‘The Man of Steel #1’ (review)

Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Illustrated by Ivan Reis and Joe Prado
Published by DC Comics

This is it. The beginning of the Bendis era is here for DC. Will it be any good? Judging by this first issue, we may be in for a treat.

Bendis looks like he may have matured as a writer and the results could be staggering.

The opening is something else. We see the villain known as Rogol Zaar in a galactic meeting from years ago. He talks about “cleansing” Krypton.  Bendis creates a hell of a beginning to his run. Ivan Reis also kills it in this scene as the art is truly something else, maybe even his best work.

Then we flip to Metropolis present day. Killer Moth is committing a crime. His victim tells him that Superman listens with his super-hearing for key phrases.

Suddenly, guess who appears? Superman himself! And it’s fresh and exciting and just without any Bendis irony.

Bendis really steps it up here and seems like a writer reborn. We get to see Superman play the hero and it’s exhilarating. We also get to meet Melody Moore, a new character who is the deputy fire chief.

There’s an arson mystery building so it seems these two will cross paths. And then we get to the end. And it ends on a cliffhanger. A very exciting cliffhanger (which the last two pages were fantastically drawn by Jason Fabok).

What will happen? Where did Lois and Jon go? How will Bendis resolve this?

It’s exciting. There are so many questions raised in the first issue. This six issue series starts off great and is fueled with great inspired writing. My only question is if Bendis can make the big picture satisfactory. The adventure started off great here. Let’s see where it takes us. For now, it’s a high level book that will be at the top of my reading pile.

RATING: A