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WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Superman: Son of Kal-El #8 by Tom Taylor and Cian Tormey, now available for purchase.
Superman: Son of Kal-El #8 by Tom Taylor and Cian Tormey follows Jon Kent’s Superman and Jackson Hyde’s Aquaman facing a disturbing sea monster, natural disaster, and the Gammora Corps. This issue depicts Jon dealing with the weight of what it means to be Superman — from the responsibilities of this title to the stress of being in the public eye.
In anticipation of DC Comics’ Superman: Son of Kal-El #8, CBR sat with artist Cian Tormey to discuss his work on the title. Along with touching on the appeal of Jon Kent’s iteration of the character, we also talked about the collaboration process between Tormey and Taylor and the challenges and excitements that came with developing this issue.
CBR: What has your collaboration process been like with Tom Taylor on these issues?
Cian Tormey: I’ve had the pleasure of working with Tom before. It has been, to be quite honest, as lovely as it always has been, for quite a few reasons. Tom is such a clear writer. He gives you exactly what he wants you to do, but also leaves you so much space to bring it to life the way you want it to come to life. I can explain that more if you’d like, but it is always so much fun to work on one of Tom’s scripts because it just feels like you’ve got everything you need, and also, you’ve got space to work your craft.
I would also like to know, what specifically about this Superman comic run appealed to you when you were brought on as the artist?
This might sound a little bit controversial, but Superman wasn’t really a character I was drawn to growing up. Broadly speaking, I didn’t really get it. He seems so perfect, and then in terms of his powers, he was so powerful, that I was like, “I’m not sure I get it.” Now, I grew up during the Lois and Clark days, so there was a whole load of just enjoying the characters for who they were, but as I got older, and when you watch some of the animated movies and stuff, or like the cartoons, Superman is just invincible.
Initially, when Tom was talking to me about working on Superman, the thing that swung this for me was how Tom writes Superman. I don’t know if you had the chance to ever read it, one of the first scenes in Injustice that I got to do, the editor Jessica Chang, who is amazing, she sent me these pages, and it was this scene between Clark and the husband of the Green Lantern, who was in a coma. It wasn’t really until I read these couple of pages that I realized that when Tom writes Superman, he’s at his most super when he’s just a man. I never really got that before, which sounds probably a little bit ignorant on my part… It’s when he’s human, he’s more human than we are. So when he was talking to me about the son of Superman, the thing that really just blew my mind about it was we grew up with Superman. He learned so many lessons, and now he’s got a son.
While yes, his son has to learn all of these lessons again, the world has changed quite a bit. There are so many more things he has to contend with, which is good because Superman taught us an awful lot of stuff, but his son is going to teach a whole new generation of readers so many important things as well. So when he spoke to me about that, I was like, “I don’t know any other writer that could have said, ‘Cian and I are going to write the son of Superman.'” I was like, “Yes, I totally believe that you will.” I really feel that I’m going to have a lot of fun trying to bring to life his pathos and his innocence.
The first page of the last issue that I drew, Jon was soaking wet, and he was looking open. I remember shooting the page over to Tom to see if he was happy with it, and he was like, “Yes, he looks like a wet dog, like a German shepherd or something, just like soaked.” I was like, “Yes, but that’s him, right?” He’s like a border collie. He’s just kind of experiencing so much stuff, and you want to protect him, but he’s also kind of fine. That for me was Jon Kent in a nutshell.
One thing that really stood out with the last issue is how we have our Superman dealing with this environmental issue, this huge disaster that is heading toward Metropolis. I would love to know what was it like creating this larger-than-life disaster on the page, because, for me, the water looks absolutely phenomenal.
Thank you so much, because that is actually probably… I would say rendering the water, just doing it, was quite difficult. It was something I hadn’t really done before. But one of the biggest challenges, when a story takes place at sea, is trying to create a sense of scale because you’ve got nothing to balance anything against. So when you have a huge creature at sea, we don’t really know how huge it is. We have to try quite a few different things to make sure that people understand just how big it is. Rendering the water was technically quite challenging, and I really enjoyed doing that. But I think in terms of storytelling, the thing that was a real challenge that I really enjoyed doing was making sure you understood what was big and what was small and where we were.
Speaking about what was big, what was small, we have a giant sea monster, we have our giant kaiju, which is so cool. What was one of the biggest challenges about drawing this leviathan, or what was the most exciting part about drawing it?
Do you know what the thing was? It’s not a monster.
That’s true.
It just isn’t. It’s important to make sure that it doesn’t come across like it is. It’s like you or me. It doesn’t want to be bothered, and it has been, so it’s responding to that. You have to draw this thing and make sure it was big, and it was intimidating and had enough things that looked a little bit monstrous. But, at the same time, I didn’t really want you to feel like… It shouldn’t be gross or something you couldn’t identify with.
There’re some moments in the next issue where it’s important that you understand what it’s feeling because it’s a silent player in the story. It’s emotionally responsible for so much stuff, that it was really important to kind of go, “Okay, look. It’s big. It’s kind of crab-like; it’s an underwater monster, but at the same time, it’s also somebody that’s just been kind of shaken out of bed and doesn’t really want to be awake.” I think we can all identify with that.
We have a number of characters outside of Jon Kent in this comic, from the Gammora Corps to Aquaman. Was their favorite character for you to design in this issue?
I have to say, if I could draw a Lex Luthor in every panel, I would be drawing a Lex Luthor comic. I don’t know what it is, but these villains are so much fun. Just getting this aloof power figure in. I would love to tell you that it was Aquaman, and trust me, every single one of these characters was so much fun to draw, but I got like three or four pages of Lex, and that’s where my happy place was in the heart of that issue. It was so much fun.
Focusing back on Superman, when it comes to illustrating Superman and his adventures, what is your favorite part about working on this character?
My favorite part of this and the hardest part of this is just trying to make sure the reader knows that the stuff that Jon has to contend with is hard for him. He doesn’t know what he’s doing, and to be quite honest, most of us don’t even when we’re confronted even with normal stuff. Jon has to be us, so there’s a certain level of trying to make sure that people understand that he’s just like us. He is more powerful, but he has a lot of doubts as we all do. Just trying to kind of strike that balance where he’s strong, and he’s righteous, but he’s also out of his depth, quite a bit. Trying to get that balance is really key.
With Jon as Superman, why do you think he’s such a great hero for you and for today?
I touched on it before, but just this idea that he’s new, so he’s going through so much stuff. As readers, we also have expectations for him too. We know who Superman is. We know what Superman stands for, but we look at Jon, and while we all say, “Yes, of course, he’s not Superman,” we also have quite an expectation of him. I think that’s an interesting aspect of his character, that Superman [Clark Kent] kind of doesn’t have.
There’s an aspect of Clark that we take for granted. But John, we look at him, we get it. We understand who his parents are, but we also just go, “Yeah, he’s the son of Superman.” Of course, he’s Superman, and can you imagine what it must be like for him? We take it for granted because it’s presented that way, but it’s so important to just go, “My God, imagine if that happened to you.” That would be so so tough. I think the aspect of Jon that I love the most is I don’t know if we realize how hard being Jon is. Forget about being Superman. Being John is tough. That’s why I like him so much.
We see Jon in this issue with Aquaman, and then it’s teased it’s going to be Nightwing and John in the crossover. Is there a pairing you would love to illustrate with Jon going up against either any villain or teaming up with any hero? If you could have your dream team up for Jon, what would it be?
I think this is gonna be a very boring answer, but just give me some Damian stuff. I want some Damian Wayne, and I like it because one of the things for me that I love so much is really just understanding the characters as individual things. They are so different. They’re so clearly defined. I haven’t had the chance to draw Damian and John, and they are night and day. They’re so much fun. There’s such dynamic juxtaposition between the two of them. I’ve had so much fun drawing Jon and how light he is and how important it is to draw him in a strong way, but also to treat him quite delicately, but Damian’s got none of that. Just let me just get my hands on Damian. Actually, good question. I must run this past, Tom. I realized just how much I want to do this.
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