I had a chat with comics legend Mark Waid about his upcoming title from Legendary Comics, Shadow Walk, which we previewed in October. Waid discussed the process involved in creating this particular comic, as well as larger themes of morality and faith.

Check out the audio interview here below, along with the transcript.

Attendees at this year’s New York Comic-Con have already gotten a chance to obtain a special 12-page print preview for Legendary Comics’ new graphic novel Shadow Walk, but you don’t have to miss out if you’re not able to hit the Big Apple this weekend. We’ve got the same 12-pages for you to check out right now!

Shadow Walk is written by Mark Waid (Daredevil), Max Brooks (World War Z), and Thomas Tull (Haphaestus) with art by Shane Davis (Superman: Earth One), and explores the possibility that the Valley of the Shadow of Death is a real place. The United States sends a group of special forces soldiers into Iraq to investigate a series of paranormal events. From there, well, you’ll see in the pages below.

Shadow Walk is out in late November 2013, so make sure you keep a look out for it and take a look at the pages here below.

Superman: Earth One
Hardcover
Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Art by Shane Davis
DC Comics
Price: $19.99
Released Date: October 27, 2010

Superman: Earth One is an exciting, modern revamp of a character that most everyone reading this has been familiar with as long as memory serves us. In a lot of fans’ opinions, Superman doesn’t need changing, but in the eyes of the majority, he needed an upgrade, and Earth One is a brilliant example of how to take the character in a new, relevant direction.

As reported, this is an origin story of Superman taking place in a modern setting. An alien boy is found in a small country town in Kansas named Smallville. When he’s older, Clark Kent goes from Smallville to the big city of Metropolis with a gift. His parents encourage the young man to stand up for what is morally right, but he is uncertain of himself. Clark is searching for jobs and positions to help his widowed mother, and he stumbles upon a local newspaper named The Daily Planet. A villainous force comes to Metropolis to find Clark, and he finds the will to protect the Earth. This is your typical origin story for Superman. The main difference? Superman is not a boyscout, and I believe it’s for the better.

Early reviews for the first entry in the DC Comics brand new line of graphic novels, Superman: Earth One by writer J. Michael Straczynski and artist Shane Davis, are out and so far they’ve been pretty mixed, but one specific write-up stood out amongst the others.

In an article in The New York Post yesterday, the writer refers to Superman’s new look in Superman: Earth One as “more Robert Pattinson from the Twilight movies than Christopher Reeve from the Superman films.” I have yet to read the book yet, but oh boy… there’s so much wrong with this.

The article focuses a lot of attention on the different approaches that JMS has taken with the character in this new universe, basically calling Superman a moody hipster, which is kind of hilarious if you think about that for a second. My main problem with the article is not necessarily what is reported in the news, but what they chose to focus on. This piece is nothing more than a modern fashion article with references to hoodies and skinny ties, but DC Comics has always attempted to keep fashion relevant when updating a character (in an alternate universe in this instance).