The Man of Steel and Silver Banshee's big confrontation reaches its climax in Superman #5, written by Joshua Williamson and illustrated by Jamal Campbell. In a sonic showdown, Jimmy Olsen convinces Superman to save his girlfriend Banshee, albeit at the temporary expense of the Man of Tomorrow's super-hearing. Taking advantage of the superhero's dulled senses, a cabal of mad scientists with a deadly grudge against Lex Luthor launch their true plot, ambushing the jailed super villain and viciously having him stabbed grievously.
In an exclusive interview with CBR, Joshua Williamson and Jamal Campbell provide a spoiler-filled walkthrough of Superman #5 and the conclusion of the Silver Banshee story arc, explain how the issue has paid off on major plot threads ever since the series’ relaunch at the beginning of the year and tease what readers can expect next as Superman dives into the horror-fueled crossover event Knight Terrors and beyond.
CBR: I love Silver Banshee's look here, with her long, flowing hair. How did you want to approach designing her upgraded look?
Jamal Campbell: It was cool because the whole thing was [about] making these characters feel classic then upgrading them in certain ways. Obviously, we did that with the power set and in finding a way to do that with her look, it kind of came naturally. She has the long hair already, and I had that image in Issue #4 when she showed up floating, with her hair flowing, ethereal and twirling down like a ghost's tail. I hit that right away and really just went running with that in pretty much every panel of her in Issue #5, with her long, flowing hair accentuating the movement everywhere she flows.
How was it essentially drawing a romance comic for the first couple pages of this issue?
Campbell: Yeah, I'm just really getting into my romantic comedy bag. [laughs] The fun thing with this book has been doing the different genre stuff, in every issue there's some new vibe going on. This was a very fresh take from the horror stuff and away from the secret scientists stuff. It was very personal, with what Jimmy Olsen is up to when he's just out and about and this how he legitimately fell in love with Silver Banshee. Showing that human perspective for both of the characters, and then getting back into the high stakes that they're now in because they're in this relationship and have had it going on for some time now.
If you start the issue with romance, you end it with the series' most abruptly brutal sequence yet, with Luthor getting shanked in prison.
Campbell: It was wild. When Josh first told me he was doing that, just him telling me was like, "Oh, we're actually doing this?" In actually drawing it, I thought, "How far do I want to go with it? How much blood do I use? How aggressive does it look?" That whole scene is so different from everything we've done up until that point, which is what makes it so shocking, violent and abrupt. Leaning into that, if we were going to do this, let’s really go for it and make it as shocking and visceral to really sell what we’re doing here.
Joshua Williamson: I love Lex but, from the very beginning, this was always the plan for the book, this moment. Jamal really nailed it. Jamal, you actually colored a different version of this. I remember when I saw it, [and said], "That's so graphic!" DC [agreed]. You came back with a better version that's more visceral and shocking, but somehow was able to get it in. [laughs] I saw it and [said], "That works really well!" The plan from the beginning was always building to this moment, so you really totally nailed it.
Josh, what was it about starting out this issue as a big meet-cute between Jimmy Olsen and Silver Banshee?
Williamson: We've talked before about putting Superman in different genres and these two issues are the romance issues. I wrote Issues #4 and #5 around the same time and I knew I wanted to do that, that I wanted to roll it out in a certain way that was fun. This is one of the most fun issues that I've ever worked on. I was struggling with this issue at times. I knew the beginning was going to be the meet-cute and I knew the ending was going to be the stuff with Clark and Lois and obviously with Lex, that was sort of it. There was just something from this issue and, sometimes when you get lost writing a story, you have to take a step back and think about what your characters would do.
The moment I thought that Superman is going to fly off to help her by himself, Jimmy would be like, "No way, I'm coming with you!" The shot of Superman and Jimmy flying side-by-side is the moment when the whole issue came together for me. In a lot of ways, the tone of the issue changed, like it reverberated throughout the issue of how I wanted it to play out. I have a lot of trust in Jamal and I know that Jamal will elevate whatever I hand him. That beginning page of the meet-cute stuff, I just knew that I could put that all on the page and Jamal would take it and just elevate it to this beautiful thing. It just really works as a page, and you get to see the rollout a little differently.
I'm just proud of these issues and what we were able to do in just two issues. We covered a lot of ground, with this little romance arc for two issues.
In this issue we really see the whole cast in action, whereas the opening Parasite arc saw most of them infected. How was it bringing Mercy Graves and Jimmy Olsen into the thick of it?
Campbell: It was fun. With Mercy specifically, the Parasite arc was her getting caught by surprise, so she had to think quickly on her feet. It was scrappy in that way while this is SuperCorp full force, prepared and ready to tackle any issue. Drawing a more confident Mercy, SuperCorp with their tech and Superman’s reaction to all that, this is Superman’s life now with Mercy and SuperCorp. We can see that push-and-pull that they're helpful and seem like they want to do good but the way they do it doesn’t quite jive with them.
He takes the gun and crushes it because [while] it's not his way of doing things, but he still uses their help with their tech and them going back to SuperCorp to check on Silver Banshee and himself at the end. There's still that push-and-pull relationship going on between them. In terms of characters and character acting, that’s the stuff I really liked to play with there.
Williamson: I always look at the first three issues as the pilot for the book, and now we're in it. Issues #4 and #5 has all the pieces on the table, so let’s show that status quo with emotion. We're past the setup now, we're just showing it. This was easily one of the more fun comics I think I've ever written. I just really felt and don’t know how to explain it. [laughs] I was talking to editor Paul Kaminski about it, and it's crazy how much we were able to do in two issues, even just Issue #5. I feel like it’s never packed, it’s 22 pages, but we still cover a lot of ground in that issue. We got to have the romance stuff, the double date night, the scene with Lex, the action, the drama, we get to really cover a lot of stuff in one comic book.
This is the cast, so now it's like, if this were an animated series or TV show, this is the cast, and they're in every episode one way or another. We're also in the mystery and that push-and-pull of Superman and SuperCorp. They want to help, but they're not him, they're still LexCorp. There is still that push-and-pull, back-and-forth and tension that will continue to go, and we'll get to see what direction that takes.
Does Superman win? Does he really embrace what SuperCorp is? You’ll see in Issue #6 that there’s a piece of him always keeping SuperCorp at arm's length, and maybe he needs to bring it and fully take over it.
The run started with Clark listening to music with headphones and an emphasis on sound. Five issues in, he’s temporarily lost his super-hearing. What was it about having that arc and will his super-hearing be back by Issue #6?
Williamson: In Issue #6, he has his hearing mostly back. In the Annual, which comes at after Issue #5, does touch on this, that his hearing is getting better. It’s not so much about his hearing, though, it’s about that little voice in your head that’s trying to tell you what to do. Sometimes it’s negative and the idea that Superman is human, just like everybody else, and he has a voice in his head, it’s just that that voice is Lex Luthor. [Laughs] We just took a twist on that, and I wanted to play around with it a little bit.
I’m always fascinated with sound in comics and having a character who can hear everything. There is so much you can play around with that and, with this arc, that was such a major focus of it. In the next couple arcs, we get a little away from it. Clark still listens to music and music is still an important part. He's not going to hear Lex for a while, for obvious reasons. [Laughs]
Jamal, in drawing a fight sequence so heavily revolved around the concept of sound in a medium that doesn’t offer it, how did you want to visualize that?
Campbell: It's a kind of thing of dealing with sound as a thing that emits from her. We have phantoms almost looking like sound waves to see how sound travels to attack Superman or shatter glass on the buildings, so that you can visually track where it’s going. Ariana [Maher], our letterer, did a great job of enhancing that with the transparent lettering that follows that trail as it goes around. Trusting her and playing with that long trail and how it moves around the space, it just came naturally from what we established before.
Williamson: Ariana is great, she's an awesome letterer. There are little touches that she does that really work so well. When Jimmy says, "I love her!" she puts a little heart in the "o." Things like that make it really land, she just gets it. I say I know how to letter comics -- I'm okay at it -- I used to letter a lot of my creator-owned books, so I really appreciate good lettering. I value the lettering process in our comics, and you can see when someone is just really thoughtful about what they’re doing.
She's definitely very thoughtful with how she does the lettering in here. It just works really well with the story and the tone. The kind of story that we're telling and the vibe of the book, she just works really well with it. I'm always really happy whenever we get the lettering in because I can tell that she's really thinking about it, not just getting a job done, especially when we're working with sound being so important but there is no sound in our book. [Laughs]
I remember sitting 25 years ago at a bus stop reading Understanding Comics and there’s part where the cartoonist Scott McCloud is talking to you. He says, "Can you hear me?" there's a beat, and then he says, "I didn’t say anything." I was like, "Oh yeah, I just read it." I remember looking up at the school bus like Keanu Reeves going, "Whoa." [Laughs] That has always been on my mind since working in comics.
In Issue #3, there’s a part where Kara says, "I always loved this song" and people online are like "What is the song?!" I like when you can play around with stuff, like the lack of sound, as a storytelling device. I always found it really fun.
Superman finally meets Pharm and Graft, at least via hologram. What was it about finally having this confrontation here?
Williamson: I needed them to meet and to have them talking but, because it's such a slow burn chess game, I didn't want them to necessarily meet in-person. I wanted them to continue to manipulate and be this thing he can’t get to and, in this issue, to continue to think a couple steps ahead of Lex and Clark. I also wanted to tease what’s going to happen in Issues #6-8, which is them teasing The Chained. The name of that arc is called "The Chained," and they set it up. I wanted to have a little more time with them together, and it was important for me to have them in every issue, even though they"re operating in the shadows.
You see them in every single issue as we continue to build them up as an actual threat and a danger. They did this stuff that they're doing for a reason. Some of it is experimenting, and some of it is about strategic moves. Parasite created a situation where they were able to weaken Stryker's defenses as a prison, so that they could get to Lex to begin with. They knew that if Lex was in danger, Superman would hear it, so they had Silver Banshee take out Superman's hearing so that he couldn't hear it when they went to go kill Lex. That’s why, at the end, Lex says, "There's a reason why they did these two first. Why would they do these two first?" Now you know why. They were able to create an opportunity for someone to go in and kill Lex Luthor.
I like this idea of building them up as actual smart villains, and also devious, mean and malicious. I always think the best villains are the ones who think that they’re the heroes, like Lex Luthor thinking he's a hero, but Pharm and Graft absolutely do not think that they're heroes. [laughs] They are villains, and they love it, and they're over-dramatic about being arch-villains. I was thinking about this when I was writing dialog for Insomnia, that I really like villains that like being villains sometimes and that’s what I'm trying to show with these two characters. These are not two villains who think they're heroes, they're two villains who [like being] villains. I just wanted them to have a little confrontation with Superman.
I love that Jamal did, and it wasn’t in the script, when I wrote them, I had it in my head that they were normal-sized holograms. You made them giant, imposing and red and I remember, when I got to that page, it just continues to build them as these imposing, scary figures. It's awesome.
I love the quiet moments in this issue and, Jamal, you've really brought Metropolis to life, from walks through the parks or capturing this expansive view of the city. How did you want to present Metropolis overall in this book?
Campbell: I love drawing environments and cities, so I just overindulge myself. Seeing Metropolis as this big, expansive New York/Tokyo-esque metropolis, just really drilling into there would be different areas. You'd have parks, all the shining lights and glass buildings in the background. Building up Metropolis as a character and this tangible thing that you can really see these characters living in and moving around. You'll never see another corner of it twice because it’s so big and there’s so much going around. Just leaning into that is something that I love to do drawing anyway, so it adapted well to my style and sensibilities in that way.
Williamson: You really created a very lived-in Metropolis, it really lives and breathes. I was talking to somebody else about this issue and, when Clark and Lois are walking and having this conversation about everything, you made it very much feel like a date night. You use the environment to signal to the reader that this is date night, like the moon on the water; and there's obviously a reason for that with Marilyn Moonlight. The part that really got me is when they were walking on the bridge across the water. That is such a romantic vibe, and it's a moment when you really used the city to tell a part of the story and also show that it’s a romance issue.
What else can you tease about Superman #6, along with Knight Terrors: Superman and this year's Superman Annual?
Williamson: Knight Terrors all takes place in one night, and it’s all dealing with some of Clark’s fears and nightmares of if he's enough and if [he] can do enough. The Man of Steel is overwhelmed by everything, and we deal with some of his insecurities in Knight Terrors. There are some fun surprises in there because Kara joins the book for those two issues. Tom Reilly drew the hell out of those two issues, they look insane. He really went with the horror stuff, it’s really cool. There’s stuff in there where Clark figures out pretty quickly he’s in a dream, partially because of stuff with Perry White and Lex. There’s a part where he’s talking to Perry and Perry rips his own face off, and it’s revealed that it’s Insomnia underneath posing as Perry, it’s really fun.
The annual I feel like is Issue #5. It's the epilogue to the first five issues but a sort of World of Metropolis issue. Superman [is] in it, and he's on a mission against Toyman and Pharm and Graft are in it. But really, it focuses in on The Daily Planet, Lois, Jimmy, Cat Grant, Steve Lombard and there are a couple new reporters that are introduced in that issue. It focuses on The Daily Planet as Lois assigns stories for them to do. Someone goes in to do a story on Mercy and what it's like working in Superman's company and talking about her loyalty to Lex. Cat Grant actually meets Marilyn Moonlight and there's stuff we do with that. In this issue, we tease what is happening in Issue #6 and Issues #6-8 are a shorter arc that Gleb Melnikov is doing.
That’s going to all be about The Chained and Superman investigating what Pharm and Graft are talking about with The Chained, learning what The Chained is, and being super pissed at Lex about it. [Laughs] He can't talk to Lex about it and that creates an interesting dynamic. It puts Clark in a conundrum and his position with SuperCorp is going to finally put him in a position where he has to have a corporate mind and that's a challenge for him. He's not Lex, so it definitely puts him in this weird situation. There's a lot of action and cool stuff coming with that, those are the three big pieces. Jamal drew a really awesome cover to Issue #5 that’s a tease to what The Chained is on the cover.
Written by Joshua Williamson, illustrated by Jamal Campbell and lettered by Ariana Maher, Superman #5 is on sale now. The story continues in Knight Terrors: Superman #1, on sale July 18, and Superman 2023 Annual #1, on sale Aug. 8.