I]Note - art not from the series[/I].
Early days, early days.
That’s the focus of two new series form DC, recounting the early days of both Superman and Batman -
Superman Confidential and
Batman Confidential. Both series launch in November, and aim at showing key moments of the heroes earliest’ days as heroes –first meetings, critical decisions, the forging of alliances, and laying the roots of friendships.
As the series will tell individual arcs, both will see rolling creative teams pass through, with Darwyn Cooke and Tim Sale launching
Superman Confidential and Andy Diggle and Whilce Portacio handling the opening arc of
Batman Confidential.
We spoke with Diggle about how he landed the gig, and what he’s bringing to the table with his story.
“I think the moment it all started was probably when Jock and I bounded up to Bob Schreck at the bar at the Bristol comic con a couple of years ago and babbled at him about how much we’d love to do a Batman story,” Diggle replied when asked how he landed on the new title’s first arc. “Bob was like, ‘Cool!’ And that was that - until later that year at the San Diego Comic Con where, right out of the blue, Bob offered me
Detective Comics. I couldn’t believe it!”
But, given that this isn’t a story about Diggle writing
Detective Comics, and given that Diggle had a
lot gong on when the offer was made, by the time he got around to making his pitch there’d been an editorial shuffle at DC, Schreck was no longer the Bat-editor, and a new
Detective team was already in place.
“But,” Diggle continued, “Dan Didio came over to London later that year, and we chatted about what I had in mind - a Batman versus Lex Luthor story. Well, I say ‘chatted’ - what I actually did was engage in an enthusiastic beer-fueled rant, most of which detailed the choreography of an elaborate action sequence featuring a Mach-3 face-off between the Bat-Plane and a 200-foot tall war robot outside Area 51. As you do.
“I recall Dan’s eyes narrowed and he made this sort of non-committal ‘Hmm,’ and I thought, ‘That’s it, I’ve just blown it. He thinks it sucks!’ Turns out what he was thinking was that my take on Batman didn’t sound like the traditionally low-key
Detective style of story, and that it might actually make a great launch arc for
Batman Confidential.
“It was my feeling that DC had tried so hard to ground Batman in a gritty urban ‘reality’ in the post-Dark Knight era, maybe they’d lost sight of that fact that at its heart it’s still supposed to be a
superhero comic. And I passionately believe that superhero comics should be about speed and energy and movement, thrilling adventures and spectacular action. Not just, y’know, whining and soap. So my story begins as a mystery, develops into a conspiracy, and then explodes into all-out, balls-to-the-wall chunky robot action.”
As mentioned earlier, the idea behind the two new
Confidential titles is to illustrate key moments in the character’s lives. As you probably guessed from Digggle’s comments, his story focuses on Batman’s first encounter with Lex Luthor.
“I know Luthor’s traditionally been Superman’s arch-nemesis, but it intrigued me how similar he and Bruce Wayne actually are on the surface,” Diggle explained. “They’re both brilliant, driven, super-rich billionaire industrialists, each seeking to change the world for what they see as the betterment of mankind. So on the surface, there’s not much to differentiate between them, and neither knows about the other’s shadowy double life... yet. But once you scratch away the veneer, you see they have very different ideas as to what constitutes the public good - although both are using extreme, secretive measures to pursue their agendas. I think that leads to some interesting contrasts, interesting dramatic friction.”
Given the storyline, the meeting, and thus the arc take place somewhere during Batman’s second year in business. “He hasn’t yet made peace with his inner demons - there’s still a lot of anger in him, which he channels into violence. He’s not yet the calm forward-planner he will later become. He’s still a little green, still a little rough around the edges, and he doesn’t yet have the huge arsenal of high-tech gadgets. That said, he does pick up a few cool toys during the course of the story - not least the Bat-Plane, which is a prototype VTOL stealth fighter being developed by Wayne Aerospace.
“In short, WayneTech and LexCorp are each competing for a multi-billion dollar government defense contract. Needless to say, Lex Luthor has bigger plans than merely
selling weapons. He plans to use them for himself - and in a big way. So when bodies start dropping in Gotham City, Batman takes a personal interest. And then the giant robots turn up...
“Oh, and as for Whilce - what can I say? A picture tells a thousand words, and Whilce’s artwork speaks for itself!”
Artwork colored by Mark Chiarello
As we already reported, DC will be kicking off two new series in November, focusing on the early days of their most popular heroes. While
Batman Confidential will focus on the early days of the Dark Knight,
Superman Confidential will examine the earlier days of the Man of Steel through the eyes of rotating creative teams.
First up on the series – a six issue arc written by Darwyn Cooke and illustrated by Tim Sale. We caught up with the artist for more on the arc.
To begin with, when asked, Sale explained that getting on the book was easy enough. “I was approached by Dan DiDio. Jeph [Loeb] had recently signed with Marvel, and I had still obligations under my exclusive contract with DC that needed honoring, and Dan had come up with the idea of the
Superman and
Batman Confidential titles. He knew of my admiration for Darwyn's work, and that I had expressed to Mark Chiarello that I would love to someday work with Darwyn, and once Dan said that Darwyn would be writing, I was in.”
Following along with Didio’s vision for the
Confidential titles, like the story in
Batman Confidential’s first arc, the series tells of key moments in Superman’s history, in this case, the first time he ran into that little souvenir from home – Kryptonite.
“Darwyn had dug up the first kryptonite story from 1949 by Bill Finger and Al Plastino and we took that as our jumping off point,” Sale explained. “Our version is very different in both style and plot, but there are structural things in the tale that are similar. It's really Darwyn's baby, we didn't discuss much, only things like what I think is fun to draw, and Darwyn's instincts along those lines are really good.
“Our story is set when Superman is young and just discovering the extent of his powers. It is also very early in his relationship with Lois.”
In order to show that
Superman Confidential’s Superman isn’t the modern-day version, but rather a slightly greener version of the hero, Sale said that he went back to the approach he took with
Superman For All Seasons.
“The art style I'm using is different, but the innocence that my Superman has is the same,” the artist said. “There is more variety in his expressions perhaps, in this version than the one I drew in
For All Seasons.”
The fact that this story’s look doesn’t quite match that in
For All Seasons was a deliberate choice Sale made, he explained. “I wanted very much to have a different look than
For All Seasons, both because I want that look to be special for the stories I do with Jeph, and because I felt this story deserved its own look. I do think I have matured as an artist since then also, and there will be some difference from that, too.”
One of the aspects of the art Sale gives a good deal of thought to is one of the larger challenges of Superman – drawing Clark and Superman as the same person, but at the same time, in a manner so that it’s believable that people in Superman’s world just might
not catch on that the mild mannered reporter is also the world’s greatest hero.
“For me, it's largely in the hair and clothes,” Sale said. “Body language, too, but I don't draw Clark sort of stooped the way they do in the movies, he's still a big guy. It's one of those comic book cheats that I just bypass, that Clark combs his hair and puts on glasses and a suit, and suddenly he's unrecognizable. He's as big as a house, and no one suspects, he's just a farm kid.”
In regards to working with Cooke, Sale said that the process has been an easy once, given that they share the same approach. “It's great, and we very much see Superman in the same way. The sense of what makes these people tick, and what's fun about them, is in large part what I liked about Darwyn's
New Frontier.
Although - Sale said that there was a slight learning curve as their styles meshed and adapted – particularly when it came to Superman’s villains. “Darwyn is fond of some of the more cartoony aspects of the villains in Superman's gallery, and I'm not so much, and so getting my swerve on when it came to them was challenging, but there is so much in Darwyn's writing that I just couldn't wait to get to draw, that it was fun.
“Also, there’s a scene at a volcano in issue two, intercut with a scene of Lois, that I felt I just nailed. It was really fun to contrast the styles and emotions.”
Finally, the artist did give one final hint of something to keep an eye out for in the story: “Darwyn does plant the seed of a character motivation in issue two that I think is brilliant, and long overdue. One of those things that seems so obvious once it's done that you can't believe it's never been done before.”
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