Rafa Sandoval Talks Designing Absolute Superman and Forging A New Future for the Man of Steel

Absolute Superman releases next week (Nov. 6th) from DC Comics with the new universe reimagining the hero with changes to his origin, powers, and history. The newest iteration of Kal-El is without a fortress, a home, and the family he usually has in the main DC Universe. We recently spoke to Jason Aaron about writing the series and what readers can expect! In a new conversation, we asked artist Rafa Sandoval some questions about drawing the upcoming series! Check out out our conversation below.

What were the major challenges in creating a new Superman and keeping things familiar but also trying to forge something new? 

Try to imagine the situation. It's always a pleasure to be commissioned to make a new design for a DCU character. But... they were asking me for that character to be Superman!

They sent me some previous designs, an approach that Rafael Albuquerque made. That was very helpful in the first phase of the new design. I also had many notes from both the editor and the writer, and there I was at my drawing table with the mission of getting something new, something shocking, but at the same time I had to get a design that maintained some very characteristic elements of the original Superman. If I didn't, there was a chance that it would be difficult for readers to familiarize themselves with the new look of such an iconic hero. For that reason, I wanted to keep some of Superman's signature details like the wavy hair, facial structure, and certain aspects of the uniform. The emblem, for example, had to be a new version that could be recognized at first sight.

How daunting is it to create an entirely new world for Superman to be a part of? How about designing his rogue's gallery, such as the Peacemaker's teased in issue two?

If designing the new version of Superman is already exciting, imagine what it means to create the look of a whole new universe for one of my favorite characters. That's not something that happens every day!

I think the most complicated part was in Jason's hands. He imagined this whole new world and studied it in every detail so that it had coherence. He described me this new Krypton as if it were a documentary, and I enjoyed capturing all those ideas and turning them into images.

And more. Jason and I designed an army of Peacemaker soldiers. There I applied the same premise as with the design of Superman so that they were recognizable by readers. We used the same colors of the original peacemakers design, as well as the emblem and helmet. Then, we liked the idea of ​​adding armors to give them a more resistant and fearsome look.

How did you decide to design his cape? It's such a unique take, and visually, it's one of the more interesting ones he's ever had.

They sent me instructions on what that new layer should be. Everything was very detailed and structured. It had to be a new cape—and a new suit—completely different from the one Superman has worn. My mission was to get all those detailed descriptions into a definitive image and create the necessary visual effects for what happens with this new layer. The edges of the cape had to be more fragmented to give it that sense of movement, but it didn't have to be simply the equivalent of the movement of a flag fluttering in the wind. It had to be flexible, but not inert. And it wasn't easy. I had to make several versions until one day I came across the final version that responded to all the needs of what we were going to see in this story. It was quite an experience, and what I'm most happy about is that I seemed to really like the result.