Historic changes loom for Superman comics
The Man of Steel will go through changes in December that will ripple through the DC universe. (Approach with caution, comicbook fans, because there are spoilers ahead.) When Issue No. 18of Superman “Superman” arrives in stores Dec. 11, the hero will be going public about his alter ego. Superman has been around since 1938, so it’s hard to imagine something that has not been done, including revealing his secret identity. In 1991, he told Lois Lane, which seemed fair since she and Clark Kent were engaged. In 2015, Lois wrote a Daily Planet story that revealed Superman’s secret. Comic-book shenanigans later erased that knowledge from the general population of the DC universe.
“On some level, this is what DC brought me here for,” said Brian Michael Bendis, who is writing “Superman” and “Action Comics,” among other DC books. He was referring to his departure from Marvel, DC Comics’ rival, in 2017. He began working on the Superman titles last year, juggling space adventures, the inner workings of the Daily Planet, and how Lois and Clark related to their son, Jonathan, in his preteen to teenage years. “I didn’t want to stir things up right away,” he said. “I had to earn my place.” Comic-book fans are cynical about these types of events. Preview information about “Superman” No. 18noted that the hero would reveal his identity, but it was met with little fanfare on comics news sites, possibly because readers assume the developments will be temporary.
“Let me lean into this a little bit because I’m with you on that,” Bendis said when asked about fan skepticism. “I don’t do fake-out stories.” If anything, he added, some fans familiar with his work might be worried about long-term ramifications: “I did a story where Daredevil was outed — a different kind of outing — but that was his reality for 15years.” Superman’s honesty about his identity, Bendis said, will bring him closer to being “the best version of himself.”
It also opens up areas of exploration, he said: “We wanted to do this because behind it is 1,000brand-new Superman stories that have never been told.”