Who Wrote a Worse Comic Book, Bendis or Bendis?

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Action Comics #1026
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: John Romita Jr.
Publisher: DC Comics

It's part five of the House of Kent story, and December can't come quick enough.  I was never a massive fan of Bendis' Superman stuff, but at least he seemed to be trying when he first arrived at DC and grabbed both Superman and Action Comics for his own.

We open with Brainiac 5, giving us a whole page of recap, which is to be expected with Bendis because...that's his thing.  If you don't believe me, look at this week's Legion of Super-Heroes, which opens with an almost identical page with the Karate Kid!  It's bad enough that Bendis can't trust the reader to remember anything from issue-to-issue, but the recap then turns into narration boxes giving a running play-by-play of everything for the next five pages!!!

What we get here is a two-pronged story.  While Superman and the House of Kent fight the Parasite of another dimension, Leone claims she is a victim of the evil invader, Lois Lane.  The latter part comes down to Leone yelling louder than everyone else and the FBI ditching the job at hand...you know, the one that they have evidence and warrants for, for some gossip by the criminal they are supposed to be arresting!

Meanwhile, the badass multiversal threat becomes a joke out of nowhere so that Superman can stop wasting time and fight Red Cloud.  It is so apparent that Bendis took way too long to set up this nothing of a story and now needs to force an exit strategy on his characters, but it's the readers who ultimately suffer.  I always tell people to stick with a book until the end, but I don't see the next two issues making this mess any better.

This issue stinks!  The story, dialogue, and art all come together to make a turd sandwich that should go right into the garbage.  It is as severely overwritten as it is ridiculous and as ridiculous as it is ugly.  It's a 100% stinker!

Legion of Superheroes #10
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Artist: Ryan Sook
Publisher: DC Comics

It’s time to review another issue of Legion of Superheroes! I apologize to readers of this Weird Science DC site for neglecting to review issue 9 of this series. If this were the 31st Century I would issue a worldwide “apolomemex” which, I suspect, would have about as much impact as Karate Kid’s ‘apology’ in the opening recap page of issue 10 in which he gossips about the “coupling” of Superboy and Saturn Girl.

Avid readers of Joshua Williamson’s Superman/Batman will know that General Zod founded New Krypton in the 21st Century with the ‘Lazarus- Pit-resurrected’ “survivors” of the destruction of Kandor at the hands of Rogol Zaar. If I didn’t know better, I would think that Bendis has been planning this whole narrative for quite a while. But that’s just silly. 

The illustrations are very good in this comic. Ryan sook’s pencils are complimented by Wade Von Grawbadger’s inks and Jordie Bellaire’s colors. Their artistic talents bring to light the emptiness of Saturn Girl’s mind, the majesty of Oa, the brightness of New Krypton, the aggressive eeriness of Rimbor, and the darkness of Xanthu.   

Despite my growing cynicism and indifference that underscored my forgetting to review the last issue, I am compelled to acknowledge that issue 10 has me thinking that maybe Bendis has a direction in mind for this series, after all. It might even qualify as a jumping-on point for new readers with a limited amount of necessary “googling.”

Review via weirdsciencedccomics.com

#dccomics #actioncomics #legionofsuperheroes


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