It’s Superman and Synmar’s final battle in Superman #28, by writer Brian Michael Bendis, artist Ivan Reis, inker Danny Miki, colorist Alex Sinclair, and letterer Liam Sharpe. This issue serves as Bendis’s last issue on the book and he goes out in a fitting finale.

The planet of Synmar is in chaos with the return of their hero, the Synmar Utopica. He’s decided to try and take over the planet, imprisoning Superman in the process. Resistance forces go to Superman, freeing him and asking his forgiveness. Before they can send him back to Earth, Superman offers them his help. Powerless under their orange sun, he asks for some military equipment and takes the fight to Synmar Utopica. Superman is able to get the best of him, just as help from the United Planets, sent by Kelex, shows up along with Supergirl. They take Synmar Utopica into custody and Superman goes home. Later on, he and Lois go to a musician he often listens, one whose music he always hears where ever he is and has her play the two a song as they dance on the air.

Bendis closes out the Synmar plot in this issue and while there’s nothing wrong with it, it does feel a little weird, almost like there was a time jump and readers have missed a whole bunch of the plot. However, Bendis builds up the whole thing rather well, using it to show just the kind of person Superman is- he isn’t going to leave anyone behind and will always help out those in need, even if, for instance, he doesn’t have any powers. The whole thing builds up to a rather satisfying slugfest. However, the main plot of the books seems almost secondary because the real action is in the issue’s framing device.

The whole reason Bendis brought Lana Lang into this book is revealed in this issue. Throughout, her podcast for the Daily Star serves to narrate the book and she reveals what she read in the unpublished book Lois Lane let her read. She reads an excerpt and it’s one that reveals Lois’s thoughts on what Superman gets out of being the world’s protector. Many writers over the years have given their opinions on why Superman does what he does. Grant Morrison and Mark Waid have put it best and Bendis doesn’t add anything new to their supposition- basically that Superman needs the people of the Earth as much as they need him- but he does it in a wonderful way, having Lois talk about her husband and her opinion of him. The last few pages, with her and Superman talking to the musician is a beautiful little coda to the whole issue and a fitting capstone to Bendis’s run, a nice simple moment for the Man of Steel and his wife.

Ivan Reis really knocks it out of the park in this one. Bendis gives him some juicy action scenes to draw and that’s Reis’s forte. However, his character acting does an amazing job throughout the issue, even with the aliens and their strange faces. He also perfectly captures the emotions of the final pages- the musician’s surprise, Superman’s sheepishness in telling her about how her music affects him, and Lois’s love and admiration for him.

Superman #28 is Bendis’s final issue on the book and it’s perfect. Not so much the plot of the issue- it merely feels like some cool background scenery for the real action of the book- Lana Lang’s narration and her sharing Lois Lane’s opinion of Superman. Bendis makes his final statement on Superman and he nails it, just as he’s nailed the character continually, even if some of his stories weren’t the best. Ivan Reis proves why he’s one of the best Superman artists on the last twenty years with this issue, his action penciling bringing the action home with his character acting really sealing the deal and giving the comic the oomph it needs. Bendis’s run hasn’t been all roses and this issue is kind of like that in microcosm- the story the issue is telling is good but Bendis nails Superman so well that it elevates the whole thing.

Grade: A-