Superman #19
Superman deals with the aftermath of revealing his secret identity in Superman #19, by writer Brian Michael Bendis, artist Ivan Reis, inkers Joe Prado, Danny Miki, Julio Ferreira, and Oclair Albert, colorist Alex Sinclair, and letters by Andworld Designs. This is a classic Bendis issue but in a good way.
Basically, most of this issue is just the staff of the Daily Planet reacting to Clark revealing his identity. He gets fired and rehired by Perry, and then the bullpen reacts, clapping for him. Later, Superman flies around, doing what he normally does, thinking about how little has changed. In outer space, the new United Planet delegates tour an empty planet and are attacked by Mongul. Superman comes to their aid, but their guards aren’t able to coordinate their attacks, and Mongul gets the upper hand.
A lot of times, calling something a classic Bendis issue is a bad thing. Bendis has some very particular writing tropes, and not all of them are good. Some are downright annoying. However, this issue plays to the strong suits of his classic style. There’s a lot of dialogue at the beginning between Perry, Clark, Lois, and Jimmy, and it all feels very natural. There’s some humor and the jokes lands rather well, which isn’t something that always happens when it comes to jokes in a Bendis book. Of course, when the Planet staff reacts to Clark, Bendis focuses on his OC, Trish Q, and her reaction to the whole thing over a character that has more of a history with Clark, but that’s a minor quibble and rather expected from Bendis and the way he treats his OCs.
The end of the books is the action sequence, and it looks like it’s going to fit into the classic Bendis mold- a one-page thing and then more talking heads. However, Bendis uses it to show that even though the aliens of the galaxy have united, they still don’t know how to use that unity to their advantage. This gives Mongul the chance he needs to take down Superman. It’s a very cool sequence. It would be more effective if Bendis didn’t have Mongul remark on the whole thing, but sometimes one has to announce things like this to the audience.
Ivan Reis’s art is great throughout the beginning of the book. His character acting really sells the dialogue from the beginning of the issue, especially some of the jokes about Clark’s writing habits and Perry’s reaction to them. However, later in the book, the art gets a little sketchy. There are four inkers on the book so that probably plays a large part in it.
Superman #19 continues the story of Superman revealing his identity by focusing on the Daily Planet. Bendis uses his signature tropes in the best possible way in this issue. It’s entertaining. A problem is the chapter doesn’t seem to lend itself very well to a story arc. Sure, there’s a cliffhanger ending, but other than that, where is this story going? Ivan Reis’s artworks at the beginning of the issue, but suffer later, possibly because of the number of inkers on the book. As stated above, this is an entertaining issue, but it doesn’t feel like it works for a long-form story.
Grade: B-
