The year is going by fast, and it's almost time for the biggest summer Summer of Superman Special #1.

This summer, DC Comics is going all-out with three different series. While Joshua Williamson continues his epic run on Superman, action-packed Superman Unlimited. Screen Rant participated in a roundtable discussion with the Superman team to hear all about what fans can expect during the Summer of Superman.

Josh, the first question is for you. In two years, it's fair to say your Superman run has been a great balance of action and emotion, with some great relationships explored, from Jimmy Olsen and Siobhan Smythe to Mercy and Lex and, of course, expanding on the Superman and Lois relationship, with Lois gaining powers and relating to Superman in a way she never has before. Can you talk about the challenge of maintaining this balance?

Joshua Williamson: I mean, that's always what Superman is about is between Clark and Superman, right? So for me, it's always just sort of making sure I keep both those sides. I just try to keep those two things in check for me. I don't always want to make it fall into like a math problem of like, "I have this many pages dedicated to Clark and this many pages dedicated Jimmy.". I do kind of do that a little bit, but I really just try to look at what the characters are doing and how they're reacting to the story around them, and then I just keep both those sides in mind at all times. And it's not just Superman running around saving people. It's not just your man lifting up a car. You know, there's very much I keep an eye on Clark. What's going on with Clark and people around him?

It's been said that how well the Superman comics are doing in of sales and creativity is a great barometer for DC overall. So do you believe there's any truth to that? It seems to be, with the Superman titles doing very well and DC looking as healthy as it's been in a long time.

Mark Waid: I would say there's truth to that. I mean, he is our flagship character, no matter what that other guy in the cape from Gotham thinks he is. So, you know, as goes Superman, so goes DC Comics, right?

Joshua Williamson: Yeah, yeah. I'm a big believer in that too, that when the Superman books are working, you can see that it's working. You know, that's a big piece of it. I mean, I always think that DC is never just one person, but it's Superman. So that's a whole different math to it. I mean, you look at the time periods of when Superman was doing well, and I think you look at the rest of the line. I think DC is very clearly firing on all cylinders. I'm really happy with the work DC is doing when it comes to post-All In, and the stuff that's happening with Absolute and I feel like Mark and I are doing good.

Question for both of you. Will Lana and John's wedding have a lasting impact on either of your series?

Joshua Williamson: We've been really carrying forward a lot of the mysteries from the All-In Special. Just like Mark does with Justice League, we are going to be picking up the Darkseid Legion, the Omega Legion, or the Dark Legion, whichever you want to call it. But Darkseid's Legion, we're gonna be picking up that plot pretty quickly. Here. We've been kind of teasing it in Superman. We're gonna pick up that thread pretty quickly in Superman. I think we're gonna be announcing that pretty soon, and then that's gonna carry me through, because it's gonna be tied to the big picture of All In for a little bit. So I will definitely be picking up some of the stuff with Lana and John, but I won't be doing it until probably 2027 like, that's what I'll be really picking up that that thread. But there'll be some stuff that will happen in between that might impact that thread a little bit. So we'll definitely get back to that. But for me and my book, it'll be a little bit of time before we get to it.

This question is for both of you [Josh and Mark]. How do you feel about having Dan the Super-Family?

Joshua Williamson:Well, you know, Mark and I have known each other for a bit. And Mark knows I've been a very big fan of Mark's for a long time. So he and I definitely have, I'll say, connection, Mark?

Mark Waid: Fair. And of course, I worked with Dan a lot at Marvel and doing Spider-Man stuff. So I appreciate how much planning and thought he puts into this stuff, and I think it shows in the work.

Joshua Williamson: That's the thing too. Like, I'm a big fan of Dan's work from Spider-Man from Arkham Asylum. That is somebody I've always really liked their work. And so with Dan coming over, it was really interesting. I didn't know Dan at all. Like, I really met him the first time through this process. And he's just very excited. He brings a lot of really like enthusiasm to what we're doing. So that's been, it's been really fun.

The new Superman movie will create a lot of new curious readers. What classic or not-so-classic Superman comic would you give the curious reader to begin their Superman comic journey?

Mark Waid: I probably said All-Star Superman.

Joshua Williamson: It's good to definitely pick up the hits. Like, you know, All-Star Superman and we have Superman: Birthright and Secret Origin. Like, there's these places you can start at. I would almost honestly say, and I think Mark, you could agree to this, when I started reading Superman, it wasn't like somebody handed me a Superman comic and said, "Start here, right off the shelf.". I almost think one of the beautiful things about Superman is you can pretty much start anywhere. I think the stuff that we've been doing, you can just grab these books off the shelf. I think the story that Mark is doing next with Superboy in Action, that's a great place to start. It is that I think the Superman #1 that we did, it's a good place to start, yeah. But I think that's one of the fun things about Superman and the fun things about comics, because you really can kind of start wherever you're at, you know, you don't have to be so precious about starting at the beginning. And comics, I don't think you always have to, but yeah, I mean, you can go with the expected. You know, look at like All-Star Superman and looking at all these different or standalone stories. But that's not how my Superman fandom started. My Superman fandom starts grabbing what was on the rack, you know, like going to Target and just buying a book, or going to Costco and getting a giant stack of comics. I would say if you're just starting out, just grab a book.

Josh, this question is for you. Solicits are promising some serious rage coming from your 25th issue of Superman. What does it mean to explore Kal's anger, and how will Superwoman deal with it?

Joshua Williamson: I mean, I don't want to spoil everything, like something happens to piss Superman off. Like, I think Superman being angry is an interesting thing, because it is a rare thing that we see. But when it does happen, it means something. And I think that's what we're building up across the book. Like there was that scene with Lobo, where Lobo basically is, like, "You can't ignore your anger.", like you're Superman, but you still get angry. You're still human, you know, and you can't bury it down. You gotta deal with it. And I think that's something we're kind of playing with across these issues and Superwoman getting to see it, but you'll see once we get a 25th not sure if you read 25 yet, but 25 has some crazy stuff.

Some of you are, some of you are no strangers to writing Superman. Josh, you're continuing your story. Mark, returning to the character to write something new. What is it like returning or continuing with the character, but in a different story, or in some cases, an entirely different era?

Joshua Williamson: Mark, I mean, you have the most experience with Superman.

Mark Waid: For me, I guess the answer is coming at it from a different era means you have to look at it from a different point of view. Clark is at a different place in his life as a young man. And that is what Action is about, is watching us build that hero from scratch, watching Clark and Ma and Pa figure out how all this works from jump, and that's much different than writing Superman in World's Finest or writing Superman in Action Comics or what have you.

Joshua Williamson: Every time we do one of these initiatives to create a new era DC, right? Whether it was Rebirth, whether it was Year of the Villain, I feel like we have a theme. And that was the thing. Like Dawn of DC was very about getting back to basics. It was very much about Clark and Lois in Metropolis. And so I got to write him in that frame. But by the time we got to All In, it definitely changed how I had to look at the book. I had to look at Clark differently. And as we introduced Superwoman, and it'll be the same thing the next time we do one of these. And I'm really excited about some of stuff we have coming up that sort of plays with that. But I think it's fun. I appreciate curveballs every once in a while, and I appreciate the puzzle of it, of looking at like, what does Superman mean to this specific moment? And that does change over time. So for me, it's like, it's interesting how the book gets to change shape. Kind of it keeps me on my toes. I think it's important to reinvent your book every once in a while to put different spins. I mean, look at Dan and Spider-Man. It was like, every 18 months or two years you went through an awesome different story arc with Peter. So I definitely think that's a really good model to follow with pretty much all of these superhero characters.

Dan, this question is for you. What is it like coming to the character at this specific time, writing alongside these writers to tell a consecutive story?

Dan Slott: We're in a weird point in history, and it feels awesome to get to write Superman at a time where the hero that most embodies hope is there for everybody, every single person on this Earth, Superman is here for you. No matter how you're feeling right now about anything, I like that. You can pick up these books, open up the pages, and escape to a world where someone's going to hold our hand and tell us it's going to be okay, where it's okay for 30 minutes to feel hopeful. I spent 10 years working on a character whose primary motivation was guilt, and it feels so good like shedding his skin. Every time I get to work on Superman, to work on this character, who, even, even if you took away all his powers, even if you took away everything about him, that on the superhero level, that he would be this Capra character who would just make you feel good about everything and good about everything in everyone. I've never worked on a character like this before, and that's uplifting to me. It makes me feel better as a person.

Here's a question for all three of you, specifically relating to what's coming out of the Summer of Superman Special. What does your particular series, Superman Unlimited, Action Comics, and Superman offer that the other two do not?

Joshua Williamson: On the Superman title that I'm writing, I'm going to be handling a lot of the big picture event stuff that's coming up in the DCU, like, a lot of the plot that we carry over from the All In Special. So if you're looking for like, what is going on in the really big All In stuff that we're doing, and the really big plot building with Darkseid and the Legion, that's where my book is going to be focused on, and the stuff like, "Where is Booster?", that's going to be the main thrust of my book right now.

Dan Slott: If you're looking at the masterminds of the DCU and the All In DCU vibe that everyone is loving right now, the whole Scott Snyder master plan, you want to be hardwired into Josh's book. If you're someone who runs out and sees the new Superman movie, and you feel all jazzed about Superman, and you haven't been reading DC for a while, or you haven't read comics for a while, if you've never read a comic book before in your life and you love Superman, Superman Unlimited is a great jumping-on point. It's a place where you can just every month, get, like a good, you know, done in one or two-part story. You're going to get your Superman, your Lois, your Krypto, Jonathan Kent, you're going to get this world where this Superman, who's a husband and a dad and a journalist, is having these adventures. It's we're going to do at the same time, while Josh's book is going to be hardwired into DCU. There are events that are going to happen in Superman Unlimited that will affect the DCU. Things are going to change with the nature of kryptonite in the DC universe, things are going to change drastically in Superman Unlimited, with how the Daily Planet interacts with the world. There's going to be a lot of big changes. We might even see a new superpower. But if the thing you love most about Superman is that character and that vibe and that feeling that this big, new, wonderful movie is going to give you, this is the perfect time to jump onto this new number one.

Mark Waid: And I guess my answer to what is this series offering that the others aren't? It really is a look back at how we built the Superman identity to begin with, how we, I say we how Ma and Pa and Clark built it from scratch. It happens on a day when Clark is much further away from being Superboy than he had planned, and the Kents had planned, they've got some time to go, because they haven't figured everything out yet. And yet, as circumstances dictate, he ends up turning into Superboy much sooner than they had anticipated. They haven't figured out the secret identity. They don't know all the powers. They haven't figured out any of this stuff. And so that is a look at Superman as he's building that identity from scratch.

Dan Slott: And there's something fresh and new about that we haven't seen Superboy, Clark as Superboy, in so long. It's so wonderful to be able to pick up and read this.

Mark Waid: And even when we have, he's always been just a short Superman. We've been very few stories where Superboy wasn't, was actually learning and growing and failing and so forth. He was always just a short Superman.

Joshua Williamson: Yeah, it was when we were doing, I did that short one of the scenes last year during Absolute Power with Superboy. And you and I were texting about it, and I was, like, really surprised by the lack of villains for Superboy. Like, I was just trying to find a magic villain for Superboy back then. And I texting with you, and you were like, "There was nothing." and I was like,"I guess I'm making one up for this.".

Mark, to what extent is what you're doing about getting the Legion back together?

Mark Waid: If that happens, that happens. You know, obviously they've been a big part of Superman's legend for a long time. But for the time being, let's concentrate on Josh's take on this stuff, and we will go from there.

Joshua Williamson: Yeah there's a lot of Legion stuff coming.

Josh, we've got a handful of questions for you. Your arc in Superman has focused a lot on whether Lex is capable of change or not. Talk a little bit about this evolving dynamic between Clark and Lex, and where you see things going for them.

Joshua Williamson: That was a major piece at the beginning, because I really do believe Superman sees the best in everybody, like he really believes there is something good in everybody. But what does that mean for somebody like Lex that he's had this really long relationship with? I think at this point, the fact that we've pretty much established these dudes have known each other since high school. They've had a connection since their childhood, really. And it's like, to have that kind of relationship with somebody who is constantly kind of getting out of your life, and they've always had this antagonistic thing. In the first issue where Clark says, "I feel like the only person I ever let down was Lex". So at this point, when Lex is coming to him and being like, "I'm begging you to believe in me, to see that I can change.", it's hard for Clark to say no to that. Like, how does somebody like Clark say no to somebody even when there's someone like Lex? Is the conflict of that that's not going to stop anytime soon. And I think that the challenge here is that, like with Lex going through the stuff with amnesia and how we're going to be having sort of a new version of Lex at the end of this, this story between the two of them, it's going to play into some stuff we're doing in the fall in a major way, with the dynamic between the two of them. What does this new version of Lex do now, right? Like he feels he tried with Superman. They tried, and it didn't work, like it very clearly didn't work. And so what is the aftermath of that? We'll be exploring in the fall in a very big way. And it'll be really fun to see. I don't want to spoil what happens to in 27 but something happens in 27 that I think is really fun.

Superman's Red K infection is going to be getting worse. How will this tie into the dangers that the Time Trapper warned Clark about?

Joshua Williamson:Clark's anger is something we've been really building to. There's some stuff in the special where he talks about the idea that the summer will end, and the fall will come. Like that's just part of life that the fall will always come. You take those pieces, plus the stuff that's gonna be happening in 28 with Legion, and there is a moment where Superman has always had a bit of a safety net, in a way, right, like the Legion, in a weird way, represented, sort of this idea that everything is going to be okay eventually, right? He's always had this in the back of his head, like he knew the Legion existed. And once some of that starts to unravel for him a little bit, it makes him start questioning things. So when you start taking the idea of him having a moment of doubt, plus this anger, like he's going through this emotional stuff, Time Trapper is going to use that to manipulate him, and not only him, but others, and that'll play a big thing in the stuff we're doing in the fall. It's hard without talking about the fall, because so much of what we're doing is building for the fall and for next year, and Superman plays a major role in those stories. That is hard to get into too much, but yes. , Time Trapper is somebody who can look at time as a whole, but also changing and shifting. But because of some of the events of Absolute Power and stuff even going so far back and Dark Crisis, Death Metal, time is broken. And so we take all these pieces and Time Trapper being a part of that, and knowing that that's all going to play into the fall.

With a powerless Zod, how do you make him a formidable threat to the Super-Family?

Joshua Williamson: Here's the thing, when he was on Krypto, he did not have powers, and he was a badass. He was a dangerous dude and he did not have powers. He does not need powers to be dangerous at all. This is a ruthless man. He does not care. There's a reason he was put in the Phantom Zone. I'm not worried about him being a danger without his powers. I actually think he might be a little more scary because he doesn't have that crutch anymore. And I think once we get to that story with him, it's going to be a scarier story with him, without the powers and how far he's willing to go to do what he wants to do again without spoiling stuff for next year.

This year very much seems to be the year of Superman. For those of you who like the character and are now shaping his mythos in comics, what makes his character and this time particular so exciting for you?

Joshua Williamson: You know, I went through this with the dark times in the world, and I when I was writing, when I was writing Barry's optimism, it was always good to have Barry in my head during those moments. And I feel the same way about Clark, you know, having a Clark in my head...It makes you kind of slow down and just think about these moments. And it gives you a feeling of optimism, a feeling of hope. So much of our job is that like you have to sort of become these characters. There are times, especially last few years, where I found myself thinking about Lex more and being more in Lex's head. But right now, it's been really nice to have my head in Clark's.

The format of this issue is somewhat unusual in that it tells one story through three different perspectives. What was it like navigating this process for you guys?

Joshua Williamson: Zooms.

Mark Waid: (laughs) It was pretty easy. I mean, the nice thing about working in the Superman office is the communication is always very open. Paul Kaminski and Jill and Brittany and everybody else working on the Superman books is really good about making sure that we're all informed about what everybody else is doing.

Joshua Williamson: Yeah, I think we were on the same page and what we wanted from it. Nobody's coming at Superman from some weird area.

Dan Slott: I was coming in a place of complete and utter fear because I was the Oreo filling in between "Mr. Knows Everything about Superman and the History of Comics", and "Mr. Been Marshaling This Character Through Epic Runs". Fortunately, I had Superman on my side.

Mark Waid: We want a little bit of fear still in you, just at all times.

Joshua Williamson: I fee like you have to be a little afraid to write Superman. I feel like Superman is funny. I'm Mark. Superman is really easy to get right and he's really easy to get wrong. And I do think it is good to have a little bit of fear to keep you on your toes with it.

Jorge Jiménez is a fan favorite artist when it comes toSuperman. What was it like working with him on your parts of the story?

Mark Waid: I mean, sensational, right? He gets it. There's action to it, there's movement, but he gets the small moments too. It's very rare that you get an artist who can do the big, bombastic action and can also give you the subtlety of the small, emotional moments. And he's really good at that.

Dan Slott: He's a secret weapon in that. Everyone thinks Batman. But if you chip away at the surface, he wants Superman. He's dying to work on Superman. So this was like a chance for him to, like, go into the Batcave and rip off the suit, and you get pure Jorge Superman.

Dan, how will you avoid stepping on each other's toes with Josh working on Superman and you on Superman Unlimited?

Dan Slott: The fun is like what areas of Superman's life you're gonna play around with. And the stuff that Josh is playing around with is really the hardcore DC of it all. If you look at the All In initiative, it's done amazingly well. People are really invested in where the DC Universe is going. And Superman is such a core part of the DC Universe that you know you want that Superman. You're you're there in Josh's world. If you want to, like tunnel vision and go down to like Superman as a character, as a husband, as a father, as a mild-mannered reporter. I'm kind of having fun in this pocket of just pure Superman.

This next question is for both. I'm sure this isn't the last we've seen of Validus. Can you talk us through why you chose this villain to be an integral part of the story? And secondly, how will he, in the events of this issue, influence your stories in your runs?

Mark Waid: I don't how we landed on Validus. Do you?

Dan Slott: I'm not sure, but jumping in, I was very scared about jumping into DC. And I haven't played around in the DC Universe for 20 years, and it was a really nice way to break in by having a villain I didn't have to script for.

Mark Waid: (laughs) No dialogue.

Dan Slott: He just kind of goes, "Arrrghhh!", and I'm like, "That's great!".

Mark Waid: We really needed a heavy hitter. We need somebody who could really be a threat to Superboy and Superman, and someone who could time travel in that sense, so somebody from the future can pop in any era in Superman's life. And so that gives us the continuing thread that goes through all three stories.

Dan Slott: Someone that really can put Superman through his paces, and someone that can yet tease into the future of this very certain century

Mark, these next two questions are for you. In the page where we see Superboy and Krypto first leap into action, there is a very recognizable billboard, which may or may not relate to the Smallville TV show. Did that show influence your take on this era of Superman at all?

Mark Waid: I mean, that show did some really groundbreaking work with the character as a young man. And I've continued to say that the single greatest legacy of that show is, for the first time, seeing Ma and Pa Kent not look like grandparents, but look like vital parental, integral parts of Clark's life, as opposed to just two old people who sit around and bake pies and sit in a chair and smoke pipes.

You pretty much talked pointedly about how what you're doing in Action Comics will be different from the other Superman books. Is there anything else that people should be aware of now that you are taking people by the hand and expanding on Superboy's mythology as opposed to Superman?

Mark Waid: Yes, but we're siloing ourselves off in the sense that there are elements beginning on the very first issue, where we're planting seeds for connections to the present day and there will be more of that going back and forth. So we're not completely silent, off into the Smallville era.

To what extent can you hint or tease seeds that are coming that will actually bear fruit in either Superman or Superman Unlimited?

Mark Waid: There's a device that shows up in the first issue, that may be familiar, if you're paying attention to the Superman universe, that shows up both in present day and past times, and it will continue to play a role in the future.

And it specifically is, were you referring to this device appearing in Action?

Mark Waid: Yes, I'm sorry, that's what I was trying to say.

Dan, this question is for you. In another interview you did, you referenced that you may be bringing back the Prankster into the mix. Can you expand upon that?

Dan Slott: When I look at the rogues' galleries of DC, you get all these heavy hitters in Batman and in Flash, and then you get these monoliths and Superman. You get these guys that are perfect. You don't ever want to touch them. They're great. Just play them as your Brainiacs, your Zods, your Luthors. But then there's some guys where I'm like, "Okay, I want to get my hands on this guy, and I want you to look at this character in an all-new way". And one of the biggest ones is the Prankster. I've got a prankster take that will freak you out. You will never look at the Prankster the same way. Onne of the things we're going to do is the character you think of as Uncle Oswald, as your classic prankster. That is this prankster's uncle Oswald, and they're going to be a frontman. And when you meet the real Prankster...most of my stuff is hopefully going to fill you with hope and joy and wonder, but when you get to the Prankster, you're going to be like, "Should kids be reading this? I don't know. This is this feels wrong. Something about this feels really so horrible.".

Dan Slott: We've got some fun plans in Unlimited for a new take on Metallo. It's still Corbin, but what we're doing with them, especially in this age, where we're going to do all this weird stuff with kryptonite. What we're taking a character, the feel of the Kryptonite Man, and we're elevating it, and you're gonna have the kryptonite King and what's he about? And what's he doing?

Mark Waid: Reimagining these characters is part of the gig, part of the job and part of the fun of it. I just turned in a World's Finest story yesterday with Superman and Batman, where we take a look at the Bizarros and Bizarro World in a way we never have before. That is straight-up horror movie vibe.

Dan Slott: I can't wait for people to crack open these three books and see the different things we're doing and the different pieces we're building. In an early issue, Solovar's goddaughter is going to move from Gorilla City to Metropolis, and she's going to be the new IT person for The Daily Planet. It was really fun in my old gig, playing around with, like, the classic characters of the Bugle and the Peter's friends from high school. Now I get to play around with your Steve Lombards and your Ron Troupes and your Cat Grants. And it's going to be fun.

And that's a perfect segue into this next question. In talking about The Daily Planet's expansive role, how important to you was it to highlight those aspects of Superman's character now?

Dan Slott: There's a way we want journalists to act when we watch a movie. Like, I don't watch sports, but I love watching sports movies. I don't really care about journalists in the real world. But, oh, you give me a good movie about journalists cracking down a case going, you know, having to deal with the ethics of, "When can I publish?". The story you're gonna have in the Daily Planet and the Daily Planet crew is a look at journalists as heroes. The way you really want a journalist to be, and they're going to have foils in the DC Universe, versions of journalists that we have here in the real world. Like a Newsboy Legion that's more like the TikTokers that are getting things out as quickly as possible. One of the main foils, Jack Ryder, is going to have his own kind of podcast called "No Laughing Matter", where he's dealing with things in a kind of way that's half Joe Rogan and half Matt Drudge with a little bit of conspiracy theory thrown in. It's just he's following these weird stories that maybe we shouldn't know the truth about. And how do Lois and Clark and Jimmy deal with this kind of stuff? It's going to be one of the sandboxes we're playing with in Unlimited.

Mark, working on Action has been a bucket list item for you. How much of what you're doing are stories you've wanted to tell for a long time, and how much is ideas that you've had for a long time that you're finally getting to flesh out?

Mark Waid: Very few of the stories are actually stories I've been percolating on for a while. Although your fetch quest for the day is if you want to go look at the collected editions of Superman: Birthright that have been published. I did an afterward and one of the stories is plainly spelled out there, but the rest of them are more ideas, more things that I've been percolating on for a long, long time. Like, what is it like when you discover telescopic vision for the first time? How does it make you feel to be in Smallville and see the rest of the world where stuff is happening, and you're stuck in this little, tiny town? What is it like to develop heat vision for the first time? What it's like to fly for the first time? There's a lot of that in there. A lot of living within Clark and getting into the emotional angle of how these abilities and powers make him feel. There's also a lot of leaning on the relationship between Ma and Clark. We've done an awful lot with Pa and Clark, and we've done a lot with Jor-El and Clark, but we've not done a lot to this depth with Martha and Clark and what their unique relationship is, and that's a lot of fun. Pa still shows up, Pa gets his moments, but it's Ma who really gets more of the stage time in Action Comics.

Dan, this question's for you. Having such a long run on Spider-Man, who is who has arguably the best rogue's gallery in comics, what is your approach to Superman's villains, other than Luthor, maybe Brainiac? There seems to be room to level up some of his foes.

Dan Slott: We're going to create some new villains, which is always fun.The last time I've really done that for DC was over in Arkham Asylum: Living Hell, creating all these new rogues for Batman. You want to find the characters that work best for Superman. You look at the weaknesses he has: You got your kryptonite, your red sun, and anybody created by Jack Kirby, they have the ability to punch Superman and it hurts. So you have to think about it in those kind of . And I don't think I'm Jack Kirby, so I'm not going to create somebody that walks in and punches Superman really hard. I'm trying to find the ways he can hurt Superman in different ways, or challenge him in different ways. And that's a fun puzzle for this character who can lift an ocean liner over his head and leave it on the moon. When you have, when you have this gig, people have asked me "Where do ideas come from? Like, where do you get your ideas?". And the thing I always tell them is ideas are coming into you all the time, all the time. And what writers do is you write them down, and you put them aside, and when you need them, they're there for you. So for 20 years, if I had a Superman idea, I wrote it down and put it in the file. I'm like waiting for the chance to tell a Superman story. So my bucket is really full of all the things I've always wanted to do with Superman. He's on my Mount Rushmore of guys I've always wanted to write. So I'm ready. I am so ready to jump in there and just tell a million Superman stories. I can't wait.

Dan, you referenced Metallo a few minutes ago, and this question kind of leans into that. With Kryptonite being more ubiquitous than ever, what will this mean for some of the kryptonite-based villains, like Kryptonite man, Metallo, Reactron, and so forth?

Dan Slott: For someone like Metallo, you're gonna go like, "Wow, that means you're nothing now. Everybody's got a kryptonite ray gun. Everyone's got a pair of kryptonite brass knuckles from Intergang. Who cares that you got this chunk in the middle of your chest?". You're gonna have to wait and see what this means to be Metallo. He's going to get an upgrade. And I can't wait for you to see it. He will have an all-new kryptonite heart. That's all I can say.

Dan, the 'Unlimited' branding really emphasized the expansive nature of Justice League's roster in Mark's Justice League title. What does 'unlimited' mean for you when it comes to Superman, and how will that manifest in the stories you're telling?

Dan Slott: We were looking for a way to explain what this book was about. And when you read Justin League Unlimited, there's this vibe that Mark created that anything could happen at any time. I jealously wanted that. So hopefully, if this works, Mark has paved the way for the next guy to come in and go Batman Unlimited, right? And then, you know, we owe it all to the coattails that we're grabbing on, but that's the vibe, the same kind of vibe of anything can happen at any moment. And with a character like Superman, you have to step up.

What does the future look like for the Man of Steel, and in this case, the Boy of Steel?

Mark Waid: Challenging, I would say, challenging in all our books, in different ways.

Dan Slott: Yes, and new beginnings. This is fresh ground. There's been an ethos at DC of All In that you can jump all in. This is a great time to see what all the Superbooks are doing. If you've been hanging back, this is going to be a great entry point to a whole new era of Superman.

Mark, this question's for you. With Clark and Lois, a lot of people tend to forget about Clark and Lana and how important she was and still is to him. Feels like this issue really brought that to the forefront. Can you talk us through why she is so important to Clark and why you wanted to focus on it in the Summer of Superman Special?

Mark Waid: Yeah, they have a very special relationship. I mean, they're best friends. Lana has always been kind to Clark at a time when Clark has to sort of keep his light under a bushel and sort of act a little bit more timid, and he's got to distance himself from Superboy. Lana is one of the kids who will still treat him like they always have. She's not the one making fun of his glasses. She's not the one giving him a hard time about being scared of bullies and so forth. So she's great, and Clark can tell her things that he can't tell other people. And that's going to play into what we've got coming up in Action.

Here's a question that looks like you both can provide on. How often do you return to Shuster and Siegel Action Comics? Is it important to keep them in your imagination while writing Superman?

Dan Slott: The timelessness of it. Superman is an icon. You can look at Superman through the lens of any era. There's a scene in Superman, Unlimited #2, which opens in 1938 because it's the ley line. But I think more than that, you can't live on this planet and not know who Superman is, and you can't grow up in any different era and not have guys that are your Superman so it's weird to me. Before I bought a comic, I'd seen the Fleischer Superman cartoons, and I'd watch George Reeves on TV, the black and whites, and I read this book from the local library, Superman from the 30s to the 70s. And it wasn't till, you know, I was eight or nine that I started buying comics, and the Superman comics that I bought were always with him and other heroes, because I always want to try to get the maximum amount for my quarter. I wanted to get as many heroes as I could in a book. To me, the character was, always, is gonna sound corny, bigger than a comic, because I would, I would hold these giant treasures like only Superman seemed to get that for me. And then Christopher Reeve came along, and that just sank it for everybody else.

Mark Waid: And my answer is different for Superboy and Superman. For Superboy, I go back to the Siegel and Shuster material looking at it like he was an activist. He was a take-no-prisoners, gonna push people around. If he needs to push people around who are doing awful things, he is going to take on social causes. And that's what our Superboy has the advantage to do now. Superman, as molded in the DC Universe, has learned to sort of temper his anger and temper his rage, and temper his feelings of injustice and channel them into more productive ways. I don't have that problem with Superboy. Going in the second issue, he does things that you wouldn't see Superman do, and there are prices to be paid for it. As far as Superman goes, I do go back to the Siegel and Shuster era, not so much in the social activist angle, but the fact that Superman, if you look at that very first issue of Action Comics, he's holding a car over his head. Now, we take that kind of strength and that kind of heroic, super heroic imagery completely for granted now, but that was the first time anybody reading comics or looking at newspaper strips or listening to radio shows had ever seen something that crazy. It was so crazy that the publisher of DC Comics said, :This is ridiculous. Nobody's going to believe that a guy can pick up a car. Let's not put him on the cover for a while.". And it wasn't until a few issues later, the news dealers were telling him, "No, we want the guy who can pick up a car on the cover. That was what's selling.". So Superman was created to do impossible things right from the start, and that is what he does. You're not writing a Superman story unless, at some point or another, he does something that no one else can do. He does something that is completely impossible. There is no problem that Superman cannot solve if he figures it out. Because that's what we want out of Superman. We don't want him to fail. We want him to succeed, but we also want to be invested in the emotions of it and why he wants to succeed.

Superman is sometimes called old-fashioned and no longer relevant. It actually feels quite the opposite right now. When we talk about hope and the immigrant experience, how would you respond to someone who says Superman isn't relevant?

Mark Waid: I think the answer is in the question. I think that if you're talking about a character who is a reporter, who is an immigrant, and who deals with social problems and who is about uniting people, I don't know that he's ever been more relevant.

Dan Slott: This is the time in my lifetime where I go, "We need Superman.". This is one of the things that attracted me more to coming over and doing Superman. I want Superman now. I want this hero now.

Summer of Superman Special #1 is available on April 16th from DC Comics.