Monday 22 February 2021

40








Don't worry, Mr. Durden. 
Airport parking. Long term. 
After you, Mr. Durden. 
After you. 

Something on your mind, dear? 

No. All right, yeah. 
Why wasn't I told about Project Mayhem? 

First rule of Project Mayhem is you do not ask questions.

Why didn't you include me in the beginning?

Fight Club was The Beginning. 
Now it's moved out of The Basements 
and it's called Project Mayhem. 

You and I started Fight Club together
Remember? 
It's as much Mine as it is Yours. 
Is this about You and Me?

Yeah. 

I thought we were doing this together.


You're missing The Point. 
This Does Not Belong to Us.
We are Not Special.

Fuck that. You should have told me. 
Hey, Tyler! Goddamn it, Tyler!

What do you want? 
A Statement of Purpose? 
Should I email you? 
Should I put this on your action item list? 

Look...

You decide your own level of Involvement! 

I will! I wanna know certain things first!

The First Rule of Project Mayhem... 

Shut up!
I wanna know What You're Thinking.

Fuck What You Know! 
Forget about what you think you know about Life, about Friendship, and especially about You and Me. 

What is that supposed to mean? 
What... What are you doing? 


Guys, what'll you wish you'd done before you die?

Paint a Self-Portrait.

Build a House.

And you? 

I don't know. Nothing.
Get in the right lane.

You have to know 
The Answer to This Question! 

If you died now, 
How would you feel about Your Life? 

I don't know! 
I wouldn't feel anything good about My Life. 
Is that what you want to hear me say?
Come on!

Not Good Enough. 
Stop fucking around! 

Tyler! Jesus Christ! 
Goddamn it! Goddamn it! 
Fuck you! 
Fuck Fight Club. 
Fuck Marla! 
I am sick of all your shit! 
Okay, man. Okay.
Quit screwing around. Steer!

Look at you!

Steer! 

Look at you! 
You're fucking pathetic! 
Why? Why? 

What are you talking about?

Why do you think I blew up your condo? 

What? 

Hitting Bottom isn't a Weekend Retreat. 
It's not a goddamn Seminar. 
Stop trying to control everything and just let go!
Let go! 

All right. 
Fine. Fine. 

I'd never been in a car accident. 
This must have been what all those people felt like before I filed them as statistics in my reports. 

Goddamn! 
We've just had a Near-Life experience

In The World I See, you're stalking elk through the Grand Canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Centre. 

You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. 

You'll climb the great thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower. 

And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying strips of venison in the empty car-pool lane of some abandoned superhighway. 

Feel better, champ. 

And then... 

Tyler? 

...Tyler was gone. 

Was I asleep? 
Had I slept? 

You are not a beautiful, unique snowflake, 
you understand me? 

The House had become a living thing, 
wet inside from so many people sweating and breathing. 

We are all part of the same compost heap... 

So many people moving, The House moved. 
Planet Tyler
I had to hug the walls, 
trapped inside this clockwork of Space Monkeys. 

You can't be smoking in here! 
You know how much ether is in This fucking House? 

Cooking and working and sleeping in teams. 

Hang on a second. 
It's under control, sir. 

Where's Tyler? 

Sir, the first rule of Project Mayhem is you do not... 

Right. Okay. 

I'm all alone. 
My Father dumped me. Tyler dumped me. 
I am Jack's broken heart. 
What comes next in Project Mayhem only Tyler knows. 
The second rule is you do not ask questions. 
Get the fuck away from me! Get the fuck away from me! 

Who are all these people? 

The Paper Street Soap Company. 

1987 - 2006 : The War Zone












1987 :

LEX LUTHOR, 
Greatest Criminal 
Mastermind of Our Age :
….is The World going to be vapourised?

SUPERMAN :
No, Luthor — 
it’s as it always is :
On The Brink.
With Good Fighting Evil.

See Ya in 20.



Generation-X were not well dressed, 
because there was no reason to dress smartly. 

They were not career-minded, 
for there was no reason to pursue the corporate dream. 

They were seen largely as apathetic
but it was an apathy born of a logical assessment of the options 
rather than just innate laziness

They were often well-educated and creative
and were usually portrayed as being talkative and self-obsessed. 

If they had A Mission, of sorts, it was 
To Work Out How to Move Forward 
from Where They Were.








Sunday 21 February 2021

We’re Old Rivals


“He didn’t do what I did at all

Where I stood up to make a speech, he sat down. 

He did the opposite of •everything• I did. 

And I knew that son of a bitch was going to be a star.” 




Casting Christopher Plummer as Chang

Widely credited with resurrecting the fortunes of the franchise as director of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and co-writer on Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Meyer only ever had one man in mind for the role of the erudite Klingon general with the penchant for quoting William Shakespeare. 

I had always been a fanatic Christopher Plummer fan,” Meyer told StarTrek.com. “I had acquired a CD of him performing excerpts from Henry V to the accompaniment of the musical score that William Walton wrote for the Olivier movie of Henry V. 

I used to just listen to it over and over and over again. And Chang came out of that recording.” 

An avid Shakespeare fan, Meyer had seen Plummer in several productions through the years. 

It was an experience that shaped much of what went into the script for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country – right down to the film’s subtitle which is a direct quote from Hamlet. 

Meyer began writing his script with the idea of Plummer as Chang – and he was not about to accept any alternatives. 

I said to Mary Jo Slater, who was our casting director, ‘You have to get him [Plummer] for this, because I can’t make the movie otherwise. There’s no other actor who can do this.’” 

Even so, Plummer took some convincing according to Leonard Nimoy. 

I had to get on the phone with him several times… he had turned us down,” Nimoy revealed in an interview included on the Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Blu-ray release;  

He was certainly a great choice… but we were turned down. There’s a certain kind of very good actor who’s concerned about taking on this makeup and this persona of a bad guy in a Star Trek movie…He wanted to find some way to say ‘OK, I think I can take this on,’ and make it worthwhile.” 

Despite being a fan of the original TV series, Plummer was hesitant to take the role of a Klingon on account of the heavy make-up effects he would be required to wear. 

“I didn’t want to look like every other Klingon,” Plummer later explained to William Shatner in the 2011 documentary The Captains. “We ran into great difficulty because … they said it was traditional to have all of this [the usual Klingon headpiece].” 

Plummer elaborated further in another interview for the film’s DVD release: “I found a lot of the headgear that some of them wore rather phoney. I could see where the stitches were, so I decided I’d be a little different” 

Eventually a compromise was reached. 


Finally, Nicholas [Meyer], who wrote that very witty, tongue in cheek script, he stood up for me,” Plummer explained in The Captains. “The director stood up for me and I got my way — I didn’t have the long hair.” 

Donning an eyepatch that hinted at his eventful past as a great Klingon warrior, Plummer threw himself into the role of Chang with gusto, seeing it as a chance for the “upright, glamorous leading man to play a villain.”
 
It was much more than that though. 

The Shakespeare Influences

Shatner and Plummer had a friendly rivalry that dated all the way back to the 1950s, when Shatner was Plummer’s understudy during a production of Henry V at Stratford Shakespeare Festival. 

When illness prevented Plummer from appearing one night, Shatner took his place and found a way to upstage him. 

“He didn’t do what I did at all,” Plummer recalled during an interview on George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight. “Where I stood up to make a speech, he sat down. He did the opposite of everything I did. And I knew that son of a bitch was going to be a star.” 

The role of Chang offered a rare opportunity to share the screen with his friend and rival and it was one that Plummer relished, imbuing his performance with a sense of theatricality largely lacking in the Star Trek universe up until that point. 

It wasn’t a case of Plummer trying to upstage Shatner either; his grandiose performance elevated that of his co-star, bringing an extra dimension to the role of Kirk and his prejudice against the Klingon race. 

The film’s clever use of Shakespeare quotes – designed to highlight humanity’s gravitation towards conflict – might also have fallen flat were it not for Plummer’s delivery and ability to make them a believable part of his devious warmongering character’s persona. 

It’s not all about the famous bard though – one of Plummer’s most memorable scenes comes during Kirk and McCoy’s trial on the Klingon home planet of Qo’noS. 

Plummer delivers a devastating disdainful cross-examination of Kirk that ends with the memorable line: “Don’t wait for the translation, answer me now!” 

It’s an exchange that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the kind of courtroom dramas commonplace in the 1990s, with Plummer at his grandstanding, dramatic best. 

Even Chang’s final words in the film of “to be, or not to be” – the kind of line that might have sounded cliched coming from anyone else – were imbued with a sense of fatalistic gravitas that only enhanced Plummer’s performance and the character in Star Trek folklore. 

It also served to underline the importance of Plummer’s performance. While the concept developed by Meyer and Nimoy helped enliven the flagging franchise, Plummer undoubtedly elevated the material.  He delivered the franchise’s most compelling villain since Khan Noonien Singh. 

Audiences and critics evidently agreed, with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country garnering positive reviews and improved box office returns to help return the Enterprise to its former glories. It’s a further testament to Plummer’s performance that Chang lived on beyond the film in several Star Trek comic books and the game Star Trek: Klingon Academy – a game he happily reprised the role for. 

Plummer later reflected on the experience in his own inimitable fashion during his interview for The Captains.  

“I had the most marvelous time,” he said. “I was only jealous of David Warner (Chancellor Gorkon), who had the best line in the whole show, and I wished to hell General Chang could have said it, but it was David who said it.” 


The line in question?  “You don’t know Shakespeare until you’ve heard it in the original Klingon.”

No -- You Have MY Voice






LEX LUTHOR : 
What am I? A Genius! 
I’m Incredible..!! I’m —

LUTHOR’S MONSTER : 
You Are NOTHING!

•I• am The Father Now!

LEX LUTHOR : 
You Have My Voice.

LUTHOR’S MONSTER : 
No — YOU Have MY Voice!



“The sequel will be told from the-- at first-- submerged perspective of Tyler Durden as he observes the day-to-day tedium of The Narrator's life.  

Because 20th Century-Fox created the convention 
of calling the protagonist 
Jack’, I'm calling him ‘Cornelius’.  

He's living a compromised life with a failing marriage, unsure about his passion for his wife.  

The typical midlife bullshit. 

 Likewise, Marla is unsatisfied and dreams of accessing The Wild Man she'd once fallen in love with.  

She tampers with the small pharmacy of drugs that her husband needs to suppress Tyler, 
and-- go figure-- Tyler reemerges to terrorize their lives."

DESTROY SUPERMAN, NOW!



The Human Heart is Still Subject to Monstrous Deceits....

— Jor-el of Krypton




Dan Jurgens: I have always liked working with characters that offer a wide sense of scope. Superman certainly fits that. On top of that, I appreciate the idea that Clark's private life offers a great deal of potential as well. He lives in a major city, works as a reporter and has a background in Smallville, Kansas, which is quite different. But so much of it touches on a certain sense of Americana that, when all those elements are combined, one ends up with tremendous story potential.

Mike Carlin (Superman group editor, now creative director for DC Animation): I was working with John Byrne at Marvel Comics on Fantastic Four when he decided to leave Marvel and take DC's offer to relaunch their Superman line, with Marv Wolfman and Jerry Ordway. A few months after JB's departure, I was fired at Marvel. After the summer of 1986, the editor of the Superman books was shifting to work on the relaunch of Justice League, so he'd need to phase out on Superman. Dick asked Byrne who he'd like to work with and he said something like, "I liked working with Carlin on (Fantastic Four)."

During the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics, Byrne would for a stretch serve as writer and artist on both Action Comics and the eponymous Superman title. Superman also had a third title in regular rotation, Adventures of Superman, which would eventually also come to be written by Byrne. Superman's "never-ending battle" was now hitting comic book stands every week but one during the month.

Carlin: We decided to have John write Adventures with Jerry [Ordway] staying on as the artist. With one person writing three titles it was just natural that one issue would lead in to the other.

Through a series of circuitous events, Byrne would end up leaving his Superman duties near the second anniversary of the Superman relaunch. This was no small hurdle to overcome, as Byrne had been the driving force behind the characters resurgence in sales and popularity. Carlin began to assemble a crew of veteran comic book talent to replace him.

Jerry Ordway (Writer/Artist, Adventures of Superman): I started on Adventures of Superman #424 in July of 1986. I worked my way up to writing when John Byrne left.

Roger Stern (Writer, Adventures of Superman/Action Comics): In August of '87, after 12 years at Marvel, I began writing freelance for DC and eventually began a run on Action Comics with issue #644. I wound up writing that title through issue #700.

Carlin: Byrne had left us with a pretty big story to follow up on. Superman had killed the three Kryptonian Phantom Zone prisoners and we all felt that that was too big a story to just move on from without addressing what kind of fallout Superman would have to deal with personally and psychologically.

So simply by talking on the phone Roger, Jerry and I concocted the "Superman in Exile" storyline, which was so big and sprawling, again, it solidified the ongoing importance of continuity between the titles. There simply seemed to be no other way.

Connecting the stories was much easier to manage when Byrne was helming most of the storylines himself. As the creative teams on the respective books began to diversify, some changes to the plotting process had to be made.

Carlin: The Superman titles were climbing in sales and, maybe more importantly, getting critical notice for our "style" and continuity and consistent use of the supporting characters. So I was able to convince DC to let me host a meeting at the offices with all of the principal players in attendance. So after a dinner and a hotel room meeting, the Super-Summit was born.

These annual "Superman Summits" allowed all the creative teams to get together in one spot to map out the next 12 months of Superman adventures. Eventually, talk of a fourth Superman title began to kick around DC.

Carlin: Paul Levitz liked the success of the linked Superman comics so much that he kept asking "When am I gonna get that fourth title?" So we had to expand the universe. Once again, I looked backwards to folks I'd worked with at Marvel. Jon Bogdanove was simply a favorite artist of mine, and Louise Simonson (eventual writer of the fourth title) is everyone's favorite, the end. Jon's son was named Kal-El, so I knew it was only going to be a matter of time. Jon HAD to draw Superman. So Superman: The Man of Steel was added to our monthly output filling up every week. Superman: Man of Tomorrow actually filled the gap in the four 5-week months that landed on New Comic Day… so we did literally 52 Superman titles a year.

Ordway: Here's the truth: it was hard work! People think we did one big continued story month in and month out, but it was mainly the subplots or B and C storylines that were the continued thread from title to title, as a way to get comic fans to buy all the titles, not just the main Superman one. That's where the idea started.

Carlin: I'd start the yearly story summits with charts tacked to the wall. A box for every issue of a Superman title for a year-plus. Folks would say what they wanted to do in their titles and we'd piece the year out filling the boxes right there in front of everyone. This was a "check your ego at the door" kind of meeting as we were all there in service of our pal Superman.

I stood as the arbiter of what was written down. This final chart arrived at by the end of the meeting would be transcribed and copied and sent to everyone. This didn't mean that there would be no room for divine inspiration as the year went on, but the skeleton of the year's plans was pretty sacred so that all four teams were running on the same train tracks for the year.

Superman Man of Steel 1
Credit: DC Comics
We flash forward a few years to the Summit meant to plan events for the 1993 slate of stories. While the quality on the four Super-titles had been bolstered by the expanded roster of comic book veterans, sales were now not reflective of the quality. It was now a struggle to keep Superman relevant in a climate that favored flashier or darker anti-heroes.

Bogdanove: So here we were, writing and drawing some of the best superhero stories of our lives, but feeling like nobody was really paying attention! It vexed us.

They needed a hook. An event.

Carlin: The wedding was planned in '90 or '91 to happen in Adventures #500 in early '93.

Everything was in place to finally consummate what was without question the longest courtship/love triangle in comic book history, and hopefully draw attention back to Metropolis. But they weren't the only ones with wedding bells ringing in their ears.

Carlin: [DC president] Jenette Kahn had actually interested Warner Bros. Television in a Daily Planet-centric TV show that was pitched using the soap opera elements in the current interlocked Superman comics. She pitched it as Lois Lane's Planet and it evolved into Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.

This was big news to us. Contrary to some Fake News out there, it wasn't Warner Bros or the TV showrunners who didn't want us to do the wedding. Jenette and I decided that we wanted to hold off, save the plans, but not get to it when we had originally planned to. If the show was a flop, we could do the wedding as soon as we wanted. If the show was a hit and lasted long enough, maybe we could do their wedding on TV AND in the comics at the same time. What a great idea, we thought!

Unfortunately, when the writers showed up for the '91 Super-Summit, they weren't so excited about the idea. And the prospect of having to come up with something that could stand up to a wedding they had spent two years setting up made the idea even more daunting.

Ordway: We had had several meetings with various people involved in trying to get Lois & Clark launched, and it went on quite a long time. A month or two after our Florida conference, we were called into the DC Comics conference room and told that the wedding was on hold, so we could coordinate the event with the TV show, which had a new showrunner, Deborah Joy Levine. We were given a start date, a year later. The mood was more of annoyance, I recall.

Bogdanove: It's tough to see good work tossed out, but I think we knew we'd be able to work our way back around to use most of it later. At the time, though, we'd all been locked in that conference room at DC for three days when we were told we had to start over. We were already tired and a bit frayed. All the artists felt pressure to get home and get back to drawing, lest we fall behind on our deadlines. Mike rallied us and we dug back in and got to work.

Action Comics 662 Superman
Credit: DC Comics
Ordway: I personally wasn't upset too much to put the wedding on hold. When we plotted the engagement story, Lois was going to turn Clark down. I was writing the plot of the issue, and called Carlin up to tell him I thought it was better for Lois to say "yes." It felt right to me, though it was a last minute change. So Roger's title, which was next after Superman #50 on sale, would need a major change, and the result was for Clark to then reveal he was Superman to Lois. He couldn't start the engagement with a lie. In my mind, they could have been engaged for years, you know?

Jurgens: We already knew the wedding was off the table so I had already been thinking of other ideas. It's not like we went in and heard it for the first time.

Stern: There was some initial disappointment. After all, we'd already been building to that story for a couple of years. But then, it became another challenge: OK, if we can't have Clark and Lois marry, what can we do?

Bogdanove: The classic story we all tell at conventions is mostly true. "The Death of Superman" all started with Jerry Ordway. As he always did whenever we hit a bump about what should happen next, Jerry wise-cracked, "Let's kill him!"

Ordway: I believe I first made the joke at whichever story meeting where Carlin set up the giant poster boards on the walls. We came in, perhaps for the story conference that launched the Pérez Action Comic title, and I thought those blank issue boxes seemed intimidating. I joked for Mike to fill in the last box on the last of maybe six boards, "Everyone dies. The end." And I guess it became a running gag, which I repeated at the next meeting, to get the ideas flowing, with that one box filled in.

Carlin: But at this meeting, there really was a feeling that we had done these guys wrong by taking away the planned storyline that they'd invested time in setting up and a whole bunch of ideas that, now, felt like we would never get to. So when Jerry said "Let's just kill 'im!" this time… there weren't a lotta laughs. So I said: "Okay, wise guys, IF we kill him, THEN what happens?"

I felt like I needed to make a peace offering to break the mood and get back to filling boxes. Because we were scotching the wedding set-up were more empty boxes than usual. I was desperate to get some conversation going.

Bogdanove: What made the difference when Jerry said it this time was Louise Simonson. Louise had been editor of all the X-titles at Marvel, where she had presided over the deaths of many mutants. She knew the value of "killing your darlings." Louise spoke up, saying "You know what you get from killing a character: You get to show just how much that character means — to his friends, family, enemies, to the whole world!"

That got us thinking! We were a contentious, brawling bunch sometimes, but we were definitely all united by our passion for Superman. We loved this character. We loved his myth, and what he was all about, thematically and symbolically. Superman really mattered to all of us!

Carlin: Our own personal frustrations with what was popular in comics at the time, murderers and anti-heroes everywhere, and the persistent labeling of Superman as a "boy scout" and a cornball fueled the death itself. If only murderers and monsters were heroes and you readers were going to take Superman for granted, then you won't mind if we take him away.

Bogdanove: In those days, sometimes referred to as The Dark Age of comics, characters like Superman — good-hearted, purely altruistic heroes — were unpopular. Dark, vengeful, brooding heroes held sway with fans, almost to the exclusion of all other types of heroes, including ours. Superman, the very first comic book superhero, was seen as too "old school" to be taken seriously.

Jurgens: We had considered the "Death of…" idea earlier, but never in any depth. More of a recognition that it had been a classic story, many years earlier, that affected us as readers. Prior to the summit, I talked to a couple of the other creators on the phone and suggested it as a story with big possibilities. I had no idea how to do it—just that it offered some great drama. I believe I had mentioned it earlier during the meeting but it didn't catch. In all honesty, it was the skimpiest of ideas. No story built in.

Carlin: Dan had long wanted to pit Superman against simple brute force. What if, no matter how strong and powerful you are, there is ALWAYS someone out there who is bigger? So his issue #75 of Superman was on the schedule before Adventures #500 (both "anniversary" issues, of sorts). We all decided that that was where Superman would die — at the hands of a literal force of nature — and that he'd come back to life in Adventures #500.

Jurgens: I went in with a yellow legal pad that had two ideas on it. One was, "Monster trashes Metropolis" and the other was "Death of Superman." At the time, there was no thought of combining those two ideas and the monster had no name. All I knew is that I wanted a physical confrontation for Superman because most of his villains, from Luthor to Prankster to Toyman to Mr. Z didn't allow for it.

Credit: Dan Jurgens
Credit: Dan Jurgens


Bogdanove: Dan had come to the meeting with a drawing of a Hulk-like character covered with those damn bony protrusions. We artists were always campaigning for tougher bad guys Superman could punch, but Dan had made it his mission.
Jurgens: I had a very rough doodle of an exoskeleton sort of monster.

Doomsday Sketch 4
Credit: Dan Jurgens
Carlin: The four pencil artists all took a stab at designing what Doomsday would look like and we democratically voted for the one we all liked best.

Bogdanove: As fate would have it that day, there was Dan's sketch, taped up on the wall, near the little box in which Mike had written the words "Doomsday for Superman." Without knowing it, Mike had already named him. Doomsday was born.

Doomsday Sketch 5
Credit: Dan Jurgens
Ordway: Part of the bargain among those present was that if we did the big action stuff, the story had to have consequences. People would die, and Metropolis would be pretty damaged.

Carlin: Dan also wanted to do an all splash-page issue… and since this was literally going to be a big fight, this seemed like the perfect place to do that method of storytelling.

Bogdanove: It had to be a visually powerful moment. It had to be a fight. Inker Brett Breeding had the clever idea of dividing the fight among all four titles in a way that would not only progressively build up the power and suspense to the fateful climax, but had the added effect of accelerating the pace of the action the closer you got to the end.

Carlin: The issue of Man of Steel before Superman #75 was deemed to be drawn with two panels a page. The issue of Action Comics was to be three panels a page. And the issue of Adventures before Action was to be four panels a page. So what we had was a super-subtle build in the action across the four weeks leading to Superman's death.

Bogdanove: No one wanted any of the villains in Superman's rogues' gallery to gain the distinction of ultimately being the one to kill Superman. It couldn't just be Luthor without negating something thematically important. Also, it couldn't be Kryptonite, because that would have been too passive and a crutch from a writing perspective.

Superman Doomsday sketch
Credit: Jon Bogdanove
Jurgens fittingly enough would be the artist who drew that final image of a battle-weary Superman finally succumbing to battle with Doomsday, cradled in Lois Lane's arms, with Jimmy Olsen forlorn in the background.

Jurgens: As for that final double page splash, well… it first appeared as a triple page spread at the end of Superman #75. I don't think it has ever been reprinted that way, with a double page spread that then folds out into a triple pager. We spent an extraordinary amount of time getting it to work properly and I think it really helped bring Superman #75 to an appropriate close.

Superman #75 would go on to sell millions copies over multiple printings, reaching sales figure that were bolstered in no small part by the mainstream attention the death of this international icon had attracted.

Ordway: Coincidentally, the public's actual reaction mirrored what we did in the comics — they suddenly came out in numbers, professing their love for Superman. That was what we wanted all along, though of course none of us had any idea it would sell. We had hopes that people would respond, maybe comic shops might order more Superman comics.

Jurgens: There is no way we, DC or anyone was prepared for the reaction to our story. We were simply trying to tell a good, dramatic story that said something about the nature of a great character.

Carlin: I still can't believe people believed Superman would be gone forever. Reporter after reporter came up to DC and asked "Why are you killing Superman?" and my standard answer was "When was the last time you bought a Superman comic? Hell, when was the last time you bought ANY comic?" And every reporter said they hadn't bought a Superman comic since they were kids, to which my response was: "Then you're the one who killed Superman!" And most of these reporters, men and women, said that they were reporters because of Clark and/or Lois's inspiration!

Superman Lois Jimmy Death of Superman
Credit: DC Comics
For the creative team, the story they yearned to tell was not the slugfest that led up Superman's death, but the stories of loss afterward.

Bogdanove: In what seemed like no time, we'd written most of "Funeral for a Friend," which was where the real meat of the story was. I think we accomplished exactly what Louise spoke of. Through the eyes of Metropolis and the world, via the reactions of heroes, villains and the friends and family he knew, I think we got to say a lot about why Superman matters.

Certain scenes stand out in my memory: Bibbo (Bibowski, a supporting character who idolized the Man of Steel) saying, "It shoulda' been me!" Ma and Pa Kent watching the funeral of their own son on television, all alone by themselves. Some of these scenes we talked about that day still make my eyes tear up just thinking about them.

Funeral Friend Superman
Jurgens: That's what the "Funeral for a Friend" storyline was all about. By taking Superman away, we could really explore his importance to the world at large. What worked great is that reality seemed to fuse with our storyline for a while, as any number of columnists wrote pieces that addressed the question of Superman's importance to the world.

Stern: I remember at one point thinking, "We'd better not screw this up." Seriously though, I saw it as a great opportunity to show how important Superman is to the world — and how much he would be missed, once he was gone.

Carlin: We really thought they were great solutions to having to stall the wedding for a bit… and all was good.

But then came the tricky part: bringing him back. And even trickier: keeping it a secret.

Carlin: This is also when another idea came up when we called Paul Levitz and the marketing guys to tell them our grand scheme: four titles all published the same day spotlighting a NEW Superman who might be the real deal… or not. They loved the idea, but with the solicitation cycle we would be telling people Superman was returning BEFORE they actually bought Superman #75! So everyone decided we would stop publishing Superman comics for three months, which was unheard of since 1938!!

Bogdanove: It was the vision of Mike Carlin, Jenette Kahn, and Paul Levitz, and the courage of DC Comics, to commit to actually ceasing publication of Superman books. And then to come back without the title hero! Pretty damn gutsy, unconventional thinking in those days.

Carlin: I was relieved that would give us three extra months to get those first four issues done… and then I wasn't relieved because I had to publish SOME kind of Super-stuff in those three months.

Jurgens: Those intervening weeks got special, Death of Superman-related material.

Carlin: We did stuff like a Lex Luthor/Supergirl mini-series, and an actual issue of Newstime Magazine (the DC Universe's version of TIME Magazine) This marketing maneuver really was smart — it preserved our story's surprises AND added to the illusion that Superman was really gone forever!

Jurgens: As we had planned the entire "Death of…" and "Funeral for a Friend" stories, we had not planned anything in terms of Superman's return.

Carlin: We did have an "Emergency Super-Summit" when we saw just how huge the sales figures were going to be… and we knew we couldn't just have Superman sit up in his coffin in Adventures #500 and say "I'm baaaaaaack!". This meeting was away from the office in a hotel in Tarrytown, NY, where we plotted the "Reign of the Supermen" story.

The only new person in the room was Karl Kesel, who I had worked with on Hawk & Dove. Another great team-player who loved Jack Kirby's work, Jimmy Olsen in particular, which we would reference a lot in the Superman books. This was Karl's only association with Marvel: liking Jack Kirby. I had finally broken my bad habit!

Karl Kesel (Writer/Inker, Adventures of Superman): Jerry Ordway felt he'd put in his time on Adventures of Superman and was ready for something new, so Mike Carlin needed a new writer on the book and called me. This was before the death became what it became — no one saw it coming. I'm sure Jerry would have never left the book if he'd known what was around the corner! When Carlin offered me the gig, I talked to Jerry about what it was like working on the book (since there was clear cross-pollination between all the Superman titles) and what sort of royalties I might see— which were maybe a couple hundred bucks a month, I believe.

Ordway: My wife and I started our family, and I was consciously trying to avoid working all the time, because those art deadlines are brutal, with long hours and little time for family. That's why I scaled back to just writing. As to leaving, the opportunity came to me once we actually planned the "Death of Superman" storyline. Jurgens had the actual death in Superman #75, and I was going to bring Supes back in Adventures of Superman #500, which was just a nice number.

Once the sales numbers came in on "Death," I'll admit I had some regrets, but I wasn't going to take the book back from Karl before he even started! And I felt like I was leaving on a high note, whatever the sales were. That newfound success was an uphill battle I fought on Superman since Byrne left, to get comic stores to care more about Superman.

Carlin: In the ramp-up to this meeting all of the writers had a different idea on how to do a NEW kind of Superman… if I would only pick their idea and everyone would play along. I really didn't know how to enter this meeting having to pick a "winner." At some point, Louise Simonson said on the phone to me, "Why don't we just do them all?" That was the answer! Saved the day! AND for a little while, the teams would all get to kind of do their own thing after years of forced collaboration—at least for a few months

four supermen
Kesel: The couple months where we had a certain amount of autonomy in each of our titles meant I could ease into the cross-continuity of the books.

Carlin: Louise and Jon did their "everyman as Superman" in Steel. Roger Stern and Jackson [Guice] explored the Kryptonian side of Superman in the Eradicator. Karl and Tom got to do the adventures of Superman when he was a boy in Superboy. And Dan Jurgens got to do the all-powerful superhero who needed no civilian life in the Cyborg.

The storyline would run under the banner "Reign of the Supermen," which itself was a homage to the original short story by Siegel and Schuster entitled "Reign of the Super-man," the pairs first published work with a character named Superman, pre-dating the debut of the caped version in Action Comics #1 by about five years.

Bogdanove: Before we all split up into our groups, Dan had suggested Louise and I do a blue-collar character. But I think he thought he should be comic relief, a poor man's Superman. Louise and I didn't want to just play him for laughs. We wanted to create a working-class hero with dignity. Louise brought her Marvel experience to bear.

DC didn't really have an Iron Man-type of armored character. We thought the idea of a homemade Iron Man might be interesting. How could a guy with no fortune or Stark/Wayne-like resources possibly fill in for Superman? What would motivate him even to try? I'd always loved the Legend of John Henry, The Steel-Drivin' Man. I had made drawings of him in my teens, and even wrote a poem, I think. His story and archetype were meaningful to me. When Louise pointed out that he was more than a mere legend, that John Henry was a real historical figure who really did duel a steam-powered drill for the dignity of workers and won at the cost of his life — I knew here was a superhero motif that needed to happen.

Kesel: When I first started as an inker on Legion of Superheroes, within six months I pitched [editor] Karen Berger an idea for a new title. (That I would write, of course.) I won't go into details about what the idea was (because I still like it and may be able to do something with it someday) but not long ago I ran across the typed-out proposal — and the main character was exactly like Superboy in attitude and tone! So this sort of character had obviously been in the back of my head for some time. Why I came up with this sort of character, I have no idea. But he was a blast to write.

Jurgens: Villains are, in many ways, always more interesting to write. I just thought it'd be great to have a "rebuilt" Cyborg Superman appear and to my best to convince everyone that he was the real Superman. The idea that I could bring readers to the point of that belief, pull the rug out from under their feet, and reveal him as a villain was really fun to write.

I had introduced Hank Henshaw, who became Cyborg Superman, a few years earlier so readers already knew him as a villain. But this elevated him a great deal.

Reign of Supermen
Stern: I wanted to show the readers how frightening a ruthless Superman could be. The Eradicator had always represented the cold, Kryptonian side of Superman's heritage, so I went with that full force. The Eradicator had originally been created in Action Comics Annual #2, as part of the "Superman in Exile" storyline. We didn't give the Eradicator a humanoid body until the "Krypton Man" storyline. That story launched Superman: The Man of Steel #1.

That last story, of course, had ended with the Eradicator being dispersed within the Fortress of Solitude. During the Summit, it occurred to me that we could bring him back as the replacement Superman for Action Comics and do it in such a way that the readers wouldn't realize who he was until the ultimate big reveal.

The conclusion of the "The Reign of Superman" finally returned Superman to the land of the living, fresh from a Kryptonian Regeneration Matrix, and added four new players to the Superman mythology that have endured to this day.

Carlin: We all had shorthand distinctions in our minds about what made each of the new Superman different… and those distinctions actually helped translate some of these guys into their own ongoing series after the whole "Death and Return" storyline was over. Steel and Superboy had long-running series of their own, Eradicator had a mini-series or two, and well, Cyborg Superman never got a book because he was the bad guy!

Carlin: What was great about Steel and Superboy, in particular, is that Louise & Jon and Karl & Tom got to break off from the (very hard to do) continuity and finally run and explore what they wanted to do in their own stand-alone series! They'd earned that.

Bogdanove: It's good to try to maintain a certain detachment about characters you don't own, even if you created them. I learned this long before Louise and I created Steel. I love John Henry Irons. That character feels like a real person to me, like family, almost. I'm actually honored Shaq liked the character so much he wanted to make that movie! It certainly has craptastic charm. In the comics, Steel has generally fared much better than he did in his movie. Several writers have written him. Those I've seen have been pretty good! I am particularly pleased with Christopher Priest and Denys Cowan's run on the character.

Also a fun byproduct of Clark's emergence from the regeneration chamber: The Super-Mullet.

Superman Mullet
Credit: DC Comics
Bogdanove: All I really want to say about that is the long hair wasn't my idea! I know that in Brett's videos, I'm the guy running around in a ponytail, but the Super-Mullet wasn't me And it wasn't a mullet, it was Tarzan-hair!

Kesel: All I can say about the mullet is that it probably stayed around longer than anyone thought it would simply because we kinda forgot about it. At least, I did! (How long a character's hair is really doesn't impact plot lines.) I can't even remember now — when DID we get rid of the long hair? Certainly by the wedding…

Carlin: The longer hair came about as Superman was returning… and we wanted to show at least a slight change. Nothing as drastic as the four Supermen, but just a nod to the fact that something new was happening. Lois and Clark was coming to TV the same week that Superman returned in the comics, and in the pilot Dean Cain's hair was slightly longer.

We took that cue to lengthen Superman's hair as well as deepen the blue and red of his costume to show that while things were back to normal they wouldn't be entirely the same. Some of the pencilers went a little overboard and we ended up with lion manes and ponytails, but the longer hair served a purpose in the storytelling. And like most of our stories we knew the hair was going to have its ending… and it did when Lois & Clark got married and Superman went back to his classic cut with the "S"-Curl as a gift to Lois and readers around the world.

Carlin: We personally felt bad that characters like LOBO and The Punisher were being hailed as role models of some sort — and maybe it was our fault that Superman felt old-fashioned still. We were in a position to do something about it, or at least to TRY to do something about it, so we took that awkward opportunity of a postponed wedding and really made our point: Don't take Superman for granted — or he might not be there when you need him.

MORE INTERVIEWS
MTN Dew Gremlins commercial with Gizmo and Zach Galligan
Gremlins: Zach Galligan & Gizmo reunite for first time in 31 years in new MTN DEW Zero Sugar spot 
Power Rangers: Dino Fury
Power Rangers: Dino Fury showrunner explains how the series is bending the Ranger 'rules' for all ages
And I know we succeeded incredibly in getting that message out there, because the real world reacted the exact same way that Jimmy and Lois and Bibbo and all the denizens of the DCU reacted. Life was imitating art… and here we are 25 years since Superman died and returned and this story still matters enough for us to have put out an animated Death of Superman direct-to-video feature film this summer with Part Two, The Reign of the Superman, scheduled for release next January.

Saturday 20 February 2021

If You Look Straight at Me, You'll See Yoursel






If You Look Up to Me, You'll See a God

 





My Son. 

You do not remember me. 


I am Jor-El. 

I am Your Father. 


By now you will have reached your 18th year, as it is measured on Earth. 

By that reckoning, I will have been dead for many thousands of your years. 


The knowledge, that I have matters physical and historic, I have given you fully on your voyage, to your new home. 


These are important matters to be sure but, still matters of mere fact


There are questions to be asked. 

And it is time, for you to do so. 


Here in this, this Fortress of Solitude —

We shall try to find the answers together


How does a good man live? 


What is virtue? 


When does a man's obligation to those around him exceed his obligation to himself? 


These are not simple questions. 

Even on Krypton, there is no precise science which provides us with the answers. 


I can only tell you what I myself believe. 

And to this end, I tried to anticipate your questions in the order of their importance to you. 


So, My Son — Speak :


Clark : 

Who am I?


Jor-El: 

Your Name is Kal-El. 

You are the only survivor of The Planet Krypton. 


Even though you have been raised, as a human being 

you are not one of them. 


You have great powers, only some of which you have, as yet discovered. 


Come with me now my son, as we break through the bars of your Earthly confinement, travelling through time and space... 


In the 6 known dimensions...


Your powers, will far exceed those of mortal man...


It is forbidden for you to interfere with Human History. 

Rather let your leadership, stir others to... 


In this next year, we shall examine, the human heart. 


It is more fragile than your own... 


For the past 2 years...


As we pass through the flaming turmoil which is the edge of your own galaxy, we will enter the realm of the red Krypton sun. 


Source of your strength and nourishment and, cause of our eventual destruction. 


The Planet Krypton, My Son, Your Home, as it was... 


This year, we shall examine the various concepts of immortatility, 

and their basis in actual fact... 


The total accumulation of all knowledge spanning the 28 known galaxies, is embedded in the crystals which I have sent along with you. 


Study them well my son, and learn from them...


Over the past 12 years, we have reasoned out logical judgments...


By the time we return to the confines of your galaxy, 12 of your years will have passed... 


For this reason among others, I have chosen Earth, for you... 


It is now time for you to rejoin your new world, and to serve its, collective Humanity. 


Live as one of them Kal-El, to discover where your strength and your power are needed. 


But always hold in your heart the pride, of your special heritage. 


They can be a Great People Kal-El, They wish to be. 


They only lack The Light to show The Way. 


For this reason above all, their Capacity for Good, 

I have sent them you


My Only Son.


(Now an adult, Superman emerges from the Fortress. The crowd goes wild.)








THE FATHER :
Say No More. 

New category, please. 

Combine “Fact” 
with 
Fairy Tale 

Now. Ask Him Again.

THE SON :
“How can The Blue Fairy make A Robot into A Real, Live Boy?”

- !TUNK! -

- SYSTEM REBOOT -


THE SPIRIT OF THE CAVE :
Come away,O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a fairy, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping
Than you can understand.

Your Quest will be perilous
Yet The Reward is Beyond Price.

In His Book,
'How Can A Robot Become Human',
Professor Allen Hobby writes of 
The Power Which Will Transform Mecha into Orga.

[ THERE IS A GOD, YOUNG KING DAVID -- 
AND HE HAS A NEW BOOK OUT.]

THE SON :
Will you tell me How to Find Her?
 
[ HE IS MEANT TO ANSWER THAT QUESTION : 
'Yes' or 'No.'
 
HE DOESN'T -- BECAUSE, AS WE LATER LEARN, 'GOD' (The Demiurge -- Professor Allen Hobby) HAS INTERCEEDED TO FORCE THE SPIRIT OF THE CAVE TO TELL HIM AT THIS POINT. ]
 


THE SPIRIT OF THE CAVE :
Discovery is quite possible.
Our blue fairy does exist
in one place, and one place only,
At The End of The World
Where The Lions Weep.
 
Here is The Place Dreams are Born.
 
THE FATHER :
Many a mecha has gone to The End of The World... 
Never to come back! 

That is Why They Call The End of The World :
'MAN-hattan'.

THE SON :
And that is Why We Must Go There!



HALLWAY OUTSIDE DR. KNOW'S SHOP

THE FATHER :
Wait! What if --
The Blue Fairy isn't Real at all, David? 

What if --
She's MagicK? 

The Supernatural is The Hidden Web that unites The Universe.

 Only orga believe What Cannot Be Seenor Measured. 

It is that oddness that separates Our Species.

Or what if --
The Blue Fairy is an Electronic Parasite that has
arisen to haunt The Minds of Artificial Intelligence? 

They hate us, you know? 
The humans...

They'll stop at nothing.
 
THE SON :
My Mommy doesn't hate me! 
Because I'm Special, and...Unique!

Because there has never been anyone like me before! Ever!

Mommy Loves Martin because He is Real 
and 
When I am Real,
Mommy's going to Read to Me, 
and 
Tuck Me in My Bed, 
and 
Sing to Me, 
and 
Listen to What I Say, 
and 
She Will Cuddle with Me, 
and 
Tell Me every day a hundred times a day 
that 
She Loves Me!

THE FATHER :
She loves 
What You Do for Her,
 as my customers love 
What it is I Do for Them. 

But She Does Not Love You David, 
She cannot love you. 

You are neither flesh, nor blood

You are not a dog, a cat or a canary

You were designed and built
specific, like The Rest of Us. 

And You are Alone now only because 
They tired of you, 
or 
Replaced you with a Younger Model, 
or 
Were displeased with Something You Said, or broke.

They made us Too SmartToo Quick, and Too Many. 

We are suffering for 
The Mistakes They Made, 
Because when The End comes,  
all that will be left is us

That's Why They Hate Us,
 and  
That is Why You Must Stay here — with me!

[He grins, offering his open hand]

THE SON :
Goodbye, Joe.



ROUGE CITY PLAZA

POLICE OFFICER :
You're in Big Trouble.
 
THE BEAR :
Be careful David, This is Not a Toy.

AMPHIBICOPTER :
Destination please?

THE FATHER :

MAN-hattan.



MANHATTAN

AMPHIBICOPTER :
Mecha Restricted Area.
Manhattan. 
Destination Achieved.

THE FATHER :

Man-hattan, The Lost City in The Sea at The End of The World.

THE SON :
Where The Lions Weep.

THE BEAR :
Grrrrrr