DC’s Black Label line will introduce a new miniseries this fall, one entirely from the mind of writer-illustrator Wes Craig. Superman: The Stranger is a six-issue story that takes things back to the Man of Steel’s foundational days…and we don’t just mean the first weeks he started flying around Metropolis. This is the Superman Siegel and Shuster first dreamed up in Action Comics, the one more wrapped up in justice for the average man than stopping a meteor or giant robot.
In Superman’s original story, he fought corruption on a realistic level. He didn’t just care about bank robbers, but the illegal activities of bank OWNERS. He flew into a suburban home to stop an act of domestic violence. “You strip away the extra powers, you strip away Ma and Pa Kent, and Smallville and Krypton, you boil it down to that explosive first issue of Action Comics, and you have this vital, powerful myth of a brash young man with incredible powers fighting against a corrupt city. That’s the story I want to tell,” says Craig.
The inspiration doesn’t just end there. The story will literally be set in 1938, in an Art Deco Metropolis, with character designs inspired by the Max Fleischer Superman theatrical shorts. “I grew up on Christopher Reeve and John Byrne’s interpretation, then his animated adventures and All-Star Superman as I grew older. His mythology always changing with the times. But the version I love the most and the one that I think, strangely, reflects our modern world best, is the ORIGINAL.”
In Superman: The Stranger, readers will follow Superman at the very beginning of his journey. During the day, Clark Kent does what he can to make ends meet in the bustling city of Metropolis, but when the sun goes down, he leaps into action to keep the city streets safe. As Superman, Clark fights for a better tomorrow, but he feels like he’s not affecting change. The rich keep getting richer, and the poor struggle to survive. Can Superman truly save the downtrodden?
Superman: The Stranger is written and illustrated by Wes Craig with colors by Jason Wordie and lettering by Tom Napolitano, and variant covers by Dave Johnson, Goran Parlov, and Ethan Young on the debut issue (check them all out below). Superman: The Stranger #1 arrives in comic book shops September 2.
