CBR hosts a roundtable of DC’s Superman writers, simultaneously reminding you that we’re soon going to see double the amount of Superman books on the stands and that there’s a really interesting line-up of creators on those books. Greg Pak, in particular, shines in this first installment of the roundtable:
What makes it compelling as a story and a character is his tremendous backstory, which sets up the character as someone who is different than everybody, but striving to help. That sense of somebody that is an ‘other,’ someone who doesn’t belong but is doing his best to do the right thing all of the time. That’s incredibly compelling and universal. All of us, no matter how much we feel complete, sometimes feel like we’re on the outside, feel like we’re alone, feel like we’re strange and different. That’s why the Harry Potter books and movies are so popular. That’s why the X-Men are so popular. That’s why just about every pop culture phenomenon you can think of is so popular.
It’s amazing how many of the stories we love to cherish explore that sense of being different. That’s a universal human condition. And the reason Superman, in particular, is so compelling is because he’s on the outside, yet he’s doing his best to help everybody. That moral core of the character is something that we all, deep down, want to aspire towards. It’s that struggle to do the right thing that is really compelling.
March 15th, 2013 at 1:51 pm
I’m excited for the new creative team on Action and happy about the two new books. I hope these creators can do nice, long runs on their titles because since the mid-2000s the Superman titles have always felt “in flux” for me in spite of some top-level talent working on them.
Constantly shifting creative teams lead to reader apathy, and this has been reflected in sales for years now.