Posted in: Comics, DC Comics, Superman | Tagged: 5g remains, dc comcis, grant morrison, Mikel Janin, superman, The 5G Files, the authority

Grant Morrison Confirms Original 5G Plans For Superman & The Authority

Talking to CBR about the upcoming Superman And The Authority series, Grant Morrison seemed to confirm Bleeding Cool's earlier rumours about the planned return. In June last year, Bleeding Cool scooped the gossip that Superman was going to be the new leader of The Authority. At the time, the comic book had recently seen Superman described by critical media as King Of The Earth in relation to his unilateral decision to represent Earth in the United League Of Planets. He was then deputized by the United Nation as a temporary measure as a result but given a warning not to make any similar mistakes by the big espionage agents of the day. With Bleeding Cool news that Clark Kent was stepping aside as Superman in favour of Jonathan Kent,  becoming a new leader of The Authority seemed a natural next step for a more authoritarian classic Superman. Then, of course, 5G and Infinite Frontier got in the way, Brian Bendis left the Superman books early, and everything changed. A bit. Talking to CBR, Grant said;

Bringing in Superman changes everything because, when they came to me with it, they said, "We want Superman to go kind of authoritarian." And I just do not like the idea that Superman would ever be dictatorial or would watch his loved ones die and not be able to deal with it like the rest of us do. I wanted to do a Superman that was older and made very different choices and did something that looked authoritarian but was way bigger and way more sci-fi and that was kind of the idea…

So that it appears were former publisher Dan DiDio's original 5G plans for Clark Kent, before that morphed into Future State and Infinite Frontier. Grant also said;

Superman is the defender of the downtrodden and champion of the oppressed. I think the Authority took that to a different level and tried to engage that with real-world politics or at least metaphors that suggested real-world politics. So suddenly, to get Superman to that point in his life, it honestly was like me. I was about 28 when I wrote my first Superman scene in Animal Man and now I'm 61. It becomes a very interesting prospect to see an older Superman and how he would recalibrate his mission and make it work in a different way but still live up to the promise of that, the champion of the oppressed and savior of the downtrodden.

Superman & The Authority #1 by Grant Morrison and Mikel Janin is published in August. More on that to come from Bleeding Cool…

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!