Mark Millar, writer for the seminal Superman: Red Son miniseries, has weighed in on the discourse surrounding the potential casting of a Black actor as the DC hero.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Millar discussed the proposed Superman reboot, which is to feature a Black version of the superhero. Considering the success of his Communist take on Kal-El, Millar was asked if he thought the world was ready for a Black Superman. His reply was simple: "Yeah, of course! Why not?"
"Superman is from Krypton," he continued, laying out the reasoning behind his support of the idea. "Who cares? He doesn't have to be a Midwestern farm boy. He can be anything. People are smarter and more open than you think."
Superman: Red Son was written by Millar in tandem with the artists Dave Johnson, Andrew Robinson, Walden Wong and Killian Plunkett. An Elseworlds story, it details an alternate universe in which the rocket carrying Kal-El landed on a Ukrainian collective farm rather than in Kansas and explores Superman's exploits as an agent and propaganda tool of the Soviet Union, fighting not for the American Way, but "for Stalin, socialism, and the international expansion of the Warsaw Pact."
The story has remained popular, with the Red Son Superman receiving an action figure courtesy of McFarlane toys earlier this year, and a DC animated film in the spring of 2020.
Millar acknowledges the open-ended nature of the superhero genre, especially with regards to more inclusive versions of comic book characters. In existing DC media, the character of Calvin Ellis has featured as a Black Superman several times in comic continuity. Ellis as 'President Superman' has featured prominently in the recent Infinite Frontier line as a protector of the multiverse.
Recently, Millar has executive produced the Netflix adaptation of Jupiter's Legacy, in which the characters of The Utopian and Lady Liberty are meant to be stand-ins for Superman and Wonder Woman, respectively. Millar has described it as a "Kardashian" take on superhero stories. Based on the Image Comics series Millar wrote with Frank Quietly, it is to be the first of several shows based on his work and will be released on May 7.
Source: THR
0 Comments