"Ask Matt" Fan Forum
Welcome to the Superman Homepage "Ask Matt" Fan Forum, where you get to ask Superman Comics Editor, Matt Idelson the questions you want answered!
That's right! Each month (or there abouts) the Superman Homepage is giving you the chance to ask Matt Idelson your questions about the Superman comic books.
How does it work? Simply complete the form below, placing your name, email address and question in the spaces provided, and each month I'll select the best 6 or so questions and put them to Matt Idelson. Matt's answers are placed on this page for all to see.
NOTE: The "Ask Matt" Fan Forum is NOT the place to ask questions about "Smallville", Superman movies or anything else outside the comics. Matt is the editor of the Superman comic books. Please only ask questions relating to the comics. If you have a non-comics related question you want answered, please use the Feedback Form.
Previous month's Questions and Answers can be seen in the Fan Forum Archives.
Here are Matt Idelson's answers to questions fans put to him for September 2009:
Matt's Answers
Adam (Email address withheld by request) asks:
Hey Matt, it's been a while since we've seen Mr. Mxyzptlk. Any chance that Superman, Supergirl, Superboy, Mon-El, or any other members of the Super-family will have a run-in with our favorite imp from the 5th Dimension?
Matt: Hey, Adam! You know, we had a pretty killer Mxy story in mind that we had to put the breaks on. My hope is that we can get to it once we're done dealing with those wacky Kryptonians. So the short answer is: not for a while, yet.
calvin bowes (Email address withheld by request) asks:
My question is about Kryptonite... Did it become deadly because of Krypton exploding combined with being on Earth or is it just the rock itself on Earth that makes it deadly? And would it be deadly on a planet with a red sun? And could Superman hold a piece of rock from that planet if it was brought to Earth before it exploded?
Matt: Actually, Calvin, the reason Kryptonians have a fatal weakness to Kryptonite is because it was irradiated when the planet exploded. That weakness isn't affected by whether a sun is red or yellow or blue or whatnot, and a Kryptonian would be affected even if he/she came across a hunk of the stuff in outer space. It doesn't matter if the rock is/was on Earth first. Interesting questions, to be sure!
666MasterOfPuppets (Email address withheld by request) asks:
Hey Matt, what's up. A long time ago, there was this developing subplot in the Super-books involving Rao. Years later, Busiek wanted to bring Rao back, making him take human form and live among us. Will we ever see that happen?
Matt: Yo, 666, how's it going? If you've been keeping up with ACTION, you know that another of Krypton's gods, the Flamebird, has been proven to be real. As for the Big R himself, let's just say we'll be getting into him in an interesting way next year.
Jacob (Email address withheld by request) asks:
Thanks for stepping out of the smoke-filled writers room for this simple guy's little ol' question, sir. Anyhow, months ago a promo image was released of a beaten up Superman seemingly on a hospital bed, hooked up to machines. Did anything ever become of that? Will anything ever become of it?
Matt: Ahhh, the great "Dan Jurgens mystery piece" that's been floating around out there. The long and short of that, Jacob, is that we were all geared up toward doing a storyline in the books right after the initial "New Krypton" crossover, but then decided to put it on the shelf for a while. Perhaps one day we'll come back to that - or it will go down in lore as all sorts of misinformation about what the story was about is spread on the internet. Mostly by me. ;-)
Duncan Bennett (duncanbennett6@hotmail.co.uk) asks:
Hey Matt, I really enjoyed "Adventure Comics #1" but was a bit curious why a decision was not made to explore the reunion with Ma in more detail (it wasnt even shown)? Not only that but his reunion with Superman was slightly glossed over in the "Legion of 3 Worlds" story too. It just seemed a bit disappointing that the joy of having Conner back wasn't expressed by the characters in print and is kinda left to our imagination.
Matt: A more than fair question (and reaction), Duncan. I decided I would go straight to the horse's mouth and ask ADVENTURE editor Liz Gehrlein if she'd like to explain herself. This is what she said: "Geoff wanted to set the tone of ADVENTURE COMICS from the first page - a calmer, gently-paced book. He described it to me as 'a chocolate chip cookie and a glass of milk, not a bag of Pop Rocks.' So our introduction to him in Smallville was played along those lines - Conner and Ma are full of love and joy and relief, and they express it more as a sigh than a shout."
Emy (Email address withheld by request) asks:
Hi, Matt! Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions! I wanted to ask you if we can expect a bigger role for Lois in the story arcs to come? She's been appearing so little lately and I consider her such an important character.
Matt: Oh, Lois will most certainly be getting an increasingly larger spotlight in the months to come, Emy. Have you seen the cover to ACTION #884 yet? Just the fact alone that her father is General Lane means you know Lois will be getting more to do - a lot more.
Allen (Email address withheld by request) asks:
In "Superman: Secret Files 2009", Brainiac entry, it says that, after Kandor was stolen, "Days later, the planet Krypton was destroyed." In the Supergirl entry, after Kandor was stolen, it says "Within weeks, Jor-El declared the planet doomed...", and then "Krypton exploded weeks later." So which is it; days or weeks? Personally, I prefer the latter (and that Brainiac did not destroy it as it cheapens Jor-El's prediction; maybe Brainiac tried and failed though).
Matt: Oops! My bad, Allen, you eagle-eyed fellow, you. It was indeed weeks after Brainiac's visit that Krypton went "boom," not days. As for whether Brainiac played a role in the planet's destruction, well, Superman certainly thinks so, but that's as definitive as we've gotten one way or the other. How's that for evasive?
Vinnie C. (Email address withheld by request) asks:
Hi Matt! Thanks again for taking the time to answer our questions! Now that we have a whole planet for Kryptonians, is there any chance we might see Sgt. Preus come back where he might be able to feel at peace or was he punched out of continuity during Crisis?
Matt: No plans for Sgt. P, Vinnie. Obviously, that entire Kandor storyline doesn't fit so well with everything we've done, unfortunately.
Donald Tidmore (Email address withheld by request) asks:
Back when Chris caused the Kent's apartment to blow up, Superman completely rebuilt the place incorporating Kryptonian technology. Then it's like you guys completely abandoned its use. Will we EVER see the apartment's Kryptonian tech get used again? Like why can't Lois use it periodically IN the comics to converse with her husband?
Matt: Good question, Donald! After that story and the subsequent arrival of new writers for the Superman books, we quietly made the decision to make the apartment more conventional in order to make Clark and Lois more relatable to the readers as characters. It's not that upgrading the apartment was a bad idea, but we didn't really feel like it fit the characters and stories that were planned. I wish we had had the space to address this in the books themselves. In hindsight, that omission was a mistake.
As for Lois, you've obviously noticed that she and Clark have had no communication with one another, save when Clark returned to Earth during "Codename: Patriot." The reason for this is caution on both their parts: Clark fearing that Zod might be spying on him, looking for signs of weakness in Clark's allegiance, and Lois, knowing of the anti-Kryptonian sentiment that has been brewing almost since Kandor arrived coupled with Jimmy's initial investigation into 7734, new that she might have eyes and ears on her given her special relationship as a reporter with Superman.
Andrew Marden (andrewpmarden@hotmail.com) asks:
Hi Matt, thanks as always for taking time to answer our questions! Speaking as a long-time reader, I was happy to see the recent re-introduction of the Daily Planet's other newsroom staffers: Ron Troupe, Cat Grant and Steve Lombard. But so far, aside from a few Cat Grant panels about her articles on Supergirl, there hasn't been much development with these characters. What are your plans with them going forward?
Matt: Well Cat's development will certainly be ramping into high gear in the months to come, both on the personal and professional front, Andrew, and we'll be getting into what Steve's about, too. We're still going back and forth on a couple of Ron ideas, but we'll see how that plays out.
David (Email address withheld by request) asks:
Will "Superman: World of New Krypton" be a self-contained story? That is, will it have a definite ending, or will it mainly serve as a precursor to a future story?
Matt: The latter, David. WONK (as we like to call it) will lead straight into WONK 2: SON OF WONK (also as we like to call it, though there's no way in hell I'll get that title approved) which debuts in March of next year. Believe you me - WONK is but the appetizer!
Steve asks:
Is the on-going legal battle over the rights to Superman something that the creative teams are aware of? I understand if you can't go into specifics, but is it causing any story alterations? Are there any areas of the mythos that you've been told not to go into because of it? Is it having any affect on you guys whatsoever?
Matt: Oh, Steve, always trying to get me in trouble, aren't you? Do you hate my work on the books THAT much? Jokes aside, the creators certainly are aware of what's going on, owning as much to the internet as any discussions we've had. Regardless, it's been business as usual for all of us, which is as it should be.
Thanks for the questions, folks! As always, I'm sorry I wasn't more timely with my answers. Maybe after SUPES #700... no, wait, I'm only going to get busier then. Oh, well.
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