Last week was a huge one for the Superman franchise, and the twists kept coming in Superman Rebirth #1 today.
Warning: there are spoilers for Superman #52 and Superman Rebirth #1 below!
Superman Rebirth #1 picked up where Superman #52 left off last week, as the New 52 Superman is now dead and buried. The surviving Superman returned to his counterpart's grave, utterly convinced that it would on;y be a matter of time before the fallen Man of Steel would rise again. After all, this Superman has experience battling an unstoppable foe, dying and being reborn, so why wouldn't the same be true for the New 52 Superman? Unfortunately, Clark found unequivocal proof that the New 52 Superman is dead and won't be returning. Now he has no chocie but to reclaim the mantle of Superman and fill the void left by his fallen predecessor.
With so much going on in the Man of Steel's world, we were eager to talk to writer Pete Tomasi and artist Patrick Gleason about what the future holds for Superman in DC Rebirth. Along with artist Doug Mahnke, these two will be helming the new twice-monthly Superman comic and exploring the many struggles facing our hero. Scroll down to learn more about the challenges of killing off one version of Superman and re-introducing another, as well as the hardships and rewards of working on a twice-monthly comic and why it was important to establish right away that there are no resurrections in store for the New 52 Superman.
IGN: It was interesting how DC solicited the "Final Days of Superman" crossover as "Super League" and teased a completely different storyline. Did your plans for the crossover evolve over time, or was it a case of you trying to keep the actual story a secret for as long as possible?
Tomasi: That was pretty much it. It was a feint. We didn't want right away to say "Death of Superman." But at the same time, the movie was coming out, also, and we had to align it so that it wasn't two deaths happening at the exact same time. So each death had its own time to breathe, so to speak, and a chance to shine. It was important to delineate that and keep them separate for a little bit. It was pure protection of keeping the story a secret until we could announce it in a bigger way.
IGN: Looking at the general response to the crossover, it seems like a lot of readers are really happy with the way you've been portraying Superman. What was your approach going into this project, and why do you think it scratched an itch that maybe some of the other New 52 stories haven't?
Tomasi: I don't know, to be honest. I know the Superman I like to write, and the New 52 Superman was a lot of fun to write in the Superman/Wonder Woman book, too. He's a bit more of a hothead. He's a bit more reactionary. He doesn't have years and years and years under his belt. And he's younger, so it was just a question of having someone who's a little bit younger finding his way, and at the same time, certain things can get him riled up. Maybe he'd be quicker to punch than to think some things through. We wanted to explore that, and at the same time show the New 52 Superman in both Superman/Wonder Woman and this eight-issue crossover, so that when Pat and I came on the book and we had the pre-52 Superman front and center, you could see the contrast between the two characters.
IGN: Obviously you've been laying the seeds for a lot of the upcoming Superman comics in this crossover. How closely involved would you say you guys have been in rebuilding the franchise and helping shape these books over the last few months?
Tomasi: It's been a while. We've had tons of conference calls. We had the Superman summit in Burbank. So Pat and I have been right there from the start and making sure that we build the books properly coming right out of the Death of Superman stuff. It's been a whirlwind, but it's been a lot of fun, obviously, and working with my partner in crime from Batman and Robin and Green Lantern Corps is a lot of fun.
IGN: Pete, you got to work with a really impressive lineup of artists on this crossover. Were you happy with how it turned out in that regard? Do you feel like all the issues form a nice, cohesive story?
Tomasi: Yeah. You get a little worried at first when you have seven different artists. But in the end, I was really happy with it. I thought it was very cohesive and that each artist added their own specific brand of storytelling and energy to it. I was really happy. I just received the printed issue of Superman #52 today, and holding all eight issues and flipping through them, yeah, I'm really proud of it. I'm proud of all eight issues, and I think the artists kicked some serious ass on it.
IGN: You mentioned how this started coming out around the same time as Batman v Superman, and I thought it was interesting how the final battle in Superman #52 paralleled the one in the movie in a lot of ways. Was that actually an intentional move on your part?
Tomasi: No... [laughs] ...because this was a weekly crossover I had already written the issue. I hadn't seen the movie. Obviously, it was incredibly secret, so aside from the trailer that everybody else had seen, it was held pretty close to the vest. Even the Superman guys in the office didn't know what the movie was really about, aside from the trailer stuff. It's always funny to watch something like that go down. I remember when Pat and I were doing Batman and Robin, we had an issue come out at the same time as The Dark Knight Rises, and we had a sequence with Batman being out in the daytime for the first time and Gordon looking up and seeing him against the sun. And then there we are watching the movie, and I'm like 'Oh my god." You can't write this kind of stuff, and suddenly they're doing the same thing the same month we are. And with the nuclear bomb going off and things like that.
Gleason: I think Pete's phone is just bugged.
Tomasi: [laughs] Because we didn't know anything about the Batman movie, either. So the Superman stuff was all written and in the process of being drawn. By the time we got to the screening it was funny to see certain aspects of that happening. I mean, once you know Doomsday is in the mix , there's a sense of, "Hmm, are they going to kill Superman, or...?" Etc., etc. We kind of knew something was going to happen with his death, so it was a matter of making sure that our death scene was a bit different. And, of course, the characters are completely different in how they relate to Superman. Batman and Wonder Woman have a completely different relationship with him in the movie than they do in Superman #52. There's a whole different dynamic there. It's always interesting to write those emotional scenes between characters that know and care about each other.
IGN: It's not every day you get to write the death of a character as significant as Superman. Did you feel a lot of pressure to get that scene right? Was it tough on you emotionally?
Tomasi: Yeah, definitely. I must have rewritten that scene I don't know how many times. I spent a lot of time on that dialogue trying to get it perfect. Or at least, in my head perfectly. What anyone else thinks is a whole other thing. It's really trying to make sure it feels natural and right. I'm not ashamed to wear my heart on my sleeve and put emotional stuff out on the page. It was definitely a little daunting. It's been done once before, obviously, in a big way. I wanted to make sure, being able to write that scene, that I did the character justice. I hope readers feel that way.
IGN: There's a lot of big stuff leading into DC Rebirth, but I don't think anything bigger than this. Do you feel like it was necessary to have something major to mark the end of the New 52 era and the start of something new?
Tomasi: Yeah, absolutely. It boils down to the fact that Pat and I needed to have a Superman front and center that was going to be the star of the book, and there wasn't going to be two of them. It was definitely a way to take out the New 52 Superman and have the pre-Flashpoint Superman be in the book that Pat and I were doing. In other words, that table was set very deliberately for the book Pat and I were doing.
IGN: The first thing I noticed about the Rebirth issues is that the two of you are credited as "storytellers" rather than just "writer" and "artist." Do you feel like that more accurately describes the collaboration you have on this book?
Tomasi: Oh, yeah, absolutely. When you work with somebody for so long, and somebody you trust, and you're on the same page, you become an old married couple. You what the other person is thinking right before they say it and you finish each other's sentences. You're having the same ideas while you're talking. It's a zeitgeist of Pat and I coming up with stuff together. It's fun to bounce stuff off of someone else that you trust and build great ideas. In the years to come, I think people are going to see a great writer/artist come out of all of this and do some amazing stuff.
Gleason: Thank you. I mean, I totally agree with all of that. Working with Pete on Batman and Robin, and before that on Green Lantern Corps, we've been together in one form or another for a long time. It is scary how we finish each other's thoughts, but I'm constantly amazed when I talk to Pete and he comes up with these great character beats, it's still surprising. I still get excited by the stuff that he comes up with. There's so much heart that comes out of Pete's stories, and I've learned a lot. I consider it a privilege to be able to work with him. It's a great opportunity, and I'm still learning a lot as we go. We do have a great shorthand, I think. We're on the phone at 3 in the morning talking about this stuff, and we're always together. Pete comes up to Minnesota to see me and Doug [Mahnke] at our studio. We talk story. It's a really great thing in this business to find someone that you enjoy working with. We like good characters and telling good stories, and that's just what we want to do. Tell stories we can be proud of at the end of the day.
Tomasi: Yeah, and that's why it makes sense to just read as "storytellers," because that's what we're doing. We're both right there at the same time doing the same thing and telling a story. We're a real sympatico team-up, melding it all together.
Continues
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