For anyone who saw DC Comics describing Batman/Superman as a “buddy book” and immediately thought it would be nice to see the DC version of his and Fred Van Lente’s wonderful run on The Incredible Hercules with Batman and Superman standing in as Amadeus Cho and Herc, Pak has some bad news for you: Superman won’t be drinking copious amounts of alcohol and shouting anachronisms anytime soon.During an interview with Comics Alliance about the impending launch of the series, which Pak is writing for artist Jae Lee, Pak said, “I love that Hercules dynamic, and I love buddy stories in general, but the Amadeus/Hercules thing has honestly not occurred to me while I’ve been working on Batman/Superman. I think it’s because the characters are so distinct. There’s not really a Hercules analogue here, you know what I’m saying?”He added, “One thing they do share is that both of them are odd couples. They seem like opposites in a lot of ways, but what’s really interesting about them is how similar they are, which I guess is a very common thing. It’s how similar they are that really pulls them together, and also makes them drive each other crazy. But with both of those sets of buddies, they are different enough that they can end up in total opposition with each other, which I think is totally fascinating, and also totally real to life. When you look at the people who can drive you the craziest, it’s the people you share the most in common with, whether that’s your best friends or your family. It’s the people that you love the most that can get the most under your skin. That kind of dynamic is really fruitful. But yeah, we won’t have Superman quaffing large quantities of alcoholic beverage and shouting ‘Have at thee!’”Of course, Van Lente is currently exploring a more humorous buddy book with Valian’ts Archer & Armstrong, which you should be reading.
