EXCLUSIVE: Mark Waid, Dan Slott & Joshua Williamson Reveal What’s To Come In The ‘Summer Of Superman’

‘Summer Of Superman Special #1‘ is set for release this Wednesday and to celebrate, I had the honour of speaking with Joshua Williamson, Mark Waid and Dan Slott about their collaborative issue and what to expect from their upcoming individual series.

Mark Waid is set to bring Clark Kent’s Superboy back in Action Comics, Joshua Williamson will be continuing his run on Superman which continues the ‘All In’ initiative and Dan Slott is set to write a brand new series ‘Superman Unlimited’ which offers an excellent jumping on point for comic readers. Please note, there are minor spoilers featured in this interview.

Tasmin: Some of you are some of you are no strangers to writing Superman. Josh, you are continuing your story, Mark you are returning to the character to write something new. What is it like returning or continuing with the character but in a different story or in some cases entirely different era?

Mark Waid: For me, I guess the answer is coming at it from a different era means you have to look at it from a different point of view. Clark is at a different place in his life as a young man. And that is what action is about. It’s watching us build that hero from scratch, watching Clark and Ma and Pa figure out how all this works from the beginning. And that’s much different than writing Superman in World’s Finest or writing Superman in Action Comics or what have you.

Joshua Williamson: Yeah. You know, whenever we do one of these initiatives, we create a new era at DC, right? Every 18 months I feel like we have a theme of it. And that was the thing, DC was very about getting back to basics. It was very much about Clark and Lois in Metropolis. And so I got to write him in that frame. But then by the time we got to All In, it definitely changed how I had to look at the book. I had to look at Clark differently and that’s where we introduced Superwoman. And it’ll be the same thing the next time we do one of these, I’m really excited about some of the stuff we have coming up that sort of plays with that.

But I think it’s fun. I appreciate the curve balls every once in a while and I appreciate the puzzle of it, of looking at it like ‘what does Superman mean to this specific moment?’ And that does change over time. So for me, it’s interesting how the book gets to change shape. It keeps me on my toes, but I think it’s important to reinvent your book every once in a while to put different spins. I mean, look at what Dan Slott did on Spider-Man, it was like every 18 months or every two years, you went through an awesome different story arc with Peter. I definitely think that’s a really good model to follow with pretty much all of these superhero characters.

Tasmin: Dan, this question is for you. What is it like coming to the character at this specific time, writing along these writers to tell a consecutive story?

Dan Slott: We’re in a weird point in history and it feels awesome to get to write Superman at a time where the hero that most embodies hope is there for everybody. Every single person on this Earth, Superman is here for you and no matter how you’re feeling right now about anything, I like that you can pick up these books, open the pages and escape to a world where someone’s going to hold our hand and tell us it’s going to be okay. Where it’s okay for 30 minutes to feel hopeful.

You know, I spent 10 years working on a character whose primary motivation was guilt and it feels so good, like shedding his skin, to work on Superman, a character who even if you took away all his powers, even if you took away everything about him on the superhero level, he would be this character who would just make you feel good about everything. I’ve never worked on a character like this before and that’s uplifting to me. It makes me feel better as a person.

Tasmin: This year very much seems to be the year of Superman, with the new film coming out and all these great comic titles. For those of you who are now shaping this characters mythos in the comics, what makes Superman and in this particular time so exciting for you?

Joshua Williamson: Well, Dan answered that question already. But listen, there has been dark times in the world. And I remember when I was writing Barry and Barry’s optimism was always good to have in my head during those moments. And I feel the same way about Clark, know, like having like Clark in my head makes you kind of slow down and just think about these moments. And it gives you a feeling of optimism, a feeling of hope having Clark in your head. Like so much of our job is that you have to sort of become these characters.

There are times, especially last few years, where I found myself thinking about Lex more and being more in Lex’s head. But right now, it’s been really nice to have my head in Clark’s.

Tasmin: The format of this issue is somewhat unusual, you are telling one story through three different perspectives. What was it like navigating this process for you guys?

Joshua Williamson: Zooms! Yeah, it was pretty easy actually. The nice thing about working in the Superman office is that the communication is always very open. Paul Kaminsky and Jill and Brittany and everybody else working on the Superman books are really good about making sure that we’re all informed about what everybody else is doing.

Dan Slott: Yeah. I think we were all on the same page on what we wanted from it. I was coming at it in a place of complete and utter fear, because I was the Oreo filling in between Mr. Knows everything about Superman and the history of comics (Waid) and Mr. Been marshaling this character through epic runs (Williamson). It’s like I’m the new kid, but fortunately I had Superman on my side.

Mark Waid: Yeah, we want a little bit of fear still in you just at all times. If you’re not a little afraid to write Superman, you’re doing something wrong. Superman is really easy to get right and it’s really easy to get wrong and I do think that’s why some people come into it like that. It is good to have a little bit of fear to keep you on your toes with it.

Tasmin: Jorge Jiménez is a fan favorite artist when it comes to Superman. What was it like working with him on your parts of the story?

Mark Waid: He’s sensational, right? He just gets it. There’s action to it, there’s movement, but he also gets the small moments perfectly. It’s very rare that you get an artist who can do the big bombastic action, but can also give you the subtlety of the small emotional moments and he’s really good at that.

Dan Slott: He’s a secret weapon in that, everyone thinks “Batman, Batman, Batman”, but if you chip away at the surface, he wants Superman, he’s dying to work on Superman. So this was like a chance for him to like, you know, go into the Batcave and rip off the suit instead of like going into a phone booth. You get pure Jorge Superman.

Tasmin: I’m sure this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Validus, but firstly can you talk us through why you chose this villain to be the integral part of the story? And secondly, how will he in the events of this issue influence your stories in your upcoming runs?

Mark Waid: I don’t remember how we landed on Validus, do you Dan?

Dan Slott: I’m not sure, but jumping in, I was very scared about jumping into DC and I haven’t played around in the DC universe for almost 20 years and it was a really nice way to break in by having a villain I didn’t have to script for. He has no dialogue. He can’t talk. He just kind of goes “ARGGHHHH”.

Mark Waid: Yeah, I mean, we really needed a heavy hitter. We need somebody who could really be a threat to Superboy and Superman and someone who reflected somebody who could time travel in that sense of somebody from the future can pop in on any era in Superman’s life and so that gives us the continuing thread that goes through all three stories.

Tasmin: Mark, on the page where we see Superboy and Krypto first leap into action, there is a very recognizable billboard which may or may not relate to the Smallville TV show. Did that show influence your take on this era of Superman at all?

Mark Waid: Sure. I mean, that show did some really groundbreaking work with the character as a young man and I’ve continued to say that the single greatest legacy of that show is for the first time seeing Ma and Pa Kent not look like grandparents, but look like vital parental integral parts of Clark’s life as opposed to just two old people who sit around and bake pies and sit in a chair and smoke pipe.

We’re going to explore what it is like when you discover telescopic vision for the first time? How does it make you feel to be in Smallville and see the rest of the world where stuff is happening and you’re stuck in this little tiny town. What is it like to develop heat vision for the first time? What does it like to fly for the first time? There’s a lot of that in there, a lot of like living within Clark and getting into the emotional angle of how these abilities and powers make him feel.

There’s a lot of leaning on the relationship between Ma and Clark. We’ve done an awful lot with Pa and Clark, and we’ve done a lot with Jor-El and Clark, but we’ve not done a whole lot to this depth with Martha and Clark and what their unique relationship is. And that’s a lot of fun. Pa still shows up, Pa gets his moments, but it’s Ma who really gets more of the stage time in Action Comics.

Tasmin: Dan, in another interview you did, you referenced that you may be bringing back The Prankster. Can you expand upon that?

Dan Slott: Yeah, when I look at the rogues galleries of DC, you get all these heavy hitters in Batman and in Flash. And then you get these monoliths in Superman. You get these guys that are perfect and you don’t ever want to touch them. They’re great, you know the kind of villain I’m talking about here, you know your Brainiacs, your Zod’s, your Luthor’s. But then there are some guys where I’m like, okay, I want to get my hands on this guy and I want you to look at this character in an all new way.

One of the biggest ones in there is The Prankster. I’ve got a Prankster take that will freak you out. You will never look at the Prankster the same way, he’s going be a front man. And when you meet the real Prankster, it’s kind of messed up. When reading, most of my stuff is hopefully going to fill you with hope and joy and wonder, but when you get to the Prankster, you’re gonna be like, “should kids be reading this? I don’t know. This feels wrong. Something about this feels really, it’s all horrible”.

Oh, and we’ve got some fun plans in ‘Superman Unlimited’ for a new take on Metallo. It’s still Corbin, but what we’re doing with him, especially in this age where we’re going to do all this weird stuff with Kryptonite, we’re taking the character and adding the feel of the Kryptonite man. We’re elevating it and you’re going to have the Kryptonite King and you’ll find out what he’s all about and what he is doing.

Mark Waid: Reimagining these characters is part of the gig, part of the job and part of the fun of it. I just turned in a World’s Finest story yesterday with Superman and Batman, where we take a look at the Bizarros and Bizarro world in a way we never have before that is straight up horror movie vibes.

Dan Slott: I can’t wait for people to crack open these three books (Superman, Superman Unlimited and Action Comics), this is a new era and the different things we’re doing and the different pieces we’re building.

Tasmin: With Clark and Lois, a lot of people tend to forget about Clark and Lana and how important she was and still is to him. It feels like this issue really brought that to the forefront. Can you talk us through why she is so important to Clark and the Superman mythos and why you wanted to focus on it in the summer of Superman special?

Mark Waid: Yeah, they have a very special relationship, I mean, they’re best friends. Lana has always been kind to Clark at a time when other kids weren’t, because Clark has to sort of act a little bit more timid and he’s got to distance himself from Superboy. Lana is one of the kids who will still treat him like they always have. She’s not the one making fun of his glasses. She’s not the one giving him a hard time about being scared a lot of times of bullies and so forth. So she’s great and Clark can tell her things that he can’t tell other people and that’s going to play into what we’ve got coming up in Action Comics.

A huge thank you to DC for trusting me with the opportunity to speak with these incredible creators and to Mark Waid, Dan Slott and Joshua Williamson for their time. The Summer Of Superman is shaping up to be something special!

‘Summer Of Superman Special #1‘ is out Wednesday 16th April and will be available from your local comic store.