In January, Naomi helped to launch Wonder Comics, a new DC imprint curated by Brian Michael Bendis (Action Comics, Daredevil). Co-written by Bendis and David F. Walker (Luke Cage, Cyborg), the series -- which is illustrated by Jamal Campbell (Nightwing, Supergirl) -- follows the titular heroine Naomi as she works to uncover the secrets of her past, learning that the story behind her adoption isn't nearly as simple as it first seems. Along the way she discovers that she has powers and shocking truths about her origin.
The first six issues received a lot of critical praise and are being collected in the upcoming Naomi: Season One, with the next installment of the series slated for publication at a later date. CBR talked with Bendis, Walker and Campbell over the phone about the reaction to the first six issues and how the shocking events of Naomi #6 set the stage for more to come.
Now that the first season of Naomi is out, how are you feeling about the reaction to it?
Brian Michael Bendis: We had a really fun day yesterday. The collection came out in comic book stores yesterday. So I woke up to quite a lovely celebration of people buying the book or discovering the book after having heard all year what other people thought of it. I don't know about the other guys. I thought yesterday was kind of amazing.
David F. Walker: I was at New York Comic Con earlier this month, and the trade hadn't come out yet. And that was the question on a lot of people's minds: "When's it coming? I got issues one and three, but I missed two." People just really responded to in such a positive way, far more than I personally had anticipated. So it's a really good feeling. And now that the collection's out, it's great that there's actually also -- Is it okay to call them a new generation of fans? I mean, it's not even a year old yet... So that discovery process is still going on.
Jamal Campbell: For me, I was actually at a local comics shop yesterday for the week, and just seeing a lot of people who, again, had like the first issue or had like the third issue but didn't want to read it because they didn't have the rest of them. They can actually have it now and were super excited to actually read it because they love what they've heard or what they've seen so far. That was amazing to me.
Bendis: The only thing I feel a little guilty about is that Jamal, being the youngest of us, I kind of had to let him know, this doesn't happen all the time. [Everyone laughs]... I've had it happen a couple of times in my life, and that in itself is so magical that when it happens again -- you know, me and David have been friends for a very long time, and I want nothing more than to have this feeling from this. Then to bring Jamal into this and for it to be this experience, I was like, "Oh, good this is exactly everything you want out of comics. Just FYI, it doesn't happen all the time." I felt the need to say that out loud... It just feels like this big hug that just doesn't stop. I get it with [Into the Spider-Verse] and Miles, and to have it here at DC as well, boy it's just something.
Are there any particular reactions that people have had that stood out, like an interaction with a fan or someone like that?
Walker: I don't think either Brian or Jamal have seen any cosplayers yet. But there was a young woman who cosplayed as Naomi at San Diego this year. That was pretty amazing. And then in New York, a woman who had a T-shirt on that was "#Naomi." And when I first saw it, I thought, "No, that can't be what I think it is." And it was. It's just the amount of fans that are coming up and expressing their appreciation. So it's not just a single cosplayer or one person wearing a T-shirt, but it's just these these fans that are coming up.
A lot of them are younger readers. The comic industry, at times, it seems like it's catering to all middle-aged guys or something. But there's been a lot of younger people coming up, and really expressing their appreciation and their connection with the character in the story that we've been trying to tell.
Bendis: My biggest takeaway that was surprising and delightful was how hungry some of the audience was just for a fresh perspective on the DC Universe. They were like, "Oh, good." I mean, that's kind of like from people who are just buying Naomi. They're like, "Yeah, I just wanted in. I didn't know how to get in. Here's a new person who's walking in with me" And I was like, "Oh great, I'm so happy we were able to do that for you!"
I remember that feeling that I had on certain books or universes, and I was so happy that we were that for people, that they wanted in, and this was the way in. So that conversation has brought forth many other conversations within DC, and that has emboldened us to try some other thing, particularly in Wonder Comics, with Jinny Hex and other characters.
They offer such a fresh perspective on this that it is almost feels like a completely new universe to the younger reader. So that's exciting.
Campbell: On my end, I've had a couple of parents come up to me and say how they've been trying to get their children into comics, but haven't had anything that really stuck. And for that some of them, Naomi has been the one where they started reading with their children, and they're actually super excited about it and it got them into reading comics. And they're not so patiently waiting for the next issue to come out.
Let's turn our focus towards the future. What are you guys most excited to see or for have people to see in Season 2 of this book?
Walker: I'm excited for people to see Jamal's art. That's what I'm excited for.
Bendis: Me too, but also we get to dive in deeper now. Now we've set the table, we've set the rules, we've met all the players, and they all had surprises. Everyone was either surprised or had surprises, and now they have to deal with it all. Now they have a new reality. The family has a new dynamic that they have to deal with, and for those who've been reading carefully, the story of Naomi has continued past what's in the trade paperback. Literally, we're still on the same day in her life in the pages of Action Comics and in Young Justice, where the night continues.
So there's a very interesting shared universe post-mortem going on with Naomi during the downtime between series, and then when we pick back up for the second run of Naomi, a lot will have happened to her, but it's only going to reflect what she needs to know to do what you need to do next. But she'll have met Superman, she'll have met Batman, she'll become a member of Young Justice. A lot will have happened between Naomi One and Two.
Do you know approximately how long -- or are you allowed to reveal -- how long that time jump is?
Bendis: Time is relative in comics. [Everyone laughs]. To be continued. I'll have a better answer. I don't want to give an even vaguely long answer. People take those answers very seriously, and I don't want to give a long one.
What about you, David and Jamal? What are you most excited for in Season 2?
David: For me, and seriously I am excited [about] Jamal's art, and it might sound kind of weird and crazy to say this, and I don't want to speak for Brian, but I will because I do it all the time, as we were writing that first season, the further we got into it, the more we started thinking in terms of, not only is what is going to be great for the story, but what's going to be really cool to have Jamal draw? We're leaning into his strengths as a storyteller. He's working on another project right now, and we both know that by the time we're working fully-immersed in Season 2 of Naomi, he's going to have developed even more...
What I'm looking forward to in Season 2 is not only building upon this very interesting character that we brought to life and her little corner of the world, but knowing that, you know, again, comics are a largely visual medium and knowing that there's going to be this opportunity to really knock people's socks off. I was flipping through the trade the other day, and I was reminded of that process that we had in creating, where there's this moment when you finish writing a script, turn it into the editor and then slowly the pages start coming in, the art starts coming in. And that's when the comic really begins to take on a whole new life, especially for someone like me who doesn't draw.
It becomes fresh all over again. And part of what this series is about and this character is about is discovery. And for me anyway, I feel that sense of discovery working on it, and then absorbing it after it's done.
Campbell: I'm excited to sort of just explore Naomi and her world and her family now that we've actually established everything and it stuck and it works. Now we actually will have the chance to have fun with it and explore and play around with it and do basically whatever we want with it. We know that foundation there that we built.
Bendis: Yeah, you have so much stuff you've designed that we haven't even shown yet. And I'm curious to see how the whole experience of Far Sector affects your choices in the second series, too. And I know you're gonna come to us and go, "More Green Lantern!"
Walker: There's the supporting characters, too, that, as we were working on the series, and now afterwards as we're talking about it, we created not just one character: we created this whole world. I started thinking the other day, Brian sent me a script for [Action Comics] or Young Justice and I was reading it, and there was there was a moment with one of the supporting characters from Naomi, and I was like, "Ah, there's this character." ... I can't wait to delve into this to see more about what Jen and Greg, her parents, are up to, what Dee, the mechanic, is up to. All of them. I'm kind of a junkie for supporting characters.
Bendis: Yeah, me too.
Walker: I love supporting characters. That's something that we haven't really talked about that much in relation to the series, but it's something that really excites me.
In Season 1, Naomi really comes into this massive truth about herself, which is that she is incredibly powerful and that she is special in a way that she didn't realize or could even conceive. How do you feel that revelation will affect her relationships with others, with her friends with her family, etc?
Bendis: Well, it's all going to change. We left the first series where, alright. Now what? Because everything has changed, and the adults have an even larger perspective on how different everything will be now. You know, Naomi's father had military experience. And he's a very different opinion about all of this than you may think. He may feel differently about putting her in harm's way than he may be letting on. So all of the relationships haven't even unpacked what happened. We haven't even gotten to the next day yet! So this is very exciting stuff and everyone who's been through a life changing event knows it's the next day that the good stuff happens.
Walker: The next day and the next week and the next month. Brian really hit the nail on the head, because it's not just -- and this goes back to what I was saying about supporting characters, too -- it's not just how Naomi reacts or how people react to her. It's also going to be how these other people react to each other. So how do her parents, Greg and Jen, not only how do they react to her, but how do they interact with each other moving forward, and that's going to be some really fun stuff to unpack.
Bendis: Also, we have our bad guy, and a whole world behind the door where Naomi came from that's literally banging on the door trying to get to us. So, the threat is coming, and we see it's enormous. It's world burning.
As exciting as it is to drop Naomi on the DC Universe, it is very exciting to come up with an original bad guy that you can unleash on the whole universe. It's so hard to do, and when it happens it's so exciting. So yeah. Look for more threats coming through that door.
How does Naomi feel that threat is just behind the door, that she is potentially putting people that she loves and cares about in danger?
Bendis: That's part of what you're going to be seeing in Action Comics and in Young Justice. It is the immediate reaction to, you know, she hasn't brought that danger, but she feels a responsibility for it. It's connected to her, and it's bringing her a great deal of anxiety, like physical anxiety. Actually having powers is bringing her anxiety. She's having trouble controlling them. She's way far away from mastering anything or even finding out what the full potential of her powers is and what the cost of them are are. So all of that is going to weigh heavy very quickly.
Walker: Yeah, what Brian said.
Is there anything else you guys would like to add?
Bendis: I'm so overwhelmed by the response to Naomi and to Wonder Comics in general. And it was just this vibe and energy that we really wanted to put out there. And the response has been in kind. Naomi is kind of like the perfect example of what you want to do in comics as far as putting something out there and getting the response back that was the intended response.
You know, I just thank everybody. We take it so seriously and everyone who tweets us, it empowers us to keep going, so just thank you. Thanks, everyone! Because a lot of this is word of mouth. People just scream and yell as loud as they can to tell other people to buy this, and just thank you to everyone who did that.
Naomi: Season One releases in bookstores everywhere on October 29.