Dan Jurgens on Death of Superman, New 52-to-Rebirth transition

[video=youtube;w8XynvtoXw4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8XynvtoXw4[/video]

If you're at all interested in how things transpire behind the scenes, Dan recently spoke on it and it's been released as per the Word Balloon podcast. It was really interested to hear how Jurgens pitched Jon to Didio as "this is the future! How, I don't know, maybe they put him in a rocket and send him off and we create a new DC Universe?!" Combined with how they didn't know what to do after Death of Superman outside a general theme of "world without," it's disheartening to know that DC is basically doing these big changes on passionate whims.

Granted, both are now watershed moments for the character (dying, having a son) that lead to some good (and some bad) stories, but damn if that doesn't confirm a suspicion.

Apparently he also admits he knows nobody likes Ric, but I'm not that far in.

I listened to it, found it a very interesting talk. I really need to read Jurgens Thor run at some point. Lmao at the Ric talk, it’s clear Jurgens doesn’t really love the status quo but he’s just cashing his checks. I really want to know if there were other proposed Supermen for the Reign of the Supermen than the ones we got.

I wondered for the longest time if "Mr. Oz" was always meant to be Jor-El. And it really does sound like they're just making this stuff up on the fly. No wonder they can't figure out what they want to do. They introduce this character way back in 2014 and they still hadn't decided who he was at the time? Booster Gold's pre-Crisis origin sounds way cooler than his post-Crisis one. And it makes a lot more sense.

Not at all surprised Mr. Oz wasn't planned much at all. I still think in Johns' head he was going to end up Jonathan, not Jor-El, but that nothing was set in stone and on the fly is par for course. Equally not at all surprised Jon's pitch was just as nonsensical as it actually ended up reading and remains today. Definitely no wonder everything is such a mess.

[QUOTE=Sacred Knight;4532146]Not at all surprised Mr. Oz wasn't planned much at all. I still think in Johns' head he was going to end up Jonathan, not Jor-El, but that nothing was set in stone and on the fly is par for course. Equally not at all surprised Jon's pitch was just as nonsensical as it actually ended up reading and remains today. Definitely no wonder everything is such a mess.[/QUOTE]

Jon did end up being pretty popular though. And him and Damian teaming up to eventually launch Super Sons was a great direction for both characters.

Hickman stands out as someone who basically has his entire run charted out before the first issue hits the stands, same with Morrison. Most writers just make it up as they go.

[QUOTE=Vordan;4532189]Hickman stands out as someone who basically has his entire run charted out before the first issue hits the stands, same with Morrison. Most writers just make it up as they go.[/QUOTE]
I think there are also writers who probably have a strong endgame or end goal in mind but can get kind of lost in the middle.

[QUOTE=Frontier;4532214]I think there are also writers who probably have a strong endgame or end goal in mind but can get kind of lost in the middle.[/QUOTE]

This sadly is where I am with Abnett on Aquaman. Great ideas but he stumbled with the Rath arc and then spun plates until KSD arrived. Wasn't bad per se, but it did start stronger than it finished.

This kinda shows why Jurgens thrived so well in the Triangle-Era environment: a room of people to bounce around ideas and make them fully-formed and fleshed out. It's also why I agree with something that I think Sacred mentioned, that he'd be great as editor for the Superbooks.

[QUOTE=JAK;4532273]This kinda shows why Jurgens thrived so well in the Triangle-Era environment: a room of people to bounce around ideas and make them fully-formed and fleshed out. It's also why I agree with something that I think Sacred mentioned, that he'd be great as editor for the Superbooks.[/QUOTE]

That is the most inspired idea I've heard in a long time. I'd love that!

Yeah, I can't think of someone better frankly. He has a great love and respect for Superman but isn't afraid to rock the boat. I mean he killed, revived and made him a father.

It's also a great idea for another reason: with his name heading the ship you attract readers like myself, and DC can then giving the writing chores to some newer/fresher voices under his direction - so you get the best of both worlds!

[QUOTE=JAK;4532273]This kinda shows why Jurgens thrived so well in the Triangle-Era environment: a room of people to bounce around ideas and make them fully-formed and fleshed out. It's also why I agree with something that I think Sacred mentioned, that he'd be great as editor for the Superbooks.[/QUOTE]

The Triangle-Era thing that you mentioned...what does that mean again?

Its the era during most of the nineties, in which instead of each Superman title following their own tales, all of them (at the time 4...in the mid-nineties 5) were connected into one narrative. For instance one month's Action would start an arc, and that month's issue of Adventures would be part 2 of the story. And so on and so forth. Along with normal issue numbers, the covers had a separate number inside a little triangle indicating what order the issue was in the overall narrative structure.

[QUOTE=CTTT;4532467]The Triangle-Era thing that you mentioned...what does that mean again?[/QUOTE]

Oh, sweet, sweet child.

In the 90s and some of the 2000s, there were four on-going regular Superman titles - Action Comics, Superman, Superman: Man of Steel, and The Adventures of Superman. A fifth on-going was added, Superman: Man of Tomorrow, to occupy the odd fifth week in months so that there was always a Superman title every week of the year. In order to make sense of the order in which these Superman solo titles were to take place, there was an added upside-down triangle printed on the covers that contained the year and numerical sequence within a year. The numbering would restart again every year. Ongoing books like Steel, Superboy, and Supergirl were also included in the Triangles, as well as Secret Files and Origins, Annuals, 80-Page Giants, etc. Other non-Super Family books were included in the Triangles if they crossed over.

I can't recall if Superman/Batman existed towards the tail-end of the Triangle era. I want to say no, as my memory of Superman/Batman was that it came around the time the Superman books went down to two ongoings a month and began to resemble S:TAS. Post-Jurgens and friends era. I think this all started happening after those Millennium Giants stories.