Even casual readers of Superman may remember the title The Man of Steel as the name of the 1986 miniseries by John Byrne reinventing Superman for the modern age. While this The Man of Steel doesn't quite do that, it still sets up a lot of storylines that will continue in the regular series Action Comics and Superman. So what happens? Not a lot but yet, quite a bit. So let's go over it and see what happens. This review will have spoilers but I will try to be as vague as I can. Also, there are some things I have not gotten to in the collected editions so if I seem like I don't know what's happening, that's probably the reason.
We open on Rogol Zaar saying that Kryptonians need to be eradicated, that they are a virus. I'm not a huge fan of being retold Superman's origin and this doesn't necessarily go back over but adds the additional detail of Rogol Zaar being the reason Krypton exploded. I understand that you are writing Superman but it's getting a little tiring seeing these over-muscled creatures try their hand at defeating the Man of Steel. Since Lois and Jon aren't even around, it doesn't even create the drama of them being in Zaar's path. What happened to Lois and Jon? We'll get to that in minute.
Superman is also dealing with a string of arsons that have been happening around Metropolis. It's dealing with one of these fires that Superman meets the new deputy fire chief, Melody Moore. It's one letter more than LL so I'm guessing Bendis is trying to make this new character more important in Superman's now family-less life. Melody, who I like as a character, is helped by Superman and Batman in figuring out who is starting the fires. It's revealed at the end of miniseries, at least through a witness, a young boy, that Superman has been setting the fires. This may seem a bit strange but we've seen before that Superman can't handle extreme stress as well as one would think. Shortly after Superman executed the Kryptonian criminals, he suffered a mental breakdown where he took the name Gangbuster and fought crime and after that exiled himself from Earth. After the battle with Rogol Zaar, the death of all the Kandorians, the destruction of his Fortress of Solitude, the possible shut-down of the Daily Planet, and the loss of Lois and Jon could be taking its toll on old Clarky making him act differently. Maybe Deputy Fire Chief Melody Moore can help comfort him.
Rogol Zaar wants to rid the universe of anything Kryptonian. As I mentioned, Zaar has destroyed the Fortress of Solitude and murdered everyone in the bottle city of Kandor. His next target is Superman, Supergirl, and the Earth itself. The Supers are able to distract Zaar just enough to send him into the Phantom Zone but we don't actually get any answers as to why Zaar hates the Kryptonians so much or how he is responsible for Krypton's destruction. Supergirl is going to find out but for now, we'll have to wait until the regular series. But what happened to Lois and Jon?
Brian Michael Bendis was originally a Marvel boy. He had runs on Daredevil and Alias (you may know it as Jessica Jones) and both of his runs on those series were amazing and both I consider my favorite runs on a series. I'm hoping that Action Comics and Superman continue the page-turning stories that I felt The Man of Steel did wonderfully and that we see Lois, Clark, and Jon reunited soon.
The six-part miniseries The Man of Steel, is by Brian Michael Bendis, Ivan Reis, Jay Fabok, Joe Prado, Doc Shaner, Steve Rude, Ryan Sook, Wade Von Grawbadger, Kevin Maguire, Adam Hughes, and Alex Sinclair and is on sale now. Superman #1, by Bendis, Reis, and Prado is on sale July 11th. Action Comics #1001, by Bendis and Patrick Gleason is on sale July 25th. Published by DC Comics. To locate a local comic book shop, call 1-888-COMIC-BOOK (1-888-266-4226).
I don't know what modern TVs are like. The TV I have I bought back in 2010 or 2011 and it still has buttons to manually change the channel. Is that something that TVs don't have anymore? If Brutus' TV has buttons then keep the remote and change it to something you want to watch because I get that Mother Gargle is a guest in your home but it is still your home.
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~Brian