Another C2E2 is in the history books, and once again, the convention was a rousing success. The largest pop culture convention in the Midwest, C2E2 (the Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo) drew an unprecedented 100,000 guests to Chicago’s McCormick Place, the largest convention center in North America. It’s been 15 years since the first C2E2 kicked off in 2010, and the event shows no signs of slowing down.
Agents of Fandom sat down for a chat with Jason Aaron from his booth at C2E2’s Artist Alley. The esteemed writer has penned iconic runs on Thor and Doctor Strange, and is currently helming the launch of Absolute Superman, a reimagining of the most famous superhero of all time.
The ‘Absolute’ Universe Is Just Veterans Inspired by Other Veterans
Agents of Fandom: The Absolute Universe has taken off like a rocket. Why do you think there has been an almost unanimously positive response to this new universe?
Jason Aaron: I think people are hungry for new takes on the characters they know well. I also think, you know, the books are just good. It’s about the content, too. It’s not just about a marketing plan. I’m really proud of what we’re doing on [Absolute] Superman. I think what Scott and Nick (writer Scott Snyder and artist Nick Gragotta) have been doing on [Absolute] Batman is wild and ground-breaking. Kelly and Hayden (writer Kelly Thompson and artist Hayden Sherman) have been completely killing it on [Absolute] Wonder Woman.
We all knew when we started working on the Absolute stuff that we were excited about what we were going to do in our books. We were getting more and more excited about what other people were doing. It felt like this nice sort of groundswell of us inspiring each other, and I think that has bled over into the books. So I really do think it’s the creators who’ve been around for a long time taking big big swings, and it’s resonating with people. The response has been really amazing.
“I’m like the new guy coming over to the scene”
For me, I’ve never really written DC stuff before, so I’m like the new guy coming over to the scene. Superman is literally the greatest mythology in the history of comic books. What I’m doing is, hopefully, honoring that but also shaking it up quite a bit. You never know how people are going to respond to that, when you change fundamental parts of Kal-El’s origin: who he is, how he functions. But the response has been really amazing, so it’s been really gratifying.
Jason Aaron Is Truly Exploring Who Superman Is
AoF: There’s a common thread through your legendary Thor and Doctor Strange runs at Marvel, and this Absolute Superman take. With Thor, you were stripping away what it means to be a god. With Doctor Strange, you took the Sorcerer Supreme and stripped away the element of magic. Do you see the same common thread between them, and did you ask yourself, “What can I strip away from Superman without breaking the character?”
Aaron: It’s not always about taking something away from him. Some of that is about giving these characters a challenge. How do you challenge Thor when he’s so powerful? How do you challenge Doctor Strange when he can wave his fingers and solve any problem? With Strange, it’s showing the price of [magic], and with Thor, it’s the idea of worthiness. What does that mean to him? With Superman, it’s not just trying to take anything away. Clearly, we changed the Smallville part of his origin. We changed what Krypton meant to him. It’s all about what that adds. It makes his origin more tragic. It makes his journey harder. The Krypton part of it, and when he comes [to Earth], it’s all about pulling in the same direction of the theme of the story. Who is this guy?
More than anything else, Kal-El is an immigrant. He’s the ultimate immigrant story.
More than anything else, Kal-El is an immigrant. He’s the ultimate immigrant story. He has much more of a fully-formed immigrant identity. He’s like 13-14 years old when Krypton blows up. He grew up basically in the Kryptonian version of Smallville, so he’s got that small-town upbringing, but it happened there. So when that all is taken away from him, and he comes here, and travels a very different kind of immigrant path, he’s an immigrant in 2025, which can be a darker, more dangerous journey.
He doesn’t know who the hell he is, you know? He had a very fully-formed Kryptonian identity. Nobody even remembers Krypton except for him. He doesn’t have a place here on Earth where he belongs. There’s no connections. He’s been on the run for five years. I just like the idea of this guy who’s still incredibly powerful — his power is growing every day in ways he doesn’t understand — but he has no idea who he is, who he’s supposed to be. That’s an ongoing quest for him.
In my mind, it will take us a long time to get resolution to that question. This is not a version of Superman who is fully formed in any way. He’s not going to get there in issue #8, even issue #12. How long does it take him to get to the Superman status quo? Remains to be seen. I plan on being on this book for a long, long time.
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