How does Charles Soule do it? If you ignore the answers provided by the comic writer himself on his personal blog, it is almost impossible to imagine how one man can spread himself so thin across eight different titles between Marvel, DC, and Oni Press. At the moment he currently writes Inhuman, She-Hulk, and Thunderbolts at Marvel, Superman / Wonder Woman, Swamp Thing, and Red Lanterns for DC, and his creator-owned title at Oni called Letter 44. On top of the multiple ongoing series, today marks the release of the first issue of miniseries event The Death of Wolverine.
It looks like Soule will settle down a tad after the announcement in The Hollywood Reporter that Marvel has signed Soule for an exclusive contract. This is good news for Soule as his star continues to rise in the industry.
Sadly though, this means his runs on his DC titles will be ending. It was already announced that Batman and Robin writer Peter Tomasi will be taking over the reins of Superman / Wonder Woman, which was one of the first in a wave of new writing teams on all the Superman books that finally got Superman right after years of other writers struggling to find the character’s voice since the debut of the New 52. Superman has finally returned to being the good natured symbol of hope that he is suppose to be, and that can be partially attributed to Soule (Greg Pak’s Action Comics, Scott Snyder’s Superman Unchained, and Geoff John’s Superman have also been doing excellent work with the character).
As good as Superman / Wonder Woman (Soule can also write a fantastic Wonder Woman) and Red Lanterns have been, nothing will compare to the loss of Soule writing Swamp Thing. Arguably on par with, if not better than, Snyder’s Batman and Brian Azzarello’s Wonder Woman, Swamp Thing has easily been one of DC’s best books and it is a shame to see him leave it.
Sad as it is to see him leave some of his titles, it is exciting to see what Soule will do now that he gets to fully immerse himself into the Marvel universe. Based on previous works, the writer would be right at home working on Doctor Strange, Captain America, the Punisher, the Hulk, and (fingers crossed) Man-Thing.
