Brian Michael Bendis On Whether We Could See Rogol Zaar on 'Krypton'

Later this week, Brian Michael Bendis will launch The Man of Steel, a six-issue, weekly limited series that will pull back a cosmic curtain to reveal truths about the destruction of Krypton, and Jor-El's connection to it, which the writer and DC have promised will be game-changing for the Superman family of titles.

While Bendis will do this by way of introducing a villain called Rogol Zaar, SYFY's Krypton TV series actually did much the same thing this season, revealing a few weeks ago that Krypton's eventual destruction was created by its core being destabilized when Brainiac stole the Bottle City of Kandor. With at least one more season guaranteed, we asked Bendis whether he would like to see the villain make his way to live action. If The Man of Steel is the hit DC is hoping for, it seems like an obvious thing to do. He said, essentially, that you always hope for that level of success with any character, but that he doesn't let himself get wrapped up in it.

"I get very zen about this," Bendis told ComicBook.com. "I've had a very robust and lucky run of actors and directors and writers taking these characters and making truth out of them, really finding their truth. I can't believe how lucky I am in this way. I don't think about it at all; it's the weirdest thing ever. All these new characters we're creating, I never think about what the cinematic version would be, because I didn't do it for Maria Hill, I didn't do it for Jessica Jones. I kept it pure. I continued to do that, because I think that's the magic of why they translate so well is, I don't think about the cinematic version, just the pure truth of the comic book version. It's a high-class problem, but I do like to think about it."

Besides Jones and Hill, Bendis is responsible for co-creating Miles Morales, who will headline the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse animated feature film from Sony later this year. He takes over Superman and Action Comics fresh off of fan-favorite runs -- "There is nothing wrong with Superman, not that there was anything wrong with it before, but there's nothing wrong, it was not broken. What Dan [Jurgens], Pete [Tomasi] and Pat [Gleason] have been doing is among the best monthly comics that are being produced right now," he says -- and on the heels of not only Krypton being a hit, but Action Comics #1000 hitting stores in April.

"It's all amazing timing. Amazing timing. From the time I started talking to Dan [DiDio], a lot of these pieces had already started rolling," said Bendis, who told us he had mentioned Superman as a potential destination only to find that if he wanted the job he could take it immediately, as Jurgens, Tomasi, and Gleason were moving on. "We just felt legitimately like, 'Oh, this is meant to be.' I'm been in situations, too, where you could tell people were moving a chair to make room for me at the table, you know? And in this instance, it seemed like the chair was set, the table was set, 'Here, have a seat.' It was like literally I slid right into the entire situation, including the launch of Krypton."

At first glance, it may sound like a crazy idea for Zaar, a brand-new character, to be considered as a viable option for TV -- but consider that by the time Gotham started using the Court of Owls, the idea was brand-new. It turned into a major part of the show's mythology.

The Man of Steel #1 will be available in stores and online Wednesday. Krypton will return in 2019 for a second season on SYFY.