an impressionable young man who needs no further guidance by his parents and is trusted to know what to do in case his grandfather, who was last seen as a villain, asks him to do something that goes against his values. But while I shudder to think of what Jon will reveal happened in the following “years” of his trip, as of now we are just left with a considerably older Superboy who was aged just to allow the writer to explore how parents would feel if they missed out on raising their child. He chose to sacrifice the development of a character for the chance to explore an idea; he will undoubtedly waste this opportunity and reverse before anyone else can actually work with it.

It hurt to see Lobo make a short cameo, because he’s one more character to add to the list of those bendis has gotten wrong, but surprisingly what he says is the best advice Jon has gotten in this title. Seeing alien people worship Superman was ridiculous, because he actually strives to not be seen as someone who should be worshipped/relied on to that degree and while Superman has indeed assisted other planets in times of need the impact he’s had on the galaxy is far lesser than that of the GL Corps who has been outright shunned by the citizens of certain planets.

The dialogue itself is poorly written, cringeworthy in more than one ocassion (Jon laughling at was is not even arguably a joke Jor-El makes comes to mind), and I can’t help but say he does not get a single character “right” in the entire issue.

This is the worst issue in the run so far and it decidedly looks like it will not improve. Save yourself the hassle and avoid this title until a new creative team comes on board. more

This is really bad. The whole issue and story depends on us not knowing Jor-El is bad. But he is. We've seen it. Why is it a shock to anyone? Why did Lois leave her son with this clearly evil character after one mission? Even if he wasn't evil, that's some garbage parenting. This is so dumb because it contradicts all that Rebirth Superman/Action Comics strove to do. That whole era can be described as The Kent Family era. Lois would never leave her child with Jor-El. None of this would've even happened if these characters were in character. This is incredibly lame. Just like Man of Steel was. more

Well, the art was great as usual.

However, this issue crumbles the flimsy ground that all the previous issues, and I'm including Action and Man of Steel in this, stood on.

The awful, out of character decisions Lois was written to make in Man of Steel and Action now somehow look even worst due to Jon declaring that his grandpa is so crazy that they have to do something about it.


Also aging Jon up is an awful decision that wrecks the uniqueness he held as child superhero and what little supporting cast he had. more

This issue was not good. The possible reason why Jon is missing is not a good one. Jon's characterization is not a good one. Some of Clark's characterization isn't good. The possible reason why Lois is missing is not a good one. Supergirl's voice in this issue is not what I would describe as good. Flash's line? Really not good. What seems to be Rogol Zaar's plan and tactics? Also not good. There are other not good things in this issue, but those things were the worst. I like some of the art, but it has been taking a nosedive lately. more