One Man and His Dog

"Obviously, one of the most SUCCESSFUL Periods with Superman was The Fifties [ which is -- Fandom, please take note -- the exact OPPOSITE of what most people THINK it is, if you canvas Public Oppinion ], the Mort Weisinger stuff, which were HUGELY successful, they were read by KIDS, they were read by little girls, little boys....

I think what was great was that he took things that we all understood, like --

Superman suddenly has a DOG!

And he's got a DEN, that's got all His STUFF in it, and 

he's got RELATIVES (who are ALIENS), and

he's got FRIENDS, from The Future --

But the actual STORIES are still 

all about Guilt, and Loss, 

and Fear, and Love,

and EVERYTHING That We UNDERSTAND, 

but on an EPIC SCALE --

So, when Superman walks The Dog, 

he walks it past SATURN --

....but he's STILL walking the dog...!! 

He's like Your Dad, y'know? --

He's STILL gotta go out, walk the dog,

and he still goes home, and 

Lois gives him a hard time --

And I thought, 'Those are all the things that MAKE The Story', y'know?

Because the thing with Superman is, even when he can JUGGLE STARS,

he can still go home, and Lois Lane can undermine him with ONE Cruel Word...(!!)

And that's why we made him even MORE Powerful than ever,

because everyone was saying, 

"Oh, yoou can't do a Superman story,

'coz, if he can Do ANYTHING, then what conflicts are there...?"

And I thought, "Well.... 

EMOTIONAL Conflicts..!

The BIGGEST ones, The ones We ALL understand -- "