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Vieux 14/11/2002, 17h52
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Date d'inscription: août 2002
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kurt busiek venant de the pulse

BY JENNIFER "Able to type faster than a speeding bullet" CONTINO



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In an ordinary world what happens if you have the same name and live in a place similar to one of comics greatest heroes, but don't have all the fame, powers, or other special stuff that goes with it? What happens if you're just a Clark Kent? What happens if after a life of the ordinary and a life or ridicule and jeers -- what happens if after all that, one day you discover you have the powers, too? What happens when a normal Clark Kent discovers he could be a Superman? That's the theory behind Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen's newest prestige DC series, Superman: Secret Identity.
THE PULSE: What is Superman: Secret Identity?

KURT BUSIEK: SUPERMAN: SECRET IDENTITY is a 4-issue, 48-page-per-issue series about a guy named Clark Kent. Not the Clark Kent we see every issue in the Superman comics, but a guy whose parents named him Clark Kent, who looks rather like the Clark from the comics, and who grew up in a small town in Kansas. Naturally, this doomed him to a life of lame jokes about secretly being Superman, being set up on blind dates with girls named Lois, and in generally being unable to escape the constant references to the big guy from Krypton.

While he's still in high school, however, he discovers something else: He has the powers, too. He doesn't know how, he doesn't know why -- but he has all the powers that go with the famous name.

The series is about him dealing with life and with his 'secret identity.' On one level, it's an adventure story, since his powers put him in a position to help people and make him a target for those who'd like to control him, but that's mostly just the context for the real story, which is about how he goes through life, dealing with the same kind of questions, conflicts and concerns that anyone else does. The powers make those questions more dramatic, louder, more visual -- but they're still the same kind of thing we all have to cope with. Everybody's got a secret self, an inner identity that's not quite the same as the outer face (or faces) they show to the world. Our Clark's is just more of a secret than most. We may not have to deal with mysterious government hit squads or questions of whether we're actually human, but we have to deal with questions of what we'll do with our lives, where our values lie, questions about romance, about family, about parenthood ... and it's these questions that drive Clark through the adventure and fantasy.

SECRET IDENTITY looks in on Clark at four different points in his life -- each one showcasing different concerns, and combining the super-adventure stuff with the human questions underneath. Hopefully, the result is a very human story about a superhuman. At the very least, it's gorgeously drawn by Stuart Immonen, who's doing full art for the project, computer-coloring his own pencils. It's a very different look, both for Stuart and for superhero comics, and it works beautifully.

THE PULSE: What inspired this story?

BUSIEK: In part, it came out of the old dismissal of superhero comics as adolescent power fantasies, as a metaphor for teenage boys imagining themselves as men. Here's Clark Kent, the ultimate nerd, ignored by women and perceived as weak -- but inside, he knows he's this big powerful he-man, righting wrongs and doing good, winning respect, admiration and love. He switches back and forth between the two as fast as an adolescent's voice cracks. It's a good point -- that metaphor is there, and it's there even more strongly in Spider-Man, who in his classic years divided his time between living as a despised teenager and wrestling with larger-than-life adult responsibilities as best he could. You can see that kind of thing in Batman, as the child whose universe has been wrecked, trying constantly to assert order, to put fairness on an unfair world.

In working on ASTRO CITY and other projects, though, I found myself asking the question, "If superheroes make such a good metaphor for adolescence, can they do as good a job as metaphors for other stages of life, other concerns, other conflicts?" I think they can -- i think that metaphoric power isn't a reason to dismiss the genre as limited, but to recognize that it does something extremely well, so let's open it up and see what else it can do.

I've done a lot of that in ASTROCITY and MARVELS, of course, but in SUPERMAN: SECRET IDENTITY, the idea is to go straight to that core question. If Superman makes such a good metaphor, what kind of story do we get if we use the Superman icon to explore other stages of life? Marriage? Parenthood? Retirement?

THE PULSE: So many different people have worked on Superman, how challenging is it to be respectful of the "mythos" yet be able to add your own voice to the chorus, so to speak?

BUSIEK: I'm sure it's pretty challenging, but I don't know that it really applies in this case. I'm not writing the DCU Superman -- our Clark is a different guy, in a world in which the DC heroes are comic book characters. He's grown up in the shadow of a fictional character, but isn't remotely the same guy. So I'm just writing a story about this Clark, and doing it as well as I can, but not worrying about the mythos, or what's being done in ACTION COMICS, or whatever.

I see SECRET IDENTITY as more akin to, say, Joseph Torchia's novel THE KRYPTONITE KID, or Robert Mayer's SUPER-FOLKS -- not in that the stories are anywhere near the same, but in that they also used the iconography of Superman to tell a story about human beings. Superman works for this because he's so well-known, because he carries such iconic weight, but he's not the character we're telling a story about.

That's not to say we don't get our guy into a cape and S-shield, flying his ass off -- I'm sure DC's salespeople would like to make sure I mention that, though maybe not in quite those words. But he's a different guy in a different world.

THE PULSE: How hard do you think it would be to maintain a secret identity in this day and age as a superhero? There are just so many technological advancements ...

BUSIEK: I think it'd be next to impossible, particularly for someone well-known in both identities, like the DCU Clark or Bruce Wayne. Luckily, superhero comics embrace certain unrealities, and that's one of the big ones.

THE PULSE: What four timeperiods in Clark Kent's life are showcased in this series?

BUSIEK: We see him as a high-school student in #1; as a young adult in Manhattan, beginning a career, in #2; as a husband in #3, part of a marriage and on the road to parenthood; and as an older man in #4, facing the knowledge of his oncoming retirement.

THE PULSE: What were some of the biggest challenges from going from young adult to retirement in just four issues?

BUSIEK: Making sure we told the story we wanted to tell each issue, in just 48 pages, without the room to explore it over time. Picking the time-periods was easy, and framing out the stories was fun, but the scripting of them is where it becomes a struggle between wanting to throw in tons of double-page spreads to let Stuart cut loose on gorgeous flying panoramas and emotional high points, and wanting to put 92 panels on every page to have a lot of incident, a lot of room to explore this guy at this stage of his life. Luckily, we seem to be finding the balance, and the stories are working out pretty well.

THE PULSE: What do you think it's like being Superman? How do you view the world through his eyes?

BUSIEK: That's a question I'd ask of myself more if I was writing one of the Superman books, but it doesn't really apply here. That said, I imagine the trickiest part of being Superman is all the various masks he has to wear. Clark Kent isn't the real man, because he's presenting a false appearance to the world -- he's playing the role of an ordinary human. But Superman's not the real guy either -- that's another role, another way of protecting secrets. The closest he comes to being the real guy, to being just who he is without a facade, is when he's sitting at the kitchen table with Ma and Pa Kent, able to relax with people who know him and accept him. More recently, he's had that with Lois, too, but it's been the strongest with the Kents, which is why my favorite part of the whole post-Crisis Superman revamp is the Kents being alive.

Mark Waid disagrees with me completely on this, but I can't help it -- those scenes, those moments, have a power to them I don't get from any other part of the Superman mythos.

THE PULSE: What members of Superman's supporting cast play a role in this?

BUSIEK: None of them, except as references to the comics. There's a Lois, but she's not a Lois Lane. This isn't one of those stories where you'll see stand-ins for all the classic guys; it's a story about our Clark and how he deals with the challenges in his life, not about the DCU patterns playing themselves out in another reality.

THE PULSE: What did you like about working with Stuart Immonen on this project? How well is he realizing your vision for the series?

BUSIEK: Stuart's doing a wonderful, wonderful job. I'm not at all sure it's fair to say he's realizing my vision, though. When Joey Cavalieri and I started talking about this project years ago, Stuart was one of the first names that came up, because we thought his naturalistic style would make the characters come to life as emotional, approachable humans more than as adventure characters. But from the point Stuart got involved, he's very much been taking the idea and running with it, making it his own. The way he's illustrating it -- lush pencil work and bold, striking areas of color -- has as much or more to do with classic magazine and advertising illustration as it does with comics, and that was all Stuart's contribution. He figured out how he wanted to tell it, and then browbeat me and Joey into going along -- of course, once we saw samples, it wasn't hard to say yes, by all means, let's do it. And while Stuart's a popular and well-respected artist already, I think SECRET IDENTITY will be a further breakthrough, showing people that he's even better than they thought he was.

Stuart puts an enormous amount of thought into what he does, and it really shows. So rather than him realizing my vision, it's a matter of him coming up with this approach to the concept and me working the scripts toward fueling that kind of visuals. Stuart's been involved in the writing as well, not that he's been rewriting anything -- but he's been a sounding board for how best to present the story, and a careful collaborator, pointing out places where the script could be strengthened, where another pass would bring through the characters more strongly.

What I've been telling Joey as we see the art is that the book is so gorgeous, my job as writer has become to keep up, to make sure the story is worthy of the art.

THE PULSE: Which point in Superman's life was the most difficult to write? What made it particularly tough?

BUSIEK: Well, I'm not finished yet, but so far I think #1 was the trickiest, for two reasons. First, it's Clark Kent as a high-schooler, coping with the discovery of his powers. That's something we've seen in SMALLVILLE (which didn't exist when we started working on this), in Spider-Man (different powers, but still), and in other places. It's necessary to the overall story we're telling, but it's more familiar ground -- it's the superhero as adolescent, which is where the whole concept's rooted -- so it was a case of trying to explore some reasonably-well-traveled territory in a new way. After #1, we go off into far less familiar territory, so we're not competing with all the other adolescent-hero stories out there, which gives us a more clear field.

The other difficulty was that, as you can probably tell, this is a fairly ambitious project, more in the realm of ASTRO CITY and MARVELS than of more conventional superhero adventure. And with my health problems, this kind of thing has been next to impossible for me to write for a few years. So as I got healthier, I wanted to get back to this kind of thing, but it was slow going at times, and I didn't want to screw up. Once I got that first script under my belt (and more ASTRO CITY scripts, as well), I could tackle the rest with more confidence. So far, so good...!

THE PULSE: Batman was ready to give up the Bruce Wayne identity. Why do you think Superman could never give up having a secret identity?

BUSIEK: Actually, I can imagine him giving it up, under the right circumstances. I don't think he ever would, not permanently, but that's for commercial reasons. Outside of the demands of DC publishing, though, I could easily see a story where Superman, having the human contact he needs through Lois and others (and maybe even kids), retires as Clark Kent in order to be that more relaxed, more centered guy we saw at the kitchen table with Ma and Pa. It'd be a more mature Superman, a Superman who'd integrated the various roles he fulfils more fully into one life, and he'd probably be a lot of fun to write, in a maxi-series or something.

But I doubt we'd ever seen anything like it in the main books -- the Clark Kent set-up works too well, commercially, to abandon it.

THE PULSE: Is this an Elseworld's tale? What do you like about playing "what if" games or presenting a slightly alternative view of characters in this forum?

BUSIEK: Technically, yes, it's an Elseworlds, but I don't even know if it'll have the "Elseworlds" logo on it. It's not the same kind of thing as most Elseworlds are.

I've written my share of WHAT IFs, and come up with a few Elseworlds ideas, and at least one of my favorite DC books of all time -- Alan Brennert's BATMAN: HOLY TERROR -- is an Elseworlds, so I'm not criticizing the idea of them. This is just a different kind of story, that's all.

THE PULSE: Why should people check this out?

BUSIEK: I think it's a goody story. I know it's a gorgeous one. If people like the idea of it, they should check it out. If the idea leaves them cold, well, heck, they should check it out anyway, just for Stuart's work, and I bet we have a good chance of winning them over.

But bottom line: People should pick up the books that look interesting to them. I pitched SECRET IDENTITY in the first place because the idea was interesting to me, so I'm hoping there are a bunch of readers out there who feel the same way.
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Vieux 14/11/2002, 17h53
Avatar de Fred le mallrat
Fred le mallrat Fred le mallrat est déconnecté
Généalogiste sénile
-Généalogiste Sénile--Sentinelle du Temple-
 
Date d'inscription: août 2002
Localisation: bordeaux
Messages: 22 114
Fred le mallrat mange des gauffres avec DiabloFred le mallrat mange des gauffres avec DiabloFred le mallrat mange des gauffres avec DiabloFred le mallrat mange des gauffres avec DiabloFred le mallrat mange des gauffres avec DiabloFred le mallrat mange des gauffres avec DiabloFred le mallrat mange des gauffres avec DiabloFred le mallrat mange des gauffres avec DiabloFred le mallrat mange des gauffres avec DiabloFred le mallrat mange des gauffres avec DiabloFred le mallrat mange des gauffres avec Diablo
THE PULSE: What did you enjoy the most about being able to present Clark Kent / Superman in this fashion?

BUSIEK: The basic idea -- the kid who's been teased all his life for his name, finding out that he actually has the powers, too -- has been one that's rattled around my brain for years, looking for the right story to make it work. It's an idea I can sympathize with, all the way back to being eight years old and occasionally wondering, "Hey, what if I could fly and just don't know it because I never tried?" I'd be walking along the sidewalk and will myself to fly upward and nothing would happen, but hey, what was the harm in trying, right? I like that mental image.

Combining that with the idea of Superman as an iconic image, as this Clark's inner self, as he navigates the often-turbulent waters of life gave me a character and a situation I haven't seen before, but one I'd love to write about -- I'd do an ongoing monthly series about this guy, if I could. Bringing that idea through, making it a reality on the page -- that's the best part about writing comics.

THE PULSE: What other projects are you working on?

BUSIEK: Let's see... currently, I'm working on POWER COMPANY, ASTRO CITY, ARROWSMITH (launching next year, with Carlos Pacheco) and JLA/AVENGERS. I'm talking to various publishers about other projects after JLA/AVENGERS and SECRET IDENTITY wrap up, but nothing's ready to be announced yet.

THE PULSE: What's coming up in Power Company for 2003?

BUSIEK: Well, in recent issues, we've seen Josiah Power, the managing partner of the company, shot and left in a coma, which leaves three very volatile partners -- Manhunter, Skyrocket and Witchfire -- running the firm. They have very different priorities, though, which will have them working more at odds than together. That'll make life rough for the Company.

In #10, we'll see the start of that turbulence, and we'll see the team decide to take on a new associate, in the wake of the loss of Josiah. We'll find out who that new member is at the very end of #10.

In #11, the new member debuts, and a couple on Manhunter and Witchfire's missions put the team in very different kinds of hot water, and they're still dealing with fallout from both in #12 when Skyrocket's pursuit of Dr. Polaris and the Cadre erupts into a world-threatening situation, and puts the Company in the position of having to choose between saving the world and making a profit, a point on which there is, shall we say, considerable dissent.

#13-14 are the big blowout conclusion to that storyline, which will lead to some more major changes for the team in terms of both leadership and membership, but I don't want to give away too much in advance.

#15 is our second solo spotlight issue, as we follow Manhunter on a deadly and mysterious mission that takes him to Gotham City, and right into the notice of a certain Caped Crusader. This issue is drawn by guest-artist Gary Chaloner, who does WILL EISNER'S JOHN LAW over at moderntales.com, and RED KELSO at adventurestrips.com. Gary's doing a beautiful job that i think will make him very much in-demand at the big publishers.

#16 starts off the Haunted Tank appearance we promised when the spiritually-afflicted armored vehicle won the online poll we did recently, but also segues into a major, major threat for the company, as they deal with a villainous force that's been around since the end of #3 (and the preview in JLA #61).

Along the way, we'll see guest-appearances, revelations about the characters, ethical dilemmas, big-business concerns, global threats, medical mysteries and DC's most lovable TV personality. We may be struggling, at the moment, but we struggle very entertainingly...!



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