Comic Review: The Man of Steel #3

The Man of Steel #3

DC Comics

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Artists: Ryan Sook, Jason Fabok, Wade Von Grawbadger, Alex Sinclair

It’s not enough.

I keep turning it over and over in my head, and it’s just not enough. Not enough context. Not enough motivation. In fact, let’s examine that word, shall we? The following is from www.etymonline.com:

Motivation, N: mid-14c., “something brought forward,” from Old French motif “will, drive, motivation,” noun use of adjective, literally “moving,” from Medieval Latin motivus “moving, impelling,” from Latin motus “a moving, motion,” past participle of movere “to move” (from PIE root *meue- “to push away”). Meaning “that which inwardly moves a person to behave a certain way” is from early 15c.

So why is this important? Well, it shows us that the metaphorical connection between inner feelings and physical action was understood as far back as the early fifteenth century. So why, why, why can Bendis not seem to grasp the idea that characters require inner motivation for their actions? Or, if that’s too harsh, let me give him the benefit of the doubt by saying that perhaps he just doesn’t understand that audiences need to be let in on things. Now, don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying that mystery has no place in comics. Far from it. But what I am saying is that pacing has quite a large place in comics, and mystery quickly loses its charm when we’re halfway done with a series and we still don’t know exactly what’s happening. There is a big, big difference between a narrative mystery and a narrative gap. This difference is largely made up of elements like foreshadowing and the use of atmosphere to convey the thematic elements of the mystery. Bendis has tried to create a mystery; instead he has only made a story that is mysterious, i.e. unknown. The reader does not know, for example, why Rogol Zarr does literally anything he does. The cover of issue #3 reads “Revealed! The maniac who killed Krypton!” But, and I hope you don’t mind some light spoilers, he is not in fact revealed!! Why does he hate Krypton? I dunno. Why did he kill Krypton? I dunno. How is he still alive? I dunno. What do we know about him besides the fact that he hates Krypton and that he killed it? Absolutely nothing. We’re halfway done with the series. I’m not cool with that. And again, I’m not saying we need to know everything about the guy. We don’t need to know who he went to prom with. But I feel like we should have heard at least a little bit more about him at this point, and the lack of information has begun to grate because I still have the same questions I had after the first issue plus a few more.

There’s another big thing the reader doesn’t know, of course, and it’s what happened to Lois and Jon. They’re not around. Clark knows they’re not around. The thing that showed up at the end of the first issue is clearly responsible for it, but we don’t know in what way. And here’s my only problem with this particular thing: Clark doesn’t seem to be bothered. Whenever it comes up, he seems to just kind of avoid the subject. But that’s terribly, terribly out of character for DC’s biggest family man. What the hell’s the matter with him? I would much rather see him suffering and grieving and trying to understand what happened along with the audience. As it stands, the treatment of Clark following the disappearance of his family is actually somewhat dehumanizing and sets him further apart from the reader. This is not the writing tactic that Superman deserves or that he succeeds with. But it is, of course, a result of Bendis’ attempt at a mystery-type story.

Let me say a few words about mysteries and how I think they ought to work. Have you ever played a Metroid game? Or perhaps a Castlevania game? Those games are built on sequential progression, where each new item you get allows you to access a new area. They have this incredible feeling of constant growth and achievement. Mystery stories should behave the same way: Giving readers clues that lead to answers that lead to questions that lead to clues. Sequential progression. And that is what Man of Steel is lacking. Its progression is anything but sequential, and that out-of-step feeling, whether on purpose or not, does not work in its favor. Now, I want to step back a moment from this fistfight I’m having with myself and let you all know that it’s not too late. Bendis can come back from this if he goes hard on the exposition in the next few issues. But the problem, again, is pacing. Bendis is going to have to cram an extra two issues’ worth of character progression and development into the last couple issues in order to make up for lost time. But it feels a bit like a lose-or-tie situation, where unless Bendis works some true magic the next few issues are going to be flawed in some way or another. And he’s got no one to blame but himself.

The art’s great, though! The character models are all very smooth, with everybody looking just the way they should. The linework is often very clean, with slightly heavier outlines on the characters than we usually see nowadays. There’s some slight hatching here and there, but the shadows are really solid more often than not. The pencils, inks, and colors all work together extremely well, and it’s gratifying to see areas of color popping out of pitch-black shadows. There’s just something about that particular combination that really does it for me as a reader. There’s also one particular technique in the art that I want to call some attention to: the sound effects are, on multiple occasions, perfectly enmeshed with the art. Page 18 has my favorite example of it, where a blast that hits Supes is shaped like the word “boom” and is full of the most striking explosive colors. I don’t know if the letterer or penciller is responsible for the technique, but it really is a next-level representation of sound and impact. Somehow, tying the sound and the event more closely together raises the entire experience of both the sound and of the event. It’s a devilishly awesome method and one that I hope to see more commonly in comics.

A couple more words before I finish up. Bendis-speak is sneaking in bit by bit. He’s not trying too hard to be funny, which keeps it from getting tiresome, but he could stand to have slightly less dialogue. I also think Rogol-Zarr is terribly overdesigned and could stand to have a few less identifying characteristics; he looks a bit like a Rob Liefeld character early on in the issue.

I really want to say that I’m being so negative about this issue because it was so average. It wasn’t bad by itself, but it’s disappointing when placed in complete context with the story and with Bendis as a writer. It’s still worth your time, but I’m just worried about the future. ‘Cause I really want this mag to improve! I really want to give Bendis the full benefit of the doubt! But there’s a lot riding on The Man of Steel, and next issue is going to be make-or-break. Either Bendis fixes his mistakes and pulls us onboard for a hell of a time or he doubles down on them and drags us to the bottom along with him. See you next week…