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For the last two decades, comic writer Dan Slott has had quite a prolific career at Marvel, most notably a distinguished and acclaimed run writing the publisher’s marque character, Spider-Man. Now that he is no longer exclusive to Marvel, Slott made a return to DC Comics earlier this year to write yet another primary color costumed iconic superhero with the launch of the brand new Superman Unlimited ongoing series. At San Diego Comic-Con, we had the opportunity to sit down with Slott to discuss all things Superman including his thoughts on the new film, the introduction of a brand new super power for the Man of Steel, as well as potential new projects on the horizon for him at DC.
Taimur Dar: First thing I have to ask right out the gate, your thoughts and opinion on the new Superman movie from James Gunn?
Dan Slott: My take on it is I have never seen a superhero movie that felt more like a modern-day superhero comic. It felt like I went to the store and got a five-issue arc of this great modern-day comic. You can see all these other movies and they feel [like] “superhero movies.” This felt like I was going into a superhero comic. The DC Universe was real and I was inside it and it was really neat. It was a world already up and in motion with Green Lantern, Mister Terrific, Hawkgirl, Metamorpho and a Superman who had been around for a couple of years. Whenever you talk to someone about what’s the book that got you into comics, it’s never Action Comics #1 or Amazing Fantasy #15. They pick something off the rack and they enter that superhero universe. And then they had to find out everything they could about it. That was this movie. It was so well done.
Taimur Dar: Obviously, the movie had so many breakout characters—
Dan Slott: Mister Terrific! The answer to your question, whatever it’s going to be is Mister Terrific. He should have his own movie and TV show and cartoon after that movie.
Taimur Dar: Very true! But I would also add Krypto the Superdog who was featured prominently in the latest issue of Superman Unlimited. I believe I’ve seen you post about your pet cats over the years, so I always thought of you as a cat person.
Dan Slott: In my heart of hearts, I want to have a dog but I live in a tiny Manhattan apartment and I think dogs need room. I’m dog crazy like everybody else. I love hanging out at my parents so I can play with their dog.
Taimur Dar: In which case, did you write Krypto based on your parents’ dog?
Dan Slott: I based it on the trailer! [Laughs]. I had not seen the movie. I had no advance knowledge of any script. Like any comic book fan, I was dissecting every trailer and James Gunn tweet trying to find out everything I could before I took over Superman Unlimited. I really wanted the book to have the same vibe as the movie. I wanted people to be able to walk out of that movie and go, “I want to pick up a Superman comic that feels like this,” and have Superman Unlimited be that for them.
Taimur Dar: Now that Superman Unlimited is out, you can officially discuss the new golden form power that’s been introduced. So the obvious question to ask is what was the inspiration for this gold form?
Dan Slott: Editor Paul Kaminski. He has all his Super Powers action figures and there’s a gold Superman one. He said, “This should be in the book. We should have a gold Superman.” I was like, “What would that mean and do?” We were shooting ideas around. We wanted the end of the first issue to have a big hook. I wanted the first issue to be an evergreen that would tell you the whole history of Superman so if you were a new reader you could jump in and now you’re up to date. But I wanted there to be a hook to get you to go into issue two but I didn’t want some terrible thing to happen to Superman. So if you just read the issue one by itself many years you go, “Oh okay. He went gold.”
Taimur Dar: Obviously, you’ve been at Marvel for over two decades. As a fan, it’s hard enough to keep up with comics, so as a professional comic writer I can only imagine it’s even harder especially with DC and the constant continuity changes. Were there any challenges coming back to play in the DC Universe sandbox?
Dan Slott: It wasn’t that hard at all. There are certain writers I follow no matter what comics they’re working on or what company. I kept up with Tom Taylor books and Scott Snyder and Tom King. I felt comfortable jumping in. It’s really homecoming when I go up to DC for their summit. There’s Al Ewing and Jason Aaron and Matt Fraction and Mark Waid. Everywhere I look around there’s Marvel people. Am I in the right room? What’s going on? [G.] Willow [Wilson] and Kelly Thompson are up there. It really feels like coming home or I never left.
Taimur Dar: We were just talking earlier about how great the various ‘90s animated DC shows were and how you worked on the tie-in comics.
Dan Slott: The Adventures universe. I love it. My first superhero work at DC was working on Batman Adventures and Justice League Adventures. Even a couple of Superman Adventures. Those cartoons are timeless and hold up. You put a gun to my head I will tell you the Batman movies are all-time are a tossup for me. It’s not the ones you’d expect. It’s Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. I love the DCAU.
Taimur Dar: I’ve been rewatching Superman: The Animated Series because I’ve been on such a Superman kick lately. One of the highlights of that series was the brilliant reinvention of Toyman which obviously inspired the new version you introduced in Superman Unlimited. Rather than completely copying Superman: TAS, you actually add a new twist to it.
Dan Slott: He is now a literal Toyman. He is an invention of Winslow Schott. But he made him too well and he gave him a conscious. He’s somewhere between Pinocchio and characters like The Vision or Haley Joel Osment’s character in A.I. Artificial Intelligence. He’s a new AI character and we’re in a whole world of AI. We’ll see him again soon. Is he really a good guy? He’s helping out Caldero but he’s bringing more power and energy to the world in places that don’t have it. We’re dealing with a lot ethically gray guys in Superman Unlimited.
Taimur Dar: Speaking of new villains, you also introduced President Castilho, the ruler of the the nation of Caldero who is known by the nickname, the Kryptonite King.
Dan Slott: The Kryptonite King is our reimagining of the Kryptonite Man. We’re just giving him an upgrade. He is now the Kryptonite King and we’re starting early in his story. In the past you had a Kryptonite Man. Now you have the Kryptonite King. Before you had Toyman. Now you have “Toyman.” [Laughs]. You’re going to get to get these new pranks. I’m dying for people to see what we do with the Prankster.
Taimur Dar: The Prankster is definitely one of those early deep cut Superman villains. It’s a supervillain shtick that’s not too dissimilar to other iconic DC baddies like the Trickster and the Joker. Can you tease how your take will separate him from those other villains?
Dan Slott: I’m not turning over any cards. You’re going to have to wait and see! With Joker, he’s completely insane. He’s the guy that changes all the fish so they’re smiling and he demands that you give him the patent. And that’s not how patents work so he’s going to terrorize that guy. You look at that plan, and it’s a crazy plan. That’s not how the Prankster is going to work. This is something unique in the DC Universe. Will it involve humor? Yeah. Will it involve deadly humor? Very much so. You’re just going to have to wait and see.
Taimur Dar: As fans familiar with your work are aware, you’re a master of playing the long game with your stories. In the very first issue of Superman Unlimited you planted a number of story seeds, particularly with the Inertron element.
Dan Slott: Inertron is an element from the Legion of Super-Heroes time. That was coating the Kryptonite meteorite that kept the Justice League satellites from scanning it. But it also kept Superman from scanning it. He just assumed it was a giant chunk of Inertron when he punched it which was not a good move. There are others pieces of the puzzle that I’ve seen some fans figuring it out. In the past, Lex Luthor had a tiny green sliver of Kryptonite. Even being near spiting distance of it could kill Superman. But now here’s Superman with a giant meteor of Kryptonite hurts him and is nasty. But it’s not as nasty as that pure Kryptonite. So you’ve got to ask yourself, “What is the half-life of the radioactive element of Kryptonite? And how could that half-life decrease that much?”
Taimur Dar: Rafael Albuquerque was announced as the artist for Absolute Green Arrow. Does this mean he will be leaving the book?
Dan Slott: You will have Rafael Albuquerque drawing the “Kryptonite Kingdom” story which is issues #5 and #6.
Taimur Dar: I know during your time at Marvel, you’ve said you’re comfortable writing two ongoing comic titles at the most. Is Superman Unlimited your only project at the moment or do you have anything else coming up?
Dan Slott: I have some tiny things here and there, but I’m really focused on Superman Unlimited and getting this ahead of schedule. And then I’ll play around with some other stuff.
Taimur Dar: Finally, any characters in the DC sandbox you have on your bucket list that you’re eager to cross off?
Dan Slott: Tons! I’ve spent twenty years away from the DCU. During those twenty years, you get ideas. Then you write it down and you put it in the file. There are a lot of characters I would love to play with. The really obscure ones will show up in Superman Unlimited. DC will never do series about Ultra the Multi-Alien, so it’s a ticking clock for when Ultra the Multi-Alien shows up in Superman Unlimited because I love him so much. One of our characters hails from Gorilla City, so we gotta go to Gorilla City eventually. A lot of the “big guys” who hang out with Superman can pop by the book anytime. We’ve seen Batman pop in a couple of times. Robin (Damian) is going to feature prominently in issue #4. You will see more guys. Are there characters I would like to write minis and series for? Absolutely. There’s one character that Mike Allred and I dearly love. We’ve talked about maybe pitching it once he’s done with his Wonder Woman project. I think the pitch for it so strong that I told the guys at DC Studios, “I think this will make a great TV show.” I pitched them the premise of the hook. I’m dying to write that comic just to show how it could work.
Stay tuned to The Beat for more coverage from SDCC ’25.
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