We chat with the writer about the latest entry in his Absolute Superman saga, questioning "The Rage of Superman."
Welcome to Creator Corner, our recurring interview series in which we chat with the industry's coolest and most thought-provoking creators. In this entry, we're conversing about Absolute Superman #4 with Jason Aaron. Listen to the unedited audio HERE.
We're four chapters into Absolute Superman, written by Jason Aaron and illustrated by Rafa Sandoval. This Kal-El shares the DNA of the Kal-El we've known and loved for years, but his circumstances drastically differ, making him a much harder figure to ascertain. This week's fourth issue reveals Superman's impact on those who share space with him, even for the briefest of moments. Lois Lane is developing an obsession, plunging her toward a life-threatening circumstance.
We're once again chatting with Jason Aaron (please listen to our Bug Wars episode if you have not already). Together, we're exploring this Kal-El's relationship with the written word and how it immediately bonds him to Lois Lane. We also discuss the dueling AIs in his life, Brainiac and Sol, and why one may not be the threat we expect. Also, Christopher Smith's Peacemaker. Yikes!
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Jason Aaron, Absolute Superman #4, and the Word
Brad: I would love to start this conversation with the relationship that Lois and Clark have with the written word. We've seen through flashbacks on Krypton, all the students, for thousands of years of education, have been using AI to create and communicate their thoughts. But Kal-El wants his words to be his words. What's that about?
Jason Aaron: A couple of things. One, those parts of the Superman equation are normally equated with Clark Kent, right? That's a part of this guy. None of it is an affectation. He is clumsy, awkward, and shy. We see in issue one when right out of the gate when we meet him in the present day, the guy he's talking to in Brazil can't really hear what he's saying. He's very soft-spoken and quiet, head down, hair hanging down in front of his face. But when he needs to be Superman, he's Superman, right? Chest out, calm, confident, and those are all the same guy. Those are all real parts of him. And so much of that Clark Kent goes back to Krypton and who he was on Krypton. And I liked the idea that writing was a part of that, which kind of sets him apart from everybody else around him.
They're all like, "Yeah, why are you going to write something? You just ask the computer; it'll tell you whatever you want to know. It knows everything." He's like, "No, I don't want their words. I want my words and my perspective." I also wanted to make him kind of an active part of what was happening on Krypton, that he's not a baby in this story. Right. It's like he's not just lying in his crib.
His parents are kind of keeping this secret from him and trying to make plans and figure out if this is really happening. Is our planet really about to die, and what do we do? And Clark's not just sitting home twiddling his thumbs. He goes out like a reporter and finds the story on his own, figures it out, writes it up, and sends it out into the world. And he's the one who really breaks the story for the whole planet and tells them, this is what's happening. It's what they're hiding from us.
Brad: It's his first heroic act.
Jason Aaron: Yeah.
Brad: Right.
Jason Aaron: Yes. It's his first kind of Superman act that he does as young Kal-El, and it even surprises his parents. So I didn't want him just dumbly standing there as his parents tell him, "Hey, the planet's going to blow up." He knows more about it than they do at that point. As we'll get into in issue five, he sees the ramifications of that, of what power his words have, which I think is an important part of development for any writer. When you see this thing, I sit here and do it by myself. It goes out into the world and has real ramifications, and he'll see that, kind of the power of that, in issue five. But yeah, clearly, in the present day, he's not working at the Daily Planet. He's not a reporter. He's still taking a different path than what we're used to seeing from Superman. But that love of writing is clearly already there.
And then with Lois, it's the opposite. She hates it. She's known for not wanting to write anything. What's the point? She doesn't have time for that. And then she meets Superman. She has this encounter with Superman, and it suddenly becomes very important to her that, no, I don't want to go by what Brainiac says about what happened. I need to put it into my words. And so it's the first time she sits down and does that and likes it. So to me, with the Absolute Universe, it's important that everybody we meet, they're not happy, they're not in good places, they're not where we know they should be, right, where they're supposed to be. And they don't understand that. I think Lois is living her life and feeling like she's the good guy in her story, and despite any concerns she may have about Lazarus Corp, she still feels like she's fighting the good fight.
She's a little bit darker and more violent version of Lois than we've seen before, but it's a darker and more violent world. It's only when she meets Superman she starts to realize, "Maybe everything I thought was wrong. This guy breaks all the molds. Where the hell did he come from, and what side is he on?" And so that's the main part of this issue. It is just kind of how haunted she is by her experience of meeting Superman, like everybody else we see from around the world who've met him because nobody's ever seen anything like this guy before.
Jason Aaron, Absolute Superman #4, and the Haunting Presence of AI
Brad: And you open the fourth issue with a nine-panel grid of all these people who've had encounters like Lois's and how that has changed them. To be in the presence of Superman is a haunting thing. It sticks with you.
Jason Aaron: Yeah, especially since every one of these people has only had a fleeting glimpse of him, right, because Superman's not sticking around in any one place for long. He's not putting down roots anywhere. He spent five years running from one corner of the planet to the other, kind of hiding out. And I think you can see that he longs for a connection. He longs for the sense of family and community that he had on Krypton that he's lost, but he's just not able to be in one place long enough to have that, just sort of teases of it, which is why we get this sort of angry, confused version of Kal-El in the present day.
Brad: What I like so much about how you're using writing and journalism in the context of this story is how - yes, they have the encounter. It is a daunting experience for Lois. Kal-El is trying to find his place in this new world, but the written word also connects them. There is already a bond there that they're not aware of. And also, the conversation right now around AI is one of those things that's preoccupying a lot of artists and a lot of people who love art. Are you also working out your feelings towards that? Or is it kind of a happy accident or just a coincidence?
Jason Aaron: Yeah, I mean, I don't know that it's me working out my feelings; it's just trying to do something that speaks to who these characters are at this moment in time. I mean, everything with the Absolute Universe is making things feel more like the world outside our window. What would Superman look like if we created him today. And yeah, that was not really a piece I went into it thinking about. I mean, I knew when you start using Brainiac, there are questions about what is the nature of that guy. I liked using him as a sort of fake AI for Lazarus Corp. They think it's this Lazarus algorithm telling them things, but it's really just Brainiac sitting at his computer terminal. It's him, and we see how he uses that to manipulate people.
So that was not really a premeditated part of it, but I kind of liked that. I will go ahead and tell you that I'm not connecting those things directly. It's not like the cartoon show. Brainiac is not like the Kryptonian AI.
Brad: Gotcha.
Jason Aaron: That's not the story that I'm doing. It's definitely what Kal-El went through on Krypton and things that frustrated him about his home planet, he sees reflected in different ways on Earth, and that's definitely a part of it.
Jason Aaron, Absolute Superman #4, and Sol
Brad: And you have Sol also who is aiding Kal-El and it seems to be some sort of mirror to Brainiac.
Jason Aaron: Yeah, like a more noble version, I guess. It's not like he's pushing Superman to like, "Hey, go out there and be Superman." His sole function is just to protect this kid. This kid is the last vestige of Krypton, and Sol has all that knowledge and history of Krypton built into him. How do I use it to keep this kid alive? Because this is a very dangerous place that we've landed on. So he's the voice that's always in Kal-El's head saying, "Don't do this. Don't fight this fight. Let's run. Let's get away. I just care about you. This planet could go to hell. It looks like it's already gone to hell, and you won't be able to save it." In his mind, the lesson of Krypton is you can't save this planet that's determined to destroy itself, so why are you even trying? Save yourself.
Brad: Yeah. Yeah, interesting. All right, cool. And then talking about the community that you're building around, Kal-El, Christopher Smith, is one of the Peacemakers in this. Really interesting antagonistic figure to insert into a Superman story.
Jason Aaron: Yeah. I like the idea of using the Peacemakers as the corporate soldiers for Lazarus Corp. I always knew we'd sort of focus on one of them, and it's Christopher Smith, the guy we normally associate with Peacemaker, but this is kind of a different version of that guy we've seen. He's being manipulated by Brainiac and the guy who needs help, and he's sort of being told that he's the hero. He's the good guy here. He's the guy who's spreading freedom and peace around the planet, and then he snaps and then needs help, and he's not getting it. He's being pushed back out there because Brainiac knows, presumably, what's going to happen when he does that.
And we see him snap again in a much bigger, darker way. Now, the question is, what will happen when Superman finds out about this? Again, a Superman who has spent five years traveling the globe, seeing the worst of Lazarus Corp, the worst of what humanity does, what we do to each other. He's already an angrier, darker version of Superman. What's he going to do when he sees that this Peacemaker has just gunned down a bunch of innocent civilians?
Absolute Superman #4 is on sale wherever rad comics are sold. And don't forget, you can listen to this unedited conversation on the CBCC Patreon.
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