Spinning out of the events of DC UNIVERSE: REBIRTH #1, a new day dawns for Earth's greatest heroes as they welcome three new members to the team, including... Superman? Who is this strange visitor from a dead world -- and can he be trusted? Batman and Wonder Woman aren’t so sure.
>You’re writing the new JUSTICE LEAGUE, which is now going to be drawn by Tony S. Daniel and Fernando Pasarin. Have you worked with them before?
I’ve never written for another artist before. JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA was essentially my first writing assignment. I’ve written creator-owned stuff, but that’s not quite the same as writing a company comic on this kind of schedule. Fortunately, I’m a fast writer, slow artist.
>I didn’t realize you hadn’t written for other artists before!
No, it’s all been a bit of a learning curve, honestly. Fortunately, though, with artists that good, you just need to give them the right amount of information and let them get on with what they do best.
>I spoke with Tony Daniel shortly after this comic was announced and he was extremely complimentary about working with you. The fact that you’re a fellow artist seemed to make the whole process that much more exciting for him.
I think it’s really just about giving him as much information as he needs and no more than that. I know what it’s like when someone’s telling you where to put every detail—“Put this on the right! Put this in the background!” That doesn’t give an artist the freedom to be expressive, and what you want is for them to be inspired. So really, I think it’s just about getting the pacing and the beats right, and giving them the information they need to be able to set scenes.
I’m delighted with everything Tony’s doing. It’s just fabulous work. The first issue has got an opening sequence with Wonder Woman that I can guarantee will just knock everybody’s socks off. It’s extraordinary. Fernando, too, has been doing tremendous work. He’s insane enough to try anything you ask him to do no matter how crazy it is, and the result is just wonderful.
>So now that we’re just over a week away from the first issue, what can you tell us about the new Justice League comic?
There’s a slightly different character dynamic to the Justice League now. We still have Superman, Batman, Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Cyborg and Aquaman, so it still seems like it’s the same core characters. However, we have a different Superman. We have two Green Lanterns now, both of whom have very different experiences with the team. The team arrested Simon Baz, while Jessica Cruz tried to kill them, but she also had a long term relationship with the team. That’s going to bring a different dynamic than we had with Hal in the group. Having two rookies in the group also changes Victor’s perspective on the team because he’s no longer the rookie.
Victor and Simon have very similar backgrounds. They’re both from Detroit and to a degree they have both felt a little isolated and that they didn’t particularly belong anywhere. We also have a Superman that none of them know. I mean, at first glance he’s Clark. He’s Kal-El and Superman, but he has a whole wealth of experience that the other Superman didn’t have, and it’s a different experience. So there’s no relationship with them to start with. It’s a surface relationship. They know who he is, but Batman, who learned to trust the other Superman, is now working with someone new that he doesn’t trust. All the time Batman’s had a friendship with Superman, there was another Superman here all along. Why? What does that mean?
There’s going to be a reason for it and that’s going to drive their relationship in the early story arc.
>That Superman also would have had a relationship and experience with the prior Justice League. Is that something that also creeps into the story?
Absolutely. It’s right there in JUSTICE LEAGUE: REBIRTH #1. There’s a scene where chaos is raining down on the planet, and the League as it currently exists, without the two Green Lanterns and without Superman, are dealing with it. Superman sees stuff happening, but he’s been used to taking a back seat.
His real touchstone to the super hero world on this Earth is Lois. That’s his anchor and his heart—his family. The fact that this Superman is married and does have a child, that’s something you can’t conveniently forget just because you’re doing big scale Justice League stories. That emotion still has to drive through whatever you’re throwing at them, and it does. There are actually scenes between Batman and Lois which are just really powerful, emotionally speaking.
Superman comes into the first arc because they need him. Frankly, he’s the only one who can do what they need. Nobody else on Earth would have a chance at surviving, and Batman has to go and ask him to do it. But the driving force behind that scene is what he has to say to Lois. This could mean goodbye because there’s no guarantee he’s going to come back. It’s such a big thing that it’s doubtful that even Superman will survive it. But he has to do it because if he doesn’t, nobody on Earth will survive.
>You touched on this when talking about Clark’s family, but Rebirth is really bringing tighter continuity back to the DC Universe. When you started JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, DC was taking something of a different approach. As a writer, is this tighter continuity proving to be a challenge? What are your thoughts on that?
The position we have here is that although all of these characters have their own books, this is the one book they share. This is where all of the connective tissue comes together. FLASH, GREEN LANTERNS, AQUAMAN, SUPERMAN, BATMAN, WONDER WOMAN and CYBORG, all those books have a relationship with each other. This book has to drive those relationships. It’s the cornerstone of how those relationships play out across the individual books. I’ve been talking about this with the other writers and editors, and seeing where we could pay that off in their titles.
>You’ve been working on JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA and now you’re moving over to this new book. We’ve discussed some of them, but are there other differences between this and JLA that fans can expect?
The way that JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA worked out, the book’s essentially been one single story. There is a secondary story that comes in later just to finish off the book, but essentially it was the Rao/Superman story. With Rebirth, I’m able to plan a much longer story. It’s a story that I probably wouldn’t have been able to do if the book hadn’t been twice monthly. Had there been a month between issues, for instance, I probably wouldn’t have structured the first story arc as a complete action movie. It’s relentlessly action packed. But had that been done over five months, I think it would have been too much and you might not have felt like you were getting enough meat with the story. But doing it over two months, that’s different. Then we can deepen those relationships in the next story arc.
It gives me the opportunity to tell a story in a slightly different way than I would have had the book been monthly. It also means that I can do this big story, with a big endgame planned. I know exactly what I’m planning to do across, say, thirty issues. This first arc, although it’s a big-scale story completely on its own, it really is an opening statement for that larger story. It sets up mysteries and asks questions they’re going to have to answer. It’s the opening salvo on what’s probably one of the biggest scale adventures the Justice League has ever had, but it’s also a very deep, personal story for all of them. They will end those thirty issues differently than they began them. Something happens in the longer term that will really affect everything—reality, universes, Earth, life. It’s going to be driven by them and how they feel about each other, as much as by the big cosmic events that are occurring around them.
>>84188401
That's a butthole.
>>84188413
Imma give it a year until Classic Supes gets retconned as he real Supes
>>84188510
Is it photo referenced?
>>84188554
New52 Supes will come back with the trunks
>>84188590
Heard it was a live model.
>>84188401
I hate how bitter I feel about Hal being removed from the JL again
It seems that Bryan Hitch wants to do big concept, action stories in the vein of Grant Morrison's JLA and Warren Ellis' Authority, and i very much like that.
>>84188445
Whatsup with batmans leg on that cover?
>>84188944
He fell for the SS meme
could've atleast bothered to finish JLA
>>84188759
What's worse. A Halfag or post-crisisfag?
>>84188363
>by Bryan Hitch
Cool, How many years will this run take to complete?
>>84188384
Is that a revamped Starro?
>>84190223
He's not drawing (other than this one shot), so shouldn't take as long.
Isn't Hitch the guy who was drawing that boring JL series before Rebirth?
>>84190369
yes, and which got its 5 last issues canceled because of his delays
>>84188759
I hate that it's still just the fucking New 52 team but with the two new Lanterns instead.
You'd think they'd at least got J'onn or something.
>>84190409
Hm. Strange that DC would be trusting a flagship book to him. Maybe he writes faster than he draws.
>>84188401
>Victor and Simon have very similar backgrounds. They’re both from Detroit
Vibe and the new Justice League Detroit when?
What a boring lineup. Being written by an artist. No chance I'm picking this up.
>>84190458
>Maybe he writes faster than he draws.
Given that he was just rehashing Thy Kingdom Come in the most obvious and ham-fisted way I don't imagine it took much time to throw together, no.
>>84190409
Not cancelled just delayed. He said he'll go back to drawing after he finished this Rebirth issue, which means he's back at it.
Source:http://www.bleedingcool.com/2016/06/03/bryan-hitchs-justice-league-of-america-series-cancelled-for-now/Yea, I know Bleeding Cool but they have both the original article and his tweets.
>>84188554
isnt that what's already happening?
>>84190151
Post-Crisisfags by a healthy margin
>>84190344
No. Clark mentions the Starro invasion in the caption boxes. It happened in the New 52 continuity.
I miss Superbro.
>>84193395
But that's the Starro invasion they are showing in a flashback, I guess
>>84193469
That's not a flashback.
will read first issue but was not a fan of hitch's jla at all
artist-written books are almost never good unless its an indie book.
