DC Creator Q&A Series Episode 3: Joshua Williamson

Welcome to Episode 3 of the DC Creator Q&A Series!

Joining us this month is Joshua Williamson, the writing talent behind Superman #1 — a key starting point in the Dawn of DC timeline!

Throughout the DC Creator Q&A Series, we’ll be sitting down with a new DC Comics creator every month as we bring you through the Dawn of DC. Each creator will share some insight into their work, answering your questions along the way! Check out Episode 3 below, and join us each month for DC community discussions, giveaways, and more!

The winner of this month’s giveaway is … @NinjaSupes!

Congratulations on winning a copy of Superman #1, signed by Joshua Williamson! A moderator will be in touch to get your shipping info!


Transcript:

Josh: Hi! This is DC’s Q&A Creator Series. My name is Joshua Williamson. I’m the writer of Superman, Batman & Robin, Green Arrow, and Knight Terrors.

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I’d love to hear about how you first got into Superman and what your personal favorite Superman stories are.

Josh: I first got into Superman because of the movies. I think, like a lot of people, what was really my first interaction with Superman was obviously the Christopher Reeve/Richard Donner movie. Still one of the best interpretations of Superman ever. That was my first real interaction with it, and then you start going from that to the toys — like I was really into the Superpowers toys from Super Friends and watching cartoons. I didn’t start actually buying Superman on the regular until Death of Superman. Like I think the buildup to that, I was still reading DC Comics at the time, I was very young, but I was reading DC Comics at the time like — EVERYBODY reads about Superman. And I was SO into it. Like the whole lead into Death of Superman and Reign of the Supermen just blew my mind. It’s also associated with when I started reading the comics all the time was during that time period, so like, my fandom with Superman is also tied into going to comic shops a lot, like actually on a regular basis.

Some of my favorite Superman stories … I mean there’s the obvious ones, like All Star Superman and Superman: Secret Origin. Again, I was a really big fan of everything that happened during Reign of the Supermen. There’s some stuff factoring the Silver Age, which I was a really big fan of, and stuff like Bronze Age … I’m mostly a 90’s kid though, so Triangle Era, that’s really my whole bag. I love the Superman/Batman series with Jeph Loeb if you haven’t guessed. Honestly, we don’t have time to really tell you every single one that I’ve really liked (laughing), but there’s a lot that I’ve really loved.


What aspect of Superman were you most looking forward to writing?

Josh: When I started taking on the job, I was really interested in getting down to like — I really love the supporting cast, and I really love writing Lex Luthor. With Clark in particular, I just think it’s like, the idea of this person who is so hopeful, and who really sees the best in everyone, I was excited about that. I had a little experience with that when I was writing Barry Allen but Superman is Peak That.

But also, I really love the idea that I think Superman’s the kind of person that does not feel like helping people is a burden, and I wanted to write characteristics like that. He was really somebody that felt like they enjoy being a superhero and enjoy helping people. That was a big part of going into it and I kept that in mind, and was really excited about writing.


Were there any previous runs on Superman, or any other character, that have had an influence on your current series?

Josh: So for me, with Superman, mostly the 90s stuff with Superman, and the Triangle Era, really that’s the stuff I really looked at and influenced me the most, and then I go back and look at the stuff that John Byrne did. Really, I’m like, with any book, the answer is kind of “all of it”, and the reason why I say that is like, once I know I’m taking on a character, I do a deep dive. And I don’t just read the stuff that I love — like I go back and reread all the things I love, I go back and find the things that I haven’t read. So in a weird way, all of those things have really influenced the Superman book I’m doing now.

And then one of the biggest influences on the book is obviously the cartoon series. That was the tone we were kind of hoping for from the start. But then I was just like, “What do I really love about this character?” and that was the biggest influence.


What’s your favorite part of your scripting process?

Josh: Whenever I’m writing a part that I’m really like, the most excited when it happens, is actually when the roughs come in. Like when I’m writing, I have a long process between a lot of notebook work. I really draft the book up, usually on a whiteboard or notebook before I actually type. The actual typing process is not very long. It’s like maybe two days of actually typing. A lot of the actual writing gets done in my notebook, it’s on a whiteboard, it’s done with me taking long walks … although it’s all still in my head … it’s not real yet. It’s not a comic yet until I start seeing the roughs come in. And then at that point, the artist is taking all of those ideas and turning them into a comic. It’s really the first step of a thought becoming a comic, and that’s my favorite part, when I see that stuff coming in. I just love it. That’s my favorite stage.


What steps did you take in crafting this (Superman) narrative? What was your creative process?

Josh: So, it all starts with the notebook, y’know — everything is just me jotting ideas and thoughts, ‘cuz I mean, I don’t know if I have an ABC process. It isn’t like “I start here and go to this”. It isn’t uniform. It can be any different thing, but at the end of the day, I write everything down in the notebooks. It could be me having a conversation with another creator or with the artist of the book or the editor and just talking about ideas, and then in that process them being like “Oh what about this”, like there’s something I’m thinking about for Superman next year, and that really came for me from walking around the house in the morning, at like 6 in the morning, getting coffee ready and all of a sudden I have this like, “OH! What if I did THIS”. And then I ran up to my office and wrote it down in the notebook, and then an hour later — actually more than that, more like three hours later — I pitched to the editor. And I said “Here’s what I’m thinking about doing,” and we start talking about it and then I start typing it up.

When it actually comes to scripting, it’s very much just like, I think about what the issue’s gonna look like. I’m a very visual person and I feel like I have to see the comic before I can write. Like I have to feel it and flip through it before I start writing. Once I get that, where I can see the beginning, middle, and ending — or mostly the beginning and the ending — once I start seeing all those pieces, then it’s just about pulling all that stuff together. I don’t have like a uniform, everyday “I sit down, page one, at the end of the week I’m done writing page twenty-two.” It’s not like that. I’m bouncing around by scenes, by, y’know … sometimes I’ll write the ending first because sometimes the endings can be the easiest thing to write, so you know, I bounce around a bit to process it. But I would say I do a lot of notebook work before I do anything else.


When you’re writing multiple books at once, especially ones with stories that intertwine, how do you keep revisions and changes straight so they all make sense when they are published?

Josh: It’s all in my head. (laughs) I mean, y’know, I’ve been reading comics my entire life, and I’ve been reading also books my entire life, and I’ve seen how…it’s interesting, as a reader, I can see the math across the different books and the pieces that have come together. When I’m writing the books, it’s – I can’t keep track of it that way. Again, don’t get me wrong, I have notebooks that document like, order of events, I write a lot of stuff, and I do a lot of whiteboards and it’s a lot of like, “this is gonna be connected to this, this is gonna be this”, you know. But at the end of the day, a lot of it is just in my head. It’s just up there moving around, so I just look at calendars sometimes — it sounds really silly — but I can see like, “Okay while I’m doing this book that month, I can do this within that same month.” I can find those ways of making that connective tissue…If it’s other books that I’m not writing, I just talk to those creators, I show up and we talk about the same thing, like “I’m doing this this month,” “Okay cool, I’m doing this this month,” and we start talking about it.

But honestly — and again, there’s notebook work, whiteboards — but honestly it’s all locked up in here. (points to head)


I’m interested if we’re going to see any cool new creative ways for Superman to use his powers to defeat enemies?

Josh: You know, with the power stuff, I definitely think you should check out what Phillip Kennedy Johnson is doing over in Action Comics. He’s doing a lot of stuff with Superman’s powers. The stuff that I do, I mostly focus on characters and what’s going on there, kind of the heart of the story. When it comes to the powers, it depends on who their villain is, right? And I definitely think about this, you know, with Superman in particular, I don’t really … he would never really hurt anybody, right? So it’s always about how would Superman stop them without hurting them. But he definitely has this huge gauntlet of superpowers, so I try to definitely find some creative ways without getting too much into spoilers, for him to use it. But if you’re definitely the type of person that is like, you wanna see the powers he’d use on like, crazy scales, definitely check out Action Comics.


What do you think Superman views as the biggest challenge he faces in helping the world become a better place?

Josh: It’s hard. I mean, that’s a really hard question because I think that one of the biggest challenges we have in making the world a better palce is all kinds of people who have different points of view of how the world can be a better place And I think for Superman, then Clark, I think that’s a big piece of this, it’s his own people, right? Like he sees the best in everyone. I think he has this notation that everyone is capable of good. And so I think with that, that is still probably his biggest challenge, is how to work with people to help them become that. But it’s like, he doesn’t really do it FOR them, and I think that’s part of it, is like, he doesn’t want to do it FOR them.


Will we be seeing more of Superman’s villains like Metallo, Parasite, and Mr. Mxyzptlk? Looking forward to reading this series!

Josh: With the book, one of my main goals was that I wanted to play with ALL of Superman’s villains. ALL of the toys, right? So Metallo is in Action Comics, but I have some ideas for Metallo…Parasite is a character I’ve always loved, he’s in the first three issues, but then he also plays — this is kind of a spoiler — but he plays a supporting role after that. Mxyzptlk is always tough. I think Mxyzptlk is probably the hardest character to write for Clark. I’ve written him once before. I think he’s one of the bigger challenges. But with this book, I think I wanted you to have all of the iconic villains for Superman. If there is a villain for Superman out there, I definitely have them on the list…One of the things I did when I took on the project was, I made a list of every single Superman villain and just put notes next to their names. Just thoughts of the things I was thinking about with them. And so yeah, if you’re a fan of some iconic Superman villains, I definitely have a plan for them.


Will there be any villains we will be surprised to see in this run?

Josh: Oh yeah, for sure. I definitely wanted not only to take some of the iconic villains and shine like, a different, new light on them and use their powers maybe differently than we’ve seen before — like in the first few issues, we tweak how Parasite’s powers work a little bit. But there’ll definitely be some curveball. There’s some things in there that I think you’ll be surprised by, that we’re using, and there might be some stuff we use in a way that you’ve never seen before.


What makes your version of Superman different from the dozens of other Superman versions that have already been published?

Josh: I think, for me, one of the various different between my Superman and other Supermans is that it’s my Superman. And that’s actually part of what my pitch was for the book, was looking at Superman through Lex Luthor’s point of view and say — like Lex Luthor’s the one who looks at Superman and thinks things like “How do I fix this? How do I improve upon this?” And so I was using basically Lex’s point of view on Superman to do something different for the character and I think that’s part of what I’m primarily bringing to the table, and is different from what everyone else has done before.


I’d love to know whether it’s intimidating to take on characters like Superman or if you just trust your story/team around you enough to blaze through? Does your answer to that affect what kind of stories you choose to tell?

Josh: Taking on Superman was incredibly intimidating. I do feel great, knowing that I have a team of people–the editors at DC…I have a lot of faith and a lot of trust in them. It definitely was one of the more intimidating books I’ve worked on, but in that intimidation I actually found freedom, because I was able to go about some things I was worried about. Once I recognized I was being intimidated by it, and actually looking at everything, I knew what I wanted to do with the character and I knew it was gonna be something different. That intimidation actually ended up being really freeing on the book and it actually really helped me out. And it definitely did impact the kind of stories I was gonna tell down the line because I knew I was gonna do something different with the book, and I knew my priority was like, I want to honor the mythology of what’s come before, but do something new and different with it and move the ball down the line, you know, when you do something new with the character. But so, actually that intimidation would be one of the best things that happened with the book.


Can you give us some examples of prior Superman arcs/series that you’ve based your characterization of Clark off of? One of my favorite things about comics is seeing how past works influence new stories.

Josh: So for me, I would say kind of everything. I would go back and look through a lot of different interpretations of Clark. I actually think that Clark is fairly consistent across most of them. I think one of the best ways to do Superman is to just write Superman — like, I think we all had an idea of who Superman should be and can be, and to be a writer of Superman is to write Superman as Superman and Clark as Clark, but then you put him in new situations, right? You put him in new areas. And that’s how I feel like some of the past stuff really influenced the book. I looked at all these pieces and I was like, I think one of the most interesting things about Superman is putting him in different situations and watching how he reacts to those situations. As long as Superman stays Superman. And so yeah, I went back and I looked at, again, the cartoons, the movie … but with the comics, I kind of did everything. I looked at some of my favorite Superman stories and that was one of the things I noticed in the pattern, was just kind of keeping Clark consistent across really helped.


Who is your favorite character that crosses over in your run, or who would you like your series to have a story with?

Josh: That’s a tough question without getting into spoilers. (laughs)

I feel like there’s a lot of characters that might surprise you that are coming into this book. I definitely like to do deep dives into DC history and find characters that might surprise you. I definitely would say the real big bad of the book is actually a character you know and you’ve seen in things, but I think it will surprise people when they realize that’s the actual big bad of the whole book. There’s definitely stuff I’d love to do, more stuff like — I’m writing Batman & Robin and Green Arrow, and I’d love to have crossovers. But there is one character who, in the very beginning, I was like, “Oh I actually want to do at least one issue with this character that Superman already actually has a history with” and now we’re actually gonna do a story out of it. But yeah, the one character, I was like, at the very beginning, I wanna have that character show up, and now we’re gonna do it. I can’t tell you what it is, but it’s really exciting.


Will Lex Luthor have an influence on Superman down the line, making Superman have to look at the situation from a Lex Luthor point of view?

Josh: That would be a major part of the book because Lex Luthor, that’s what he wants. He wants Superman to see his point of view, and so he’s gonna keep pushing that on him. But at the same time, I think that Superman is taking kind of a leap of faith in Lex and trying to believe that Lex is actually telling the truth this time and that he wants to do something good. So it’s kind of just push and pull, but that’s definitely part of what Lex wants. He wants Superman to see things from his point of view, and again, that will play an important role in the book.


How do you feel about him being paired with Rose Wilson?

Josh: I’m really glad to see someone actually picked up on that, that I always kinda sneak this idea that Red Hood and Ravager, Jason and Rose, kinda have this like, secret flirtation, this thing. I don’t think they defined it, so I’m not gonna define it either, but I always kind of felt like they had sort of a thing. I’m glad to see someone picked up on that in the work. I always put it there. I know that’s something in movies too as well, but for me, it’s actually a relationship that, for whatever reason, makes a lot of sense to me, and I would love to see them do more with that relationship down the line. It’s not a secret because DC will always know I feel about this, so I do think that at some point, if I was in a position to write a book or a few characters, you would definitely see me do more of it. Anyone working on those characters, I’ve definitely poked them about that, you know, that that’s a thing.


What do you think is the defining attribute to maintain in any modern iteration of Superman?

Josh: You know, I think it just comes down to his heart. I think that with Superman, you know, as I’ve been working on the book, I’ve started realizing that … I feel like it’s actually kinda easy to get Superman right, but also easy to get wrong. Part of the trick is you have to walk this line with sort of making sure you’re on the right course, Superman being Superman, but you don’t always want to fall back on the same old tricks, the same old story. You have to modernize it. And I think that’s, again, put him in new situations. I think at the end of the day, it’s that heart, y’know, because if you’re missing that heart, the rest of it doesn’t work. Doesn’t matter what you’re doing if you don’t have his heart. And I think that’s the number one attribute you have to maintain no matter what. Like,whatever time period you’re writing Superman–today, modern, whatever–you have to keep that.


Will any of the Robin 2021 supporting characters make appearances in Batman & Robin?

Josh: Yes! (laughs) I feel like a lot of stuff that was in the Robins series before was definitely my angle on Batman & Robin. I definitely want to establish what Batman & Robin is in the series first and how it’s about them as father and son before I start bringing in other elements to the book. So the first arc is very much about them and their relationship, now that they’re with each other again, they’re father and son again. But then once we get going, then I will definitely start putting more stuff of that in there, you’ll definitely see some characters from that series in the book.


What not ‘big-name’ character would you want to write to expand on their mythos?

Josh: This is a difficult question in some ways because iin my mind, it’s hard to gauge what is not a big name, because there are characters that I might love that no one has heard of before, or may not be considered not a big name…but I really love Deadman, you know, Deadman’s a character I really love. We’re doing a little bit of stuff with him in Knight Terrors and we’re definitely expanding on his mythology there. I would say that’s one character that I would love to write more of.


With regards to the introduction of Marilyn Moonlight, how long has this character been in the cards? Will that story expand quickly or will her story be a little bit more of a slow burn?

Josh: When I started working on Superman, I started thinking about different aspects of Superman. One of them was about his powers coming from the sun, and I started thinking a lot about his powers and the sun. You know, I was doing like, y’know — the farm, Metropolis, just thinking about different pieces of Superman mythology that are crucial. And I was thinking about the sun and I was thinking about Metropolis and, you know, whenever we’re in Metropolis, it’s always during the day. I wish we could see a little bit more of the nightlife. And I was like, “Oh, you know, the light from the moon is actually a reflection of the light from the sun.” And we didn’t really explore that idea and the impact of it. So I started going, “What is a character that only really shows up at night in Metropolis?” and I went to Jamal and — this is very early on in the process with Jamal — and I was like, “Here’s what I’m thinking,” and Jamal got it immediately, and started designing the character, and we started talking about them having this past that connects to kind of a Western mythology of Metropolis and the really early stage of their days in Metropolis.

But it will definitely be a slow burn. It’s definitely gonna be something where you’re gonna see over time, and you’ll see bits and pieces of this mythology building and how it connects to the bigger picture of the story we’re telling.


You’re tackling the main Superman title during this resurgence of the character. How are you hoping to leave your influence on Superman, giving this is an ongoing that seems to be going for the long run?

Josh: When I approach any character at DC Comics, I always look at how can I add something else. So regardless of, y’know, TV shows or movies, toys — don’t get me wrong, I love all those things, it’s cool to see those things move from this to that, I love it, especially the toys. But for me, when I’m working on it, I just really want to add to the character and I think that’s how you build kind of a lasting impression. But for me, I guess I don’t really think about that as much. I’m not doing this because I’m like, “Oh, I want this to leave it forever.” Don’t get me wrong, that stuff is also cool, it’s also part of the fun to work on the books, but my goal is to always just add a mythology to tell the best story possible. And I think with this book, doing the same thing of like, taking all the things like, the mythology, the iconic parts of it, and just taking it and then just building, y’know just adding to it. And I’ve always felt this way about DC in general, that DC is at its best when it’s adding mythology. Like, that’s my own fandom for DC, and I feel very lucky that I came to DC at a time where we’re always adding stuff to it, always adding mythology. So I just try to do the same thing. I know that’s what I love about DC Comics, is adding to mythology, so that’s what I’m trying to do here. That’s also been my hope with Superman, is that the things that I add … I don’t know … add something to the character mythology.


If you could write a book about any existing DC character without having to worry about it selling/cancellation, which character would you pick?

Josh: This is a funny question for me because the idea of not worrying about it selling or not worrying about it cancelling … I mean, honestly, I wish I could say that about every book I work on. I wish I didn’t worry about those things but I always worry about it. But I can make joke answers, like I would love to write a Bloodlines book that touched on the old Bloodlines event, I would love to do a book that took place all in the Bronze Age of comics, I think it’s a very interesting time period.

But if there was a character I could work on and I would never worry about it being cancelled … definitely a hard question. I feel like, after digging in, that I’m very lucky that I got to write a lot of my favorite characters. I got to write Superman, I got to write Batman, I got to write Robin, I got to write Flash … I think that, for the most part, if I had to worry about it not being cancelled … I don’t want to give it away because I feel like I’ll eventually get to write it, so I don’t want to essentially give it away, but I think it would be fun to kinda do — I mean honestly, I think one of the main things I would really love to do is actually a history of the DC universe. So it’s not a character so much as a new history of the universe. I think that would be really fun. If I didn’t have to worry about making it thematically exciting, I guess, and make sure it always had stuff that would sell, and I could just tell a history book basically, I would really like to do that. I think it’d be fun.


Now that the world doesn’t know Superman’s identity, will we get to see more Clark? I always felt Clark and Lois was just as great for story telling than just Superman on panels all the time.

Josh: Yeah, I definitely wanted to show more Clark. I wanted to show more Clark, I wanted to show more Clark and Lois, and I wanted to show more Daily Planet. And I wanted to see this … y’know, I think that Clark is a very human character. I think too many people believe in the negativity of him being this alien. Don’t get me wrong, I think he feels like an outsider, but feeling like an outsider is very human. So I wanted to give him more traits. I wanted to be like, “This is a person who’s not Superman 24/7.” He’s not that character. That’s why in the first issue, I showed him listening to music, y’know, a very human thing that everyone does. And so I’m trying to find more places to do that — find a place where … like, let Clark and Lois go on a date! Let them have a relationship that is more than just their jobs, you know? So yeah, I definitely think you’ll see a lot more of that.


Are these mad scientists that we saw at the end of Superman #1 in any way connected to Intergang, Bruno Mannheim, and Darkseid or are you creating a new (old) threat that’s always been there, lurking behind the scenes, similar to the Court of Owls in Batman?

Josh: Yeah, I think for a while there it felt like a lot of Superman’s villains, and even Lex, were mad scientists. You go back and look at the old Max Fleischer cartoons In that first one, Lex was a mad scientist. I always found that very fascinating to me, like mad scientists every villain, but I know it’s a very Golden Age/Silver Age thing, but I think they’re fun. I think for a while we got into this thing, post-Doomsday, where every villain had to meet him on the physical level. But when you think about Lex and Brainiac and Mxyzptlk–those are villains that aren’t about his strength or his powers … it’s about his humanity, his heart, his mind. Superman’s a very smart person. So I was thinking about that and was like, “You know what we haven’t seen in a while is straight-up mad scientists.” And yeah, they’re all brand new mad scientists.

I thought about Intergang, that definitely was something I thought about. But I’ve done so much with that side already that I was like, y’know, I just want to do something different with it. It all started with this idea about Lex Luthor, and Lex Luthor was in Metropolis for a long time before Superman got there. Like, they both left Smallville at different times, both left Smallville. Lex came to Metropolis, Superman traveled the world. But Lex was there and there were already — what we’re revealing — there were already supervillains in Metropolis when Lex got there and he basically wants to take their power…but because it’s Lex, it’s never that easy. And so there’s a bigger story there and I wanted to explore that.

And so a lot of these new villains that are coming–I say this in the first issue, [when] like Lex said, “You’re not fighting your villains, you’re fighting my villains”. And so I wanted it to be that when you’re thinking of all these villains…they all are aspects of Lex, and they play off of Lex’s stuff more so than Superman’s. But yeah, I’m glad to see other people are enjoying the idea of it being Superman vs. mad scientists again because at the end of the day, I want this book to be fun and I find mad scientists to be incredibly fun.


Closing Segment

Josh: Thank you so much for all these questions! It was a lot of fun. I really appreciate everyone coming in with so many awesome questions. I wish we could’ve gotten to all of them but again, I really really appreciate you taking some time to ask those questions. Right now, Superman #3 just came out and next week, Green Arrow #1 comes out, so I hope you’ll be picking that up.

And then also, I want to say congratulations to @NinjaSupes — you get a signed copy of Superman #1! I hope you enjoy it!

Thank you so much again for your questions!

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Aw yeah, my question got answered! :smile:

Now I’m extra excited to see Supes’ Rogues gallery for this run.

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My question has been answer! I have to admit that having these celebrities answering your question is alot more rewarding then winning a give away. :smiley:

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GASP


Tsk tsk @staticshocks lol!

In all seriousness, congrats @NinjaSupes!

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I THOUGHT YOU WERE JOKING ABOUT YOU BEING THE NEXT TALENT FOR THE MAY Q&A! I’m innocent!! Innocent I say! :sob:

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Lol!!!

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Hope I get to see him in dallas

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How do I submit questions for the next one?

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Each month we announce the Q&A talent and open a thread to submit your questions for them. Here’s an example of the Joshua Williamson one!

You’ll have an opportunity to submit your questions to the next talent when we announce them in May!

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Cool, Thanks

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Thanks for sharing my question with Joshua!

Loved the responses he gave and I’m loving this run so far!

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This is fantastic and I love these so much. The access, the answers and especially seeing them and hearing them makes it feel very personal. Thanks for this and already looking forward to May’s Q&A!

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My question didn’t get answered. Probably because the focus of the interview was more Superman-centric.

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Congratulations @NinjaSupes and everyone who got their questions featured! :superhero:

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Thank you everyone! I can’t believe it!

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I’m so excited :slightly_smiling_face:!!! Joshua Williamson actually answered my question!! That is so very, very cool, man :slightly_smiling_face:! My mind is blown :exploding_head:!!

My question was about whether or not these mad scientists are completely new villains in Superman (2023) or are they connected to Bruno Mannheim and Darkseid somehow and he answered me back. I’ve only been a part of the DC Community for about a couple of months now but I just want to say that it has been such a nice experience to be here. Also, I heard Joshua Williamson say that there is a secret villain from Superman’s past behind these mad scientists who showed up in Superman #1 (2023) and I think :thinking:that I might have a good idea on who it might be.

Joshua Williamson mentioned that he was a big fan of the Triangle Era of Superman comics (which also happens to be my favorite because it’s when I really started collecting Superman and that was back in my early teens.) and there is a villain from the Triangle Era that we haven’t seen since the '90s and that’s Conduit (Kenny Braverman). The mad scientists are able to resurrect someone with that serum that they’re working on, right? They can’t resurrect them at 100% - yet! That’s why they’re still trying to perfect their formula.

So what if Conduit was buried beneath some rubble in Metropolis somewhere and these mad scientists came upon him and brought him back to their lab and have been working on trying to resurrect him fully but their formula’s incomplete so only part of him is conscious. Maybe his head and torso are the only things that can move right now? And maybe he’s in a room filled with green Kryptonite and lead lined walls? And that’s why Superman can’t see him and he’s hooked up to a bunch of computer monitors and a life support machine keeping him alive so he would be able to give these mad scientists their orders even though he’s not fully himself yet.

It’s a possibility, especially since Joshua Williamson is leaning into a horror aspect in these first issues of his Superman run and what he’s been doing with the Parasite. Even if the villain turns out not to be Conduit, I will still enjoy it. I am back reading Superman for the first time in many years and I am really enjoying it - all of it. Action, Superman, Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent etc etc.

I am loving them all right now. I’m also enjoying reading old Superman comics from the Golden and Silver Age too thanks to a couple of lists that were put up on DCUI. I’m having so much fun reading Superman right now, it’s not even funny :slightly_smiling_face:! Oh, yeah, there is another villain from the '90s whom I hope makes an appearance in Joshua Williamson’s Superman and that is Shadow Dragon. He could be a villain or a hero when the need arose and that’s what made him pretty cool. So, hopefully, he’ll show up in this new Superman run by Joshua Williamson too. I can’t wait to see what or who comes next after Parasite :slightly_smiling_face::crossed_fingers:!

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