The Sad Saga of Superman Now
@theazureesper asked: How long has this āno major / overly talented creators on Superman booksā been a thing? And, how does them bringing Gene Luen Yang and Greg Pak on just for Superman fit into that? As well as Morrison, Johns, and Robinson each having notable runs on books.
That semi-official embargo was apparently a practice of the ā90s Superman and Batman books when Jurgens was initially writing the character - the reasoning being that the really great creators should be allocated to the low-level books to turn them into successes, whereas anyone basely competent could make their biggest icons sell. Or, as Morrison said it was put to him when he pitched for Superman inĀ ā99,Ā āDo you honestly believe DC will ever give you the keys to the family car?ā
Clearly that was lifted later on, though frankly it seems to be back at least in spirit with the main Superman books at the moment, given Batman got King and Wonder Woman got Rucka. Like Iāve said before, I get the impression DCās given up on Superman at the very moment, so thereās no reason to give major talent to books they see as having a built-in sales ceiling, though hopefully thatāll change soon with the anniversary and another movie beckoning.
For those of you who donāt know about that Morrison pitch I mentionedā¦well, prepare for frustration.
The story varies a bit in the telling, but here it goes as best Iāve been able to piece it together across multiple sources: Grant Morrison was wandering the streets after hours at SDCC ā98, talking with Mark Waid about revitalizing the Superman books, but feeling like he just didnāt know the tack to take - in JLA he pretty generally wrote him as what he once referred to asĀ āsome combination of Jesus, Einstein and the American flagā, which wasnāt going to cut it with him as the main character. And then he met Superman. Seriously, hereās a picture of the three of them with a couple cosplayers.
Seeing this guy just wandering around, Morrison essentially took it as cosmic happenstance and started asking him questions, which he answered in-character as Superman (āBatman and I donāt really see eye to eye on a lot of things. Heās so hung up on the darkness in everyoneās soul and I just donāt see it that wayā¦ā). But what really struck him was the way the guy was sitting down comfortably with a gentle grin,Ā and Morrison realized that for all he traditionally posed and flexed,Ā āthis was how Superman would sit. He wouldnāt puff out his chest or posture heroically, he would be totally chilled. Ā If nothing can hurt you, you can afford to be cool. Ā A man like Superman would never have to tense against the cold; never have to flinch in the face of a blow. Ā He would be completely laid back, un-tense. Ā With this image of Superman relaxing on a cloud looking out for us all in my head, I rushed back to my hotel room and filled dozens of pages of my notebook with notes and drawings.ā
Along with Waid still fairly hot off Kingdom Come, Mark Millar - at that time Morrisonās protege, but having already started to make a name for himself on Superman Adventures -Ā and Tom Peyer, the four of them (or according to Peyer the three of them; he hadnāt contributed anything by the time this fell through) put together a pitch for revamping the character for the new decade and century initially titled Superman 2000, later Superman Now. And as fortune would have it, Eddie Berganza was about to start his initial editorial tenure on the Superman books, and was on the lookout for pretty much exactly this. He commissioned them to take over in January 2000, with all four co-writing Action Comics, Adventures of Superman, Superman and Superman: The Man of Steel in much the way 52 would be scripted years later, itself with Morrison and Waid.
Unfortunately, Executive Editor Mike Carlin* returned from vacation, and learned that the Superman line was not only undergoing a major overhaul without Berganza apparently having bothered to tell him, but under creators who he never would have just allowed onboard unconditionally. Whatās worse, heād assumed the four of them had pitched for the character unprovoked rather than at an editorās request, and Berganza - in the first of his sterling decisions as head of the Superman books - didnāt bother to explain the situation, so Carlin told the four of them point-blank that for having crusaded for this job in bad faith, heād see to it none of them would ever get to write an ongoing Superman title.Ā
Berganza scrambled to find replacements and got the Kelly/Casey/Loeb driven lineup. Morrison and Waid both left for Marvel, and Millar followed them as soon as he built up enough clout with Authority. The three of them would refine their ideas for use in later Superman projects - Red Son, Birthright (which itself was at the time majorly overlooked due to surrounding editorial circumstances),Ā All-Star Superman, and likely Millarās upcoming Superman mini. Morrison even got to write for Action Comics later, while Millar had a brief stint co-writing Adventures of Superman. But the golden possibility of Grant Morrison, Mark Waid and Mark Millar writing the regular Superman books together was forever dead. Much like Hypertime and the aborted Hypercrisis, this was another Morrison/Waid 90ā²s attempt to fix DCās problems that ultimately got nixed.
You can actually read the initial Superman 2000 version of the pitch here, and be transported back to a time where it was a serious question of how to get Superman to outsell Spawn. And while I donāt want to spoil the genuine pleasure of reading it, two things worth noting.
1. The proposed Superman costume redesign was actually sketched out by Morrison.
In fact, the revised s-shield was something Morrison was so attached to it was actually originally going to be used in All-Star Superman before he was convinced to stick to the classic take; you can still see the original version before Quitely redrew it in the original solicited cover for issue #1 above, and preview pages still somewhere online that had been I believe in Wizard magazine (as seen below). It ended upĀ making a ācameoāĀ as the S of the future Superwoman in issue #6, and the shield on the last page of the series was partially inspired by it.
2. The proposed retconning of the Lois/Clark relationship and restoration of the love triangle wasnāt in the final version of the pitch; that was Waidās contribution, as he and Millar are both adamant the Clark/Lois/Superman dynamic is fundamental to how Superman works, while Morrisonās a fan of the marriage. Unfortunately, while the story for doing it as proposed here is actually quite poignant, the very bare bones of it were visibly repurposed years later in a little story called One More DayĀ to considerably lesser effect. In any case Morrison fought hard enough for it that the marriage remained in the still unseen final version of the pitch titled Superman Now, which was reportedly more Morrison-driven as opposed to the apparently more Waid/Millar-shaped Superman 2000 version available online.
* Iāve read elsewhere that it might have been Paul Levitz, but Iām pretty sure it was Carlin. Iāve also heard it was Dan Raspler who met Superman along with Morrison that night, but I think Waid discussed the meeting in the Morrison documentary Talking With Gods.
Such a shame this wasn't done on the Superman books.
