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Post by HoM on Nov 20, 2018 12:53:30 GMT -5
Welcome back to Action Comics! With the successful launch of Superman three months ago, the relaunch of this book was always on the cards, but before Eric takes up the reins of this book, I thought it would make sense to provide you all with a love letter to the site and the stories that have come before.
Way back in 2006, when I was sixteen (yikes), I pestered our then Editor-In-Chief, David, to let me launch my own Superman title, and I of course made a hot mess of it within a number of issues, but I thought it would be fun to return to the book I launched and successfully mangled twelve years ago, and deliver the fiftieth issue at the same time... my third fiftieth issue on the DC2, if I remember rightly!
This special three-part arc taking place over Action Comics #48-50 acts as a deck clearing of sorts, readying the book for the action and adventures that promises to be delivered every month when Eric takes over.
It goes without saying that a big THANK YOU! should go out to Michael Ibarra for his stellar cover to this issue, and having discussed what's coming across the next two chapters, I can't wait to see what he delivers there as well.
I love Steve Howard's Superwoman design, and I'm so chuffed to see someone else's take of it too-- plus, that Melissa Benoist-styled take on Supergirl in the background of the cover is just perfect!
Anyway, if you have the time, please let us know what you thought of this brand new issue!
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Post by superfan on Dec 16, 2018 18:05:43 GMT -5
I really enjoyed this and am excited to see what happens next. I think that it is great to have the family dynamic include Karen, since she is often forgotten about in the Superman mythos (I know I did). By creating a story that brings her in as family, helps to open Clark’s eyes to his role and how he should include her, as well. I do like seeing and adult Supergirl, who has developed into her own hero. Great story, can’t wait to read parts 2 and 3.
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Post by oblique on Dec 16, 2018 20:53:00 GMT -5
This was a great family-oriented issue that showcases DC2's deep bench of characters and deeper well of stories. (I also always forgot about poor Power Girl!) I'm always leery of time travel and dimension-hopping, but this was a great example of how that sci-fi concept can deliver stories like no other. What a sweet and exciting issue. I've been waiting to see more Superwoman for a while, so this was a real blast! Heck, we even got to see Connor! (Gawds, I need to finish working on YJ...)
Man, what an anvil to drop on Lois, though. That could have been handled a little more gently. Clark is gone for ten years, yikes!
I can't wait for more, Charlie.
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Post by oblique on Dec 16, 2018 21:02:41 GMT -5
P.S. What an amazing cover! Michael Ibarra did a FANTASTIC job working with Howard's design for Superwoman.
I also love how Melissa Benoist has become THE quintessential vision of Supergirl in such a short time.
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Post by HoM on Dec 17, 2018 12:27:03 GMT -5
I really enjoyed this and am excited to see what happens next. I think that it is great to have the family dynamic include Karen, since she is often forgotten about in the Superman mythos (I know I did). By creating a story that brings her in as family, helps to open Clark’s eyes to his role and how he should include her, as well. I do like seeing and adult Supergirl, who has developed into her own hero. Great story, can’t wait to read parts 2 and 3. Involving Power Girl into the lives of the Super-family stemmed from her inclusion into the close-knit family unit established in the 10YL continuity, and explored in the four-part Superwoman: For Tomorrow miniseries. She's Kara from another dimension, divergent in places, ten years older, so why wouldn't the compassionate, loving, family-orientated Kara of our universe not consider her a sibling-- a sister of sorts? I had a blast writing that run of issues, and I wanted to touch upon all aspects of the Superwoman mythos in this three-parter. Bringing her into the present day made all the sense, and I'm glad it worked for you. A big thing for me in a lot of the stuff I've been writing recently is world building-- world expanding-- so that's why my recent Justice League run had a distinct international feel as we checked in on all these corners of the planet, with heroes playing important roles in their own way in the Africa, Germany, Japan, Russia and the United Kingdom. We see more of that in the next issue of Action Comics, as we revisit those Germanic heroes, but what I want is to put something back into the toybox as I take things out, so that all the things established in one place can be picked up and ran with in other places. Thanks for reading, and I look forward to seeing your feedback next issue! |
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Post by HoM on Dec 17, 2018 14:06:26 GMT -5
This was a great family-oriented that showcases DC2's deep bench of characters and deeper well of stories. (I also always forgot about poor Power Girl!) That's exactly the vibe I was going for! I've mentioned it previously, but I've never been able to write what I consider a good Superman story, let alone an enjoyable one. I was really proud of Action and Adventure Comics Annual from May, but I had to write those stories to get to where I wanted to be for some beats in Justice League, and also I wanted to do something about all the hanging plot threads I considered to be addressing through the time the character has spent on the DC2. I can't seem to write Superman solo, but I like writing the cast around him, or throwing him up against other characters. I've always done it, and I've never been happy with it, because it's like we're getting an inference of the character rather than an actual picture of him, and that's been a frustration to me. I'm not saying this run on Action Comics is any different-- he's off the board after this issue, leaving Superwoman to play hero across the globe! But for some reason... I do love writing me some Superwoman. I'm always leery of time travel and dimension-hopping, but this was a great example of how that sci-fi concept can deliver stories like no other. Well! I wanted to honour the time travel stories that came before, while also playing around with this great sandbox of story possibilities we've established in the DC2. I've been building toward something temporal-wise in issues of Justice League, with the last mention being in Justice League #62: ...I'm really excited to finally reveal why that's going on there. Something for when we return from Justice League's 2019 hiatus. Something big. I've also alluded to the events of Omega Crisis having repercussions for this end of the timeline too (but that's a story for another time). Something big is coming in the present day timeline of the site, and I want to continue building up the stakes of that. We're going to see more of that mentioned in this three-parter, especially in Action Comics #50, and we'll get a Rip Hunter cameo (uh oh, spoilers) set in the 10YL continuity. But I most definitely digress! One of the most iconic time travel moments that involves Supergirl is in " Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?", and while I'm no fan of Alan Moore's current creatve slate, this stands up as one of the most beautiful and melancholic bits of comic bookery we'll ever see:     Man, that art. Anyway, I'm referring to the third and fourth panels of the third page, the idea that you can't travel to a point in time where you already exist. We've already established in previous time travel-related stories that in the DC2, that specific doesn't apply, but with all the "temporal turbulence" going on, Superwoman had to wait until Supergirl had exited the present day until she could make an appearance. We'll see more of that as we move into the fiftieth issue. What a sweet and exciting issue. Exactly the vibe I was going for. I wanted to try to write something that was optimistic more than anything, as I do have a tendency toward the nihilistic--! I've been waiting to see more Superwoman for a while, so this was a real blast! And building toward Action Comics #50 with a special, celebratory three-parter-- before Eric takes the reins of this title to run in tandem with his recently launched Superman ongoing-- was the perfect place to deliver something special like this! I'm also using this as a pilot of sorts. Can I write a Superwoman ongoing? Should I even try? I have so many commitments on my plate, but I'm really just chasing my creativity right now. Heck, we even got to see Connor! (Gawds, I need to finish working on YJ...) I really like Connor, but I don't have a solid read on him in the present day yet. Him as Flamebird, I have my in, but right now? The only way I'm going to get a bead on him is by writing him. And there'll be ups and downs, but we'll see how my next go at him lands in Action Comics #50. Man, what an anvil to drop on Lois, though. That could have been handled a little more gently. Clark is gone for ten years, yikes! I think that Superwoman is over a decade removed from the absence of her cousin, and this opportunity to be in the past is partly to mitigate the damage of his leaving. To give the engaged couple something to enjoy and hold onto prior to his leaving. We're already experiencing a diverging of Superman-related events from the 10YL continuity... but I'll leave that for a future issue, and for some events coming up in Eric's run. I can't wait for more, Charlie. Thanks, O! It's going to be a fun little ride. |
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Post by HoM on Dec 17, 2018 14:09:47 GMT -5
P.S. What an amazing cover! Michael Ibarra did a FANTASTIC job working with Howard's design for Superwoman. I also love how Melissa Benoist has become THE quintessential vision of Supergirl in such a short time. I agree completely! Ibarra is a great collaborator and I think we've got a good relationship that promises to bear fruit in the future. We've had similar conversations about Benoist, and I can't wait to see more from him of these characters. |
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Post by oblique on Dec 17, 2018 14:59:20 GMT -5
Fantastic! Can't wait.
I don't know how you keep track of it all! If it wasn't so much work, I'd suggest that someone pin a "timeline" of the DC2 Universe and the relevant issues to the front page. You do a great job of making each story approachable without sacrificing continuity, in fact, building on what came before.
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Post by HoM on Dec 19, 2018 13:56:29 GMT -5
Well, I did put together a Green Lantern-biased timeline over in the Book of Oa one-shot I did, but I'm going to do another one soon that we can update as we go... it's going to cover the start of the modern age of the DC2 (the debut of Batman, then Superman), to the present day, with some broadstrokes in between. I'm also tempted to include 10YL events, because I have those scattered about in various planning documents. I mean, you all want to know when Jim Gordon retires from the GCPD and becomes the Mayor, right??
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Post by oblique on Dec 21, 2018 10:00:19 GMT -5
Well, personally I love that type of stuff. I'm a nerd who would write out my own timeline of events in Gotham, or Star Trek, etc., rather than read any books or watch any new material. Ha!
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Post by HoM on Dec 22, 2018 15:45:02 GMT -5
Well, personally I love that type of stuff. I'm a nerd who would write out my own timeline of events in Gotham, or Star Trek, etc., rather than read any books or watch any new material. Ha! Part of my [self-imposed] "responsibilities" on the site is to make sense of our modern age, mapping the continuity in a way so that we have this really interesting foundation to build from. We've coloured in fragments of the last X amount of years since the debut of the modern age, when Batman debuted, but how does it come together properly? In our history, Jason Todd was Redwing before Dick Grayson became Robin. How does that work? We followed Smallville continuity to establish the relationships between Clark and Lex, as well as the inclusion of Chloe Sullivan into continuity, but where does that diverge? So, yeah, I intend to put something down, but I'll treat it like Marvel continuity, as explained by Galactus in Al Ewing and Kenneth Rocafort's The Ultimates #5:  
Damn, I loved that run of stories... |
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Post by oblique on Dec 24, 2018 11:38:53 GMT -5
Sounds like hypertime to me-- one spacetime continuum with a primary timestream that can b affected by ripples, currents, and separate streams. It's definitely my favorite version of comics continuity, rather than a partitioned multiverse.
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Post by HoM on Dec 26, 2018 5:42:43 GMT -5
Sounds like hypertime to me-- one spacetime continuum with a primary timestream that can b affected by ripples, currents, and separate streams. It's definitely my favorite version of comics continuity, rather than a partitioned multiverse. Yes, I agree to an extent. I like that certain events have weight and drag behind the present day, which explains why the Fantastic Four are a certain age and have kids that are growing, but their timeline always shifts to accomodate. But yes, we'll be introducing a DC2 timeline in the coming months, but with the understanding that things change... and with the events of Omega Crisis threatening the sanctity of the timeline in the future, it's bound to have repercussions for the present day, ten years earlier. |
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Post by oblique on Dec 26, 2018 9:12:24 GMT -5
That's a really interesting idea-- that certain events are 'locked' to the present, like the Fantastic Four. Also really messed up, but really cool. I look forward to perusing the timeline and taking the opportunity to read some of the older stories I have yet to examine more closely!
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