Brian Michael Bendis Talks Action Comics' Villain Reveal & The Question's Return

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Action Comics #1005, on sale now from DC.

Brian Michael Bendis enjoys everything about writing DC's flagship title, Action Comics. It's not just the adventures of Superman or the string of guest stars. It's even the little details, like the numbers.

"It's fun to write the number down," the writer told CBR with a laugh. "I'm doing Issue 1010 right now, and it's still fun to write a number that long on your script."

But with this week's Issue 1005, Action opens up its story with a string of big reveals crafted by Bendis and artist Ryan Sook. The issue unmasked the new villain Red Cloud while also tossing into the mix vigilante-journalist The Question and the H-E-R-O Dial (the latter before it spins off into its own Wonder Comics series in March).

And to hear Bendis tell it, that escalating series of reveals and visitations is only the beginning for the book he feels should be the linchpin not just of his Superman run or his DC work, but of the entire DC Universe. In a new interview, the writer tells CBR how he crafted Red Cloud's identity based on old-school mafia history, why The Question is the perfect counterpoint for the world of the Daily Planet, and where all the little details are heading toward his first big DC event.

CBR: Brian, we're talking about the fallout of a specific issue of Action Comics today, but let's start big-picture. Often when writers come onto work with the Man of Steel, you hear about how they work to keep the Action Comics title one that's ... well, full of action. But in your run, this has become the more mystery-focused comic. Why is that?

Brian Michael Bendis: Obviously I've given this a great deal of thought, and I decided that Superman was going to be the book about Superman as a character and stories that literally only Superman could do or star in. And you'll notice that in Superman, we get his perspective and his narration. We're actually in his head. But in Action Comics, we're not. We never get Superman's narration. It's more the Clark Kent story.

I look at Action Comics, and I know that action means action, but I also view Action Comics as a flagship DC title about the DC Universe, and it stars Clark Kent. I always thought that. Even as a kid, that's what I saw as the difference between the two books, and so I'm reflecting that. One is Superman and one is the DC Universe starring Clark Kent. And so Action features the stories that he can't just punch his way out of. He tries, but the real answer is what I first said when it was announced that I'd be on this book. So much of Clark's life has been thrust upon him. He was sent here. He was told he was going to be a protector. But he chose to be a reporter. He wanted to grow up and be Lois Lane. And having a book that reflects that is something I was desperate to do.

Your "Invisible Mafia" arc sets up a very specific dynamic too for the series, and that is the idea that even in his own city of Metropolis, there are a lot of people working against Superman. It's the mafia and now the mayor too. Did you want to pit Metropolis against Clark and give the city a different vibe than we've seen before?

Yeah. First of all, I wanted to open it up more. It'd been a while since we really were at a party in Metropolis and could say "What's going on here? What does the infrastructure of the city think of Superman this week?" Superman is like a political football, and people all feel differently about him depending on where they are and what their goals are. And if they're not a fan of Superman, it doesn't necessarily mean they're bad people. They may just want law and order in a different way. Having all of these different power brokers and political voices in the city debating Superman's actions was something I thought we needed at DC.

We live in a world where even high school kids see much more about how the world works and how big cities run. We see so much about how things get done because there is so much craziness in the world right now. I thought it would be fun to reflect that.

People ask, "Who would ever try anything in Metropolis with Superman there?" and that idea was always so funny to me. Even with all the police in New York City, people still try to do crime! People act like fools all the time. They don't care where they are.

NEXT PAGE: Action Comics #1005 Reveals Red Cloud's Identity

The idea of people who are at odds with Superman but not in the way you'd expect comes to the forefront in Issue 1005 with the reveal of who Red Cloud is. Readers who have been following along since the start may have had Robinson Goode on the shortlist, but now that we know she's working as a supervillain, her very collegial relationship with Clark can be seen in a new light. What does she represent for the series?

I liked this idea that I came across while doing research for my book United States of Murder Incorporated, where I read about a mob person who got a job at a newspaper. This was decades ago, but they got the job specifically to see what the reporters knew about what The Family was doing. It's kind of like criminals who become cops literally to help The Family. A reporter who uses the information from their job to be a better criminal came to me, and I said, "Oh! It's like Clark Kent, but the opposite!" And once that idea is in there, you can't not do it. I have to have someone in the Daily Planet using the Planet in the exact same way Clark does but for their own reasons.

And also this reflects the theme of my entire DC run, and that's the idea of what a bad job at hiring Perry White does. [Laughter] Let's look at who he's hired. There's Jimmy Olson? Terrible. Steve Lombardi? An HR nightmare. Clark Kent? Never around.

Issue 1005 also features the arrival of the H-E-R-O Dial, which will play a role in your Wonder Comics line in a new series. But looking at it here, it seems to fit into your idea of Action as the DCU flagship book. In the same way that the Infinity Gauntlet is a pure Marvel Comics item, I think that the H-E-R-O Dial is pure DC Comics. It's the entire feel of the DC Universe in one object.

I couldn't agree with you more. I feel that this is one of those great comic book ideas, and it's one of the greatest DC Universe ideas. I don't think the Dial would have worked at Marvel. It's a pure DC thing. Obviously, we're working it into Wonder Comics, but I thought Action would be a grand opportunity to reintroduce the concept of the Dial to people who don't know it. And if you're not one of the people who's on Twitter asking me questions all day and you were curious as to whether the Wonder Comics line was in continuity: Hell, yes, it is.

This kind of thing has happened with books you've done for years, but how much would you say the cross-pollination between your various projects is planned out to communicate that to readers and how much is it just ideas from one script bleeding into another?

You're asking if it's organic, and I only do it if it's organic. I wrote that Question/Dial H scene – which is one of the few scenes that Superman isn't in – and I said to myself, "This is the quintessential Action Comics scene." Everything about it was this beautiful DC noir. That's what I wanted to communicate from the get go. But then when you look at it again, you say, "What does this scene do?" Well, it also 1000-percent supports what we're doing in other books. That's all organic, and if anything, that's a reflection of what's unique in comics. It's the ease of a shared universe.

So let's talk about The Question. To be glib about it, his appearance is only going to lead to more questions. But what is your history with the character? Did you read the Ditko Charlton stuff or the O'Neil/Cowan book when you were younger?

Oh, yeah. Yes, to all of those runs, and I was a big O'Neil/Cowan fan. And more recently, obviously, Greg Rucka is a dear friend of mine, and I have the experience now of writing that character with him standing over me. It's funny because when we announced that I was coming to DC, it wasn't Superman or Batman that people were screaming for me to write. The No. 1 character they wanted was The Question. And I was so happy to finally give people what they want. [Laughs] But I did have to reflect on why people wanted this character so much, and I think it's because Jessica Jones and The Question are cut from the same cloth. I'm flattered by all of it, and I can't wait to show people more. Because this issue was sort of an amplified cameo, but we're going to be building a lot with the character that will lead into a big storyline we're doing next year.

The Question has shown up in Superman comics before, but having originally come from a different universe, he feels like an accidental counterpoint to Clark Kent. He's a much different kind of crusading journalist. Was that part of the attraction for you?

Wow, you're so close. I actually have him as a perfect counter to Lois. And a lot of this is building to what's going to happen to Lois in the future.

Well, so much ink has been spilled over the Lois and Clark marriage and how Superman works in that context. You've been able to play with their relationship and add tension and drama to it without it being a question of marital strife. Was it hard to crack that story open?

It's actually one of those things where I was able to draw so much from the work of other Superman writers like Pete [Tomasi] and Dan [Jurgens], who had established the family and what they wanted and also what problems were forming. I come in almost like a family therapist and say, "Here's where we are. What do we need to get to the next step?" And people who read #1004 saw Lois literally look at the camera and say "We're not breaking up," but they still are asking if they're breaking up. And it just goes to show how fragile a relationships like this can be. I'm so grateful that people have passion about this, but my goal isn't to break them up. I think they're one of the most passionate, loving couples ever. I just want to get back to that.

NEXT PAGE: The Return of Jonathan Kent

With the big reveal of the Red Cloud, this particular story arc is going to wrap next month. But will all these issues you've been talking about snowball quickly or is Action going to become something of a slow boil?

Oh, we're moving fast. One of the things that I figured about the story was that people were not expecting to find out who the Red Cloud is so quickly. I think they thought I'd stretch that out over a year or more. But we had to get to it right away because we have so much more story to get to. Issue 1006 will be Ryan and myself dealing with the fallout of that but also revealing who is the person running the Invisible Mafia, who is the Red Cloud talking to and what is their relationship going to be now that they realize they can go toe-to-toe with Superman. And it's also about Superman thinking about what he can do now.

Those are the big ideas coming in the next issue, and one other thing that issue includes is literally the hardest thing I've ever asked an artist to do. And Ryan just did it. I said, "Can you show Clark looking down through the entirety of the Daily Planet building with his x-ray vision? We'll need to see every single person and everything that they're doing." And he nailed it. I can't wait for people to see this thing. It's one of the most amazing pages of comic art I've ever been attached to.

I've been picking up the DC Nation magazine, which in a very literal sense to me is Wizard Magazine. Not even like Wizard, but it's a new version of Wizard.

I love it! [Laughter]

But some who are not reading may not know that a number of the former Wizard editorial team are now your editors on the Superman books, and in Action, you start each month with an Easter egg-filled splash of Lois' desk which that very much like an old Wizard art feature. How have you guys been collaborating on that to tee up future stories?

It is a perfect mixture of all of us. We started with the premise of Lois' desk and then it's any idea that fits. That's what's best about it. It's not just jokes. It's some jokes and some really serious stuff. There is some stuff on that desk that are flat-out spoilers that won't happen until two years from now, and people won't remember this at all. Trust me, you'll see people saying, "Oh, my God, you told us the end of this story two years ago!" We have a lot of these coming up and everyone in editorial from Jessica Chen to Mike Cotton to Brian Cunningham contribute to it. And so do the artists. They add in a lot of details too. And it does have that lovely Wizard flair.

And by the way, I love how much fun people are having with those pages. I get so many tweets about those pages, and I love that people are having fun with them. That's what comics are all about.

Shifting to the other side of the Superman coin, Jon is coming back from space in January's issue of Superman. It seems odd to say this because you've really been on the books less than a year, but you've been able to have so many issues out that his return does feel like an event and not just something that happened after the snap of a finger.

And we're parents, so the idea of missing your kid for an hour is enormous. I really think we did a good job reflecting how much Superman misses him. Even though it's only been a few issues, he never stops thinking about him. So when Jon comes back – and I did promise in Action #1000 that he'd be back soon – he's coming back with a lot of story. A lot of story.

You also get to play with this fun concept of a superhero kid because you don't have to let them age in real time or at all, but you can ramp it up as well if you want. It reminds me of some of the stories that have been done with Franklin Richards over the years.

My inspiration was how devastating it would be to lose those formative years. I mean, I hate it when my kids go to summer camp. They love it there, but they go away for a few weeks and I don't get to experience anything they experience. They come back and they look older! You have this experience when you drop your kid off for camp, and you pick them back up three weeks later, and they have a mustache. This is the superhero version of that. Clark's going to have missed out on something really important to Jon, and it's going to hurt. It's going to hurt bad. Hurting Superman has to be a big deal.

You've got all these DC projects happening: the Superman books, the Batman universe serial, Wonder Comics ... since you often see your stories organically growing together, is there any focal point story or series for you? Is Action truly the flagship book of everything that's going to come next?

Your No. 1 goal is to have every book be on an even level. They're all equally important, and the value of them is the same. That's just No. 1. But I think in about two months for now, you'll start to see people saying, "Why did Brian never say that Action was the centerpiece? There's so much going on with it!" If I said it wasn't the center of what we're going, I'd be lying. After #1006, when Steve Epting joins the book in #1007, we're starting a story that will really centralize a lot that's going on in the DC Universe on the ground. And there's something coming up next summer that will surprise and delight. It's a big one.