Some thoughts about Superman: Leviathan Rising #1

Can Superman's allies save him?

Leviathan has apparently kidnapped Clark Kent and Lois is ready to find where he is but to do so she will need the help everyone they know.

The prologue of Event Leviathan is here, this is a story that has been building up since the beginning of Brian Bendis' Action Comics run and just like his work there, this is solidly executed for the most part.

This special in fact sees the collaboration of quite a few writers and, while their segments are not credited especifically, you can guess which part belongs to who based on their styles.

For example, the issue opens and closes with the Red Cloud mystery that has been happening in Action Comics and due to how it connects everything and the type of writing, you can guess this is handled by Bendis himself and it does a solid job at creating a good prologue and epilogue at the same time. Yanique Paquette's artwork is also really good as expected with a beautiful style.

The second part is mostly devoted to the kidnapping of Clark and considering how much this involves secret organizations you can just figure out that this is handled by Greg Rucka and this is something that I was missing from him quite honestly. Rucka manages to create a pretty tense situation where Clark has to endure being basically tortured by Kryptonite and developing the mystery around who is actually Leviathan. Mike Perkins' pencils depict the segment in a pretty serious way.

There's a little fun tale about the misadventures of Jimmy Olsen who suddenly got married with a woman probably from another dimension and the quirky tone of the story pretty much screams "Matt Fraction" and I wouldn't mind to see more Jimmy Olsen stories from him considering how weird and appropriate for the character this one was. It feels a bit out of place here but it works as an one and done. Steve Lieber's more colorful pencils fit the story perfectly.

Finally, there's a part around Supergirl who has to face this situation and how her adoptive parents deal with it. Considering who has been written the Supergirl book, is no surprise this is handled by Marc Andreyko and he does a good job at making Kara's parents leave the story which is not much of a disappointment since their inclusion always felt off. Stephen Segovia and Julio Ferreira's art is really good looking.

Overall, this is an interesting way to open the upcoming event which hopefully will continue this solid trend.