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Ask Matt Fan Forum Here are Matt Idelson's answers to questions fans put to him in March 2008:

Matt's Answers

claudio pahl (cpahl2000@yahoo.com.br) asks:
Any plans for Lex Luthor to return as the ruthless bussinessman? I think it's something that's missing in Superman comics nowadays.

Matt: Hey, there, Claudio. We'll definitely be seeing Lex, the ruthless again, though the only way I see him as a business man is if he puts together a start-up. The board of LexCorp ousted him remember. Then again, if he were to cook up some fake embezzlement charges against LanaŠ (which would explain those wild outfits she's had. They look expensive!)



Scott Getz (Email address withheld by request) asks:
Matt, I wanted to thank you for taking the time to answer questions on these very complex questions pertaining to Superman over a long period of history. My question is, with the constant personality shifts happening to Supergirl in her solo book, the Legion book, and the Superman titles, I was wondering, what is her current status with Superman? Are they again on good terms, or is she still out to get him? Will any closure come about that puts an end to their father's feud, or is this still a plot point that is being worked out in the future?

Matt: No thanks needed, Scott. I enjoy quite a bit having the chance to interact with you folks. Supergirl's origin is quite a mess, I'll admit, and I'm not sure we've done anything to resolve that recently. Kara's relationship with Clark is fine, although at the moment she's avoiding him since she knows he doesn't approve of her promise to cure that young boy's cancer. The whole business of the feuding fathers is going to be resolved in issue #30, which will also address why she went from having that flashback about her last days on Krypton in issue #23 to totally believing the memory to be real in issue #24. Beyond that, we'll definitely be getting into Kara's origin more as the year progresses - not in some cheap, shocking revelations way, but simply to establish once and for all who she was, who she is, and point her in the direction of who she'll someday be.



Michael Sacal (Email address withheld by request) asks:
The promo for the Brainiac story shows two bottled cities, one of which I swear has a tower from the Man of Steel origin - which is my prefered origin, btw). My concern is not so much that we're seeing elements from MoS back in continuity (which is much appreciated), but that they are returning without any aknowledgement from the characters (kindda like how Supergirl ignores the changes to her parents). The characters are just taking so many things at face value without explanation, that it's no different from where things were before Infinite Crisis. In the last Superman story before you, Busiek, and Johns took over the titles, there was a question that asked "how can a man know where he is going when he doesn't know where he comes from?" that was made in reference to three conflicting Superman origins of the time. It has been three years and this question still hasn't been answered, while all we've gotten was one more conflicting origin for Superman and three more conflicting origins for Supergirl. PLEASE don't make us wait two more years for an answer, I'm sure that like me many others would appreciate one now.

Matt: I have no doubt that EVERY Superman reader would agree with you, Michael. That Brainiac piece (by the intensely awesome Stephane Roux) was put together based on some early design materials so Stephane could produce the ad. So any visual references to MoS are purely accidental or else his homage to that series. But that's not the point you're wanting addressed, is it? I hit the Supergirl part of things in the prior response. As for Superman, I agree, it's time we got down to laying out, once and for all, where this guy came from. It's something we very much have in the cards, and while you won't get the near-instant gratification of seeing this story in 2008, you most definitely will in '09. Wish I could make it zero years instead of one, Michael, but at least you don't have to wait two, I guess.



Carey Lester (track13d@yahoo.com) asks:
Since the continuity issues with Supergirl's origin are being cleared up, will we be seeing any continuity of Superman's origin being straightened out? It is great that you are trying to make the character more accessible to long time readers by including instead of disregarding what has come before.

Matt: As you learned mere seconds ago, Carey, we will be straightening things out. I've long felt that ignoring prior continuity is disrespectful to both the fans and the prior creators. I think if you have a continuity glitch, it's much more interesting to use it as the starting point for a clarifying story rather than just ignoring it in order to tell the tale you're telling now. That isn't always possible, of course, but we try to make it the rule rather than the exception.



Kevin (Email address withheld by request) asks:
First, congratulations Matt for the good work you have done in editing the Superman titles. I look forward to this column each month to see your response to questions made by the fans. I would like to know what do you think about excessive violence in comic books today? How would that affect parents who would like to buy their kids comic books? And, more closer to home how would you react featuring this type of violence on the books (Like in ACTION #866 when Bizarro Doomsday cutting a bizarro clone in half)? Do you condone this type of action on the Superman titles?

Matt: You look forward to this column each month? Man, Kevin, you must have been quite disappointed the last couple of years. Well, at least this is your lucky month.

That's an excellent question, Kevin, and it really speaks toward the divide in age between the long-time fans and our newer readers. Interestingly, the long-time fans tend to favor the less violent stuff, while the younger fans, who have grown up in a more desensitized world usually are fine with a higher level of violence. I think what blurs things is the divide between creators who try and make the books more "realistic" and those who are going for more of the fantasy/adventure/escapist route. When you think about it, there was a heck of a lot of violence in, say, Raiders of the Lost Ark or the original Star Wars and those two movies harkened back to a "simpler" time of entertainment. The key was that there wasn't excessive blood or gore (if you don't count the opening of the Ark), so it was considered okay, not violent.

I look at your example of Bizarro Doomsday cleaving one of the Bizarro's in half, and I see something that is very fun and cartoony, right down to the expression on half-Bizarro's face. The fact that the blood spatter is black instead of red, I think, also goes towards moving away from something that would sear the brain of some poor young reader. I look back at a lot of the TV shows, comics, and movies that I saw as a kid and see how much went over my head, and as for the stuff that didn't, never once was I tempted to recreate the violent moments of movies or comics in real life.

So I guess the simple answer (two thousand words later) is that I'm okay with the type of violence you cited when it's handled in the manner that the Bizarro story was. It all comes down to how it's handled, really.



Has the federal court ruling in regards to the Siegel family's claim to the Superman copyright had any impact on you or the plans moving forward for Superman comic books? Is there any danger of Superman being pushed to the side the way Superboy was?

Matt: No habla Ingles! Just kidding. All is well.



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