Chuck Austen's Superman unpublished ending.

[Frontino]

Hi, this is my first post here.

Anyone know where to find Austen's original scipts for Action Comics 824 & 825?
Thanks.

[Jeremiah]

I have no idea. Do you know for a fact that they are out there?

It would be interesting to see.

[kingaliencracker]

This is about the closest you'll find:

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources...s-revealed-40/

I think Eddie [Berganza, editor of Action Comics – BC] is J.D Finn. Maybe. That’s a guess. I had a completely different ending in mind, one that left Gog a major villain, and…I mean let’s be honest…I was ashamed of this initially, but let’s just get this out there: I was fired and blackballed from DC. I was off Superman, period. It became complicated very quickly, from there. I was given the option of finishing the final issue of the arc I had begun, but being suddenly, and very unexpectedly, unemployed, I needed to find work right away doing something else. I was given the option to still write for DC, but not on Superman or any other top, or even mid-level character. I would have had to write under a pseudonym and take some lower tier project like “Prez” or “Blue Devil” that would have probably lasted an issue, and then I’d be out of comics, anyway. I turned that down because I knew that there were people who do like my work and I didn’t want to go out with two strikes against me, I wanted to have the opportunity for anyone who did like my work to find it. So I went back to a hectic animation job that left me no time to finish my final script in the week allotted and they got “JD Finn” to do it.

[MykeHavoc]

Huh, I never knew of this. The final issue of this arc is one of my favorite Superman stories of all time, despite how lousy the lead-up to it is. So this actually makes a lot of sense lol. I guess the only writing left of Austen's I can defend are those 2 Gambit-centric Ultimate X-Men issues he did. Though I recall he was an artist previously. Still have to read the Elektra series he drew, with Bendis writing.

[Jeremiah]

Yeah, I was never a fan of Austen, but why was he fired?

[Dispenser Of Truth]

Huh, I never knew of this. The final issue of this arc is one of my favorite Superman stories of all time, despite how lousy the lead-up to it is. So this actually makes a lot of sense lol. I guess the only writing left of Austen's I can defend are those 2 Gambit-centric Ultimate X-Men issues he did. Though I recall he was an artist previously. Still have to read the Elektra series he drew, with Bendis writing.

He actually drew a couple issues of Miracleman back in the day.

Yeah, I was never a fan of Austen, but why was he fired?

My understanding is that the fan outrage was so utter and immense against him at that point that keeping him on in any way, shape or form was going to be considered a liability. From what I've read of his material, I'm not surprised in the least.

[Jeremiah]

My understanding is that the fan outrage was so utter and immense against him at that point that keeping him on in any way, shape or form was going to be considered a liability. From what I've read of his material, I'm not surprised in the least.

Yeah, I really did not like it. But if I knew how poor the writers would be after him, I would not have been quite as upset.

[Flash Gordon]

Chuck Austen is the one spot of SUPERMAN comics that I find absolutely nothing in. JMS was bad but he even knew he was bad.

[DochaDocha]

Yeah, I got the impression that the dislike of Austen was irrationally personal. I mean, bad writers (or at least writers who fail to impress) come and go all the time. I get not liking a guy's writing, and wanting a better writer in place, but unless a guy does something that is a big disgrace to himself or the company, then at least let him finish his job on the terms agreed to. I don't know much about Austen, but unless he was acting like a rear end to the people he worked with, or committed a crime or something, bad writing shouldn't get you fired the way he got terminated. At the end of the day, you do have to protect the brand, but people are still people and you have to treat them with a modicum of respect and dignity.

If there's more to the story on why he got fired, as in his professionalism was unacceptable, then I'll retract my statements.

[SJNeal]

I'm one of the few who actually liked his run. I knew he made an unscheduled, hasty exit, but never realized he was fired.

[Dispenser Of Truth]

Yeah, I got the impression that the dislike of Austen was irrationally personal. I mean, bad writers (or at least writers who fail to impress) come and go all the time. I get not liking a guy's writing, and wanting a better writer in place, but unless a guy does something that is a big disgrace to himself or the company, then at least let him finish his job on the terms agreed to. I don't know much about Austen, but unless he was acting like a rear end to the people he worked with, or committed a crime or something, bad writing shouldn't get you fired the way he got terminated. At the end of the day, you do have to protect the brand, but people are still people and you have to treat them with a modicum of respect and dignity.

If there's more to the story on why he got fired, as in his professionalism was unacceptable, then I'll retract my statements.

From what I understand, nope, nothing more to it than that he was considered almost unprecedentedly toxic. Along with sales falling, Austen's spoken in interviews about not just a massive outpouring of internet hate (which may have been more of a factor in decisions back then, as the comics internet culture wasn't what it is now and maybe the Big Two worried it was more significant - it got Waid and Wieringo their jobs back on Fantastic Four. Then again, I wasn't reading back then, so I'm quite possibly talking out of my ass there) or people coming up to him at conventions to tell him how much he sucked, but Dan DiDio getting calls from retailers to inform him they were never going to order anything with Austen's name on it again, because they despised his work and so did their customers.

Frankly, I kind of get it...




(Don't worry, he was only throwing a temper tantrum that nearly got multiple people killed because The Littlest Cancer Patient at a hospital he was visiting died, and he was angry that criminals got to live when she didn't. Austen's original plan for the inciting incident was that Lois was supposed to have a miscarriage.)

Along with smiling and mocking as he beat the hell out of an out-of-control mutated nerd who had already smiled and stopped wreaking havoc the second he saw his hero, painting Lana as potentially the right choice for Clark by having her try to frame him for infidelity (which was okay because, according to him, Lois was the "original gold-digger"), and having a villain rape a woman to death. And that's just what I've either heard/read about, or saw while flipping through one of the trades.

So yeah, I don't know. Taking him off with two issues left seems pretty damn petty in any case, but this was a pretty unique incident from what I can tell - even Grounded didn't stir up anything like this, if only because we were all used to terrible Superman comics by then. I honestly still kind of want to read his run someday.

[MykeHavoc]

Yeah, I really did not like it. But if I knew how poor the writers would be after him, I would not have been quite as upset.

Huh? Stories by Simone, Johns, Busiek, Nicieza, Donner. Art by Byrne, Woods, Kubert, Powell, Frank. Action Comics had a pretty amazing hot-streak before it got to New Krypton. And then it was back to amazing with Black Ring. And then Morrison started the reboot. And aside from a minor snafu, since Pak took over, it's been back on track. And not to mention the lengthy runs that Kelly and Immonen had on the book prior to Austen. There haven't been too many nose-dives on it since I've been reading.

[Jeremiah]

Huh? Stories by Simone, Johns, Busiek, Nicieza, Donner. Art by Byrne, Woods, Kubert, Powell, Frank. Action Comics had a pretty amazing hot-streak before it got to New Krypton. And then it was back to amazing with Black Ring. And then Morrison started the reboot. And aside from a minor snafu, since Pak took over, it's been back on track. And not to mention the lengthy runs that Kelly and Immonen had on the book prior to Austen. There haven't been too many nose-dives on it since I've been reading.

I hated Busiek's run, and James Robinson, and Rucka's Action run, and JMS, and a lot of new 52.

Nicieza only had a couple fill-in issues, if I recall correctly.

Donner/Johns had a great run. That is the only one that stands out to me, until we get to Geoff Johns' return to Superman, plus Pak, Yang, and Morrison.

[MykeHavoc]

I'm referring specifically to Action Comics. Robinson and JMS wrote Superman. Rucka's work suffers (though who knows how much of that is Trautman's doing), but at least he had his previous AOS run to level it out (though I thought all the Kryptonian mythology established was actually pretty neat). Nicieza co-wrote the "Back in Action" story, one of my personal favorites with the intergalactic auction. Very silver age-esque and quite fun. I don't know what to say to you disliking Busiek's stuff. It was so interconnected with Johns that I can't really separate it. He was the one that did all the character development with Chris Kent in between the long break Kubert needed to finish the art for "Last Son".

I even enjoyed what we got of Diggle's aborted story, and Daniel's art was solid as usual. Those 3 Lobdell issues were the only real low point since the reboot.

[manofsteel1979]

From what I understand, nope, nothing more to it than that he was considered almost unprecedentedly toxic. Along with sales falling, Austen's spoken in interviews about not just a massive outpouring of internet hate (which may have been more of a factor in decisions back then, as the comics internet culture wasn't what it is now and maybe the Big Two worried it was more significant - it got Waid and Wieringo their jobs back on Fantastic Four. Then again, I wasn't reading back then, so I'm quite possibly talking out of my ass there) or people coming up to him at conventions to tell him how much he sucked, but Dan DiDio getting calls from retailers to inform him they were never going to order anything with Austen's name on it again, because they despised his work and so did their customers.

Frankly, I kind of get it...




(Don't worry, he was only throwing a temper tantrum that nearly got multiple people killed because The Littlest Cancer Patient at a hospital he was visiting died, and he was angry that criminals got to live when she didn't. Austen's original plan for the inciting incident was that Lois was supposed to have a miscarriage.)

Along with smiling and mocking as he beat the hell out of an out-of-control mutated nerd who had already smiled and stopped wreaking havoc the second he saw his hero, painting Lana as potentially the right choice for Clark by having her try to frame him for infidelity (which was okay because, according to him, Lois was the "original gold-digger"), and having a villain rape a woman to death. And that's just what I've either heard/read about, or saw while flipping through one of the trades.

So yeah, I don't know. Taking him off with two issues left seems pretty damn petty in any case, but this was a pretty unique incident from what I can tell - even Grounded didn't stir up anything like this, if only because we were all used to terrible Superman comics by then. I honestly still kind of want to read his run someday.

Strangely, at the time when it started, I sort of liked his run....although looking back....yeah it was pretty bad. The first couple issues of his ACTION run proper weren't terrible,However it just got worse and worse and I remember feeling actually uncomfortable reading the Prius story. So...yeah honestly you didn't miss anything ultimately, aside from Ivan Reis' art, which was good. Pity Reis' only sustained Superman run was with Austin. I'd love to see him take another crack at it with a better writer.

I had no idea of all the vitriol against Austin at the time as I wasn't nearly as plugged into the online fan community back then as I am now. Learn something new every day.

And the misscarriage???? Gee, between the "gold digger" comments and this,Austin really really really didn't like Lois, did he?