Inter-Action
"Ask Matt" Fan Forum Archives
Here are Matt Idelson's answers to questions fans put to him in January-April 2010:
Matt's Answers
Viv (Email address withheld by request) asks:I've been reading Superman since "Crisis on Infinite Earths" and in my humble opinion, "All-Star Superman" has been among the most iconic and enjoyable interpretations of the Man of Steel. I enjoyed this alternate take so much that it became difficult to read the Superman found in the regular titles. He and his world just weren't as cool as the All-Star version, in spite of the heartfelt attempts by the creative teams. I stuck it out for a long time, but when Superman wasn't even the star in his two main books, I had to drop both titles. Occasionally I flip through them and WORLD OF NEW KRYPTON to see what I'm missing, but nothing thus far has made me want to read them again. That's kind of sad because I really love the character. Will we ever see the All-Star characterization again? I'm not necessarily talking about that continuity, I'm referring to Grant Morrison's version where there's so many imaginative ideas loaded into one issue where Superman is and always will be the focal point. I'd like to be able to come back to the titles and find that guy again.
Matt: Hey, Viv. Thanks for your honesty and for providing well thought-out criticisms (as opposed to the usual, unhelpful flaming I usually face when someone's not happy). We knew going into the whole NEW KRYPTON thing that we were taking a risk, and that it was very possible not everyone would be happy with the direction we were going in. And I don't mind saying that a few logistical potholes opened up along the way that often prevented us getting ahead of the curve in the way that we would have liked. But you'll no doubt be happy to learn that the NEW KRYPTON saga is about to draw to a close. Come the end of May, all of the threads will be resolved, and a new direction will begin for Supes and his books. In fact, anything and everything occurring in J. Michael Straczynski and Eddy Barrows' SUPERMAN run will be about nothing BUT Superman.
Supergirl's Pal (Toyscout@Hotmail.com) asks:
Hi Matt, I doubt the Joint Chiefs of Staff or the President of the United States would condone General Lane's recent actions against the Superman Family and New Krypton. Will we see him justifying his methods to his superiors? Even General MacArthur got fired in the middle of a war. Keep up the good work!
Matt: Heya, SG's P! Yeah, Lane has really done a good job so far of manipulating the public's and government's fears about the Kryptonians to his advantage, but eventually, every crime and every secret comes to light (in both comics and real life), and I think Lane will have some explainin' to do before long. Now whether HE thinks he's done anything wrong is another question entirely.
Tomas (Email address withheld by request) asks:
Heya Matt, With WONK ending and Marc Guggenheim taking over ACTION COMICS, what's next for Greg Rucka? Will he be writing any more Superman-related stories in the near future? And if he is, will any involve a certain imp he wrote so well during his run on ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN?
Matt: Sadly (for both you and me), Greg's wrap up on ACTION is his wrap up on Supes-related characters and titles for the time being. But I love working with him, and he tolerates me fairly well, so my hope is we'll be reunited in creative bliss sooner than later. And just showing how embarrassingly long it's taken me to respond to you folks, Paul Cornell will be running the ship on ACTION rather than Guggs.
Ryan (Email address withheld by request) asks:
Sales on Superman books are down 40% from this time last year, and have dropped every month since November 2008. See: http://tinyurl.com/yfjsu2b. What does this tell editors about fan response to the current storyline and characters like Mon-El, Flamebird, Nightwing, et al? Since the upcoming WAR OF THE SUPERMEN is a continuation of this long drawn out death, how do you plan to win back those 20,000 readers who have dropped the book? And what could DC have done to prevent this exodus?
Matt: Hey there, Ryan! Always good to get challenged with an outside-the-norm question, bud. I think the drop in sales mostly tells us that readers didn't really cotton to the idea of Supes being replaced in his books. That's actually a portion of the reason we took the WAR event, which was slated to run monthly starting in June, and shifted it into May as a weekly event. We want to make sure we tell as satisfying a conclusion to the New Krypton stuff for the readers that have remained with us, while also shortening the length of time the story will take to tell.
As for how we win readers back, I think the answer is to go in a bold, different direction starting the moment the WAR is over, which is what we're doing with all three titles (plus a couple pieces of surprise product we may have up our sleeves).
And finally, I think what we could have done to prevent this exodus is not opted to move up the release of WONK by 3 months (along with the departure of Superman) so that we could have better fleshed out and developed a following for those characters, and then shortened the length of the overall thing so that we were getting to the War in, say, January.
Jamie Dodds (sauronbaggins@hotmail.com) asks:
Hey Matt, thanks for taking the time to answer our questions. As a UK Superman fan, the planet Krypton has always fascinated me, with the New Krypton saga ongoing, is there ever a chance we will ever have a miniseries chronicling the events on old Krypton, such as Jor-El sending Kal-El to Earth, Jor-El meeting Lara etc, as it may not be covered in SUPERMAN: SECRET ORIGIN?
Matt: Howdy, Jamie! We won't be getting into life on Krypton in SO, and we don't have plans at the moment to explore that past. My sense, based on interaction with you, the readers, and overall sales trends, is that series not set in present continuity don't seem to fare very well. Still, it's a place I'd really like to get back to, perhaps after people have redeveloped a taste for things Kryptonian.
Jason (jaschul@gmail.com) asks:
Hi Matt, Jimmy Olsen appears in SUPERMAN: SECRET ORIGIN #3. This appearance contradicts the "origin" of Jimmy that appeared in SUPERMAN a couple of years ago that Kurt Busiek wrote. Why publish this contradiction? Also, when are we going to find out more about the Eradicators, particularly the Eradicator that made its way to Earth and played such an important role in bringing Superman back to life?
Matt: Fair questions, Jason. The Jimmy origin that Kurt wrote served the existing knowledge of the character at the time, and made for a terrific story. With SO, we're making the effort to reestablish several key points from Superman's mythos once and for all. And while I'm not a fan of changing recent continuity, sometimes it is necessary for the overall redefining of a character. That Jimmy thing isn't the only thing we're going to be changing before the series is over, and there's one point in particular which I'm looking forward to addressing after the series is over. My philosophy with continuity contradictions has always been to turn it around into a story point and go somewhere with it, and we'll definitely be doing that.
As for the Eradicators, that's just one of many concepts that didn't come to full fruition even though we had definitive plans for them. There were even some crossover ideas involving OUTSIDERS that were going to deal with that. Having said that, we're tucking Eradicator away for future use, as a new, bold idea is just starting to brew.
Kal-Gel (Email address withheld by request) asks:
Matt, as an avid reader of the superbooks I want to know why you think that merging concepts from all the eras of Superman's mythology is a good springboard to reconcile the disparate origins instead of working with what we had since Man of Steel?
Matt: Well JB definitely did a masterful job with cleaning things up with MoS, but going back to my point in the prior letter about utilizing contradictions as story points rather than just picking what you want and flushing the rest definitely came into play here. We wanted to honor all that came before, rather than tell some readers, "the run that you loved no longer counts." A good example of this is the various ways we've seen the Kryptonians portrayed. Why choose one look? Why not use them all as a way of fleshing out and defining Kryptonian society? Just call me Mr. Inclusive, I guess.
Wayne C. Brooks (brooks7507@comcast.net) asks:
When will we see Clark interact with some actual friends? I mean quiet times when he goes to a game with Jimmy and talks shop with (now) Police Commissioner Bill Henderson? The 1950's Superman TV show excelled at this. The most recent example was in BLACK LIGHTNING: YEAR ONE. In the series Clark and Jeff Pierce became fast friends and the Pierce family soon learned he could trust him. I would like to see more of the Jeff/Clark friendship as well as Clark & Lois meeting socially with the Pierces.
Matt: While we'll definitely be seeing some more human-level interaction between Supes and some of his fellow heroes after the War, the path JMS is putting Supes on is a long and lonely one, though the absence of such human friendships to a large degree speaks to what Mr. S. is going to be doing with the character. So I guess the answer here is: gratification...delayed!
Michael Sacal (Email address withheld by request) asks:
Matt, according to SECRET ORIGIN Clark's costume is based on his mother's observations of typical Kryptonian children's clothing in holographic recordings contained in Jor-El's rocket. Since the costume he wears as a child is the same one he wears as a grown man, doesn't that mean that now Superman is a grown man dressed as a child? Don't you think that makes the character slightly pathetic?
Matt: Bwahahahahah!!!!! That's a hilarious (if horrific) observation, Michael! You actually made me spit up my coffee with that one! The way I prefer (or at least NEED) to look at this is that while yeah, that's what Ma based the costume on, Superman subsequently served as something of the template from which many other heroes followed. Kind of the way people of all ages seem to wear their baseball caps backwards these days. Damn, that was funny, though.
Charles (Email address withheld by request) asks:
Time traveling question: As Conner was revived in LEGION OF THREE WORLDS, it took 1000 years for all the right pieces to fall into place in order for his return to be successful. After that, he, Bart and Superman return to the present. Does that mean the Kryptonian matrix is still housing his DNA in the Fortress? If something happened to it between now and the 31st century, would Conner be wiped out from existence? Or are we to assume that nothing happened in all that time for his revival to be successful?
Matt: You're correct, Charles, that the Fortress is still housing Conner's DNA, which is kind of creepy, and not just for him. And yes, that would seem to mean that the Fortress remains intact 1000 years from now. But as we're seeing currently in the LAST STAND crossover, time can be messed with, and then even corrected. Hypothetically, Earth could face obliteration, Conner's DNA could be removed from the Fortress, Supes could build a new Earth (a la New Krypton) and new Fortress and stick the DNA back in there. So assume nothing, pal!
Richard Hicks (brickhicks@hotmail.com) asks:
Why doesn't Superboy know who Kelex is? Also, back in the 90s Perry smoked cigars like they were going out of style. Then he was diagnosed with cancer. He beat it and quit smoking. Nowadays he's smoking again. What's up with that?
Matt: Both very good questions for very different reasons, Richard. SUPERBOY doesn't know about Kelex because he was off being dead in the 31st century when this new Fortress was created (at the conclusion of Last Son), and his memory regarding the prior versions of Kelex is obviously fuzzier than it should be.
As for Perry, that's one of those things that doesn't have a clean, perfect answer, as there are two very legitimate sides to the debate. On the one hand, Perry, cigar in hand or mouth, yelling at Jimmy or Clark is a classic bit of imagery, one that really defines the character. At the same time, smoking is quite bad for you, and we don't want to encourage readers to smoke. But then again, smoking is not illegal (in which case we'd totally want to take cigars out of the mix). And then there is another whole element to consider: preaching in comics. Are they escapist entertainment, allowing one to forget about the real issues both large and small that worry us all every day, or should we be addressing real-life topics in the book? I'm not a fan of the latter, as I think one's personal point of view on a topic clouds the issue, plus I like to be entertained. If I want to be educated, I'll watch the news or whatnot.
We could (and do) sometimes work themes in through allegory. Case in point: During the planning of AMAZONS ATTACK, it was proposed that we have internment camps for women sympathizers of the Amazons. I hated this idea, since it was a direct bit of commentary on the camps set up for terrorist suspects in Guantanamo Bay. My personal feelings on that topic were irrelevant in the context of AMAZONS - this was about our telling people what we thought of the topic through the unsubtle parallel in our story. If it's allegory, causing you to think a little, that can be different. The obvious example is the old Star Trek episode where the alien guy who's black on his left side and white on his right side is fighting to the death with the alien who's white on the left and black on the right, pointing out the lunacy of racism. That was clever, at least. That's my take. What are yours, regarding the Perry issue and the "real life in comics" topic?
Blair (Email address withheld by request) asks:
Matt, I was hoping you could clear something up for me, specifically, the circumstances of Superman's resurrection. After he died, the Eradicator put his body in a regeneration matrix and he was healed. I was wondering if this essentially makes Superman unkillable, as he would simply need to be put back in the matrix if he ever died again (in my opinion this would seriously cut down on the drama of life-or-death situations). Or was his return from death a one-time thing (and if so why)? Thanks.
Matt: Great, great question, Blair! The circumstances surrounding Supes' return from the dead were, happily (for us) a one time thing. Most people tend to forget that a lot of other factors went into Superman's return (including me - I had to be reminded by the editor of that epic, Mike Carlin), including the death of his father, and some spiritual elements that came into play there. Go back and reread the saga, and you'll find there were about four seemingly-unrelated elements that had to come into play somewhat simultaneously for Superman to return to life.
D.D. Mullen (hyperclan@googlemail.com) asks:
Hi Matt, This might seem obvious but is it officially considered the case at DC that Metropolis is geographically the Biggest, most successful, City on earth? I was trying to find something in print to confirm it but it seems curiously a vague point in the comics...
Matt: I would say that the answer is "yes," D.D. You have other terrific cities like Keystone and the like, and troubled places like Gotham, but for sheer size and modernity, I'd say Metropolis is the place to be.
Richard (Email address withheld by request) asks:
Matt: Lately, Supes' powers have lacked consistency. In one issue, he and Green Lantern stop Earth as Starbreaker pulls it harder and harder toward the Sun; another, he and many other Kryptonians fail to stop a smaller, speeding moon. He endures Sun Eater's massive red sunlight in one issue; loses his powers with a small shot of the stuff in another. That's not good, imo, as strains credibility.
Matt: I guess the basic problem (if I'm to be completely honest), Richard, is that you're comparing events within the Superman books I edit with titles he has appeared in that I don't work on. Because of the rapid-fire nature we all seem to be constantly working under, we can't always run things past each other for consistency concerns. Having said that, we just so happen to be addressing, DCU-wide, the defining and locking down of the various elements of the many characters we have, to get back to the kind of, well, consistency you're lamenting the lack of.
Carey Lester (track13d@yahoo.com) asks:
Is there any chance we will be getting another regular Superman book? Maybe a re-start of the ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN, and it starting where the SUPERMAN volume 2 left off in numbering? Then Superman would have all his books with the correct numbers back!
Matt: We DO have something in the planning stages, Carey, but I don't want to confirm or deny what you're asking, for secrecy's sake. Hopefully I can tell you more soon.
Kevin (Email address withheld by request) asks:
Matt, I feel a little confused concerning Supe's birth parents. I understand that Jor-El was a scientist according to WONK & his mother was a labor guild member. I have a two fold question: Why in the regular comics does Jor-El dress like he appeared in John Byrne's version of Krypton but appear in SECRET ORIGIN like he looked in SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE? And why was Zor-El in the Artist Guild if his brother was from the Science Guild? I hope you can clear my confusion concerning this.
Matt: Good questions, Kevin, though I sort of wish you hadn't asked the first one. We tried to use all the different looks given to Kryptonians over the many years as a way of explaining why they looked different from run to run, and at the same time honor those runs that came before ours. That's where we got the guilds from. Regarding your first question, we tried to straddle things a little, putting Jor-El in black, but not the John Byrne MAN OF STEEL look. When SECRET ORIGIN was first conceived, we had envisioned it running either bi-weekly in ACTION, or in ACTION and SUPERMAN for three or four months, to give readers a break from the initial spate of New Krypton stuff. We decided, though, that the series should stand on its own.
As is inevitable in this business with the monthly grind, things became a bit rushed on the regular books while SECRET ORIGIN was delayed a bit from when we first planned to announce it in order to get more work done on it. And like two ships passing in the night at really, really high speeds, we ended up with different looking costumes for Jor-El in the monthly books versus SECRET ORIGIN. We had originally planned to see the Jor-El hologram in the Fortress during "War of the Supermen," during which Jor would be wearing the duds from SECRET ORIGIN (which are ceremonial robes, like what we saw at Supergirl's Guild Ceremony and Zor-El's funeral), and we'd explain that. The scene ended up not happening, leaving us with the seeming discrepancy.
As for why the brothers chose different guilds, you need look no further for your answer than SUPERGIRL #43 (well, no, that's not true, you can just read this answer), in which Kara selected the guild she'd be in. This is a freedom afforded all Kryptonians, save those born to parents in the Labor Guild - they're stuck at the bottom of the food chain, something Kal-El took understandable issue with during WONK (not to mention the Labor Guild members themselves). Of course, if you're in the Labor Guild and lucky enough to marry an important person like Jor-El, you can "trade up" as it were.
Mike (kcbayliff@yahoo.com) asks:
Superman seems very vulnerable these days with kryptonite, all manner of Red Sun weapons and the like. Was this a conscious effort to make him more "beatable" and therefore easier to add drama to his comics? I appreciate how difficult it is to tell a story about an unbeatable hero, but why would not every villain worth his salt invest in Red Sun technology? At least kryptonite could be made rare and hard to find, but technology can be mass produced.
Matt: Most definitely true, Mike, and the prospect of red sun guns being mass-produced is something we've definitely taken into account, don't you worry. The decision behind developing this and other weapons came from the logic that with 100,000 Kryptonians showing up and scaring the beejezus out of General Lane, logic dictates that he would be developing any possible weapons he could. And thanks to Luthor's efforts (for defeating just Superman), he's been able to get the incredibly sophisticated tech that he has.
Mark G. Anderson (spock-2@comcast.net) asks:
Matt, Thanks for taking our letters. As a biologist by education, I've always wondered over the past decades about Superman becoming completely powerless under a red sun. His genetic makeup gives him a physiology geared to Krypton's heavier gravity. So, under earth's lighter gravity respectively, he should still be stronger than even earth's strongest person.
Matt: Excellent reasoning, Mark! However, I happen to sport a masters in comic book pseudo-science, so I know that the rays of a red sun have the same effect that you or I getting zapped with radiation would, the difference being that if the source of the red sunlight isn't constant, our Kryptonians eventually get over the effects. How's that for a lame response?
Carey Lester (track13d@yahoo.com) asks:
Why does DC insist on keeping the S as coming from Krypton? It was ridiculous in Superman: The movie, birthright, and now. It wasn't originally that way, and is one of the reasons many people think the character is only for children. An advanced alien race, that uses Hieroglyphs in their written language, just happens to have a symbol with an english S, when no other families crest uses english letters, send their son to earth and he is named Superman. Byrne's MOS got it right!
Matt: A fair point, Carey, and one we've gone back-and-forth on a lot, both in-house and with the creative types. I happen to be in your camp, but I obviously lost that fight. Truthfully, we talked about this so much, I can't even remember what the final reasoning was.
Steve asks:
Matt, I'm curious to know when and how "Blackest Night" fits in with the whole "World of New Krypton" scheme of things?
Matt: We don't want to get too specific about that, Steve, just because it's kind of impossible to neatly fit it into a box. Having said that, my best answer is between SUPERGIRL #43 and WONK #12.
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