by Matt Brady

So – with Adventures of Superman being handled by Greg Rucka and Karl Kerschl, Superman operating under the creative team of Mark Verheiden and Ed Benes, the question is officially begged: what’s, or rather, who’s coming up as the new creative team on Action Comics?

A writer who’s just as surprised as you to be reading her name here, a penciller who’s making a return to a series he hasn’t worked on regularly in 17 years, and an inker known for telling some of the most…colorful stories in the industry.

In other words: Gail (Birds of Prey) Simone, John Byrne, and Nelson DeCastro.

First off, on the writing side, Simone said she lobbied for the book in the way she usually goes about getting new projects – by not even considering it. “I wasn’t even aware that the book was available,” Simone said. “Dan DiDio called and offered it to me, which just goes to show that there’s no sense in the world and the universe is certainly doomed.”

And when the offer was made, why say yes?

“I could list reasons all day, but certainly working with John is one of the best reasons to say yes. I can’t wait to see him back on this book! John Byrne drawing Superman again?  Come on, that’s the kind of stuff that makes reading comics fun.

“But on top of that, I really want to write stories for people that haven’t ever regularly picked up Superman books.  I’d love to see some X-Men readers, or Ultimate readers, or even Birds of Prey readers putting this book on their save lists.

“Dan and Super-editor Eddie Berganza made it very clear that they want me to go wild on this book, and I intend to do just that.”

Even for a comics veteran like Byrne, the assignment came up rather suddenly, but he was still game for heading back to Metropolis. “Dan DiDio is shuffling things around a bit, and called to ask if I would be interested in penciling Action Comics,” Byrne said.  “At that point there wasn't even a writer attached to the project.  Subject to a writer being assigned, I gave a tentative ‘Yes.’” 

“Gail was assigned after me, so we had no opportunity to discuss this before she came aboard, but I’m glad to see her as part of the team.  She has offered me input, but I think I will sit back and let her drive.”

That said, Byrne good-naturedly refers to himself as “strictly the art-robot” on Action for this run, something he said suits him just fine. “I enjoy the occasional project where it's all about solving problems artistically,” Byrne said. “It works a whole different set of ‘muscles.’”

Byrne also explained that he’s looking to come to Action with virtually a new set of eyes as far as Superman and the current state of the mythos go. “I haven't paid more than the most cursory attention to the Superman titles since I left,” Byrne said. “In fact, recently, I spoke briefly with Eddie Berganza,and asked him to put together a ‘guide book’ so I can get caught up. Basically I told him to pretend I had never even heard of the character, and assemble reference accordingly.”

Simone and Byrne had almost worked together on a previous project, and now that the team is cemented in place, Simone’s not about to let the opportunity pass her by. “I think we both plan to make this a rocket-powered read,” Simone said. “For a long time, for me, there was John Byrne and then there was the rest of the industry.

“It’s exciting.

“I mean, artists are a complete mystery to me. I can barely draw a straight line, and yet I’ve gotten to work with people like Jose Garcia Lopez, Kevin Maguire, Dan DeCarlo, Eduardo Barretto, Jill Thompson, Lea Hernandez, Michael Golden, Ed Benes, Udon, Adam Hughes, Dan Jurgens, on and on...it’s appalling the talent I’ve worked with.  I gave up being intimidated a while back and just assumed that I’m living in a lucky delusion and my real body is in a hospital somewhere, probably being fed pudding by an Austrian orderly named Gunther.

“That said, I’ll trade being nervous for being giddy any day.  The stars here are John and Kal-el. I’m happy to get to ride in the trunk.”

Looking at the character a little more closely, Simone said that there’s one thing, in her view that has to make it into any Superman story to make it a “Superman” story. “Humanity.  But I can’t help but point out that Clark is hot.  Seriously, it’s Superman. He’s just dead sexy and he isn’t even trying. From any angle, he’s the good stuff. 

“But, oh yeah, definitely, we’ll stick that humanity thing in there somewhere, probably towards the back.”

At the same time though, Simone said that she and Byrne will be delving on the implied promise made by the title, that is, action.

“I love action sequences and I’m completely unapologetic about that,” Simone said. “With an artist like John, we can outperform any big-budget action film easily. We can have any location we want, and crazy ideas are only to be encouraged.  You can’t beat Mark V. on Superman for the fantastic human relationships, and you can’t beat Greg Rucka on Adventures for compelling real-life challenges - so our plan is to be the fun, wild…possibly insane Super-book.” 

As both Rucka and Verheiden have said, the plan is for all three core Superman books to relate more closely to the larger DCU in the coming year, and Simone said that she plans to go along with that plan 100%.

“We’re still solidifying things, but we definitely plan to have some of my all-time favorites visit Metropolis,” Simone explained. “But that said, Superman doesn’t need guests or stunts. He’s the man.   He doesn’t need variants or tricks any more than a Porsche needs training wheels.”

And as for the obligatory tease?

“We’re still putting a lot of this together, but if all goes well, we’ll be seeing some really very cool, very fresh new villains, including at least one that both literally and figuratively wants to rip Kal’s heart out,” Simone said. “We’ll see some guests from the past, and quite possibly, the future.  We’re going to see why Lois completely kicks ass, and why Jimmy is one of the coolest supporting characters in comics.  And that’s just for openers. It’s going to be a blast.

“I actually put this in my pitch, that Clark and Kal El can be very complex.  But I sum up Superman with that famous line from the Jim Croce song...

“You don’t tug on Superman’s cape.

“This is a guy who can thread a tank through the eye of a needle. He can see the weather in Beirut and he knows what air freshener you used in your house six months ago by the smell of your clothes. You don’t mess with this guy.

“It bugs me to see even minor villains all being so patronizing to Superman. That’s just asking for it. I don’t care how arrogant you are, this is a guy you treat with respect, and you’d damn well better say his name in all caps while you’re at it.   People who call him the ‘big boy scout,’ should probably understand that very few boy scouts have heat vision, super-speed and an unbeaten track record for making despots and psychotic geniuses kiss his fist. I strongly suspect most of the villain community says his name in hushed tones, if they say it at all. 

“Sure, Batman’s scary.  But no one wants Kal El mad at them.  Don’t start none, there won’t be none.

“Wouldn’t the world be a better place with a Superman in it?

“That’s my book, right there.”

On a closing side note, yes, Action will be the third book Byrne is listed on as penciller, and no, none of them are currently slated to go away. Once he starts his run on Action comics, John Byrne will be one of the very few artists in recent years who’ve handled three monthlies, that is, Doom Patrol, Blood of the Demon, and Action Comics.

“For me that's not a heavy workload,” Byrne said. “That's about normal.  Without any effort I have usually done three pages of full pencils per day.  With 22 working days in an average month, the 66 pages demanded by three monthly titles present no challenge.  This is, after all, about the same as I was handling with various rotating titles like X-Men, Fantastic Four, Captain America, Marvel Team-Up, Avengers, etc.  And, since I find I usually do more pages per day when working from someone else's script -- on True Brit I averages five per day -- this doesn't look like any problem at all.”

Cliff Biggers contributed to this article.