Look, up in the sky! It's ... just sky. Beginning with the landmark Superman #700, out in July, the Man of Steel embarks on a literal walking tour of the U.S., taking to the streets, suburbs, homes and Chuck E. Cheese's from Philadelphia to Washington State, meeting the people he's sworn to protect. (Sadly, you can't count on the Flash running circles around him and urging him to pick up the pace.) DC Comics has even kicked off a contest where readers can submit photos of their towns and neighborhoods to be included in the year-long story arc.
It's a tough sell to place the most powerful superhero in the universe's feet squarely on the ground and have him hanging out with normal, everyday dudes while still delivering the earth-shattering fisticuffs and heat-vision blasts that make Superman awesome. But series writer J. Michael Straczynski kindly answered our prodding questions as to why we should care about the Last Son of Krypton pulling a Forrest Gump. Hopefully those red boots have some Kryptonian-level Dr. Scholl's...
MAXIM: Most Maxim readers probably haven't picked up a Superman comic in a while; why is now a good time for them to get back into the mix with the Man of Steel?
JMS: Because now it's really about us, as a people. If he's off on an alien world, it really doesn't reflect upon or have much of anything to do with us as a people. But in this case, Superman is coming home, to get a sense of where we are, who we are, and what he may (or may not) be able to do to help. It's about how Superman sees us, and how we see ourselves, reflected in his eyes.
As a nation, we have been tribalized and marginalized and factionalized to within an inch of our lives, to the point where some wonder if there really is AN America for Superman to visit, if there's just subsets of what was once the country. For those who may not be interested in Superman, I think that's a valid story, because in the end, it's not about him, it's about us.
Let's talk about the "us" in the comic. Will the general public within the DC universe be aware of his journey? We can easily see him acquiring a Forrest Gump-esque group of followers who walk with him.
Nothing Forrest Gump about it. This is a story about a man returning to his roots, to his home, to see what's changed and what, if anything, he can do about it. As for the DCU, his decision to embark on this journey is covered in great detail, so everybody there knows it's going on. Some will join him for a while, most won't. This is his personal story, so he's better on his own.
Some of the situations will be non-powered in nature, others will be more exotic. In the first issue, he has to try to figure out how to deal with the drug problem in one area but from a totally realistic point of view. What can he do, really? He also has to deal with a woman intent on suicide by jumping from a building. Yes, he can stop her by force...but that doesn't solve the problem, so is there another solution?
In other parts of the country, where homes and factories and other structures stand abandoned, forces and entities from other places and other worlds may have moved in, and risk being exposed if Superman gets anywhere near them. So we will also have some high-powered action pieces along with the character stories.
Why won't Superman's trek take him below the Mason-Dixon line? No love for the Dirty South? We imagine some folks in the Gulf Coast region might take issue with that.
That was a very agonizing decision. I really, really wanted to bring him through the South, but when we laid out the map - and I'm trying to be very realistic about this - going south would've meant zigging all over the place, and that just didn't parse if he's walking on a straight line across the country. But with luck, I can make that up to the South in the next story arc.
Me? I stay home and write. It's Superman who gets to go to all the cool places.