Garth Ennis & Superman

[Motherboy]

So I just read Hitman #34 and was struck by how capably and even-handedly Garth Ennis wrote Superman. For a guy who's known for works like "Preacher" and "The Boys" (a decidedly anti-superhero book), Ennis writes this issue almost like a love-letter to Big Blue. It was also cool how he used Tommy Monaghan, a sort of everyman anti-hero type, to show how the average guy perceives Superman, with a sort of reverence and awe.

Anyway, a couple questions here:

1. How did everyone else feel about this issue?
2. Has Ennis written Superman in any other books?

Thanks.

[Robotman4]

Ennis has stated that Superman is the only mainstream superhero that he truly loves. obviously he prefers the more gritty street level anti-heroes, but Superman is his one exception. while i enjoyed Hitman and Preacher i personally find his hatred of the superhero genre annoying and tiresome. how do you make your living again? writing comics? show some respect to the characters and creators that allow you to have a career.
anywho, he did write Superman in the Hitman/JLA crossover and held him in the same high esteem.

[T Hedge Coke]

how do you make your living again? writing comics?

Yeah. Name me the last superhero comic Ennis wrote again?

Oh, right.

But, you know, if you want to pretend comics were made for superheroes and have never been anything else, don't let history and logic stop you... or the fact that Ennis has been generally respectful in his work of established superheroes even if he's not huge fans of them.

[stk]

But, you know, if you want to pretend comics were made for superheroes and have never been anything else,

Could you imagine if they were? Brrrr...

[T Hedge Coke]

Could you imagine if they were? Brrrr...

It's probably with great restraint that Ennis hasn't just taken that Wolverine gig and thrown himself wholly into it, either with more than due respect or to just troll every last spandex-obsessed fan. Because I'm sure someone's offered him the job already.

Now, if he said he wasn't really a fan of war comics...

[Robotman4]

Yeah. Name me the last superhero comic Ennis wrote again?

Oh, right.

But, you know, if you want to pretend comics were made for superheroes and have never been anything else, don't let history and logic stop you... or the fact that Ennis has been generally respectful in his work of established superheroes even if he's not huge fans of them.

i never insinuated that they were, but his holier than thou attitude and persona gets rather trite.

[T Hedge Coke]

i never insinuated that they were, but his holier than thou attitude and persona gets rather trite.

You said, "how do you make your living again? writing comics?"

If you didn't mean that, what did you mean?

Why are you taking a comics writer to task for not being a huge fan of superheroes but continuing to write comics anyway?

[Desaad]

Hitman 34 is widely considered to be one of the best Superman stories of all time.

Ennis wrote Superman, again exceptionally well, in JLA/Hitman 1-2.

As to the point above about Ennis saying he 'truly loves Superman', I've not seen that and I'd ask for a source on it. What I have seen is his frequent collaborator and friend, John McCrea, saying that he's 'got a lot of time for Superman', and it's clear that his 'in' to the character is his status as the ultimate immigrant.

[Robotman4]

You said, "how do you make your living again? writing comics?"

If you didn't mean that, what did you mean?

Why are you taking a comics writer to task for not being a huge fan of superheroes but continuing to write comics anyway?

im personally a fan of the superhero genre. im posting on a superhero message board as proof. Mr. Ennis has stated that he doesnt like "superheroes" and has made light of the genre in a number of his works. so i disagree with his view. while ive enjoyed a lot of his books, his pseudo-punk sneer towards superheroes is just tiresome. without superheroes there would be no comic industry.

[T Hedge Coke]

im personally a fan of the superhero genre. im posting on a superhero message board as proof. Mr. Ennis has stated that he doesnt like "superheroes" and has made light of the genre in a number of his works. so i disagree with his view. while ive enjoyed a lot of his books, his pseudo-punk sneer towards superheroes is just tiresome. without superheroes there would be no comic industry.

He's treated established superheroes with respect in most of the comics that have involved them.

He generally doesn't write established superheroes, and the bulk of his work in comics, period, isn't superheroes at all.

I am a big fan of superheroes, individual heroes and the concept of the superhero, but it doesn't hurt my feelings when someone works in comics and isn't ready to take a bullet for Batman.

However, the idea that "without superheroes there would be no comic industry" is absurd. Without Tintin, Yellow Kid, Peanuts and Astroboy, there might be... um... a different kind of comics. At best. And without superheroes at all, comics would, as an industry and a field be different. But there'd still be comics.

[stk]

without superheroes there would be no comic industry.

I think that is the part of your position he was taking exception to. There were comics before super-heroes. For one thing, we had the comics (mostly strips) that the Golden Age creators admired before ever creating the first super-heroes, and the kind of work many of those creators aspired to. So we would have had comics without super-heroes, and it's impossible now to say whether the artform would be less healthy today or more if they hadn't come about.

[Mr. Holmes]

However, the idea that "without superheroes there would be no comic industry" is absurd. Without Tintin, Yellow Kid, Peanuts and Astroboy, there might be... um... a different kind of comics. At best. And without superheroes at all, comics would, as an industry and a field be different. But there'd still be comics.

I kind of want to see what this industry would have been like.

[Darrell D.]

im personally a fan of the superhero genre. im posting on a superhero message board as proof. Mr. Ennis has stated that he doesnt like "superheroes" and has made light of the genre in a number of his works. so i disagree with his view. while ive enjoyed a lot of his books, his pseudo-punk sneer towards superheroes is just tiresome. without superheroes there would be no comic industry.

Yeah, so wrong on so many levels. The superhero genre doesn't define the medium.
And, why would you get mad that he doesn't like superheroes and finds them silly? Super-heroes ARE inherently silly and ridiculous, and the amount of SERIOUS, GRR! only reinforces the point.

[melkorjunior]

his holier than thou attitude

I don't think Ennis, of all people, comes off holier-than-thou. He just frankly thinks superheroes are pretty silly. He didn't grow up on superhero comics so he has no nostalgia for them.

Ennis isn't perfect and if anything his sensibilities can on occasion be rather juvenile; but I 'll still try anything he writes because he's just such a great storyteller.

[The Beast Of Yucca Flats]

Hitman 34 is widely considered to be one of the best Superman stories of all time.

Ennis wrote Superman, again exceptionally well, in JLA/Hitman 1-2.

As to the point above about Ennis saying he 'truly loves Superman', I've not seen that and I'd ask for a source on it. What I have seen is his frequent collaborator and friend, John McCrea, saying that he's 'got a lot of time for Superman', and it's clear that his 'in' to the character is his status as the ultimate immigrant.

I too doubt that his affection for the character is unconditional (no way you could get him to glance at, say, a Superman book set in WWII or such, frex), but yeah; there does appear to be something of a more personal connection at work on the occasions he wrote Superman than writers usually seem to have (often little more than 'I liked this a lot as a kid'). The Great American Immigrant Story & the promise he sees in it to shape this land's culture and destiny is very much one that fascinates him; going by some other notable works of his.