The Official Superman Thread - Part 2

[X Knight]

I'm actually more interested in what they will do with Kara and Conner in their respective books than I am with Supes himself.......lol

 

[Scarecrow_King]

me, too. Despite the cosmetic changes and the origin tweaks they're making, Superman is more than likely gonna turn out the same character he's been for the past 25 years. But Kara and Conner are minor enough characters for them to completely overhaul.

I couldn't care less about Kara, but Conner is a character that I've loved for years and and anxious to see how they're going to ruin him and how quickly I'm going to drop the book. (Which I think is inevitable)

 

[X Knight]

me, too. Despite the cosmetic changes and the origin tweaks they're making, Superman is more than likely gonna turn out the same character he's been for the past 25 years.

I couldn't care less about Kara, but Conner is a character that I've loved for years and and anxious to see how they're going to ruin him and how quickly I'm going to drop the book. (Which I think is inevitable)

well aren't you the optimist........lol

but yeah.......if I don't like the way the characters are portrayed in the relaunch, I'm dropping the books, too.

and that goes for Supes himself.......

 

[Scarecrow_King]

Kara's just not a character I could ever get into. Since her first appearance in Loeb's Superman/Batman story, I thought she was a shallow, vain, *****. Never wanted to find out if she got better.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Kara's character got much better once Sterling Gates took over the book. It was like reading a completely different book about a completely different character. That's how dramatic the difference was.

 

[Scarecrow_King]

maybe I'll pick up a trade if I see it in a Half-Price.

 

[X Knight]

Kara's character got much better once Sterling Gates took over the book. It was like reading a completely different book about a completely different character. That's how dramatic the difference was.

too bad they're hitting the reset button.......lol

hopefully her character didn't take too drastic of a hit......

but, judging from the solicit descriptions and interviews......well.......

otoh, I am eager to see what new powers they give her......

 

[Drz]

Grant Morrison Interview!

Even Morrison didn't know about this relaunch till March lol.

You're about to relaunch Action Comics, DC Comics' longest-running title. Will your revamp of Superman be as major as John Byrne's back in 1986?
Yeah, possibly. Probably as much, although he changed things quite considerably. I'm not using the costumes, just jeans and t-shirt, a Bruce Springsteen Superman. The original champion of the repressed Superman, the socialism and stuff, I wanted a bit of that.

Was this done in consultation with a bunch of people?
DC came to me in March and said they're relaunching all this stuff, and did I want to do Superman, and I didn't, but then when he said, "Would you do Action Comics #1?" I said, 'This is a nice ending to Supergods," so I agreed, and I was quite surprised that they let me do everything and let me change it so radically.

Morrison's view on the relaunch:

DC is relaunching its entire line – is there some desperation there?
There's always going to be a bit of that because comics sales are so low, people are willing to try anything these days. It's just plummeting. It's really bad from month to month. May was the first time in a long time that no comic sold over 100,000 copies, so there's a decline.

Maybe it's for the best that DC Comics is starting over now.
But I don't know. There's been lots of things, the sexism in DC because it's mostly men who work in these places. Nobody should be trying to say we're taking up a specifically anti-woman stance. I think it would be ignorance or stupidity or some God knows what. I was reading some Alan Moore Marvelman for some reason today. I found one in the back there and I couldn't believe. I pick it up and there are ****ing two rapes in it and I suddenly think how many times has somebody been raped in an Alan Moore story? And I couldn't find a single one where someone wasn't raped except for Tom Strong, which I believe was a pastiche. We know Alan Moore isn't a misogynist but ****, he's obsessed with rape. I managed to do thirty years in comics without any rape!

Remember folks that May had both Fear Itself and Flashpoint, this year's biggest selling comic so far is Death of Spider-Man conclusion with almost 200 thousand copies sold, not counting digitally.

Morrison talks about Mark Millar more:

Do you still hang out with your former protégé Mark Millar at all?
No.

Is that an estranged situation?
It's a can of worms. I met Mark when he was 18, and I really got on with him, because he laughed at all my jokes. He has the same sense of humor as me, he's very dark, and has that sense of humor, so we bonded. I used to phone him every day, and we ended up doing some work together on 2000 AD, which went well. It was funny stuff, we'd meet in the pub and get drunk and do this Big Dave strip, which was a comedy strip, and obviously, he was trying to get into American comics, so I got him on in Swamp Thing, and they asked me to write the book but I said, "Let's get Mark in, let's give him a job," so I consulted with him on the stories, and so on through the Nineties.

When he got the Authority book, his star started to rise, and at that point, he felt he was in my shadow and he had to get out, and the way to get out was to do this fairly uncool split. It was quite hard, I felt, but he had to make his own way, and he was in denial that I'd been there, because I saw a lot of his work had been plotted or devised, even dialogue suggestions were done by me right up until the point of The Ultimates. It was seen by him as a dimunition of his position, even though it wasn't, I was quite proud of him as a mentor. He's done well without me, he has his own style, he does his own stuff. It was kind of that archetype, you get caught up in that story.

You came out and acknowledged this, but that was after the estrangement?
Yeah. Before that, everyone in the business knew that I was working with him, it was obvious, I was 10 years older, I was already successful. His star rose, and that history became sidelined.

He still lives in Glasgow, is there a chance of bumping into him?
There's a very good chance of running into him, and I hope I'm going 100 miles an hour when it happens.

Doesn't this pretty much confirm what people have suspected: Ultimate Thor is more of a Morrison creation. Also that last response is so cynical lol.

 

[Tron Bonne]

He still lives in Glasgow, is there a chance of bumping into him?
There's a very good chance of running into him, and I hope I'm going 100 miles an hour when it happens.

 

[Mystirious]

I was reading some Alan Moore Marvelman for some reason today. I found one in the back there and I couldn't believe. I pick it up and there are ****ing two rapes in it and I suddenly think how many times has somebody been raped in an Alan Moore story? And I couldn't find a single one where someone wasn't raped except for Tom Strong, which I believe was a pastiche. We know Alan Moore isn't a misogynist but ****, he's obsessed with rape. I managed to do thirty years in comics without any rape!

There wasn't anything like that in Promethea as far as I can remember

 

[CrimsonMist]

Ah man. The rape of Johnny Bates in Miracleman #14....that whole section is easily one of the scariest things I've ever read. And then Miracleman #15...that book left me empty.

 

[Mystirious]

Miracle Man 15 was horrific

One of the darkest and most disturbing comic books I've ever read

 

[CrimsonMist]

Miracle Man 15 was horrific

One of the darkest and most disturbing comic books I've ever read

And if it could truly be said, it's also one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read. That's what separates Alan Moore from, say, Geof Johns.

 

[Young Superman]

I miss the classic costume. IMHO it's iconic and should not be changed. But then again what do I know, I'm also the guy who thinks Kal-El should have stayed the sole survivor of the doomed planet Krypton.

 

[Mystirious]

But what about Krypto and Streaky

And if it could truly be said, it's also one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read. That's what separates Alan Moore from, say, Geof Johns.

Agreed

 

[Tron Bonne]

I've always found the whole 'there's so much rape in Alan Moore' to be rather hyperbolic. He has used the trope a lot, but it's absent in all of his superhero work (outside The Killing Joke, debatably), and even some of his other work like Halo Jones and later volumes of LOEG. I think Morrison was being a little tongue-in-cheek, though, but it seems to be something that people bring up a lot that I've never gotten.

 

[Drz]

Later volumes of LOEG? I thought Invisible Man was raping catholic girls right from the beginning.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Yeah, at beginning he was. There wasn't any explicit rape in Century (so far) or The Black Dossier, the later volumes, though.

EDIT: Actually, hell, I have to take that back. Nemo's daughter did actually get raped in 1910.

 

[Anubis]

Well, didn't James Bond try to rape Minia?

I mean, he didn't succeed, but there was an attempt.

To tell you the truth, with Moore it tends to be a lot more Man rape really.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Well, didn't James Bond try to rape Minia?

I mean, he didn't succeed, but there was an attempt.

To tell you the truth, with Moore it tends to be a lot more Man rape really.

Did he? I remember he beat on her some, but I don't remember him actually trying to rape her. But maybe, it's been a long time since I read Black Dossier. So, yeah, guess the later LOEG wasn't the best example, but eh, most of what I said is still pretty true.

 

[Anubis]

Also, lots of man rape.

 

[Mystirious]

Like Mr Hyde taffying the Invisible Man

A sentence I never thought I would type

 

[Willi Berg]

http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2011/08/22/dc-comics-exclusive-covers-batman-superman-revamped-heroes-and-digital-will-save-the-day/#/0

 

[Tron Bonne]

Wow, that is a surprisingly very frank interview about the subject. I'm really not convinced this will actually work, but I do think Didio and co. just did a good job of selling the intention behind it as much than just a common gimmick taken to a high level.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I don't know, I can't really manage to care about long-term business problems and such. I'm one of those die-hard fans who's never going away, so the attempt to get new readers is irrelevant to me. The behind-the-scenes stuff holds little allure for me. Only time it really enters my attention span is when great comics get canceled after like 5 issues because of low sales or whatever.