2005 Comic Book News Archives

Superman/Batman #22

May 23, 2005: Jeph Loeb Talks “Superman/Batman” With a Vengeance

Newarama sat down with Jeph Loeb to ask him about his return to "Superman/Batman" with artist Ed McGuinness on a story arc called "With a Vengeance". Here's part of what Jeph had to say...

    Q: What is at the root of "With a Vengeance?" You've said that for you, Superman/Batman is the summer blockbuster style story, but what was the particular seed for this arc?

    A: I'd wanted to tell this story from issue #1 since it deals with issues that were brought up then and hopefully will get answered in some fashion by #25 which I had always planned to be my last issue. But, if I had to pick one particular moment when I knew I had to tell this story it was, oddly enough, when I read The Pulse #2 by Brian Michael Bendis.

    Now, some folks will think of me as an obsessive DC fan -- and before you all bring out your torches and storm the gate, I think Brian is a brilliant writer and a good friend -- but Brian wrote a story about young female reporter named "Teri Kidder" Get it? Teri Hatcher plus Margot Kidder = you got it! In the story, the folks at the Bugle point out that they are a real newspaper and her resume was a bit of a joke. Up to this point, I'm rolling my eyes, but I know that DC and Marvel have tweaked each other on the nose for years and it's all in good fun.

    Then, Bendis had the Goblin beat her to death - something I don't recall The Goblin ever doing to Gwen, MJ, or Jessica Jones for that matter - and then dumped her corpse in the Central Park Lake.

    ...

    Pardon me for not laughing. Bendis crossed the line. He could have told the exact same story, called the character Jenny Johnson and while I'm not a big fan of violence against women, I wouldn't have picked up on it. But. He. Didn't. It was Lois Lane he did that to and for what?

    Since then, JMS has had great fun over in Spider-Man throwing sticks and stones; he spends an enormous amount of time on Supreme Power which is a really good book with really big ideas -- I just don't know why it has to be a rip on the Justice League? Doesn't Marvel have its own clean versions? JMS is such a talented guy, I was just bewildered as to why he took this on. I mean, look at Rising Stars -- brilliant in thought and execution -- and wholly original.

    And now, Reginald Hudlin -- for whatever reason, and I suspect it is editorial -- brings in a "Kansas fed reporter who can fly and has heat vision" to pal around with Peter Parker. And the Sentry is now a member of the Justice -- I mean, New Avengers... (laughs)

    So... DC must be doing something right if the guys across the street have nothing better to do than find ways of telling our stories.

Read the complete interview over at Newsarama.com



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