The Four Color Media Monitor

The Valdosta Daily Times' comics columnist expressed dismay that any and all trades compiling Superman stories by Brian Bendis are debuting belatedly:

It's been a long wait for the next "Action Comics" collection by writer Brian Michael Bendis. It's been a long wait for any of his Superman collections.

In truth, it's been about a full year. Usually comic collections of monthly issues are released two or three times a year. Not with the Bendis "Superman" titles.

Which is part of what makes the latest collection, "Superman: Action Comics: Metropolis Burning" so disappointing.

That's got to be pretty surprising they'd admit something's wrong regarding a product penned by Bendis. Although in the following:

One might expect more issues being included here but the volume collects only five issues.

And the issues feel disjointed. In the separate "Superman" title, issued in a collection last year, Clark Kent reveals he is Superman. In the "Action Comics" collection, he hasn't made that reveal public yet in the earliest collected issues.

And why must we care about a direction that came much too late? It's only part of the problem anyway, as they say. Another is Bendis' recent social justice pandering career, along with the forced, excruciating dialogue that's common in his writing. And maybe that's the reason why not many trades compiling Bendis' work have been issued, though I've noticed Batman gets a lot more emphasis in this category too, and just like Bendis, that's another problem coming at the Man of Steel's expense.

The storyline is also interwoven with events from "Leviathan Rising," a big DC crossover event, or a post-Leviathan event, involving the Legion of Doom and the Justice League. Many readers will feel like they have walked into the middle of something more than just a year-long hiatus from the last collection ... and that feeling is correct.

Good to have "Action" back in action but, well, there are too many buts to make it a satisfying return.

Well indeed, that's the problem, but they're ambiguous about it. Do they believe Bendis' work is really worth much? It's not. However, it sure is fortunate his Superman run didn't last as long as his run on Avengers, which he never deserved to write when he was working at Marvel. It's a shame if Bendis is still assigned to Legion of Super Heroes though. The sooner he departs from both DC and Marvel, the better. He was a bad omen for superhero comics, and it's regrettable the MSM won't admit it.

Labels: crossoverloading, dc comics, dreadful writers, moonbat writers, msm propaganda, Superman