"For me, the real thing was writing a Superman who's a bit more rough and ready and who threatens people quite happily," he says. "I didn't expect to enjoy that as much as I enjoyed doing the Zen Superman, but I've been really having fun with this brash kid Superman who doesn't have any parents to tell him what not to do."
Morrison thought this version of Superman would give the mythology a little bit of vitality, and people responded to that: Of the 52 first issues DC relaunched, Action Comics was only one of three titles — along with Justice League and Batman— that topped 200,000 in retailer sales. "They really like to see a Superman who's a little younger and more aggressive," Morrison says.
"Definitely, we needed to see a Superman who could be beat up a little bit and could suffer a little bit more like us, rather than the character who could juggle planets. That was a definite decision, and also to bring him to a dead standstill," he explains. "I wanted the speeding bullet that brings him to a dead stop, so that we could start the second issue with Superman in chains. He's trapped, he can't move and it's about getting him out of that situation."
Like Superman, Luthor is a younger man than comics fan were used to pre-relaunch. (He was actually the president of the United States at one point.) Morrison asked Morales to draw him as someone who was fat and has slimmed down but is still quite body conscious. Because of that, Superman annoys him, which is only a little piece of the deep-seated jealousy that drives Luthor.
"Really, he's a very smart young guy who's chugging back energy drinks and coming up with all these fantastic patents that are beginning to make him wealthy," Morrison says. "He's at the start of his journey toward being the tycoon Luthor, but there are certain elements in Metropolis that are still in his way. It's not only Superman but the government and the social infrastructure. We're going to see a lot of that, as well. In a lot of ways, Luthor's enemies are also Superman's enemies."
To do a good Superman comic, Morrison feels one needs to treat Luthor almost as a hero, too, where his motivations come from a recognizable place — in this, he sees Superman as a dangerous alien threat to human life and development.
"He has his reasons and they almost kind of make sense," Morrison says. "But then you dig a little deeper and you find this very petty, jealous, envious man, and unfortunately that's what drives his brilliance. He's a very strong character and has to be a real balance with Superman."
Lane, the father of intrepid reporter Lois Lane, also plays an important role in Morrison's first six-issue story arc and is the major pivot on which the story turns, the writer says. How Superman gets his later outfit and goes from being Metropolis' most wanted to the world's first superhero is reflected in Lane's attitude as he gets to know Superman better.
Morrison feels his robust, indestructible Superman is defined in a way by his relationship to the big city coming from the heartland of Smallville. Metropolis is like New York City, but a place that is rife with corruption and needs a guy like Superman, Morrison says. "Even though it's the 'City of Tomorrow,' the monorails are covered in graffiti — it's like New York in the '70s, almost the Taxi Driver world."
Fans also saw a glimpse of Supes' mild-mannered, bespectacled alter ego, Clark Kent, in his civilian life doing laundry in the first issue. And they'll see more: The third issue "is all Clark Kent pretty much," Morrison says, laughing. "I think Superman's in about two panels in that one.
"Again, it's about his relationship to authority and again he is as much of a crusader as Superman but in a very different way."
Instead of working at the Metropolis paper of record, the Daily Planet, Clark works for the rival Daily Star, which adds extra tension to the series. In one of the later issues, he gets a job offer from the Planet, but he's torn because of the loyalty for his editor, George Taylor.
He was the guy who discovered Clark "writing blogs and doing music reviews," Morrison says. "That's the way I wanted to bring Clark up, as someone who's made a name for himself on the Internet and has made the leap into journalism."
Old favorites Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen are mainstays at the Planet in the new DC Universe, and Morrison is working to get all the familiar characters from Superman lore in slightly unfamiliar ways. He's also looking to give Superman a rogues' gallery beyond Luthor, beginning with the main new villain who appeared in Action Comics 1 in a minor role.
While one might think it'd be tricky to create a suitable antagonist for a guy who's nearly impossible to beat, there are ways, especially "if you think about how the character works and what his powers are," says Morrison, who will be relaunching his Batman Incorporated series early next year.
"In some cases, what I've done is derive a completely new idea from an old Superman idea like, say, the Kryptonite Man. You have to take that to the next level and imagine what that could be like if there were a bunch of them. There are always ways of making villains for Superman. In a lot of cases, people haven't tried to create enduring enemies.
By the end of the first story arc, Morrison will have Superman out of the jeans and in his normal superhero gear, although he's putting the Man of Steel in colored shirts and other clothing as Morrison jumps to different parts of his life in later issues, he says. "It takes away from the superhero costume idea and goes back to the idea of the brand and the visual impact."
Supes will also meet up with members of the Justice League in a scene, and Morrison thinks there's a lot of fun to be had having his hero meeting these other beings of mass power who are also very young.
"In a lot of ways, the book's about him dealing with being the father figure for the world and for the superheroes. You're the first of your kind, nobody's done anything like this, and suddenly there's an Aquaman?" Morrison says, adding that Superman will also be meeting a different take on the Legion of Super-Heroes.
"I want to go across the spread of the DC Universe but at the same time hold down the raw feeling that people have responded to."
