Write What You Know: Steven T. Seagle and Superman
I hadn't read too much by Steven T. Seagle before picking up Superman: The 10-Cent Adventure in January 2003. To me he was best known as the writer of Sandman Mystery Theatre and House of Secrets, two Vertigo books that (through no fault of their own) I never got around to reading. It was unusual for him to take on such a mainstream book as Superman, and it was only slightly less unusual to see Scott McDaniel come over from various Batman titles for the art.
Turns out Seagle thought it was unusual too. In 2004 he wrote the original graphic novel, It's A Bird..., about his relationship to Superman and his initial unwillingness to write the character. Now that It's A Bird... is in paperback, I picked up a copy and have been spotting how Seagle's Superman story has mirrored that account of his life.
The Superman arc began in The 10-Cent Adventure and continued through 2003's monthly Superman issues (#s 190-200). It took full advantage of the city of Metropolis being a true "city of tomorrow." For those who don't know, Metropolis had a unique Y2K experience -- as December 31, 1999, became January 1, 2000, Metropolis was infected by the "Brainiac 13 virus," which updated the city's infrastructure using technology from the far future. Subways became giant "rail whales" and the Daily Planet's globe became a hologram. Of course, it was all part of Brainiac's plan to rule the world, and naturally Superman stopped him, but the technology remained.
Taking his cue from those events, Seagle spun a story which ended up pitting Superman against the architects of the future Metropolis now represented. He started slowly, with Superman battling guys in battlesuits with codenames like Amok and Radion. He introduced a new "Supergirl," a/k/a Cir-El, Superman's future daughter, as a harbinger. He made Lois a television reporter and returned Clark to his familiar post at the Daily Planet (previously, Clark had been Dan Rathered for a story he wrote about President Luthor). He also made Yes! the soft drink of choice for Metropolitans, which turned out to be the linchpin of the villains' plan. Not that it wasn't obvious that Yes! was evil; but the plan turned out to be pretty fiendish.
Everything came to a head in Superman#200, a time-travel story where an android Superman from the future brings our hero forward in time, showing him how things went horribly wrong along the way. Turns out Yes! contained nanoprobes that destroyed human bodies, forcing humanity to "cure" the disease by creating synthetic body parts. Superman withdrew from society after the near-simultaneous deaths of his parents and Lois, but the disease got to him too. Then, Superman gave Lois' body to Luthor in hopes that it could be revived. In the future, Lois was revived, but the nanoprobes still in her ended up reviving Brainiac instead. Superman stopped Brainiac, but his return trip through time literally resulted in an uncertain future, as he ended up an infant on a Krypton about to explode.
As background for this essay I listened to Terry Gross' "Fresh Aire" interview of Seagle. In it he discloses that he had pretty much worked through the issues presented by It's A Bird... before he started working on Superman. That kind of blew my theory that Superman contained more of the autobiographical allusions presented in IAB. However, it's hard not to ignore the superficial similarities.
Most prominent is the use of disease. In IAB, Seagle's family has a history of Huntington's chorea, a disease of the nervous system. In Superman, the Futuresmiths have engineered Yes!, a soft drink secretly containing nanoprobes which destroy humans' bodies and drive humanity into synthetic replacements. On a more macro level, the advanced B-13 technology is itself "infecting" present-day Metropolis. It gives the citizens tremendous creature comforts, but it has a darker side. The antagonist of Superman #190 is a maintenance robot who was once a policeman, and who blames a citizen's unborn son for the "cure" which forced him into that body. In Superman the robot describes his peers as "slaves to the city they helped build," and in IAB Seagle observes that "some genes don't give powers ... they take powers away."
In both works Seagle also explores unusual parent-child relationships. It's A Bird describes Seagle's parents as well-meaning, but concerned about the effects Huntington's will have on their children. Seagle reverses the perspective for Superman -- instead of him reflecting on his parents, he has Superman suddenly confronted with a previously unknown daughter. It's A Bird's emotional climax reveals Seagle's father's concerns about children and Huntington's, but it would be a real stretch to suppose those were mirrored in the "unexpected" aspect of Cir-El's existence. In any event, Superman never rejects his daughter outright -- would you expect anything less? -- and Seagle's message in It's A Bird is that life is worth living no matter what happens at the end.
That final message is eerie considering the end of Superman #200. Big changes were afoot in the Superman titles in 2004, including the end of the "city of tomorrow" and the start of Brian Azzarello and Jim Lee's year-long arc. Seagle has said he was only a placeholder until the Azzarello/Lee run, and just wanted to tell good stories without going "too crazy." However, given that Superman #200 sets up the changes of Superman: Birthright, it is actually the end of an era. It's no "Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow," but certainly Superman, falling through time towards the unexploded Krypton, would agree with It's A Bird's sentiments.
In that respect, Seagle's run on Superman and his meditations in It's A Bird... are complementary. Seagle sought to tell accessible, exciting adventure stories in the flagship Superman title, and got to explain the character's appeal in his autobiographical work. Reading It's A Bird... helped me appreciate Seagle's unique perspective on Superman, and re-reading Seagle's Superman work helped me appreciate the life which informed those stories.
Turns out Seagle thought it was unusual too. In 2004 he wrote the original graphic novel, It's A Bird..., about his relationship to Superman and his initial unwillingness to write the character. Now that It's A Bird... is in paperback, I picked up a copy and have been spotting how Seagle's Superman story has mirrored that account of his life.
The Superman arc began in The 10-Cent Adventure and continued through 2003's monthly Superman issues (#s 190-200). It took full advantage of the city of Metropolis being a true "city of tomorrow." For those who don't know, Metropolis had a unique Y2K experience -- as December 31, 1999, became January 1, 2000, Metropolis was infected by the "Brainiac 13 virus," which updated the city's infrastructure using technology from the far future. Subways became giant "rail whales" and the Daily Planet's globe became a hologram. Of course, it was all part of Brainiac's plan to rule the world, and naturally Superman stopped him, but the technology remained.
Taking his cue from those events, Seagle spun a story which ended up pitting Superman against the architects of the future Metropolis now represented. He started slowly, with Superman battling guys in battlesuits with codenames like Amok and Radion. He introduced a new "Supergirl," a/k/a Cir-El, Superman's future daughter, as a harbinger. He made Lois a television reporter and returned Clark to his familiar post at the Daily Planet (previously, Clark had been Dan Rathered for a story he wrote about President Luthor). He also made Yes! the soft drink of choice for Metropolitans, which turned out to be the linchpin of the villains' plan. Not that it wasn't obvious that Yes! was evil; but the plan turned out to be pretty fiendish.
Everything came to a head in Superman#200, a time-travel story where an android Superman from the future brings our hero forward in time, showing him how things went horribly wrong along the way. Turns out Yes! contained nanoprobes that destroyed human bodies, forcing humanity to "cure" the disease by creating synthetic body parts. Superman withdrew from society after the near-simultaneous deaths of his parents and Lois, but the disease got to him too. Then, Superman gave Lois' body to Luthor in hopes that it could be revived. In the future, Lois was revived, but the nanoprobes still in her ended up reviving Brainiac instead. Superman stopped Brainiac, but his return trip through time literally resulted in an uncertain future, as he ended up an infant on a Krypton about to explode.
As background for this essay I listened to Terry Gross' "Fresh Aire" interview of Seagle. In it he discloses that he had pretty much worked through the issues presented by It's A Bird... before he started working on Superman. That kind of blew my theory that Superman contained more of the autobiographical allusions presented in IAB. However, it's hard not to ignore the superficial similarities.
Most prominent is the use of disease. In IAB, Seagle's family has a history of Huntington's chorea, a disease of the nervous system. In Superman, the Futuresmiths have engineered Yes!, a soft drink secretly containing nanoprobes which destroy humans' bodies and drive humanity into synthetic replacements. On a more macro level, the advanced B-13 technology is itself "infecting" present-day Metropolis. It gives the citizens tremendous creature comforts, but it has a darker side. The antagonist of Superman #190 is a maintenance robot who was once a policeman, and who blames a citizen's unborn son for the "cure" which forced him into that body. In Superman the robot describes his peers as "slaves to the city they helped build," and in IAB Seagle observes that "some genes don't give powers ... they take powers away."
In both works Seagle also explores unusual parent-child relationships. It's A Bird describes Seagle's parents as well-meaning, but concerned about the effects Huntington's will have on their children. Seagle reverses the perspective for Superman -- instead of him reflecting on his parents, he has Superman suddenly confronted with a previously unknown daughter. It's A Bird's emotional climax reveals Seagle's father's concerns about children and Huntington's, but it would be a real stretch to suppose those were mirrored in the "unexpected" aspect of Cir-El's existence. In any event, Superman never rejects his daughter outright -- would you expect anything less? -- and Seagle's message in It's A Bird is that life is worth living no matter what happens at the end.
That final message is eerie considering the end of Superman #200. Big changes were afoot in the Superman titles in 2004, including the end of the "city of tomorrow" and the start of Brian Azzarello and Jim Lee's year-long arc. Seagle has said he was only a placeholder until the Azzarello/Lee run, and just wanted to tell good stories without going "too crazy." However, given that Superman #200 sets up the changes of Superman: Birthright, it is actually the end of an era. It's no "Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow," but certainly Superman, falling through time towards the unexploded Krypton, would agree with It's A Bird's sentiments.
In that respect, Seagle's run on Superman and his meditations in It's A Bird... are complementary. Seagle sought to tell accessible, exciting adventure stories in the flagship Superman title, and got to explain the character's appeal in his autobiographical work. Reading It's A Bird... helped me appreciate Seagle's unique perspective on Superman, and re-reading Seagle's Superman work helped me appreciate the life which informed those stories.
posted by Tom Bondurant @ 8:55 PM
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