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"Ask Matt" Fan Forum Archives
Here are Matt Idelson's answers to questions fans put to him in February 2009:
Matt's Answers
Bill (Email address withheld by request) asks:Hi, Matt: As a star cools, it changes color. The coolest star is red, the hottest (that we know of) is blue-white, with yellow somewhere in the middle. Since Krypton's sun was red, at some point in its history it must have been yellow. Thus, my question: did Kryptonians have super powers in the ancient past, and if not, why not? Also, is it only a yellow star that gives Kryptonians powers; are they even more powerful under a blue-white star, for example?
Matt: Eeeeeintersting question, Bill! I see Steve is leading off with a toughie. The ancient history of Krypton is not something we (or anyone else to my knowledge) has really delved into, Bill. Since there isn't anything in their history referred to by the Kryptonians that would suggest they had powers in the ancient past, I think it's safe to say that when Krypton's sun was yellow, mammals probably weren't yet walking the, uh, Krypton. As for a blue sun, Jor-El explained at the start of the "Escape from Bizarro World" arc that a Kryptonian's powers will be enhanced, and perhaps even some new powers will emerge. We saw one such power in that story. When Pa was struck by Supes' heat vision, Pa developed superpowers of his own.
Anthony Elia (anthonyerikelia@hotmail.com) asks:
Dear Mr. Idelson. I believe that every generation deserves their own Superman. However at DC it seems to be going back to a silver age dynamic. Also I appreciate what Christopher Reeve did as Superman but he is still only an actor and Superman must be bigger than anyone who portrays him, so why is Superman being drawn like Chris Reeve? Also why is Superman saying Great Rao again? It doesn't make any sense since he grew up on Earth. Finally will we be seeing some new villains soon?
Matt: Good questions all, Anthony! I'm guessing you've mostly been reading ACTION, wherein Gary's portrayal of Superman has taken some influence from Christopher Reeve's role as the character, but that's certainly not the cause in what Renato has been doing on SUPERMAN, so I'm not sure it's accurate to say that our overall approach is such. Superman's talking about Rao once more is partially a nod to the earlier stories that preceded what's being done now, partially due to his being educated on Kryptonian culture by holo-Jor-El, and partially because Rao is going to be a pretty relevant concept looking ahead. What, me, hint? As for new villains, we've introduced one already during the "New Krypton" crossover, a few more will be popping up in the pages of ACTION, yet another has arrived in SUPERGIRL, and more will be on the way.
jasonmajor32 (Email address withheld by request) asks:
Hey Matt, In the "Batman: Last Rites" story, it seems to indicate that ALL of Batman's 70 year comics history are now canon - but what about Superman? Would you say that anything before 1986 didn't happen to this Superman? Are the stories from 1986 to 2004 still part of continuity, only somewhat changed?
Matt: I'd say it is more the latter, Jason. James, Greg, Sterling and Geoff are all striving to tell new stories, certainly, but also honor as much of the prior continuity as possible. So no, I wouldn't say the clock (calendar?) starts at 1986 and moves forward.
666MasterOfPuppets (Email address withheld by request) asks:
Hey Matt. After Grant Morrison's BRILLIANT run on "All Star Superman", I was wondering if some of the things we saw in that maxi-series will translate into the mainstream books? Will Grant ever write any of the main books? One of the things I loved from this run is that Grant doesn't have a problem writing a mega-powerful Superman, and he actually manages to make things challenging for him. Why do you think some writers find a truly god-like Superman a problem? What do you think about this?
Matt: I don't think you'll be seeing specific elements from "All Star" creeping into the regular books, er, Master, since the All Star books occupy their own little worlds of continuity, even from one another. I'd love to see Grant write one of the main books, and very much hope he didn't tell all the Superman stories he has in him there. I suspect some writers struggle with a mega-powerful Superman because it's more challenging to come up with threats and situations that actually tax him. From a personal perspective, I much prefer him to be less than "mega" since I think you reach a point where the character and his adventures can become truly unrelatable. I don't have a problem believing Superman can go to the moon and fight Doomsday, but I struggle to buy that Superman could, say, throw the moon at Doomsday. I guess it's about keeping the character grounded within the confines of the real world as much as possible. I'm sure my predecessor, Eddie, might have a different take, as will the poor soul who follows me.
Jared Bond (binarysunrise@yahoo.com) asks:
When can we expect to see a "Showcase Presents: The Superman Dailies" to be published? :)
Matt: I ran this past Georg Brewer, who heads up the Collected Editions department, and while there are no plans for Dailies to get the Showcase treatment, he thought it was an interesting idea, Jared.
Jack (Email address withheld by request) asks:
Hi Matt, Really wanted to ask you this, please: Will the new "Secret Origin" series flesh out the continuity changes sketchily introduced from "Action Comics #850" onwards (mostly alterations to "Birthright", i.e. Clark wears glasses as a youth, Krypto now from real Krypton not Phantom Zone-ersatz-Krypton, Luthor's hair receded naturally instead of burned off, etc.) and conform to these details already revealed, or will S.O. signal yet another new continuity reboot?
Matt: I guess the best answer, Jack, is that Secret Origin will give you some of both scenarios. Not the cut-and-dried answer you were looking for, no doubt.
Mark G. Anderson (spock-2@comcast.net) asks:
Dear Matt: Thank you for responding to the readers questions. I have a scientific background. Since I go back to the 1950s, I have always wondered why Superman would be completely powerless when exposed to red sun radiation on earthlike planets. Since his genetic heritage came from a much heavier gravity world, he would still be stronger and perhaps faster than the people on earth and similar worlds. A perfect analogy would be when our astronauts went to the 1/6 gravity moon.
Matt: Mark, man, I can't even begin to form an explanation. Anyone out there have any handy theories?
Pardeep Singh (Email address withheld by request) asks:
Hi Matt! In the "New Krypton" arc, all the Kryptonians look or seem the same power level. I always thought that Superman was the most powerful because he's been in the sunlight the longest. Or does Superman and the other Kryptonians appear to have the same level of power because Superman is known to always hold back his full strength? Is that still true or has that changed?
Matt: Our take, Pardeep, is that Superman has been holding back some, though the primary differences between him and his people is that he's much more adept at utilizing his powers than they are. If you recall, though, in the NEW KRYPTON SPECIAL, we saw the Kryptonians just starting to exhibit their powers since they'd been on Earth for a short time. By now, I would think they'd be caught up to him on the power scale, though there are bound to be differences between what, say, an elderly Kryptonian can do versus a younger one.
jason knoche (jk1978_@hotmail.com) asks:
What happend to Supergirl calling her self Linda Lang?
Matt: Oh, boy, have I been hearing this question a lot lately, Jason! What happened was that Superman uncorked the bottle containing Kandor and 100,000 Kryptonians popped out, including Supergirl's parents. She'll most definitely be getting back to using that alias very soon. At the time Sterling was writing SUPERGIRL #34, we debated whether we should just save that bit for after the crossover, but we wanted to get as many exciting elements that the creative team would be bringing aboard out there as quickly as possible. Perhaps in hindsight we should have waited, if only to avoid confusing fine folks such as yourself.
Steve asks:
Thanks Matt! Is "Adventure Comics" going to be an on-going series or will it be a maxi-series? Will Superman be involved in every issue? (i.e. can we consider it another of Superman's regular comic book titles?)
Matt: Always a pleasure, Steve. ADVENTURE will be an ongoing book, and it will have very strong connections to the rest of the line. The continuity of the initial issues won't quite line up with the other titles, but the moment it does you'll see even more connectivity between it and its sibling titles.
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