Alien Apokolips Now, Part 2

By: Arnold T. Blumberg
Date: Saturday, April 06, 2002

Besides the hybrid aspect, Bogdanove addressed what he felt was a weakness in the first crossover by preserving the Aliens' original size as he saw it in the films.

"I tried very much to blend the two styles and made a conscious effort to return the Aliens to their big imposing ferocity," says Bogdanove. "In the movies, the Aliens are eight feet tall, massive. One of the things I was disappointed in what Dan did is that the Aliens were human-sized or smaller, and it made them seem much less threatening. So one of the things I tried to do was make this thing's skull and carapace look massive."

"It's the trouble with teaming anything up with Superman, and I don't like the excuse of cutting Superman's powers down. We were under some restrictions about amping up the Aliens, however, from the movie company, because they are actually somewhat conscious about changing it too much."

Even the restored Aliens meet their match in Darkseid, as Bogdanove enthusiastically reports.

"There's this great scene where Darkseid goes to inspect the egg. A face-hugger bursts out, launches itself at Darkseid, and he just catches it in mid-air," laughs Bogdanove. "The acid is dripping down his arm, but dude-it's Darkseid."

The new Alien army is "boom-tubed" to New Genesis, and there the battle is joined. But don't expect to see the return of Kara, the could-be Supergirl from the first Superman/Aliens pairing.

"We left all of that behind," says Bogdanove. "The bulk of the story takes place on Apokolips and New Genesis. Superman fights side-by-side with Orion, Lightray and the army of New Genesis...and of course my favorite to draw, Big Barda. Chuck just threw [her] in because I like her," laughs Bogdanove. "


Bogdanove also notes that the continuity conscious will discover the epic takes place out of synch with current events in the New Gods timeline.

"It was great fun, but it was placed largely out of context with what Walt Simonson is doing with Orion because Chuck had included Highfather," says Bogdanove, referring to Orion's adopted father who has since 'gone to the Source' and left the ruling duties to his son. "[This is] clearly a story taking place before events currently happening with Orion and the New Gods."

Another indication that the story takes place in the recent past is Superman's chest symbol. In the current time frame it has been altered from red and yellow to red and black; Bogdanove's Superman will retain the old red and yellow logo, but he thinks the graphic touch is unimportant.

"This takes place before they started playing with the Kingdom Come logo," says Bogdanove. "I don't mind either way. I'm happy to draw the black logo. It's the man behind the 'S' that really matters."

Bogdanove has also spent quite some time laboring to perfect his version of that man behind the 'S," and he believes he might soon succeed. He also benefits from a DC regime that now allows the Man of Steel to be altered into a variety of artistic styles.

"When I took over with MAN OF STEEL #1, I was in a generation of artists that were in the transition after [legendary Superman artist] Curt Swan," says Bogdanove. "He held sway over that character for over a quarter of a century. There was not a lot of evolution and he was the last of the real house-look superheroes. We were the first generation that were really allowed to play, and if you look at what we did, you can see it was a period of experimentation. I look back at that stuff and some of it I just hate and some I think I really nailed that."

Bogdanove also notes a few distinct phases in the development of "his" Superman.

"Some worked well while Dennis Janke was inking me, and some didn't. Through it all my main focus with the character was to make sure he was spiritually on the money."

Bogdanove thinks that his definitive Superman still lies in the future, but it's on the way.

"It might take a couple more Superman projects for me to get him where he's truly right," says Bogdanove. "I went through a super big muscular Superman, a lean Image-y Superman, and when I left the books I was experimenting more with Golden Age proportions. Alex Ross does a sort of super-realistic version of the Silver Age Superman. The Golden Age influence is almost a smaller, shorter, chunkier, cartoonier, more springy and bouncy Superman. In SUPERMAN/ALIENS I started to come closer to it."

Some artists may be content with what they have, but Bogdanove keeps struggling to find the right approach to this iconic character.

"Superman has in many ways been the totem of my life. My son's name is Kal-el. It's a character I thought a lot about and I care a great deal about him. There's something archetypal about Superman that I'm always working on. I've had failures and successes in attaining it, but I think SUPERMAN/ALIENS is very clearly the next step."