Steelworks: Michael Dorn Forges a Bright Future for the Real Man of Steel

In an interview with CBR, Michael Dorn reveals the mythological inspirations that led to launch the Steel comic book miniseries Steelworks.

After playing Steel in Superman: The Animated Series, fan-favorite actor and writer Michael Dorn is taking the reins on John Henry Irons' new solo comic book, Steelworks. Launching this June, Dorn is joined by artist Sami Basri to tell the tale of John Henry Irons as he launches a new initiative in Metropolis only to run into super villain resistance. As the DC Universe's quintessential self-made superhero, John Henry can't rely entirely on his friendship with Superman to save the day as he leaps back into action as Steel.

In an exclusive interview with CBR, writer Michael Dorn shared some of the major themes propelling Steelworks, offers insight into John Henry's psyche, and revealed his own folklore and thematic inspirations behind the six-issue story.

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CBR: In this opening issue, we see two important women in John Henry Irons' life -- his niece Natasha and his fiancée Lana Lang. What was it about grounding John between these two women?

Michael Dorn: I think that the guy has had enough tragedy in his life to where he can navigate something like this. It's not in the comic book, but with what he's been through, this is like a walk in the park. Although it's a challenge, it's just the idea that everybody in this comic is very intelligent and very mature, not given to childish or immature things. They have feelings, and their opinions like everybody does, but I think that they're incredibly smart people, and he realizes that.

He basically takes [in] each person's opinions, feelings and what they say. He mushes it around in his head, and then he comes to a decision about it. He doesn't [put down] anybody's idea right offhand and I think that's the thing that he has come to realize about this relationship.

The folk hero John Henry beat the machine but at the cost of his own life, which always bummed me out. John Henry Irons builds the machine, he's a self-made man who created Steelworks. How did you want to keep the spirit of the folklore in this comic book John Henry?

I'm old enough where I remember George Pal did a stop-motion film in the [40s] and it was always a little disturbing for me. That image has been seared in my brain all my life. I thought that would be a good start for what I feel about him, which is that, yeah, machines are very good, they do really good work. They make great tools, like with any machine, but it can destroy you. It may not destroy you physically, but it might destroy you mentally and in turn, the mental goes with the physical. Even though we don't see [it] at first, that's the little germ that I have way in the background.

It's basically him fighting this urge to let the machine dictate who he is. Like with life in general, it's a pendulum -- you start here, you change something, and then the pendulum swings that way. It's a radical swing. After a few times, it’ll stop in the middle and that's the analogy that I like to use.

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As John Henry is encouraging the people of Metropolis to stand up and become the people they're meant to become, the adversaries are the people society has forgotten or written-off. What was it about having those types become the villains in this story?

The word that we use quite a lot, hopefully not too much, is "collateral damage." For me, I'm a pacifist and I also know about wars. I've pretty much been a historian, in my own small way, about wars. Not that I like them, but wars become focal points of our history -- things change, nations are built, nations are destroyed and what happens after that, and it's all been very interesting.

The idea that, out of all wars or conflicts, the little guys are the ones who take it on the chin. As we see today in Ukraine, no matter what the idea or reason is, it's the people that have no dog in the fight -- the women, the children and guys just trying to work to give for their families -- they're the ones that get it in the end, they’re the real losers. I wanted to bring that to this idea in a superhero way, which is when the superheroes come in, they do their thing, wave the flag and fly away -- what about the people that have to pick up after that and go on with their lives?

It's not that thing of [the heroes] destroyed something and these people are in trouble, but their lives are changed materially. I wanted to bring that sensibility along with the essence of what this is about. It's a DC Universe comic book, so you have to have these things in it. It's like directing. When you direct a show, you might have some really good ideas, but The Big Bang Theory is going to be about Sheldon and Leonard and that whole thing. You can insert a [few] things in there, but it's going to be about that. The thing that I love about this whole idea is that I love the little dance you have to do to make it work.

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With comic book writing, you're not only writing, but it feels like you're writing to a storyboard as you go panel-to-panel. How has it been flexing those creative muscles?

It's been really amazing and collaborative. The last job that I worked was very collaborative, and I enjoyed that immensely, especially when there's not a lot of ego going on. It's just about making the work as good as possible and being able to put out a product without going on a shooting spree. With anything [that's] creative, you go, "I think this is a great idea, how do I put that on paper?" and that was an interesting change from anything I've done before. I've written scripts for TV, movies, and whatever, but writing a script for a comic book is a different animal.

In movies, you don't have to [describe much], but in comics, you do. You have to describe everything down to the last thing because the illustrator has to know what you’re thinking. I've been really fortunate because the illustrator for the first one has been really amazing and will ask me, "What do you think about that?" and I won't know what to say, it was incredible. [laughs] They also add stuff that makes you [think], "Oh my god, I didn't think about that!" It's been a great process, and I thoroughly enjoyed it

As Sami Basri's artwork was coming in, did that influence you in recalibrating your writing?

No. From the very beginning, after I turned the first one in, [editor] Paul Kaminsky said, "I really like it, but you need to do this for us." I went, "Oh, okay!" and that one thing was the descriptions. I had to really describe what [was] going on, how many people are in a scene, what are you seeing, how much destruction, it has to all be there so that the illustrator can do that.

[Laughs] It's not like they said I had to go rob a bank, they just asked if I could describe things better and if you're creative, you go, "Great!" It's a different system.

Across the pantheon of characters you've played, what is it about John Henry Irons that has stuck with you and made you want to write his adventures?

The mythology of the original John Henry was what clued me in because when they said that -- when I do the voice, they've already created what they're going to do, so you do the voice and hope to bring something to it. The mythology was really right-on, especially with A.I. and all of these things coming out. That's the great thing about science fiction, and I've been a science fiction geek all my life. Science fiction was mostly relegated to B-movies and because of that, they were able to do stories about us trying to kill ourselves or racism or prejudice, all these things. You're able to start with the mythology of man versus machine and take that to its fruition.

In the first Jurassic Park, Jeff Goldblum says, "Yeah, we can do it, but should we do it? We can do it, but should we?" I think those are the themes that are with us today. With Star Trek and all that, that's why they resonate because there are people sitting in their living rooms watching saying, "I understand! That's my family, that's my job, that's where I am right now -- those are my prejudices." That's where I like to think it resonates.

Michael, with Steelworks #1 coming out June 6, what else can you tease about the story as it starts to gain momentum?

I told the editors and everybody when I did this that I'd like to see a person start someplace and end on an arc. It's not necessarily that they go back where they were, but they start someplace and end up [somewhere unexpected]. I think that's all I can say about what we’re doing. What we've seen so far in comics about the DC Universe is a very sort of age-old and time-tested idea of who these people are.

I would like to throw a monkey wrench in that and have them stop and think about their existence. I think they’re allowing me to do that, and I think that's all I can say. From what you've seen, just amplify that. [laughs]

Written by Michael Dorn, illustrated by Sami Basri, colored by Andrew Dalhouse and lettered by Rob Leigh, Steelworks #1 goes on sale June 6 from DC Comics.

Sam Stone is a 10th level pop culture guru living just outside of Washington, DC who knows an unreasonable amount about The Beatles. You can follow him on Twitter @samstoneshow and ask him about Nintendo, pop punk, and Star Trek.