Review: Steel #1 By Steve Lyons And Ed Benes – Reign Of Doomsday Starts Here!

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Steel #1

Written by Steve Lyons

Art by Ed Benes
I was going to buy this issue before Reign of Doomsday was even announced, despite having no clue who Steve Lyons is (apparently he writes Dr. Who novels). You know why? Because Steel is awesome and doesn’t receive nearly as much love as he deserves, and I’m the kind of reader who operates under the impression that if a one shot or mini series sells well, than the starring character stands a better chance at getting more face time. Of course, it never hurts that every so often that mini or one shot happens to be a good read, so I went into this issue hoping for the best. But is this issue accessible for new readers, that’s the real question.

The issue wastes no time getting to the point, as the issue is handled in a way where the action taking place presently happens alongside flashbacks to earlier in the day to show just what led up to Steel fighting Doomsday, as well as what his niece Natasha is doing. Yes, that’s right, the girl formerly known as Steel II, Starlight, and Vaporlock shows up and for the life of me I can’t remember why she wouldn’t have powers anymore. There’s a bit of work put into establishing the timelines of the characters, which isn’t the worst thing since I don’t think Steel has shown up since War of the Supermen, and it was a nice reminder that Atlas beat him into a coma (though it would have been also been nice if they mentioned how Steel beat him down during War of the Supermen as payback). This is really just me earning fanboy points, I’ll own it. Real point time, Lyons use of civilians is a bit forced, as not only is there a kid who wants to stay too close to the action because Steel is his favorite (though the reasoning is sound, since he’s a “human Superman” so to speak, it makes him something to aspire towards since he has no active meta-gene), and another guy recognizes Natasha as Steel’s niece while she’s saving him (though I would think she’d be most famous for being Starlight, what with Infinity Inc being celebrities).

The fight with Doomsday is anything but pretty, and I mean that in the best way. It’s a brawl between a monster of brute force, and a man whose armor leaves him pretty damn strong, but hardly ready for the beast that killed Superman. That isn’t to say that the fight is one-sided, however, as one thing John Henry Irons has an abundance of is brain power, and he sues them to his advantage. This includes having specially prepared nanobytes ready just in case Doomsday were to return, ones created and designed to attack living cells and tested on cell samples of Doomsday. That’s like, Batman level of planning, but it makes sense for John. His heroic career came after getting a building dropped on him by Doomsday, and he’s actually been killed by him in the past during Our Worlds at War. The prep makes sense. Unfortunately, this is hardly the same Doomsday we’re used to.

Sure, we’ve seen countless variations over the years from the savage beast, to one wielding a Green Lantern ring (I’ve seen it and have it in trade), the Brainiac possessed version, the Jokerized Doomsday Rex, and even Darkseid’s army of Doomsdays. But the version seen in this issue is probably closer to the original version of the beast than any of the others (well, save for GL Doomsday, he was still Jurgens written), as while he’s an uncontrollable beast, he seems to have a focus. In the Death of Superman, he became almost infatuated with killing Superman (later explained in Hunter/Prey), and in this he’s after Steel. To the point where even his growls and yells are the name of our armored hero. He has what resembles strategy, he knows how to draw his target out into the open. Oh, and he also seems to have gained the ability to coat the bony parts of his body with a sleek steel like armor. Like I said before, the fight isn’t pretty.

The downside of this issue would have to be that while yes, it’s a nice reintroduction to John and Natasha, and Lyons does a nice job with them, and the fight goes pretty well, the issue never really covers new ground. There’s a lot of reminders to the Death of Superman, to the Reign of the Supermen, and then there’s the splash page to wrap up the issue which just strikes immediate imagery from the early nineties. This lack of new ground unfortunately means that there is about one page where we get even the slightest hint of an idea as to just why this attack took place. There’s no build up, we’re dumped right in, it happens, and then the storyline proceeds to move on to the next part of the crossover. This isn’t something that bugged me personally so much, but I also expected that to happen. For readers who might get frustrated about such a thing with their near mindless action, well, you’ve been warned!

Sean Chen was originally scheduled to handle the art duties for this title, but issues arose and Ed Benes handled the book instead. Well, I’m not sure if it’s an upgrade since I don’t know how Chen’s style would have looked, but it looks pretty sweet. Benes does action just as well, if not better, than he does cheesecake. Steel looks great, and I love the way the armor damage happens in this issue (having reread 52 a few weeks ago, it still bothers the crap out of me just how easily his armor was destroyed there) as it really does put emphasis onto just how durable it is. I also can’t say enough about how well Benes draws Doomsday, because while so many have drawn him so ridiculously over the top (Ed McGuinness) there haven’t been too many artists to draw him simple yet menacing, but Benes does a great job with it. Both with the normal form, and the armored version.

If Steel were to get a new ongoing series coming out of the Reign of Doomsday, I would love to have this creative team on it, or at the very least Steve Lyons. In this issue he proved that he had a grasp on the characters of both John and Natasha, and that he could find a way to make you care about both even in the span of just one issue. Sure, there isn’t a lot of background, and the issue is relatively predictable, but it’s fun little issue that is easily enough to make me want for more. Who knows, maybe DC is looking to expand the Superman line of books this summer to help build up the family, like they’ve done for the Bat titles over the past few years. Anyway, Reign of Doomsday isn’t looking like it’s going to be a universe shaking phenomenon, but if you like solid action, Steel, and maybe have some 90’s nostalgia, there are definitely worse places to go for your fix.

Overall?

7/10

A lifelong reader and self proclaimed continuity guru, Grey is the Editor in Chief of Comics Nexus. Known for his love of Booster Gold, Spider-Girl (the real one), Stephanie Brown, and The Boys. Don't miss The Gold Standard.