During their Superman panel at NYCC on Thursday, DC confirmed something that had been long suspected when they announced that “Batman” and “American Vampire” scribe Scott Snyder would be writing a brand new title showcasing the Last Son of Krypton in 2013. Joining Snyder on art duties? DC Entertainment’s Co-Publisher and hot-off-“Justice League” Jim Lee.
Speaking to Comic Book Resources, Snyder had this to say about taking on the character:
… for Superman, the thing that makes him such a strong character is that the values he grew up with and the person he was raised to be are still at the core of what makes him the most powerful superhero on earth. This isn’t going to be a story where it’s Clark versus Superman or seeing the two of them split. It’s more about challenges for Superman that rock him to the core emotionally, psychologically and also physically. It really is going to wind up putting him up against someone who can go blow-to-blow with him and really take him down.
Lee, whose last regular gig on a Superman title was working with Brian Azzarello on their ‘For Tomorrow’ arc in 2005, had nothing but praise for his new creative partner:
I’ve been following Scott’s work on “American Vampire” where I actually did the variant for the first issue, and I followed him straight through to “Batman” where I loved the way he introduced new mythology and made it seem so seamless and like it’d been there forever. That’s one of the hardest things to do with these characters who have been around for seven-plus decades: inject things that feel like they’ve always been there into the story. So selfishly speaking on a creative level, I wanted a chance to work with Scott and do it on a character like Superman where we could see what he could come up with to show us what this character is about even as we’ve known him for 75 years.
The advent of the New 52 has seen the Superman titles struggle to compete with their stablemates, both critically and sales-wise, and it’ll be interesting to see what effect the addition of one of comics’ leading artists and one of DC’s white-hot writers will have.
If things carry on as they stand, this will be DC’s third Superman title, running concurrently with the recently announced Andy Diggle and Tony Daniel’s “Action Comics” and Scott Lobdell and Kenneth Rocafort’s “Superman”. Although no concrete name for this new book was announced, conventional wisdom – and by that we mean this tweet from artist Bryan Hitch and the fact that there’s a movie of the same name hitting us next Summer – would suggest that “The Man of Steel” would be a safe bet. The answer will undoubtedly be revealed as we edge close towards Superman’s 75th Anniversary celebrations next year.
UPDATE: In an interview with Ain’t It Cool News, Snyder refers to the new book as “Man of Steel”, so consider that one confirmed.
