PKJ Action Comics Discussion and Spoilers

[SuperX]

I still disagree and let's leave it at that. Granted Conner should have the buzzcut instead of Kenan.

DC is obsessed with kon being like he was during his OG time ,not anything else,they have shunned all fans after thst time.

But these same DC folks use the kryptonian powerset and not TTK for him,they make no real sense

Combo Conner is the only way

[Vordan]

Skipping the stuff he already talked about:

-The Warworld Saga had its origins in the 5G premise (interesting since I recall PKJ saying he was originally recruited for something DC Cosmic not related to DC as part of 5G). DC still wanted to use a lot of the setup they had been doing for 5G DC Cosmic over in the Superman title.
-Bringing the secret identity back seems to have been a recent development, it wasn’t something he was building towards, he reiterates what he’s said before about liking Superman being open about his identity because there’s a hypocrisy with the character being about truth and lying to everyone about his identity. There was a lot of opportunity to completely change the dynamic between Superman and his villains with regards to the secret identity being over, and PKJ is regretful that they didn’t really get a chance to explore that before restoring the old status quo (this is clearly just an editorial call that he has to execute rather than something he wanted, he just can’t say that)
-Superman having a secret identity however does have its own advantages, talks about how it benefits the Clark/Lois relationship since she’s one of the few who know his secret now, the power of Superman working a job that doesn’t pay very well but makes him like us, how much he loves the iconic shirt opening to reveal the suit with the Williams music playing. Apparently there are specific stories coming up in which they need that back.
-When it comes to who is the “real” identity, PKJ says he thinks of himself as Clark, Kara calls him Kal, and the Ra twins call him Superman, but he favors the “both identities are valid expressions of who he is” take
-His take on the “Clark” identity is that he’s being who he would have been if he was actually born and raised in Smallville. Loves All-Star’s take on bumbling Clark but that’s not his take. Superman however is the person Clark became once he learned he was an alien, he can be a little truer to himself in the suit. Isn’t sure how he is going to handle Clark lying because he will have to do it going forward
-Admits he does “write for the trade”, says he isn’t trying to write the best single issue ever, he wants to write great stand-alone stories that stand the test of time.
-There won’t be any crossover between LoSH and Action “in his book” but he does want to do a crossover with the FS House of El characters, depends on how long he can stay on the book (way he hesitated about LoSH makes me wonder if they’ll be showing up either in Williamson’s Superman or if Johns will use Clark for his Legion book if that’s happening
-Lol someone gets invited on board and complains about Jon, we get the 50th reiteration that they’re not deaging Jon and PKJ actually goes through all the popular fan theories and crosses them off: won’t deage him through magic, won’t bring kid Jon back via time travel, won’t bring in a Multiversal Jon, says it would be screwing over Taylor and Bendis, bi erasure, etc, etc
-Loves writing Bibbo, Midnighter, and Manchester Black
-Growing up he read a lot of Stephen King and sometimes King’s characters all sound alike, that’s something he wants to work hard to avoid. Keeping Manchester Black and Constantine’s voices separate in his head was a challenge at first, because while the two are similar there’s some key differences, and PKJ hadn’t really read Black’s stories until recently
-If there’s an opportunity to have Supergirl and Power Girl interact he’s open to doing that
-Only two non-Clark/Lois Daily Planet people he cares that much about are Jimmy and Perry

[Matt Rat]

-Lol someone gets invited on board and complains about Jon, we get the 50th reiteration that they’re not deaging Jon and PKJ actually goes through all the popular fan theories and crosses them off: won’t deage him through magic, won’t bring kid Jon back via time travel, won’t bring in a Multiversal Jon, says it would be screwing over Taylor and Bendis, bi erasure, etc, etc

Pretty stupid thing to say when half your book will be running a feature with kid Jon in it. Doesn't matter if it's set in the past, DC clearly took the L here to attract a familiar audience.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I'm hoping the team super outfits makes it into Superman and Lois.

[Vordan]

I'm hoping the team super outfits makes it into Superman and Lois.

They kind of have a version of those already with the Supermen of America uniforms and also the uniforms that Ally’s cultists wore.

[Last Son of Krypton]

Skipping the stuff he already talked about:

-The Warworld Saga had its origins in the 5G premise (interesting since I recall PKJ saying he was originally recruited for something DC Cosmic not related to DC as part of 5G). DC still wanted to use a lot of the setup they had been doing for 5G DC Cosmic over in the Superman title.
-Bringing the secret identity back seems to have been a recent development, it wasn’t something he was building towards, he reiterates what he’s said before about liking Superman being open about his identity because there’s a hypocrisy with the character being about truth and lying to everyone about his identity. There was a lot of opportunity to completely change the dynamic between Superman and his villains with regards to the secret identity being over, and PKJ is regretful that they didn’t really get a chance to explore that before restoring the old status quo (this is clearly just an editorial call that he has to execute rather than something he wanted, he just can’t say that)

From what I recall Bendis' secret ID reveal was a last minute change too, and he wasn't building toward it either.

[Vordan]

From what I recall Bendis' secret ID reveal was a last minute change too, and he wasn't building toward it either.

More things change eh? I remember hearing that aging up Jon was something Didio assigned to Bendis because they needed Jon to be old for 5G. People don’t understand that the writers are often stuck dealing with editorial mandates that they didn’t conceive of themselves. Only a rare few writers get total freedom, and even those few can have that freedom yanked away such as Hickman losing control of the X-Books because the other writers and editors wanted to play more with Krakoa.

[Last Son of Krypton]

More things change eh? I remember hearing that aging up Jon was something Didio assigned to Bendis because they needed Jon to be old for 5G. People don’t understand that the writers are often stuck dealing with editorial mandates that they didn’t conceive of themselves. Only a rare few writers get total freedom, and even those few can have that freedom yanked away such as Hickman losing control of the X-Books because the other writers and editors wanted to play more with Krakoa.

Superman books are written by yes-men.

It seemed originally Bendis was going to reveal Jon was Superman's son and not Clark's (at least this was the popular theory here and elsewhere) to justify his "magically" aging up, but ended up opting for the ID reveal. I recall he used to get questions about the aging up being justified in story and he kept pointing to the then upcoming Supeman #18.

Pointless decision if it didn't serve the main character.

[Vordan]

Superman books are written by yes-men.

Less yes-men moreso that because the Superman books have typically not sold great, editorial will keep demanding certain shakeups to aligns with other plans and the writers don’t have the clout to overrule them. There’s things you can push back on and win, PKJ fought to keep the Warworld Saga going for as long as it did, but sometimes you just have to roll with the punches if you want to keep the job. Otherwise you’ll just get fired and replaced. One case of a yes man that I remember is Lobdell did get the job because he did what editorial wanted. In contrast I remember Morrison always turned in their scripts late because that meant editorial couldn’t force changes on them

It seemed originally Bendis was going to reveal Jon was Superman's son and not Clark's (at least this was the popular theory here and elsewhere) to justify his "magically" aging up, but ended up opting for the ID reveal. I recall he used to get questions about the aging up being justified in story and he kept pointing to the then upcoming Supeman #18.

Pointless decision if it didn't serve the main character.

Yeah I think that was a 5G lead-in that ended up going nowhere now that 5G is no more.

[Last Son of Krypton]

Less yes-men moreso that because the Superman books have typically not sold great, editorial will keep demanding certain shakeups to aligns with other plans and the writers don’t have the clout to overrule them. There’s things you can push back on and win, PKJ fought to keep the Warworld Saga going for as long as it did, but sometimes you just have to roll with the punches if you want to keep the job. Otherwise you’ll just get fired and replaced. One case of a yes man that I remember is Lobdell did get the job because he did what editorial wanted. In contrast I remember Morrison always turned in their scripts late because that meant editorial couldn’t force changes on them

DC wanted Superman in space but cut it short at the same time, lol. The attempt to recycling some 5G ideas was a waste of time.

PKJ did the best he could with the setting it was given him. And it seems some subplots will be relevant later.

Yeah I think that was a 5G lead-in that ended up going nowhere now that 5G is no more.

Well, next time they can have Superman dropping his Clark's id temporary instead of revealing it.

[Katana500]

I wonder what Kenan's role in the book will be and what his dynamic with the other characters will be like.

Has Phillip said anything much about Kenan?

[Mantis-Ray]

DC wanted Superman in space but cut it short at the same time, lol. The attempt to recycling some 5G ideas was a waste of time.

PKJ did the best he could with the setting it was given him. And it seems some subplots will be relevant later.



Well, next time they can have Superman dropping his Clark's id temporary instead of revealing it.

Hilarious as always DC has no idea what the Hell they are doing.

Also the mention that one reason why they don't de-age Jon is cause it would screw over Taylor and Bendis when everything Bendis has done is already being reverted. Though this reminds me that hopefully Adventures of Superman is the finale of Taylor's run.

Not saying Jon will be aged-down but the character is fairly limited in what he can do as long as Taylor is in the reigns.

The mention of bi-erasure makes me hope people keep telling them that making him a kid again wouldn't count as bi-erasure.

[Frontier]

Skipping the stuff he already talked about:

-The Warworld Saga had its origins in the 5G premise (interesting since I recall PKJ saying he was originally recruited for something DC Cosmic not related to DC as part of 5G). DC still wanted to use a lot of the setup they had been doing for 5G DC Cosmic over in the Superman title.
-Bringing the secret identity back seems to have been a recent development, it wasn’t something he was building towards, he reiterates what he’s said before about liking Superman being open about his identity because there’s a hypocrisy with the character being about truth and lying to everyone about his identity. There was a lot of opportunity to completely change the dynamic between Superman and his villains with regards to the secret identity being over, and PKJ is regretful that they didn’t really get a chance to explore that before restoring the old status quo (this is clearly just an editorial call that he has to execute rather than something he wanted, he just can’t say that)
-Superman having a secret identity however does have its own advantages, talks about how it benefits the Clark/Lois relationship since she’s one of the few who know his secret now, the power of Superman working a job that doesn’t pay very well but makes him like us, how much he loves the iconic shirt opening to reveal the suit with the Williams music playing. Apparently there are specific stories coming up in which they need that back.
-When it comes to who is the “real” identity, PKJ says he thinks of himself as Clark, Kara calls him Kal, and the Ra twins call him Superman, but he favors the “both identities are valid expressions of who he is” take
-His take on the “Clark” identity is that he’s being who he would have been if he was actually born and raised in Smallville. Loves All-Star’s take on bumbling Clark but that’s not his take. Superman however is the person Clark became once he learned he was an alien, he can be a little truer to himself in the suit. Isn’t sure how he is going to handle Clark lying because he will have to do it going forward
-Admits he does “write for the trade”, says he isn’t trying to write the best single issue ever, he wants to write great stand-alone stories that stand the test of time.
-There won’t be any crossover between LoSH and Action “in his book” but he does want to do a crossover with the FS House of El characters, depends on how long he can stay on the book (way he hesitated about LoSH makes me wonder if they’ll be showing up either in Williamson’s Superman or if Johns will use Clark for his Legion book if that’s happening
-Lol someone gets invited on board and complains about Jon, we get the 50th reiteration that they’re not deaging Jon and PKJ actually goes through all the popular fan theories and crosses them off: won’t deage him through magic, won’t bring kid Jon back via time travel, won’t bring in a Multiversal Jon, says it would be screwing over Taylor and Bendis, bi erasure, etc, etc
-Loves writing Bibbo, Midnighter, and Manchester Black
-Growing up he read a lot of Stephen King and sometimes King’s characters all sound alike, that’s something he wants to work hard to avoid. Keeping Manchester Black and Constantine’s voices separate in his head was a challenge at first, because while the two are similar there’s some key differences, and PKJ hadn’t really read Black’s stories until recently
-If there’s an opportunity to have Supergirl and Power Girl interact he’s open to doing that
-Only two non-Clark/Lois Daily Planet people he cares that much about are Jimmy and Perry

He's being pretty even-handed about the secret identity mandate. At least it doesn't seem like he absolutely hates it.

I do feel like a team-up between the present-day House of El and the Future State House of El would be in the cards at some point.

Superman books are written by yes-men.

It seemed originally Bendis was going to reveal Jon was Superman's son and not Clark's (at least this was the popular theory here and elsewhere) to justify his "magically" aging up, but ended up opting for the ID reveal. I recall he used to get questions about the aging up being justified in story and he kept pointing to the then upcoming Supeman #18.

Pointless decision if it didn't serve the main character.

I honestly wondered if the Superman/Lois kiss getting leaked was meant to build up to it so people didn't keep berating Lois over it.

[DragonPiece]

I wonder what Kenan's role in the book will be and what his dynamic with the other characters will be like.

Has Phillip said anything much about Kenan?

He really doesn’t seem to say much about Kenan and most of these podcasts don’t bother asking about him, at the very least it seems like the steel family, kara, jon and the twins are the more featured characters in the first arc.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

DC is obsessed with kon being like he was during his OG time ,not anything else,they have shunned all fans after thst time.

But these same DC folks use the kryptonian powerset and not TTK for him,they make no real sense

Combo Conner is the only way

DC will always make a mess of things. So after a while you just gotta shrug and take the good with the bad.