Posts tagged superman

(I started writing this post late last week, before I realized that DC would be announcing all of their launch titles this week. I don’t know that I can say this is done, because I haven’t really gotten around to talking much about Superman/Clark himself, but I wanted to get it out there before DC officially announces the Superman titles, which should be Friday.

Oh, and my predicitions for the four Superman books to get announced: Superman #1, Action Comics #1, Supergirl #1 and Lois Lane #1.)

I can’t truly say that what follow are predictions, exactly. Speculation, surely. But based on the idea (which still hasn’t been proven true) that they’re making Superman younger, these are a couple of ideas I’d like to see if DC told me “Hey, Allen, we’re making Superman younger and we want you to run with it. How would this new Superman interact with his traditional supporting cast? Go.”

Lois Lane

Lois would be older than Clark Kent by several years. Not too much — say, if he’s 22, she’s pushing 30. She’s older enough that she’s established as a star reporter, she has her reputation underneath her, she knows who she is and what she’s about. Her story isn’t one of discovery as much as expansion, seeing her relationships with Clark and Superman build over time.

Oh, this isn’t the 1950’s-style “two-sided triangle” relationship. Lois knows that Clark is Superman. Well, not at first, not when Clark first starts at the Planet, but she figures it out pretty quickly. She’s a brilliant, award-winning investigative journalist, and she’ll be too close to him not to know what’s up. For her to be clueless about that fact for very long would be totally against her character.

But she doesn’t spend all of her time trying to get him to prove it. At first she might not understand the need, but as she observes both identites in practice, she comes to get why Clark needs time not being Superman and understands that his secret identity protects the people he cares about. She doesn’t tell him that she knows, but she subtly finds ways to help him keep his cover, especially as she grows to care more and more for Clark.

Eventually, of course, the secret will have to come out if their relationship is to grow, which I think it should do. That said, I don’t think they should get married in this new continuity. In fact, I think it might be awhile before they would even get together; if we’re exploring a 22-year-old Superman, you better believe that his being involved with a number of women would likely be part of that story. But someday, he and Lois will inevitably get together.

And I think they’d split up at some point after, which would be an entirely new type of Superman-Lois story than what we’ve seen: as exes, either amiable or antagonistic. Either way would certainly be something new for the relationship, and that’s the whole point of the reboot, right?

Not only do I think we’d see more of Clark “playing the field” before he and Lois get together, I think it would be good to get to explore more of Lois’ character outside the context of her relationship with Superman. While she’s certainly a supporting cast member of his books, I’d like to see more stories where she’s the focus. DC doesn’t have that many iconic female characters, and superpowers or not, Lois is definitely one of them. And she’s certainly a strong enough character to carry stories on her own. Hell, if she’s an award-winning investigative journalist, she might feel right at home in Detective Comics…

Jimmy Olsen

If we’re bringing Clark back to around age 22, his relationship with Jimmy can become a totally different beast. Instead of being the guy that Jimmy hero-worships, they can be great friends. They can be (and wow do I hate to use this term) “bros.” We don’t ever really get to see Clark as having regular people he can think of as peers — his friends almost all wear capes and tights — and I think it would be great for the character to allow that sort of friendship to grow.

Jimmy’s a couple of years older than Clark, and already works as a photographer at the Planet when Clark starts there. A quick and easy friendship forms between them. I can see Jimmy still being star-struck by Superman, and unlike Lois, I can see Jimmy not figuring out Clark’s dual identity — remember, most people will never assume that Superman even has a “secret identity,” so it’s just not something that will occur to him. Why would he ever think that this kinda-nerdy dude with glasses who plays video games and eats Chinese food and watches Metropolis Monarchs games with him be Superman?

Lana Lang

Jimmy can be Clark’s most normal friend, the one he doesn’t have to be super around, the one who appreciates him just for being Clark. But he’s got to have somebody he can talk to about the problems he runs into as Superman, someone who can give him relationship advice when he first goes out with Wonder Woman (oh, c’mon, you know it’s happening at some point), someone who can be honest with him and talk to him in a way no one else can.

He needs a best friend. And that best friend is Lana Lang.

She’s known him since they were toddlers, she was there when he discovered his powers, she’s always been his rock. They dated briefly in high school, but it didn’t work, though she’ll probably always love him. 

This isn’t the John Byrne-era Lana who was utterly destroyed when Clark left, however. She’s incredibly proud of him and the work he does. And she’s strong in her own right — she takes inspiration from him and tries to be super in her own way. If she’s 22-ish, the same age as Clark, she’s just starting law school… in Metropolis, of course. She might not have his superpowers, but she’s going to change the world as best she can.

Oh, and she and Lois will butt heads like nobody’s business, which will be understandable given how much they have in common.

Supergirl

If Superman’s 22-ish, it makes sense for Supergirl to be, say, 14-ish. And if she’s 14-ish, why, that’s a perfect age for her to star in a series geared toward a younger audience! Maybe even a more predominantly female audience! Her character wouldn’t have to change; the fundamentals of Supergirl work whether she’s nineteen or fourteen or eleven.

She needs to cover up her damn belly, though. DC has plenty of heroines to sex up — let Supergirl be wholesome, OK?

Superboy

Since I started writing this, we’ve seen that Superboy’s going to be in the horrific-looking new Teen Titans book (in an even more wretched “costume” than he wears currently). No idea what this new Superboy’s backstory is going to be, but I don’t know that having him be a combo-clone of Clark and Lex Luthor will still make sense. I’m not sure what they’re doing here.

My idea, though, was going to keep the combo-clone idea — but move him into the 31st Century for a new Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes series. He could be a clone of Superman and Luthor created 1,000 years in the future and fit right in with the Legion.

1. The “new” Superman will be somewhere around 20 years old.

Those of us in our thirties and forties and older have a very specific vision of how old Superman should be, and that vision is largely informed by the portrayals of George Reeves and Christopher Reeve and the drawings of artists like Curt Swan and John Byrne. To us, Superman is an Adult. Even though DC tried to peg his age at 29 for a long time (are they still doing that?), he was a full-grown man who had his shit figured out.

If you’re in your mid-twenties or younger and you’re into Superman, however — and especially if you’re not a current comics reader, the people DC’s trying to hook — you’ve mainly seen him played by Tom Welling and Brandon Routh. Superman, then, is more someone in his early twenties, still figuring his way into the world. Not only does have this massive power, he’s trying to learn exactly what his place is, what his responsibilities really are, what it means to be a hero, to be Superman.

So I bet that DC lines up the “new” Superman to reflect that younger sensibility. And y’know what? I’m totally fine with that, as I think it’s a valid approach to take and plenty of good stories could come out of it.

(Be honest: when you saw the Lee-drawn cover to Justice League #1, you first thought that was Superboy and not Superman, didn’t you?)

For decades, Superman has been presented as the guy everyone in the DCU looks up to for inspiration and advice — he’s the Dad of the DCU (and Wonder Woman is the Mom and Batman is Crazy Uncle Earl).

But I don’t think that’ll be true anymore. Superman won’t be the fountainhead from which all heroism in the DCU springs — while still competent and powerful, we’ll now see him earning that respect from his elders. And by “elders” I mainly mean Batman (see point two below).

Also, I guarantee you he’s not married to Lois anymore. More on Lois and Superman to come in a later post.

2. Batman will be largely unchanged.

Batman goes under “if it ain’t broke.” Creatively and financially, Bats is in good shape right now, so I assume he’ll largely get left alone. (The same might not hold true for his extended family.)

I can see Batman filling some of the void created by the youthenizing (as opposed to euthanizing) of Superman. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Batman as less an urban legend and more as an inspirational figure. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see Batman as a mentor to Superman (possibly reluctantly so), a relationship structure we’ve never really seen played out with them but that would make total sense given the current view of each in the mainstream media.

As I talked about yesterday, Grant Morrison’s been building a huge Batman story for several years that’s clearly not done. And the Batman books seem to be just about the only books in DC’s lineup that aren’t bringing their current story arcs to an end with their August-shipping issues. I supsect there will be changes to the details of his origin and status quo, but I doubt they’ll be all that severe.

Dick Grayson, on the other hand…

3. If this change sticks, we’ll be spending the next five to ten years adding back in everything that gets removed.

Let’s say, just for sake of argument, that in the new DC timeline, Barry Allen never died. There was no Crisis, he never sacrificed himself to save the universe, Wally never took over as the Flash, never got shunted aside and ignored when Geoff Johns decided to bring Barry back. Wally remained Kid Flash — and, if there’s a bunch of de-aging going on, might just still be Kid Flash. (Personally, I’m betting that the new team of Teen Titans will have somewhat of a retro feel to its lineup.)

In that case… there’s no Impulse. Bart Allen would have no place in this realigned continuity. But given enough time, someone will make a case for him and find a way to work him back in.

If Superman’s twenty-ish, what happens to Superboy, who generally seems to be about eighteen these days? Do we end up with a twelve-year-old Connor Kent? (That might actually be interesting.)

While I don’t expect DC’s creators to slavishly imitate and re-engineer the stories that came before — that would be totally against the point of this reboot — I’m sure we’ll see “missing” characters or variations on those characters start to show up in the new timeline, much in the way the early years of the Ultimate universe were littered with alternate versions of existing mainstream Marvel heroes.

4. At least one previously white hero will now be black, and a surprising number of people will totally lose their shit over it.

Do you remember how many people freaked right the hell out when it was revealed that Heimdall would be played by Idris Elba in Thor? People’s heads straight-up exploded with oh-of-course-I’m-not-racist rage, and that was over friggin’ Heimdall, a character who could at best be called “minor.”

So can you imagine what those people will do if, say, Dick Grayson or Tim Drake all of a sudden has always been African-American? Or Lois Lane or Jimmy Olsen? None of those characters are in any way defined by their race, but I guarantee you that if that race gets changed, the comics blogosphere will go apopletic. 

And I will be very, very disappointed to be proven right.

(Though maybe it would lead to more idiot-bashing from Comics Alliance, which would be just fine with me. They’re good at it.)

5. Only about thirty to thirty-five of the fifty-two launch titles will be ongoing series.

I’m betting on a ton of one-shots and mini-series that will be used to define new takes on characters and flesh out this new world, but no way are they moving forward with fifty-two new ongoings. As David Uzumeri said on Comics Alliance today, I’m not sure there’s even fifty-two quality creative teams in all of comics, much less enough to make sure each of these proposed fifty-two books is a quality product.