Superman reboots in the works; JJ Abrams producing.

[Superlad93]

You’re winning me over. Giving Jon a black LI like you hypothesized could definitely be a way to line things up.

Also just occurred to me that via the Word Balloon interview yesterday we learned that PKJ did not pitch DC House of El. DC in fact came to him and said "we want you to do this book where we see all of Superman's descendants in the future". Kind of ironic that the book DC pitched PKJ ends up having the Black Superman as the lead, and that Superman being Jon Kent's descendant in light of the news today. They even made sure to advertise it in the solicitation.

Then beyond that, I noted a greater use of Black characters in Metropolis in the Superman books during Future State. You have the Jake Jordan Guardian, the Shilo Norman Mr. Miracle, and the new Black Racer. That's all pretty noteworthy now given the news.

Priest won’t get it. He’s been gone since Deathstroke & JL wrapped up. Shame because I did enjoy the brief glimpse we got of his Superman in both.

Yeah, total long shot, but it would be such a good book if it ever came to pass. I've so rarely seen a comic writer take what seems to be ANY character and write them as if they'd been writing them all their life. Like, the man secretly wrote the best Teen Titans and Flash books within his Deathstroke and Justice League runs.

And he's the type of writer that knows how to build a sustainable status quo that feel lived in and tangible. And somehow he does it all while adhering to continuity to the point of bssically using every shred of it while recontextulizing it for his vision for the character. Quite literally what Jon could use right now.

I'm reading through some Thomas now, and his stuff is really strong.

[Frontier]

Took some time to think about this, and oddly my gut reaction was more positive than how I feel now. The short version is this feels like a repeat of the Snyder mistakes to me. You have a script writer who is on record as not really liking Superman. You have Abrams who made a mess of Star Wars and Star Trek. You have the insane toxicity this is going to breed, from people mad about the racebending, from Snyder fans, from comic book fans, from Twitter, etc. You have WB and their idiotic mandates, and their obsession with chasing the MCU. I’m not excited for this, but I’m also not too bothered by it. Long as S&L keeps going so we still get Clark Kent rep, then I don’t really care about the movies. If this is awful, hey, at least it’s not “my” Superman, and it keeps Snyder from doing his evil Superman bs with “my” Superman.

Yeah, I can't really see this creative team delivering a Superman all that different than what we got from Snyder.

Yeah, total long shot, but it would be such a good book if it ever came to pass. I've so rarely seen a comic writer take what seems to be ANY character and write them as if they'd been writing them all their life. Like, the man secretly wrote the best Teen Titans and Flash books within his Deathstroke and Justice League runs.

I think he kind of fumbled writing Jessica Cruz during his JL run.

[Triple J]

Yeah, I can't really see this creative team delivering a Superman all that different than what we got from Snyder.

I think he kind of fumbled writing Jessica Cruz during his JL run.

Yea, I don't think this team will be winning anyone over.

Still, could be interesting......as for concerns over Coates not being interested in Superman, sure...doesn't mean he won't be able to write a good movie (though his previous works don't inspire much confidence, it seems).

[Kuwagaton]

I'd say get Marc Bernardin to write a Black Superman story.

Never heard of him. Anything you recommend?

Took some time to think about this, and oddly my gut reaction was more positive than how I feel now.

I look forward to after day one, when a lot of people who particularly care about Superman have gotten these sort of gut reactions outta the way. But I don't think it's gonna be typical for people to wait and see. There have been other projects that tell me that some people are going to convince themselves it's a bad idea, and like you say it's not as though either name announced right now has a pristine record

[Prime]

I don't like the writer they chose either. I think I posted that he has said and written questionable things.

[Common Writer]

Never heard of him. Anything you recommend?

He's done 'Genius' by Image Comics.

[Superlad93]

Priest won’t get it. He’s been gone since Deathstroke & JL wrapped up. Shame because I did enjoy the brief glimpse we got of his Superman in both.

Just finished Thomas' Future State Aquaman, and holy **** is he good! Like, 10/10 easily. The ease of his dialogue, the high concept storytelling, and getting me to give even the slightest damn about an Aquaman book.

Since Aquaman has nothing going on for him as far as solo's go, I'd be pretty far over the moon if Thomas got a crack at Jon. Oddly enough, Andy's story in the book was basically what I really needed from Jon's story in space and on Earth-3. He just did it in two issues. And I'm saying that as someone who clearly liked Bendis' run a lot.

[Vordan]

Just finished Thomas' Future State Aquaman, and holy **** is he good! Like, 10/10 easily. The ease of his dialogue, the high concept storytelling, and getting me to give even the slightest damn about an Aquaman book.

Since Aquaman has nothing going on for him as far as solo's go, I'd be pretty far over the moon if Thomas got a crack at Jon. Oddly enough, Andy's story in the book was basically what I really needed from Jon's story in space and on Earth-3. He just did it in two issues. And I'm saying that as someone who clearly liked Bendis' run a lot.

I recommend his Man of Tomorrow issue as well, it was fantastic

[Celgress]

Superman is definitely going to be black in this reboot. It makes sense since WB has had no idea how to use the character as he normally is portrayed. So making him black is an easy fix and a way to generate buzz for their studio. I’m sure the success of Miles Morales’ movie, all but sealed the deal. I hope they take a page from Marvel and don’t just change the character’s race. I’m really hoping it’s Val Zod or Calvin Ellis....

I hope so for multiple reasons, for example:

1.) If Clark is race-swapped in the movie but not in the comics it could put off new readers.

2.) So much more can be done with Val or Calvin because they don't have eighty years of highly convoluted loose continuity to stifle their future development.

[Superlad93]

I recommend his Man of Tomorrow issue as well, it was fantastic

Just read it, and damn is Thomas good. Once again, perfect mix of high concept and smooth as silk dialogue.

I do notice that he's not one for narration boxes, so he usually opts for giving the character something or someone to talk to. You don't see that as often as you'd think in comics.

[Frontier]

It does kind of amaze me that WB is willing to reinvent the wheel so much on the movie side while prominently airing a TV show that, for all the unique elements at play, is more Superman in the traditional sense.

And people think Marvel were experimental...

[Johnny Thunders!]

Marc Bernardin also hosts the podcast Fatman Beyond with Kevin Smith!

I just saw One Night in Miami. I think there are three guys in that movie who could play Calvin Ellis. I guess none of them have the star power of Michael B Jordan.

[Riv86672]

Hard pass on all this.

[Vakanai]

I'm just perplexed why this company keep hiring people that do NOT understand the character? Like at all.

That's actually the point - they intentionally want people who don't understand the character, because they don't get the character either and think he needs to be changed.


I saw the news and at first I was all "Yay, we're getting a Superman movie!" Then I saw it is probably going to be a black Superman and I was like "I hope they don't make Clark black and go with Val or Calvin or whoever instead!" And then I saw all the news about the writer for this and I was all "Aw hell, dammit WB..."

So yeah, a rollercoaster of emotions...

[Vordan]

It does kind of amaze me that WB is willing to reinvent the wheel so much on the movie side while prominently airing a TV show that, for all the unique elements at play, is more Superman in the traditional sense.

And people think Marvel were experimental...

I’ve seen people speculate that the positive reception to Hoechlin is what pushed WB to make this announcement now, which is hilarious if true because it shows that they still don’t get it. They think they can just slap the S-shield on anything and make money, but the reason people connected with Hoechlin is precisely because he’s a more traditional take. Nothing about what we’ve heard so far makes it seem like this will be the case for what Coates and Abrams will make.

That said this announcement is also clearly meant to head off the #RestoreTheSnyderverse loonies

That's actually the point - they intentionally want people who don't understand the character, because they don't get the character either and think he needs to be changed.


I saw the news and at first I was all "Yay, we're getting a Superman movie!" Then I saw it is probably going to be a black Superman and I was like "I hope they don't make Clark black and go with Val or Calvin or whoever instead!" And then I saw all the news about the writer for this and I was all "Aw hell, dammit WB..."

So yeah, a rollercoaster of emotions...

I still don’t think it will be a black Clark, and Calvin seems likely.