- Alternate Character Interpretation: In-Universe, Superman considers two different explanations for General Zod's opposition against Rogol Zaar: either Zod wants to avenge the death of Krypton (which would validate him as the misguided patriot he believed himself to be) or he just wants to silence Rogol before he can reveal a Dark Secret about Krypton.
- Angst? What Angst?: It can be confusing to watch Jon be his usual, chipper self after being separated from his family for seven years, emotionally and physically tormented by evil versions of his parents, and then attacked by Rogol Zaar. It gets even weirder when he's perfectly ready to leave for the 31st Century after all of this happened. Even his brief meeting with his best friend Damian was just to say goodbye.. Lois is also perfectly chill with everything going on with her son.
- Awesome Art: If there's something that has been universally praised amongst fans, it's the artwork.
- Critical Dissonance: Critics have received Bendis' work warmly and sales were initially good for the comic (but have since dropped). This is in spite of vocal backlash from readers of the DC Rebirth line who dislike his treatment of the Superman family.
- Fanon Discontinuity: You'll be hard pressed to find any Superman fan willing to acknowledge anything that happened under Bendis's pen due to the slew of poorly received changes such as Superman's identity being revealed and Jon Kent being aged up alongside a number of unpopular new characters like Rogol Zaar, Red Cloud, and especially the Bendisboot Legion. It helps that after Bendis stopped writing the Superman titles and left DC altogether, pretty much all of his major changes and characters were undone and ignored respectively (save for Jon's age-up).
- Iron Woobie: Superman is basically a Woobie of Steel in the Bendis era. He misses out on 7 years of his son's life and then has to watch him join the Legion of Super-Heroes, his father is revealed to be a member of a secret cabal of intergalactic rulers that has controlled the galaxy from the shadows for decades, his worst enemy has become the leader of the entire supervillain community and a secret criminal empire has bought the Daily Planet, and yet he takes it all in stride and remains committed into being The Cape we all know and love. Supporters and detractors are not even divided on the opinion that Bendis has found a pretty good voice for the protagonist of the Superman books.
- Like You Would Really Do It: Nobody believed that Marisol Leone's accusations of Lois being an impostor from an Alternate Universe were true, mostly because there were only two months left in the Bendis era.
- Heartwarming Moments: Conner Kent's reunion with Jonathan and Martha in Action Comics #1022! Upon seeing him, memories come rushing back and they are overjoyed to see someone they had no memories of mere moments ago. Goes to show how strong his bond is with Ma and Pa, especially since even Clark couldn't remember him.
- Memetic Mutation: "Pulling a Jon Kent" has become the go-to phrase when kid characters are inexplicably aged up several years for drama, as was the case with Lian Harper's reintroduction in Catwoman as "Shoes" and Gerry Drew in the 2023 Spider-Woman series.
- Moral Event Horizon: The story was willing to treat Red Cloud as a morally conflicted character who could do the right thing with enough prompting, as seen when she helps Young Justice save a group of children when the Legion of Doom and Leviathan devastate Metropolis. Unfortunately, Red Cloud croses the line when she murders Melody Moore, an upstanding woman who was hoping to become mayor of Metropolis in order to clean up its corruption; and when Superman confronts her about it, she has the gall of blaming it on him for thinking that she wouldn't go through with it.
- The Scrappy: Supporters and detractors of the Bendis era are not even divided on the opinion that the new villains are the weakest part of the story. Rogol Zaar is hated for feeling derivative of previous Superman villains and the Red Cloud is hated for lacking a consistent characterization and behaving purely out of plot convenience.
- Tear Jerker: Jor-El, and by extension his son's family, gets put through the wringer. First, he is ripped away from his final moments with his wife. Loses his eye and ends up on Earth, an alien planet with people he can't understand. Although he is lucky enough to be nursed to health by kind people, he's in the middle of a war torn country to see them at their worst to emotionally break him and turn him against everything his son stands for. Brainwashed by Dr. Manhattan to remain on this path, he sets up global acts of terrorism to try and break his son's faith in humanity and convince him to take his family away from Earth, torturing him when he refuses. Failing that and tenously reconciling, he offers Jon and Lois a trip across the universe, only to lose them both. The latter is lucky enough to return home, but the former is lost through a Negative Space Wedgie that takes six years of his life to return from. Just before that he was hit by existential despair that he unwittingly placed on Jon, realizing he really didn't have a plan for bringing him out in space, which made Jon realize that Jor was insane and he wanted to leave. Jor picked up on this anxiousness and they stopped speaking for a year. In the midst of Jon's absence he knew he could never return to Clark without him, and also believed Jon deliberately ran away from him, and afterwards knows Clark will rightfully never forgive him for missing out on watching Jon grow up. On top of all this, his actions as a member of the Circle come out as a galactic civil war breaks out, dropping his son's opinion of him even lower, before he's sentenced for his crimes by being sent back to the moment he should have died. All that's left for him is witnessing the moment where it all started at Krypton's destruction, and all he can tell his past self is that their son succeeds where he failed.
- They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
- People have not been pleased with the treatment of the Superman family. Shipping Jon and Lois off is a sore point with many, as the family unit was seen as a high point of DC Rebirth. Not helping is how Bendis teases about what he could do to these characters are their status quos constantly, when people were perfectly happy with their status quos prior to his run — a status quo that had been in place for only two years before it was changed.
- Despite Bendis' assurances Lois and Clark are still in love and will not separate, fans were left divided over his characterization of Lois when the Kents finally did reunite. Some critics took issue with Lois referring to Clark as "baby"
instead of "Smallville", how ecstatic she was with leaving her only son in space with his grandfather (who'd previously been a genocidal monster) because of his puberty kicking in, and suggesting Clark wanted, not needed, her and that she prioritised her journalism over her family. Fans were also annoyed at the lazy writing as Lois' reasons and assurances were pretty much verbatim what Bendis had already said in interviews about the state of the relationship. Superman #7 seems to address these issues as Lois was actually overwhelmed being a normal human with a superhuman family treated like royalty by aliens across the universe and decided that Jon was in safe hands with Jor-El, who is "revealed" to be insane — although many are still not happy with that at all, given how out of character it was to trust Jor-El in the first place. - Jon's sudden aging up into a 17-year-old. Nobody seems to like it, as it ages Jon ahead of his best friend Damian, skips over what would have been interesting character development and for some inexplicable reason puts him closer in age to Conner Kent, who Bendis reintroduced over in Young Justice. The random scar doesn't help. Many are hoping that it will be undone somehow. Not helping matters is Bendis saying that Jon and Conner will meet and discuss the usage of the name, implying that one of them will change — Bendis' treatment of Jon has led many to assume that it will be Jon, who arguably fits the name better than Conner. It also got worse with Legion of Super-Heroes returning with Bendis in charge of writing and Jon joining the Legion, likely being the reason for his aging up and they're dreading up that he might get completely outfocused and forgotten on the main books.note
- Bendis seems aware of the outrage and... doubled down by mocking Super Sons in a now-deleted tweet. The Legionnaires also call Damian "Baby Hitler", in Issue #3 of Legion of Super-Heroes (2020)
- In Action Comics #1028, Bendis then pulls a Take That, Audience! by having a little kid say that Jon should team up with Robin and no one else, ever.
- Bendis seems aware of the outrage and... doubled down by mocking
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character.
- Melody Moore is introduced as an idealistic and upstanding firefighter who was inspired by Superman's example to run for mayor of Metropolis and, hopefully, put an end to its corruption. Unfortunately, she is murdered by the Red Cloud before her campaign can even get off the ground.
- We don't learn that much about the Marisol Leone, the leader of the Invisible Mafia. She just shows up, buys the Daily Planet, wants to keep her criminal empire a secret from Superman and hails from Earth-3. When Superman and his allies begin dismantling the Invisible Mafia, she just packs her bags and leaves for another universe and readers learn absolutely nothing about her.
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