2013 Comic Book News Archives

June 24, 2013: Jim Lee Talks "Superman Unchained"

Superman Unchained ComicBookResources.com caught up with artist and DC Comics co-publisher Jim Lee to talk about his work on "Superman Unchained", the new monthly comic book written by Scott Snyder.

    On "Superman Unchained," I feel like Scott came in with a very clear idea of what kind of story he wanted to tell, but did you have a specific set of visual ideas you wanted to work in from the start?

    Jim Lee: This was the second time I've done Superman, and I didn't think it would be fair to the project if I approached it with the exact same style I used the first time. I think with the launch of the New 52, I had a mission to take that New 52 Superman and make it work. I'd done the initial costume design and I'd been drawing Superman in "Justice League," but this was really my opportunity to show what the New 52 Superman really looked and felt like.

    It was an interesting transition in that when you draw Superman, you tend to go old school with the default style - the huge lantern jaw, the receding hairline - and draw more of a Superman in his mid '30s that people are familiar with. With the New 52, the idea was to bring down the age of the entire DC Universe down a bit. That meant really changing the proportions of Superman and some of his facial features. And that's something you need to be conscious of every time you draw him. Otherwise, you fall back to this default Superman. If you look at what I did in "For Tomorrow" compared to what I do in "Superman Unchained," he's a more slimmed down figure, and I also try to do some more naturalistic poses for him. You'll see in issue #2, you'll see the military come upon Superman, and he stands there in a very nonchalant way. That's something I never did in "For Tomorrow." It's things like that which highlight the differences between the pre-52 Superman and now.

Read the entire interview at the CBR website.



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