Jose Aguilar asked Alan Moore:

If the justice system wasn't rigged on WB's favor, and the rights of Superman, Lois Lane and the Daily Star ever revert back to the Siegel and Shuster state, would you write a Superman story for them? What kind of story would that be?

Alan Moore I confess I don’t read many comics these days, chiefly those by my current Avatar stable-mates. So that would be Garth Ennis’s always-powerful War Stories along with anything else that the man happens to put out; Si Spurrier’s excellent and reinvigorated Crossed + 100 and his forthcoming Cry Havoc from Image; Kieron Gillen’s spectacular Mercury Heat, Phonogram, The Wicked + The Divine and, whenever he gets his lazy arse into gear, the next run of the exemplary Über; and, as mentioned earlier, the incredible Brian Vaughn’s concept-crammed Saga. As far as being given the chance to write any comic-book character, no matter what the inducements, can I say that I really wouldn’t want that in any circumstances? I genuinely have no further interest in any of the characters that the comic industry keeps in its massive police-auction horde of stolen property: for one thing, I’m sixty-two in a couple of weeks, and for another thing, how could I ever accept ‘full rights’ to a character that was created by some cheated creator of the past, and where those rights are not in the company’s gift from any ethical point of view? I have never had a real interest in Superman since I was around twelve years old, saving for when I was called upon to resurrect that interest for the Superman stories which I was offered. Even when offered the opportunity to write one of the only American comic characters that I retain affection for and interest in – this being Ogden Whitney and Richard Hughes’ sublime Herbie, the only comic character that is mentioned or discussed in Jerusalem, incidentally – I turned it down because I’m only interested in reading Hughes and Whitney’s Herbie, and have no interest at all in reading my own ‘take’, or ‘tribute’, or ‘homage’ to the character, which would add nothing new or interesting to already unique and fascinating work, and would at best amount to a fannish tribute which I’m sure that both of the original creators could have done without.

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