One of our most anticipated comics of 2013, the new ongoing Superman comic from Scott Snyder and Jim Lee -- titled Superman Unchained -- releases on June 12, only days before Man of Steel hits theaters. For Superman fans, that week is going to be one to remember.
This past weekend at WonderCon, I sat down with Snyder and Lee to talk about their take on the Man of Steel, including the massive four-page foldout splash poster that they unveiled at the show.
Check Out Our Previous Chat with Scott Snyder About Superman
IGN Comics: I want to start with the foldout cover you guys have been showing off a lot. Can you talk a bit about the genesis of that and how that idea came about?
Jim Lee & Scott Snyder
Jim Lee: I think it came out of a breakfast we had at last San Diego Comic-Con. Really, the spirit of it was, let’s challenge one another, let’s try to do something people haven’t seen before, while obviously staying true to the characters and the mythos and the traditions and just realize every aspect of the project, from the way the characters interact with one another to the sets and locations to the way the storytelling is done to the way the art looks.
I’ve returned to a regular format page with a border around all the panels, and I use the bleed for splashes, sparingly throughout, to give it a little more variation between the notes that you can deliver and also differentiate it from, I think, For Tomorrow a bit. I sat down with Alex Sinclair and talked to him about color palette again. We’re just trying to do something a little different, and I think we’re all pushing one another to do our best.
It’s been really inspiring just looking at Scott because he’s always thinking, challenging himself, never resting on his laurels. It’s great to see the process and really see the project come to life, sometimes on the fly. It has a real rawness to it that’s real fun to work on.
IGN: And have you thought at all about how that page is going to work digitally?
Lee: It’s going to look like a regular page, unfortunately.
Scott Snyder: You can just pore over your iPad.
Lee: Exactly! It’ll be that you can only zoom into one quarter at a time, you can never see the full image. [laughs]
The epic fold-out poster page from Superman Unchained #1.
IGN: So what’s the general creative process like between the two of you? How do you guys work together?
Snyder: It’s been great. We talked the whole story through before we started and what it was about, the themes. It was meant to explore Superman and a supporting cast, who the villain was, what he meant, all that stuff. Then, script by script, I think, you know, I’ll write the script, and sometimes I’ll call or email Jim and say, “For this scene, I have two different ideas. Which do you like better?” Then sometimes pages will come in from him, and it’ll give me ideas on how to change things later on. So, like he was saying -- he was being very kind about it -- I also feel like I can be really, really neurotic about it.
I want to make sure this is a book that you guys pick up and think we did our absolute best on. So I’m always trying to rethink how I can do those scenes to be their best in terms of, not just their best on their own, but given the art that he hands in, sometimes it gives me an idea, and I think to myself, “Oh my God, that could be so much better if I did it like this.” So it’s been really, really fluid and fun that way, where none of it is like, “Here’s the script,” and he draws the script. It’s been like, “Here’s the script, what do you think? There are a couple ways to do this or that.”
Then he does it, and I’m like, “Oh, you know what? That gives me an idea for how to do something for the next issue,” or whatever. So the story is set in stone in terms of the big beats, but along the way I feel like it’s been really, really excitingly collaborative that way.
IGN: On some of the panels, Scott's mentioned that you’re trying new techniques, Jim. Can you talk a bit about what those might be?
Lee: Just that we’re returning to the panel borders around the pages, so that’s part of it. Hopefully a different color palette. I sat down with Sinclair, and I’m really trying to focus on the storytelling, more so than ever before I think, partly because it makes for easier pages. I have a tendency to do the epic kind of long shot and put in everything that you need to know. And that’s by design; that’s the kind of approach I take to it.
But there’s also a lot of punch you get from doing an extreme closeup and have it just be that image with nothing around it. There’s a clarity and precision and impact there that you sometimes lose if you put everything else in that background. So I’m really just trying to -- I’ll lay it out, and I tend to revise it usually once, but with this one, I usually revise it three or four times to get it just where I want it to be.
[Superman and Lois are] kindred spirits, and they always choose to do the right thing.
IGN: Earlier, Scott, you were talking in the panel about how you consider Lois as an equal to Superman. What’s your take on that character, and what kind of relationship will she have with Clark in your story?
Snyder: Well, we’re trying to explore a different aspect of their relationship in this. You’re definitely going to get the romantic tension and the sexual tension, the kind of fun that’s there. But at the end of the day, I think the thing I’m most interested in exploring between them is the fact that they’re both kindred spirits, and they always choose to do the right thing. Lois pursues the truth no matter what sort of adversity faces her. I think Superman sees that, and it’s the same moral compass that he has from the Kents.
The world can be a really lonely and dangerous place when that’s your mission, when that’s the arrow you follow all the time. So he admires her and looks up to her in that way. I think they have a bond that goes beyond the romantic aspect of their relationship, even though that’s there as well. That’s a big part of it. She also has a big investigative role in the story itself. It’s key to whether Superman will win or die.
IGN: So how much of a role would you say the Clark Kent side of things plays? Is that still going to be an important role, or is it mostly Superman in costume?
Snyder: No, it’s definitely a really important role. I think it’s different because I really do feel like who Clark is is Superman, it’s just that you don’t notice him as Clark in a lot of ways. But he does the same thing. If he didn’t have superpowers, he would be Clark. With superpowers, he’s Superman. But that personality, that sense of who he is, in a human way, that personality is there regardless. There’s no masking Superman in that way either.
But Clark himself, if you’re asking, are we going to see him doing his journalism and trying to figure things out almost like a detective, yeah, definitely. There’s a lot of that as well. In the backups with Dustin [Nguyen] as well, in the codas we’re going to have at the end of the issues, you’ll see some of that too.
Superman Unchained #1 Cover
IGN: Are there any other particular heroes besides Superman and Lois Lane that you’re really having fun writing?
Snyder: Yeah, Lex ! And Perry has a really big moment actually at the end of issue one that I really love, in the coda. I really want to try to explore the characters from angles you’ve never seen and keep them classic and iconic. But really, it’s the same way we’re trying to approach Superman: show them in ways we haven’t seen them before, while keeping that core intact.
You’ll learn why Perry went into journalism in the first place, and there’s a surprising aspect to that. You’ll see Lois on an investigative journalistic mission you haven’t seen her on before and put in situations that I don’t think you’ve seen. Same with Jimmy, even Lana a little bit, too. We really want to touch on those characters -- and Lex has to reassess his relationship with Superman as well at a certain point, because he’s not the villain of the arc. So in that way, I think at the end of the day, we’re trying to re-explore these characters and keep them iconic, but do fresh takes.
IGN: My last question I guess is sort of a personal thing. Will we see Krypto and/or Bibbo?
Snyder: [laughs] No, I’m sorry. Maybe just for you I’ll try to throw in a hidden Krypto.
IGN: Thank you, I would appreciate it. That's kind of my thing. [laughs]
Joey is a Senior Editor at IGN and a comic book creator. Follow Joey on Twitter @JoeyEsposito, or find him on IGN at Joey-IGN. He's got his fingers crossed for an ongoing series about shenanigans at the Ace o' Clubs.
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