GREG RUCKA TALKS "SACRIFICE"

[MattBrady]

The “Sacrifice” ends today.

The four part crossover, launched in The OMAC Project #3, and running through Superman #219, Action Comics #829, Adventures of Superman #642 and Wonder Woman #219 concludes with Wonder Woman, in stores today, as well as The OMAC Project #4, which follows the after effects of the story.

While we’re not about to spoil the events of the final issue of the crossover here (and ask that those responding to the story don’t as well – there will be a chance for that later this week), we did catch up with OMAC, Adventures and Wonder Woman writer Greg Rucka for some insight on the story. Though be warned – there are slight spoilers ahead for the “Sacrifice” story.

Although first off, perhaps, as Rucka sees it, an apology is in order.

“I want to say, before anything else that we tried very hard to build OMAC so that you weren’t obligated to buy anything else, and we failed,” Rucka said. “We really did. I’ll cop to it – I won’t lie about it. And we did it by playing dirty pool too – if you were buying The OMAC Project, you really need the Superman and Wonder Woman books to know what’s happening in issue #4 of the miniseries. If you don’t read them, it’s possible to understand them, but you don’t get the emotional resonance. That was a little bit of dirty pool, but we didn’t plan it out that way – we weren’t looking to spring this on people, but that’s the way it happened, and again, we’re sorry. So instead of a six issue miniseries, you get a ten issue miniseries, and I won’t fault any reader for not picking it up. I’d still suggest them though, because they’re a good story and worth reading, but I’d suggest, if nothing else, you pick up Wonder Woman #219 at the very least – call it issue OMAC #3.5 if you must, because it sets up the events of OMAC #4.”

Going back from there, the events of “Sacrifice” themselves made themselves clear to Rucka and the other Countdown writers a while ago, and have to deal with dividing the “Trinity:” Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman – getting them to respective places where they don’t trust one another or even, in the worst case scenarios, see the others as friends and allies.

It all goes back to Max Lord and his involvement in Countdown.

“We always knew what happened – as soon as we had the Max piece of Countdown, we knew that there were other things that we had to execute, and we wanted to make sure it worked,” Rucka said. “We were breaking apart the ‘trinity,’ as we’d said several times. We had to have the reasons for the breaks – we knew the reasons, and we knew that had to show them. For both Diana and Bruce, what they do is so active and obvious, but for Kal, it’s far more subtle and going to be more difficult to see, and won’t really manifest until Infinite Crisis starts to come out. His ‘crisis’ is less of one that you can look at and point to – something like, ‘You made a spy satellite, you bastard!’ You can’t do that with Superman, but likewise, he has a crisis that affects him just as much as the actions Bruce and Diana undertaken that force the other two in the trinity away from them.”

Knowing what they had to do, and knowing where they were going to do it though, were two separate things. It was [Superman Group Editor] Eddie Berganza who came up with the idea of doing it as sort of a pseudo-mystery over the course of the month, building up to OMAC #4,” Rucka said. “At that point, we had to figure out how to make it work, so that what you’d be getting is a tight six issue story within a story, that starts with OMAC #3 and ends with OMAC #4, and incorporates the Superman and Wonder Woman titles over the course of July. And obviously, after that, there will be repercussions – it’s not like the last panel of OMAC #4 has the three of them walking away hand in hand, but we needed to fit that story in.”

Enter Superman writer Mark Verheiden and Action Comics writer Gail Simone. Both new on their respective titles, and both asked to incorporate a crossover into their ongoing storylines.

“We had a conference call that was Mark, Gail, Eddie, Joan [Hilty, OMAC editor], Ivan [Cohen, Wonder Woman editor] and myself breaking things down, and I have to say that, for both Mark and Gail, and having been the crossover bitch myself (take a look at Detective), it’s a hard thing to be on the third issue of your run, and have a crossover dropped in your lap. They both stood up, took the hit, and did their part beautifully. These kinds of things live or die on whether or not people execute. You cannot have a crossover if four of your writers are all there, doing the heavy lifting, and doing everything that’s required, and the fifth writer says, ‘Well, I’ll service it on two pages, and my other twenty pages will be eaten up by my subplots.’ That’s happened too, in many a crossover. Nothing kills a story faster. But like I said, Mark and Gail came in with their best games, and I was very grateful. Very grateful, because it wouldn’t have worked without them.”

The story the three writers came up with was sparked by Max Lord, in OMAC #3 starting his plans to control Superman’s mind – something he’d been working on for years.

“I want to point out that, as J’onn said, the work that needed to be done in Kal’s mind took Max years to do, it’s not even a direct control – what Max has done is he’s built scenarios that are just the ultimate virtual reality – Superman is 99% convinced of what is going on is, in fact, real,” Rucka said. “But the effort Max had to put into this was tremendous – and unique. It’s not as if he left a little door in Superman’s head saying, ‘Enter’ so that the telepath du jour can jump behind the wheel and play the DCU’s version of Being John Malkovich.”

Throughout the crossover, Superman has believed himself to be battling Brainaic, Darkseid, and Ruin in the three consecutive issues of the Superman books. And, as Superman tragically learned in Adventures #642, he wasn’t fighting any of his enemies at all – he was fighting, and nearly killing Batman in the JLA Watchtower.

“Max created a paranoid delusion in Superman’s mind that recast him as the voice of trust and reason in the scenarios, i.e., the priest or Pa Kent,” Rucka said. “Then, the incident is always based on the same thing, which is his inability to save someone that he loves, and the primary person in each, of course, being Lois. The goal of Max’s operation is ultimately to break the Trinity, but specifically, to motivate Superman to kill Batman, which is not an easy thing to do. You have to get Superman to such an emotionally distraught and temporarily deranged state that he’s willing to pull off all of the governors that he lives with every second of every day, to get him to the point where he’s going after someone with everything that he’s got.

“But in point of fact, even then, Max’s control doesn’t work fully – if he had gone after Batman with everything he had, Batman would have been a puddle. In Adventures #642, when you see the reveal of what really happened, it’s somewhat subtextual – during the fight, you see the discordant images in his memories of the fight when Diana and J’onn are in his head – he sees Batman, so there’s some little bit of him holding back.”

By the end of Adventures #642 though, Max’s control is in full sway again, Superman is a paranoiac again, and escapes, setting the stage for Wonder Woman #219 - where he finds his final challenge.

“Basically, it comes down to the moment in #219 of making Superman believe from all of his senses, all of his perceptions, that Doomsday is killing Lois, and he is powerless to stop it,” Rucka said. “In that scenario, Kal sees Diana as Doomsday, and does not see Max at all. When he’s in this scenario, he’s held back from saving ‘Lois’ at first, but when he’s freed, he’s half out of his mind with grief and rage.”

What’s next? Two words: Ready? Fight!

“Diana comes looking for Kal, fearing the worst and hoping for the best,” Rucka said. “Fearing in that she has the kryptonite from the Batcave, and ‘hoping’ is that she won’t need to use it on her friend, and Max will listen to reason. But how likely is that?

“We now have a situation where Kal has no reason to hold back at all – every governor is off. He’s going to kill Doomsday, period. Dana doesn’t want to kill Kal, though – that’s the last thing she wasn’t to do, because Kal is not the problem. The problem is in Max, and she has to stop Max, one way or another. So, the fight is between two opponents whoa re at very cross purposes – Kal is hitting her with everything he has, and Diana has to do everything she can do to survive that, and move on from that, and get to Max. It’s a pretty grueling fight.”

And by “grueling,” Rucka means…grueling.

"One of the things I try to include when I write scenes or fights such as this is that I always want the fights to have an effect. I always go back to the O’Neil/Cowyan Question fights – the moves were logically placed, there was no banter, and at the end, people were hurt. That said, I approached it in that manner – if you’re Wonder Woman, and Superman comes at you with this, what are you only options to stop it? There aren’t many. If he comes at you with heat vision, you need to stop that. One way of stopping that is to shove your thumbs into his eyes. She may be one of the only people in the universe who could hope to do that with a hint of success, so does she do it? She has to.

“Neither of them comes out of this looking pretty.”

So…after the fight, and into OMAC #4, is Diana in any state of mind to make a rational decision about stopping Max? After all, he’s controlled Superman once – he will do it again.

Rucka pulled down his teaser shield.

“In #220, Diana has a line saying, “When one is possessed with the wisdom of Athena, self-delusion is difficult, but not impossible.” It’s very hard for her not to see things as they are. That’s part of who she is. She’s a warrior, as much as she is a teacher and leader and a ruler. She comes from a culture where that is part of who you are.

“No, she never hits the same emotional level Kal is at in the fight, which is what helps to save her – Superman’s coming at her half out of his mind. He’s not fighting smart. She has to be smart all the way through it, and she’s Diana, so it’s very hard to make her loose her composure – which can be taken as something that’s good for Max…or bad.”

[delawarejoel]

I was annoyed the minute I saw the end of the last issue of OMAC -- and will not buy the other four stories. I was only paying attention to OMAC in the beginning as a Kirby fan, got sucked into the story, and then all of the sudden I have to buy four comics I would not otherwise have. At least with House of M I know I dont have to jump over to the secondary titles to get the main story.

That said, I hope there is some explanation of the events in the four "extra" stories in the new OMAC for those of us who have to budget to buy comic books every month....

[Dildo_Baggins]

Poor Superman, I would like that somebody could write him without being a COMPLETE MORON. Sad, sad.

[funjoe]

I was quite annoyed as well, especially since DC was playing up the whole "self-contained minis" prior to the #1s, but I bought them all anyway. The first two parts were pretty weak, but I enjoyed last week's Superman issue.

Anyway, even though I'm a cynical bastard I'll take Greg Rucka's explanation at face value and accept his apology.

[GOSD]

Man, wah wah wah!

I thought WW#219 was great but predictable.

Kudos to Rucka!

[linnen]

Hate to come off like a drone, but I'm really enjoying this storyline. Truth be told, I find most everything Rucka pens to be worthwhile - both comics and novels. His Wonder Woman isn't the best thing I have ever read, but it's good. On AOS and 'Tec he was outstanding, and OMAC is continuing the tradition.

[Moonbeam]

I couldn't sleep last night, anticipating this issue of Wonder Woman.

And it delivered big time!! What an excellent series DC gave us with Sacrifice, and wow -- what happened in this last issue is just huge.

As for the Sacrifice storyline being important to OMAC -- I've known that a long time. Wasn't it solicited that way? Anyway, it's very cool that Rucka's apologizing, but I certainly didn't need it. Despite the fact that I don't normally read any of the Superman titles, I've had the Sacrifice storyline on my pull list for months!!

[idkidd]

“We had a conference call that was Mark, Gail, Eddie, Joan [Hilty, OMAC editor], Ivan [Cohen, Wonder Woman editor] and myself breaking things down, and I have to say that, for both Mark and Gail, and having been the crossover bitch myself (take a look at Detective), it’s a hard thing to be on the third issue of your run, and have a crossover dropped in your lap. They both stood up, took the hit, and did their part beautifully.

As a new reader of Action Comics (the only regular Supes book I've read in years), it was really disappointing to get caught up in this crossover. If I had known it was going to be that extremely tied in to the Sacrifice story, I would have skipped it.

[ElijahSnowFan]

...the guy stood up, took the hit and apologized.

accepting it or not, certainly, is a personal choice.

but i'd rather have a guy come on the site and explain it, while giving a good interview, instead of a) speaking in riddles or not answering the questions, or b) not even coming on at all.

he didn't have to do that -- and i'll tell you what, i agree with him. you don't have to buy them all, but they were solid-to-great issues (though i haven't read WW 219 yet), and they enhance, not detract from the story.

hey, in this industry, far too many comics suck, so i'm never going to complain about a quality product...

[RAB]

I'm sticking to OMAC only. Not becuase I don't want to know what happens, or that I refuse to be "forced" into buying the other titles - especially considering I really enjoy OMAC - but simply becuase I don't read either Wonder Woman or the Superman titles regularly to begin with. That and - as the story itself implies - spoilers for "Sacrifice" will hit later this week, if not sooner on message boards...

[MoneyMelon]

I have a tremendous amount of respect for Greg Rucka right now for admitting that it's a little unfair that people have to pick up four extra books for Omac. They're already books I read, so it doesn't matter too much to me, but I can certainly see how frustrating this must be for some people. At least Rucka's being a man about it.

[New Alfonso]

Props to the man for the apology. Wish all creators had that kind of guts after extending storylines beyond their initial scope.

I wasn't planning to get any of Sacrifice, but the Adventures issue was damn good, and I plan on getting the WW issue. If a crossover convinces me to buy more comics that are of excellent quality and add to the overall story (not just filler), I won't complain.

[azhael]

I was lucky, my room mate gets the Superman books normally. So I got the begining of the Sacrafice arc without realizing it continued the OMAC storyarc. The only issue that is going to end up being extra in my house will be the Wonder Woman.

It is nice to see that they are saying we were pricks about it though, or at least someone involved is.

[Raphe Cheli]

Originally posted by Dildo_Baggins
Poor Superman, I would like that somebody could write him without being a COMPLETE MORON. Sad, sad.

He and Captain America are the two comic characters that are written the worst.

People always seem to think that because they are principled, they also have to be naieve.

They don't. Just ask the few writers who have been able to write both characters without making them fools -- Mark Waid and Roger Stern.

[No1insight]

I have to admit, I wasn't reading any of the Superman titles...but I bought the Sacrifice issues....and I just loved all three of them so much I went and bought the first issues of Gail/Mark's runs...and I got June's Adventures of Superman

Does this make me DC's bitch? .....maybe.

[HowAreWeToLive]

I'm a big fan, and was about to PM Matt to ask for an interview with Rucka. Thanks, Matt!

This story was great. Things are changing. I love that it's not just a villain vs. a hero, but that there's thematic change going on.

For those that want to comment about specific things, there's a review started by Blind Assassin in the Reviews section of Newsarama.

I still don't see Batman being on the outs with Wonder Woman yet, unless she gets angry about him creating the satellite.

[GOSD]

Originally posted by Moonbeam
I couldn't sleep last night, anticipating this issue of Wonder Woman.

And it delivered big time!! What an excellent series DC gave us with Sacrifice, and wow -- what happened in this last issue is just huge.

Wasn't it? WW is 2 cool...

Guys/Gals, go get your copy now!

[HowAreWeToLive]

Originally posted by Dildo_Baggins
Poor Superman, I would like that somebody could write him without being a COMPLETE MORON. Sad, sad.

Read Rucka's Adventures of Superman. He's turning Superman into a great character. The look in OMAC 4 that Superman gives Diana in the beginning of the story is priceless.

[tralfaz]

Originally posted by HowAreWeToLive

I still don't see Batman being on the outs with Wonder Woman yet, unless she gets angry about him creating the satellite.

it'll come, she killed someone, thats all it takes for him to get pissy

what i want to know is what does superman do to alienate himself from the two because the way rucka is talkin, it aint because he beatdown batman

[GOSD]

Originally posted by No1insight
Does this make me DC's bitch? .....maybe.

I know the feeling. The books that I was looking forward today were: WW, Flash and OMAC.

Count me as DC's whipping boy too..

[Justice Daye]

The problem is that there was no way that they accidently did this. It was done on purpose. If I burn down your house after promising the opposite, then I apologize, I'd still be a jerk.

An apology only works when you don't do something on purpose. Being one of the pivotal writers involved in the crossover, this is really inexcusable.

[Raphe Cheli]

Originally posted by Justice Daye
The problem is that there was no way that they accidently did this. It was done on purpose. If I burn down your house after promising the opposite, then I apologize, I'd still be a jerk.

An apology only works when you don't do something on purpose. Being one of the pivotal writers involved in the crossover, this is really inexcusable.

Wait... you're comparing possibly spending another $5 to get two more comics to SOMEONE BURNING DOWN A HOUSE!?

I'm not sure if his apology is either sincere or needed, but let's get over ourselves.

[Justice Daye]

Originally posted by Raphe Cheli
Wait... you're comparing possibly spending another $5 to get two more comics to SOMEONE BURNING DOWN A HOUSE!?

I'm not sure if his apology is either sincere or needed, but let's get over ourselves.

Ummm....I know it's an exaggeration...hyperbole...an extreme case. Besides, read it. I'm not comparing the act of burning down your house to this. I'm comparing the behaviors. I'm comparing the actions before, during and after someone did something that they said that they wouldn't. If you noticed only the act that was committed changed, while the behavior surrounding stayed the same.

How can someone just ignore the main point of the post and harp on an insigficant irrelevant detail?

[HowAreWeToLive]

Originally posted by Justice Daye
The problem is that there was no way that they accidently did this. It was done on purpose. If I burn down your house after promising the opposite, then I apologize, I'd still be a jerk.

An apology only works when you don't do something on purpose. Being one of the pivotal writers involved in the crossover, this is really inexcusable.

I thought we all LIKED buying comics here

[Raphe Cheli]

Originally posted by Justice Daye
Ummm....I know it's an exaggeration...hyperbole...an extreme case. Besides, read it. I'm not comparing the act of burning down your house to this. I'm comparing the behaviors. I'm comparing the actions before, during and after someone did something that they said that they wouldn't.

Right, but you're comparing intent in two drastically different things: arson and comic books. This is like the degree of crime -- felony or getting chastised by the local cop for jaywalking.