Short Story Week 1: Superman

People get happy, become angry, have their hearts broken, fall in love, and often find themselves disappointed among a wide array of other feelings. The external elements that trigger each of those emotions reveal character. When I am crafting a story I usually go into it wanting to see a character feel a certain way and trying to discover what would get them to that place. This was especially true when I had the fortune of writing five Superman short stories for DC Comics.

All five of these stories were edited by Andrew Marino. While I was off in Gotham City working on the Batman books, Andrew was in Metropolis doing the same on the Superman titles. He has edited some of the best and most seminal Superman stories of the last decade.

In 2019 Andrew became the editor of both the Superman and Flash Giant Titles that started as Walmart-exclusive comics and later evolved into the Superman: Man of Tomorrow and Flash: The Fastest Man Alive digital-first series respectively.

At that time I had written two strong stories for DC’s holiday anthologies and it was decided that contributing stories to these projects would be a good next step for me as a writer. Andrew was given permission to ask if I wanted to pitch ideas for one of the two titles.

“So do you want to write Superman or the Flash?” In one sentence I had been asked the best and most challenging question ever posed to me.

I love both characters but…everyone in the world knows Superman. Also, as a competitive person, I have heard so many different creative people over the years say how challenging it was to craft a good Superman story. I wanted to take that challenge and beat it.

There are so many Superman stories in comics, television, animation, and film that I love. When I prepared my story pitches for Andrew, I revisited all of my favorites and got back in touch with the things I loved about Superman. And as many people will tell you the best thing about him…is his humanity…his massive heart. I wanted Superman in stories that were worthy of the character and that showed all the different things he could feel, and how you get him to feel those things. It’s not as simple as angry red-eyed Superman, cliche “Hello, friends” Superman or “Superman crying means something big is going on.” He’s a person, and while he is kind, he’s just as complicated as the rest of us and I wanted to show that without exaggerating anything emotionally. I came up with six pitches and delivered them to Andrew.

Of those six, he chose three to move forward with and I was thrilled. Three eight-page opportunities to tell the best Superman story I could. Let’s get into them.

Story 1: When No One’s Watching

Art & Colors by Yasmine Putri, Breakdowns by Tom Derenick, and Letters by Clayton Cowles

When pitching short stories, I tend to write up as many ideas as I can. It shows the editor of the project that I am willing to go in a lot of different directions, I can generate ideas quickly and in the process of throwing things against the wall, I also surprise myself. It is very normal for me to find multiple ideas that I did not know I had. That was very much the case with “When No One’s Watching.”

Jimmy Olsen, Superman’s pal and stalwart Daily Planet photographer, is frustrated that he’s not moving up at the Daily Planet. He leaves the Planet and takes a job as the personal photographer for Soar, Metropolis’s newest superhero who is also a social media influencer and content creator. Superman is scared that Jimmy is making the wrong life decision and monitors his work with this aggressively modern superhero from afar. It becomes clear that Soar is not half the hero Superman is and Jimmy has to deal with that.

I did not know I had a Jimmy Olsen story to tell. What I did know was that I wanted to talk about how challenging it was to get ahead in modern job settings. And I was looking around and seeing people find success pursuing opportunities in new media. Superman works for a Great American newspaper he falls on one side. The new character I was creating falls on the other. Having those two argue didn’t feel like enough, and at worst felt like Superman stories I had already read. However, once I realized I could put Jimmy in the middle of this conflict and use him as the mouthpiece for how I was feeling about my career at the time? Everything fell into place. In Soar, I also got to create an antagonist who is like Booster Gold if he never found his soul and instead found Twitch.

On the art side of things, Andrew suggested Yasmine Putri illustrate this story and I asked “Is a story I write allowed to be that beautiful?” Yasmine’s cover work had dazzled me for years, I did not know she had a desire to do interiors and I certainly didn’t think something I wrote could be right for her. But that’s why Andrew is a great editor, he saw that she was and swung for the fences when it came to getting artists for all of these stories. Yasmine did a great job with this story, with breakdowns from the great Tom Derenick. Yasmine would later go on to show the world how great her interiors were with Tom Taylor on Dark Knights of Steel. I would like to work with all of the artists I collaborated with on these stories again, and she is absolutely included in that wish.

WHERE CAN I FIND THIS STORY? This story came out as Superman: Man of Tomorrow #7, available on Comixology/Amazon and on DC’s DCU Infinite App/Service. Digital only, not in print.

Story 2: The Wrath of Wioska

Art by Miguel Mendonca, Colors by David Baron, and Letters by Clayton Cowles

Andrew and I are the same age, we grew up reading a lot of the same comics, and we also grew up on the same television. We were both a part of the Toonami generation. The programming block on Cartoon Network brought dozens of anime series to a wider American audience. Of those shows, Andrew is definitely a big Dragon Ball Z guy, and I a diehard fan of Yu Yu Hakusho.

With this story, I wanted to try to merge the influences from those shows into a Superman story. Not only because it felt cool, which it did, but also because the powerful, earnest, and true-of-heart characters from those show line up with Superman. However, unlike what comic fans say about Superman, fans of those anime don’t say “This character is too powerful and thereby much less relatable.” Nearly as much.

In my brainstorming, I realized the reason for that was the classic training sequence. In Dragon Ball Z and Yu Yu Hakusho especially, there are GREAT training sequences. You see your main characters training towards their next increase of power. The massive feats of strength feel earned when done properly. With Superman, he was born with a lot of raw power and we rarely see him practicing to hone those abilities. A story was taking shape.

“The Wrath of Wioska” finds Superman going to a disgraced intergalactic warrior named Wioska and begging her to train him in the aftermath of a fight with Mongul that devastated Metropolis. Wioska takes ninety percent of Superman’s power away, during his training he has to earn it back. During the story, we explore how Superman feels about having received his powers without having to work for them, and why realizing his full potential scares him.

Originally, I started this story just a little too late. When reviewing the pitches, the wonderful Marie Javins, who was the group editor overseeing the project at the time, said the story needed to start at the end of the cataclysmic battle, and then Superman needed to ask for help. She was absolutely right about that.

Andrew enlisted Miguel Mendonca to illustrate this story. Miguel completely got the influences this story had and added a lot of his own affection for that kind of Anime in the artwork for the story. I had worked with Miguel a few times before this as an editor. His work and work ethic were things I admired immensely. When writing this script, I knew he was going to draw it and I went in with the goal of writing the best comic he had drawn at the time. That motivation made me review the work Miguel had already done, identify what I thought his strengths for, and think of him constantly while putting together the script. The colors by David Baron captured an intensely beautiful alien world perfectly. This is the second story I wrote the great Clayton Cowles lettered, one of the best letterers in the comic business and he makes all the monologues in this story work with the comic art better than I ever could have hoped.

WHERE CAN I FIND THIS STORY? This story came out as Superman: Man of Tomorrow #7, available on Comixology/Amazon and on DC’s DCU Infinite App/Service. Digital only, not in print.

Story 3: Pro-Lobo

Art by Riley Rossmo, Colors by Ivan Plascencia, and Letters by Tom Napolitano

Before I became a comic reader, I became acquainted with Superman and the DC Universe through the DC cartoons of the 90’s and 00’s. To this day that version of Superman who appeared in both Superman and Justice League the Animated Series is one of my favorites because of how well-rounded he is. That version of Superman has a big heart but he’s not a pushover, he is also capable of being wrong and getting very annoyed. I LOVE people admitting they are wrong and getting annoyed.

Who is a DC character capable of getting on Superman’s bad side and making him incredibly annoyed? There was no greater candidate than the Main Man himself…Lobo. A vulgar, hilarious intergalactic bounty hunter who is always a great foil for Superman. I was also introduced to him in the aforementioned DC cartoons where he was voiced brilliantly by Brad Garrett, a voice I carried in my mind while writing this story.

“Pro-Lobo” begins with Superman at the Hall of Justice, talking to his Justice League teammates Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter via computer about a familiar enemy who has just touched down on Earth. Superman is annoyed this enemy is back here and we can tell he does not care one bit for this person and cannot wait to get them off the planet. Wonder Woman and Martian Manhunter both advise Superman to be cautious as he enters the situation, but he ignores that and flies off to find Lobo beating up a small defenseless alien creature. Superman pushes Lobo away but Lobo warns that the alien creature isn’t what Superman thinks. The alien is an empathy vampire known as The Creep, who feeds off Superman’s pity for him, using that energy to evolve into a more monstrous form. Superman and Lobo have to team up to stop the alien monster.

Riley Rossmo is one of the comic artists I have worked with the most in my career. I love his style, storytelling, covers, ambition/inventiveness, and professionalism. Over the years I have found these artistic attributes are only exceeded by his kindness, he has become a good friend.

At the time this story was building steam, we had worked together on several projects including a Batman/Shadow: The Murder Geniuses mini-series and Martian Manhunter maxi-series, both highlights of my career, both written by the brilliant Steve Orlando. When Andrew and I talked about Riley drawing “Pro-Lobo,” I was nervous. Riley had worked with some of the best writers in comics at this point, and I didn’t know if I could produce something as strong as his former collaborators had. To my delight, Riley agreed to draw the story and I aspired to write something as great as he was.

I wrote the script for this the way that Steve Orlando had written scripts for Riley on the projects I mentioned above. It was still a full script in the sense that you write the actions you want to see on every page, but those actions are not broken down panel-by-panel, giving Riley more freedom to decide how he handles the action. This was the most collaborative I had been with an artist yet. Riley would call me on the phone and ask me questions about the pages. I learned so much about making comics from the questions he would ask me, I walked away a better writer having worked with him. He’s one of the greats. The pages Riley turned in were made even better by Ivan Plascencia’s brilliant colors and Tom Napolitano’s pitch-perfect lettering (Seriously, look at that credits block, Tom did, it RULES).

WHERE CAN I FIND THIS STORY? This story came out as Superman: Man of Tomorrow #10, available on Comixology/Amazon and on DC’s DCU Infinite App/Service. Digital only, not in print.

When these three initial stories, and a handful of other ones Andrew put together, were released digitally as a part of the Superman: Man of Tomorrow digital series, they were received really warmly. On top of the three stories I wrote, Andrew commissioned so many great Superman stories in that series, all are worth checking out. And they’re anchored by a run of great stories by Robert Venditti and Paul Pelletier. As the series looked like it was going to come to a close DC asked Andrew to do five more sixteen-page stories to extend the project with.

Andrew and I had been colleagues and friends for years. We risked two relationships working together on these stories, but thankfully we made a great writer/editor combo. Andrew comes from a place of character like I do, so we related there, but he’s much better at plot than I am. He pushed me to give these stories stronger shapes and reminded me of the great fundamentals that these Superman stories should have. Like any great editor, producer, or coach, he made me better at the things I was good at and at the things I struggled with in equal measure.

He told me that he was going to get to do five more stories and initially, I thought he was just soliciting my opinion on who might be good to hire. When he realized I didn’t understand the conversation we were having he gently said “No, Dave, I’m asking you to write one.” I started doing cartwheels. I was going to get to write a longer Superman story and I was going to get to continue this awesome collaboration with Andrew.

Story 4: World’s Vilest

Art by Jorge Corona, Colors by Matheus Lopes, and Letters by Clayton Cowles

Here’s another piece of advice I give people pitching short stories, never tell the editor what your favorite idea is. The ideas we think we have squeezed into diamonds are often not jewels but more love letters with a noticeable amount of blood, sweat, and tears on them. They are very charming but often intimidating for an editor to take on. Editing your dream story comes with a lot more pressure than editing the story the editor thinks is the best of the bunch. As an editor, I turned away many a dream story for the idea I thought was the best in a pitch document. And part of the genesis of this story is how I did that to myself.

Once I got my assignment for a sixteen-page Superman story, I put together a brand new pitch document for Andrew. Six of the ideas in that pitch document were new, one I had been carrying around since I was sixteen years old. It was one of those fabled dream stories I mentioned above. The one that I was certainly going to tell when I had the opportunity, and this was it.

Andrew reviewed the pitches, came back to me, and said he liked them all. He asked me which one I wanted to do the most. And then I looked at the pitch document with my editorial eye and I didn’t pick my dream story. In reviewing the pitches critically, I decided that World’s Vilest was the best story idea in the document and the one I should write. Andrew agreed.

With the first three stories I wrote, I wanted to explore certain emotions Superman could go through. With “World’s Vilest” I gave myself the challenge of getting excited about tried and true tropes I had grown a little tired of. Specifically, the Multiverse and stories where Batman and Superman fight. Like any red-blooded superhero comic reader, I had loved both of these things but at the time they were failing to excite me. So I tried to cook up a story that involved Batman and Superman fighting each other that also featured the Multiverse to remind myself what I loved about both of those tropes.

“World’s Vilest” had Superman and Batman on the Watchtower, the Justice League’s orbital HQ, in the midst of an argument concerning Batman’s recent conduct on a Justice League mission. Batman was irritated by Superman’s criticisms and all Superman wanted to do was figure out how to get Batman to act like more of a team player. Before the two could boil over and really start yelling, an alert came on the Watchtower’s computers. Outside, four evil Supermen and four evil Batmen from across the multiverse have joined forces to defeat our Superman and Batman to become the lords of reality. When our Superman and Batman see their evil counterparts, Superman smiles and says “I’ll take the evil Batmen, and you take the evil Supermen?” Batman responds “You didn’t have to ask, Clark.” The story follows each character fighting the evil versions of their closest ally and exploring the Superman and Batman dynamic in a different light.

I love this story to pieces. One of the first I have written where I could tell I was getting better across the board and I made full use of the sixteen pages I was afforded. When encouraging people to read this story I tell them it feels like a lost episode of Justice League Unlimited or a spiritual successor to the big-hearted and completely mad Superman/Batman series by Jeph Loeb & Ed McGuinness had done in the early 00’s.

When talking about who should draw this story Andrew and I talked about a lot of really amazing candidates. We both felt very passionately about the story and wanted it to be realized by the perfect person. That person turned out to be Jorge Corona, who I had worked with a bit in the Batman group. I always loved Jorge’s work, his fundamentals are off the charts and his style reminds me of artists I grew up loving like Humberto Ramos, Damion Scott, and Skottie Young. And he didn’t just do a good job with the story, he brought the house down. Every page was better than the last. On colors, Matheus Lopes imbued even more magic to the pages. And Tom Napolitano lettered the heck out of this one, giving some great balloon styles to some of the evil characters in the story.

WHERE CAN I FIND THIS STORY? This story came out as Superman: Man of Tomorrow #19, available on Comixology/Amazon and on DC’s DCU Infinite App/Service. Digital only, not in print.

“World’s Vilest” was released at the end of 2020. As an editor, Superman would become a more regular part of my life as I had the great fortune to work on Batman & Superman: World’s Finest with the powerhouse team of Mark Waid, Dan Mora, Tamra Bonvillain, Aditya Bidikar, and Steve Wands, but….I missed writing Superman a lot.

Other than Man-Bat, Superman was the character I had spent the most time with as a writer. I was beginning to feel really confident with how I handled the character. And I wanted one last crack at writing him but I also knew my time at DC entering its last act. My last projects were being wrapped up and I was getting ready to do writing full-time.

The DC Holiday anthologies continued to have a spot open for editors to pitch for a short story. I would always pitch because…I always wanted to write and it was good to stay in the habit of pitching. However, the anthologies for 2021 and 2022 often had Superman spoken for. I pitched other characters and I got to stretch by doing different types of stories but I kept hoping that there was one more adventure for Superman and I.

Enter DC’s Spring 2023 anthology DC’s Legion of Bloom. Superman was not spoken for and I got to work cooking up a story. I had pitched other stories I would have been happy to write, and I followed my own rule of not saying to the editor what pitch was my favorite. However, Andrew Marino was the editor overseeing the editorial story of that anthology. And I think he wanted us to work on one last Superman story together too.

Story 5: We Just Have to Make it ‘Till Spring

Art by Riley Rossmo, Colors by Ivan Plascencia, and Letters by Tom Napolitano

All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely and Superman: For All Seasons by Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale are two of my favorite Superman stories and just two of my favorite comic books. They influenced every single one of these Superman stories, but their influence was much more direct on this one.

From All-Star I took Superman being at a disadvantage and trying to push through anyway. From For All Seasons, I wanted to make the time of year, the weather, and the impact it has on all of us, including Superman.

I grew up in New England. The winter is brutal. After New Year’s Day until late March, you are battered by the cold weather and the seasonal depression that often comes with it. When you reach the first days of March, it’s the cause for jubilation. You celebrate that you survived another winter. I wanted to explore that with Superman.

Also putting on my nerd hat…Superman’s powers come from Earth’s yellow sun. During the winter the days are shorter, less sunlight means a slightly weaker Man of Steel, and he’s so deeply empathetic that he can feel everyone’s struggle with the season while maybe not dealing enough with his own.

“We Just Have to Make it ‘Till Spring” Finds Superman at the beginning of the New Year pushing himself hard to save the people of Metropolis from the emotional and physical turmoil that the winter brings. The weeks stretch in ways that feel infinite as Superman deals with countless problems while avoiding the fact that the winter takes a toll on his mind and his powers. This isn’t lost on Lex Luthor, Superman’s greatest enemy, who is planning to bring the Man of Steel down once and for all, and with Superman’s attention torn in so many directions, he’s not going to see it coming.

There were two major goals I had here on top of writing the best Superman story I had yet. Lex Luthor and Lois Lane had to be in this story, they are the two most important characters other than Superman himself in the mythology and I could not put off writing them any longer. And it was intimidating. There had been so many great stories with Lex and Lois and let me tell you something…after writing them I understood why. They are so much fun to write. In their own right, they are both great characters, but the things they bring out of Superman make stories so much richer. I also punish the readers by having Lex Luthor in a hot tub on the roof of the Lexcorp building. It was too visually rich to not do.

This story also had me reuniting with Riley Rossmo. Riley and I continued to work together on other projects after Pro-Lobo but we had always talked about how fun it would be to get to collaborate on a story like this again. Andrew reached out and to my incredible luck, Riley had space in his schedule and wanted to take on the story.

We were even more collaborative on this than we were the first time we worked together. In the story, you will see there are pages that resemble calendars that show Superman dealing with different adventures for different parts of the winter months. People might look at those pages and go “How did they do that?” I will tell you.

For those pages, I would make a list of things Riley could have Superman do for miniature adventures and left space for him to come up with his own ideas. Then I would highlight the one element that had to be on the calendar. The element on the various pages showed Lex Luthor’s plan taking shape before it fully came to fruition. Riley would choose what adventures he wanted to depict and make sure the core narrative beat was where it needed to be on each page. Riley would text me the layout of the page, call me and we would talk through each of those pages. I rarely ever had feedback other than “Wow! This is working!” All a testament to Riley’s storytelling powers.

We once again had the extraordinary Ivan Plascencia on colors and the outstanding Tom Napolitano on letters. Special shout out to Tom because…I was wordy as ever and Tom made everything work better than I could have hoped. On top of working really elegantly in the smaller panels on the various pages.

We finished this story right before I left DC and it came out soon after. I could not have been more proud of it. It was one of the most warmly received stories I had written up to this point and if I never get to write another Superman…I feel good about what I said. BUT TO BE CLEAR…I would really, really like to write Superman again, and keep my fingers crossed that will happen.

WHERE CAN I FIND THIS STORY? This story came out in the anthology DC’s LEGION OF BLOOM, available on Comixology/Amazon, DC’s DCU Infinite App/Service and can be found in print on comic store websites.

We did it! That was Short Story Week 1, everybody. I had a lot of fun telling you about these Superman stories and I hope you seek them out to read in full. Next week we will be talking about the three Flash short stories I wrote for DC.

Hmm…what’s that?

You want me to tell you about my Superman dream story that I didn’t write? Well…I understand that.

I’ll tell you about it once I get to write it for DC.

Stay Safe!

—Dave Wielgosz