Posted in: Comics | Tagged: eddie berganza, joe casey
Joe Casey On Eddie Berganza Rewriting His Adventures Of Superman
Joe Casey on Eddie Berganza rewriting his Adventures Of Superman to add more punching
Article Summary
- Joe Casey reveals his original Adventures of Superman ending was rewritten to add more action and violence.
- Casey was frustrated by editorial changes, specifically from then-editor Eddie Berganza, without his consent.
- He preferred a more emotional, cerebral climax to the storyline, matching his usual take on Superman and Batman.
- Casey hints at sharing his original script version in a future edition of his Substack newsletter.
Joe Casey wrote Adventures of Superman from #587 drawn by Mike S. Miller , through to #623 in 2003, with artists Duncan Rouleau, Derec Aucoin, Mike Wieringo, Pete Woods, Carlos Meglia, Charlie Adlard, and this included the Our World At War crossover, a number of such events that crossed over with Casey's run. Plus ca change… but it seems that any objection to the event from Casey's part were a distraction. In his Substack newsletter he writes;
"That that whole thing was a bit of a tempest in a teapot, overall, not so much of a "falling out". The "Our Worlds At War" connection didn't bother me so much, since I was actually writing Adventures Of Superman at the time of said event and had a hand in planning it. I just thought it was bad marketing/branding, since adding that banner to the covers probably did a better job turning readers off than it did attracting any new readers to the book."
"I only called it out publicly because I was annoyed that my ending had been rewritten without telling me. The editor of that series (who has since left DC under an unsavory cloud of controversy over his personal behavior) didn't care for how I wrapped up the story… which, if I recall, had a more emotional, cerebral climax (maybe I should run my original ending in this newsletter at some point?)… which was in keeping with how I'd been writing both Superman and Batman up until that point. The editor wanted more punching, more senseless violence. The thing was, I'd already been paid in full for the script I'd turned in so there was really no way he could "force" me to rewrite it. So, when I flat out refused… well, first he hung up on me. Then he simply hired the nearest warm body to execute his "vision" and I only found out once the issue had seen print. I guess you could say I pulled an "Alan Moore"… in so far as I went public with one gripe, while keeping quiet about my true gripe. Until now, I guess…"
Obviously Eddie Berganza there… there is a little fighting at the end of Our World At War, in Adventures of Superman #596 though only Casey is credited as writer.
- Adventures of Superman #596
- Adventures of Superman #596
… but even that fizzled out, and Superman commented on that… maybe it referred to the previous issue which was less of an epilogue and more… well…
We look forward to Joe Casey running his original version sin his Substack newsletter soon.
