2002 Comic Book News Archives

Superman #179

February 5, 2002: Jeph Loeb Talks Superman - The Secret Revealed

Comics Newsarama have conducted an excellent indepth interview with Superman writer Jeph Loeb. The interview (which contains many spoilers for those not completely up-to-date on the Superman comics) discusses the recent eye-opening events in Superman #178, the writer's thoughts on the "Smallville" TV show, the dropping of the Triangle/Shield Numbers on the Superman comic books, and goes into up-coming events in the comics.

Here's an excerpt from the interview...

Q: Where are things headed for your book? Can you point to where readers may especially want to pay attention?

A: We're having fun. As I said, each book has a different storyline heading toward the summer, so you can read one or read them all. I can tell you that next month, we're going to get a lot of mail because we're doing what DC does best - getting to the "touchy stuff." Superman meets a new hero, who happens to be African-American or Black, depending on what side of PC you sit, who believes that Black kids - or African-American kids - shouldn't have to look up to a white hero. It's about race and heroism and it's going to upset a lot of folks because it asks the hard questions about the human race. But, me am no dummy. I teamed up with Geoff Johns! He's my hero. Geoff is the Superman of Comics - everybody loves him. Me? I'm Bizarro compared to Geoff, so we make a great team!

Then, just to shift gears, I wanted a way to say thank you to Joss Whedon for the past year I've spent working on Buffy Animated, so we've got Superman Vs. Dracula. It's just a cool one-shot story and again, we brought in Geoff Johns to co-plot, while I script. I really wanted to work with Geoff, but he is so far ahead on Flash and JSA, that we couldn't figure out how to do a cross-over like we did last year with Greg Rucka and Detective. So, I went to Eddie and asked if we could get Geoff to co-plot two issues together. Geoff lives locally, we talk almost every day, so it made sense. We had a ball and hopefully it shows in the work.

They are two very different stories by two very different artists. Ariel Olivetti draws "What Can One Icon Do?" (Feb #179) and Ian Churchill did "House of Dracula" (Mar #180) and I think they brought in their best work. But, Superman does that to folks. He brings out your best -- because he is the best.

April is a disturbing little tale that Ed McGuinness pitched a while ago where Bizarro #1 and Superman switch brains Freaky Friday style and what started out as just a romp - in typical Bizarro fashion - actually gave us a chance to see how the other one lives. The origin of Bizarro #1 is revealed for those of you who are asking. McGuinness was truly inspired - the artwork is gorgeous.

May - June: The Lois' deal with Lex which has been dangling out there since #151. And there is a very specific reason why that story will be told then which will be clearer in a few weeks. Those will be by me, McGuinness, Cam Smith - whose sensational inking doesn't get nearly enough credit, Richard Starkings & Comicraft - letters & design, and Tanya & Richard Horie, colors. I'm very lucky to work with such talented people. Very.

What else can be said? You want the truth about Krypton? This year. You want more of Zod? This year. Who killed Steel? This year. You want... ooops. Can't tell you that part.

It's a great time for comics and it's a great time to be a Superman fan.

Read the complete interview at the Newsarama website.



2002 Comic News

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