Wonder where that page takes place in the story. The Lois and Clark scenes look like flashbacks given that Lois and Clark's relationship will be rocky with Lois hiding from Clark at the moment.

@lvenger I'm curious about that myself, the sample's page number is 16 so we're fairly deep into the issue by this point and it seems Clark hasn't "confronted" Lois yet...unless the flashbacks are when the confrontation takes place, they spend the night together, and Lois is telling Clark why she has to go about things solo for a little longer.

Just a guess though...I really want to know what Bendis meant in interviews that this issue will be his "positive" statement on the relationship, especially when we're midway through the issue and Clark is seemingly locking himself up in storage cupboards to angst over Lois

And Bendis has said that, while Lois and Clark have some drama, their relationship is being modelled after the movie/tv show Mr. and Mrs. Smith. They'll still love each other, and will work on becoming more of a unique, modern family in the DC Universe (that can mean up to a thousand different things though).

@zariusii: Yeah it's clearly near the end based on the page count so it would be odd to leave the talk between Clark and Lois to the last 4 pages in an issue solely about their relationship.

Hard to see this as a positive statement on the relationship when Clark is being portrayed as reclusively shutting himself away from being seperated from Lois and Jon. Bendis' words have yet to match his actions in his use of the Super Family.

Yeah I read that interview, it has convinced me Bendis won't be seperating Clark and Lois but what he intends to do with them instead based off the Mr & Mrs Smith model is unclear at the moment. Honestly I was just fine with the Super Family as Tomasi and Jurgens depicted them but apparently DC thinks Bendis can do better.

@lvenger I think this kind of shake-up would have happened even with Dan and Tomasi...Amazon trade solicitations were hinting at something dramatic with the Kents with Jurgens still attached to Action Comics at the time before plans changed. Bendis is probably doing what was already mandated but has been given enough creative control for his own thing. He's kept in check by Lois and Clark's status in Doomsday Clock, and he'll be doing something to tie into that later, so I say let him do what he wants. It's a rubber band situation and it'll all snap back in place.

July 2018 Sales:

Superman #1 - 133,703

Action Comics #1001 - 79,327

For comparison...

New 52

Action Comics #1 - 204,000

Superman #1 - 144,000

Rebirth

Superman #1 - 105,380

Action Comics #958 - 75,661

@lvenger: New 52 Action Comics sold that much? Jesus.

@thekinfing: Remember how much advertising the New 52 got? That probably contributed to it. Add in the collector's value of a brand new Action Comics #1 and Grant Morrison as the writer and even despite my strong disdain for the New 52, I can't deny there's good reasons for why the first few issues sold so much.

@lvenger: I wasn't reading comics back at 2011 haha, but you do make some good points, in retrospective it isn't a surprise that AC sold that much.

@thekinfing: I remember Superman being considered one of the characters that had benefitted the most from the New 52 back when Morrison was writting Action Comics. That reputation didn't last long after he left.

Big spoilery interview with Scott Synder on what's to come for Justice League and a couple of Super Characters from now through to 2019

Preview of Action Comics#1003

@zariusii: Don't you mean Action #1002 preview heh?

Bendis' dialogue continues to pain me, that line from the bystander "Oh this is going to scar me" sounds so cringey and forced it's not even funny to laugh at. It's just painfully bad dialogue that Bendis continues to repeat ad nauseum.

@zariusii: Do tell, its waay too long.

@entropy_aegis: A low level criminal falls to his death in the middle of Metropolis. Goode (the reporter Bendis introduced) writes an article accusing Superman of doing it. Perry finds it inconsistent and asks Clark to check. This is all told in reverse chronological order.

The best part of it, though, are the post-its around Clarks computer on the final page: "Return Bruce's wedding gift", "Story idea underfunded/underused: what is the future of Checkmate?", "Is KGBeast tied to election hacking?", "Call Byrne: what does he know?", etc.

Lol, not the preview. I was referring to Snyder's interview.

I love that art, it's amazing. Gleason has improved a lot as an artist since the Boyzarro arc. Too bad the writer he is working with is....meh. Anyway, I hope the story actually moves forward unlike the second issue of Superman.

@zariusii: The video is too long. It would be helpful if you could tell us what the spoilers are.

@entropy_aegis

@mightykalel

Superboy Prime and Connor will be back eventually in Justice League and Superman titles sometime in 2019

Connor is very welcome, but Prime? Was anyone clamoring about the return of that crybaby?

@zariusii: Good video. Justice League has not been this good in a while. I must say. Nice stuff going forward into 2019

@morpheus_: Hey, you don't want to see Prime killing the DCU to death?! ;)

I have been waiting for Conner to return and hopefully we will get Conner and Jon going on adventures together.

Not surprised they are bringing Conner back, curious to see what his superhero name is going to be now that Jon is Superboy but why bring Prime back? Let me guess, is this one of the things that fans "want" like they say every time?

That said, if they don't at least make a reference to the "kill you to death" thing, I will be disappointed lol

Prime will kill the forums to death on 2019.

Can you imagine Prime's reaction to the universe getting rebooted, debooted and crossed over with Watchmen since he left, though? That'll be comedy gold. It's only a shame he won't experience Superman without the red underwear.

Wonder which Superboy he'll try to kill first; Jon or Conner.

Between fighting Booster with King writing and having to face off against Damage, November could prove unkind to Clark.

Zod confronting Rogol has incredible potential, though.

Finally Superman is going to play a role in Doomsday Clock.

I'd love the potential outrage if Superman beats the smurf.

@entropy_aegis: It only took Johns 8 issues to remember that Superman was supposed to be a part of this story. The slow pace has killed the momentum of the story but luckily it has enough appeal to remain over 100K each issue so far.

I am just going to post some images of the up coming "Up in the sky!" storyline of King and Kubert, since many people seem to have forgotten about it:

Gallery

AC#1002 was very talky, Clark in the bar was funny, Bendis got Guardian's voice wrong, Bendis speak in the hospital with Maggie...the ending I'll let slide only if there's a decent pay-off over the next two months, but it'd better be good.

Bendis started alright, but he's quickly losing it.

I was fully absorbed into this latest "Action Comics" issue. It's nice to see the Guardian make an appearance.Seriously, I'm engaged. I really think Bendis is doing a rather swell job both on AC and Superman

- The thug crying on Clark's shoulder after they shared a moment of sympathy.

- Supes flying out into an asteroid belt to let off some steam.

I'm definitely on for this ride for as long as it lasts and i am not worried in the slightest for Clark and Lois, we've already been told many times over that everything will be all right , this hysteria has to finish. But that's just my opinion.

Once again Bendis uses a superhero he doesn't even get. The story is uninspired and the mystery of the Red Cloud is not engaging and neither is this mafia. I dont care about anything that happened and that assuming something happened and now Gleason is off the book as well.

His take on the character seems nearly perfect to me and many others honestly. However here we are in the field of subjectivity, as always.

He's referring to the Guardian, not Superman. Which is very much in line with Bendis' inability to write the Flash, or J'onn properly despite electing to use them of his own accord.

Not surprised there was more terrible Bendis speak. The Red Cloud-Red Tornado attempt of a gag wasn't even remotely humourous, Robinson Goode is raising all kinds of red flags that an editor of Perry's level should be able to spot, Guardian was written like the Punisher, easily one of the worst OOC depictions even compared with Bendis' Martian Manhunter and Flash and there was a major misprint error where the pages of Superman punching asteroids in frustration was printed before the scene with Cat Grant when it was clearly supposed to have come afterwards. A messy and frustratingly uneven issue once again from Bendis.

I still don't get the fuss about Bendis' interpretation of the characters for now. Yes, his MMH is terrible, his Barry is a wannabe-terrible-Wally, but the other characters he has written so far have been quite interesting. I don't know much about Guardian, but I liked the way Bendis writes him.

People need to get over conventional characteristics of classic characters. Characters evolve as does music, cinema, theatre and etc. They cannot stay the same all the time and behave in the same old way.

You say characters evolve. I say Bendis is too lazy to do research and we dub that evolution.

@morpheus_: I am not backing Bendis up or anything like that. What I meant to imply with my comment was that characters change throughout the years, sometimes they do it because of natural change(a writer who has done his research and wants to bring something new to the table), but sometimes it happens by pure luck(a writer just diesn't know the character well but still wants to use him for his story). There are reasons to get mad when things like that happen but if the mentioned characters isn't behaving way too out of character I don't think we should judge that much the depiction.

Another thing that can be taken into consideration, first appearance of the character under Bendis and it was for a mere few pages. I don't think we really got the Guardian as we thought we did.

Finally read Superman 1,2 and AC 1001/1002

Both Reis and Gleason show they are top-tier artists.

Stupendously drawn!

Yeah when it comes to the dialogue it’s obvious “Bendis speak” is used now and then.

Its getting really annoying when characters cut off each other.

For now I guess AC is the better book?

Yes, action is definitely better than Superman. The concept Bendis has for AC is interesting, I am not that hopeful about its proper execution though.

Super Sons in Japanese :D

https://mobile.twitter.com/JorgeJimenezArt/status/1033013148599635969

Action#1005 variant

Adventures of Super Sons #2 preview.

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/adventures-of-the-super-sons-2-beginnings-of-the-gang

Good to know that Clark's belt has some useful tools in it. It has WiFi and now it can create a force field.

Was about to post that. I'm only sad that Dumbiac isn't that kids name.

Interesting how Bendis is dividing the fan base. I'm still on the fence, not sure what to make of it, but I give every writer a chance. Just finished reading Daredevil End of Days by Bendis and loved it.

Comics have got so expensive ($3.99 every other week, no thank-you!) that I have ditched all but King's Batman (which I love), Doomsday Clock (potential future collection value) and Immortal Hulk (which is mega). Spiderman and Superman I will just buy the TPs I think when I've decided which one looks the best value!!! So you guys think AC is the best at the mo?

@bezza1969: Give Bendis a street level character or his own universe and he can come up with potentially good stuff. Give him established superheroes or cosmic characters and it's like telling Mary Shelley to write a Jane Eyre novel. Personally I don't even like Bendis that much at all so him being announced to write Superman was a nightmare for me.

Yeah comics are overpriced compared to a couple decades or even a decade ago. I find I'm choosier with my comics more now than I was when I started buying them. Glad you're liking Immortal Hulk at the moment. The general consensus among those who like Bendis' Superman is that Action Comics is the better written title it seems.

Is Superman even out this week?

@zariusii:

@ursaber: I like that more than the actual movie.