DC Universe Online has inspired players across the globe to create their own hero or villain within the DC Universe for over a decade. Finally, the DCUO will introduce a fan-favorite concept to the long-running MMO. Taking inspiration from Dark Nights: Death Metal's overarching storyline -- that pitted the Justice League against the Legion of Doom at the behest of the multiversal threat --, DCUO will be bringing the villainous counterpoint to the Justice League to life in an upcoming episode set to drop in December 2021.
During an exclusive interview with CBR, Dimensional Ink Games' CEO Jack Emmert spoke about DCUO's upcoming episode, "Legion of Doom." Emmert also broke down the process of bringing a multiversal level to the game and teased recent updates tied to Wonder Woman's 80th Anniversary, the inclusion of a real-world city in the game, and the future of DCUO.
CBR: For any DC fan, the Legion of Doom showing up is a big deal. What made you the most excited for this villainous counterpoint to the Justice League to arrive within the game?
Jack Emmert: For me, it dates back to Superfriends way back when. And, of course, DC has been able to utilize it over and over again in comic books. What we're doing is taking our own version of a very recent storyline, that of Perpetua and the Legion of Doom, and we're doing our own unique spin on it.
The overarching Legion of Doom/Perpetua/The Batman Who Laughs storyline carried the DC Universe to an absolutely massive scope in recent years.
So from the perspective of Perpetua, I don't think we've really escalated DCUO to that multiversal level as of yet. Certainly, we traveled to other realities, like Flashpoint or even Earth-Three. But we never have we really gone to that next level beyond. And, for that matter, DC really hadn't either -- introducing what's behind the Source Wall and really talking about the foundation of DC and threading it together with the Monitor, with the Anti-Monitor, with the World-Forger to create their very own theogony, if you will, and the creation of their multiverse.
Was it daunting at all to take the game to that level?
I think that the great thing is that the DC storyline with the Legion of Doom and with Perpetua... All of those things really helped give us ideas that we could draw from, so it wasn't daunting. I think it was hard to resist adding to the depth and instead really try to keep something that everyone could enjoy. Because, of course, I'm an uber-geek, and I can really go in-depth DC lore-wise. I think that is always a challenge to make sure that I listen to the better angels of my nature.
One of the things I find interesting about the DC Universe Online take on this story is that regardless of what kind of player you're playing as you're up against the Legion of Doom. Was there ever a temptation to allow players to actually join up with Lex and the others?
At least with our version of the game, whether you're a hero or a villain, you have a stake in preventing what's happening to happen. And, in fact, even in the comics, there's a realization by Lex like, "Oh, my gosh. What have I done?" I think that that remains part of the overall story so that we can unite the players from across the world to help try and stop Perpetua. I think it had always been, let's bring everybody to do this to overcome the threat. At the end of the day, as an MMO, it's all about the community.
At least for what our goals are, [it's important] to bring everyone together as much as we possibly can. In this case, by presenting something that is so overwhelmingly dangerous to existence that it doesn't matter whether you're a hero or villain, either way, what's coming is really bad. I should note, just as an aside, that this one episode is part of a sequence of future episodes. This is something that we really started at the beginning of the year and that we tried to create a storyline and a narrative that takes place over a longer period of time so that we can tell bigger stories like this. Home of Legends was really a big step because here we're introducing characters that will be necessary in order for players to begin engaging with the threats that Perpetua and the Legion of Doom pose.
Now, for the most part, the Legion of Doom is remaining the same roster as from the comics -- were there any deviations besides just adding Giganta to the roster?
Once we knew where we want to go with the storyline. I think that in this version of Legion of Doom, we really wanted to model off of what the comics had done. However, we certainly had a lot of discussions about the intricacies of which characters to use and in what circumstances to use them. When do you face off and where do you face off against Sinestro as opposed to Giganta as opposed to Black Manta? When does each of these different characters come into play? So Giganta, of course, was in Year of the Villain. But she was not part of the Legion, per se, in the actual storyline comic, though a member of incarnations of the Legion of Doom in the past... I think Giganta is really the only surprise.
This story also brings the Hall of Justice to the game, along with a first for DC Universe Online -- a real-life city, with Washington DC being the home of the Hall. How was it to bring those elements to the game world?
I think the biggest highlight was really being able to create the Hall of Justice, perhaps the most iconic location of any superhero based in the DC universe. It's universally recognized. Obviously, with Washington DC, it is almost liberating to be able to look at something in Google Maps and not have to create everything from our imagination or scour obscure sourcebooks at DC lore... What's kind of cool, too, and this was happenstance, is that it just so happens that we're introducing Washington DC, and we, literally, just had Wonder Woman's 80th-anniversary celebration, and it's still going on now, of course. Wonder Woman at various points in her career was based out of Washington DC, so it's kind of a neat coincidence.
Right now, if any player logs in, there is a whole bunch of awards that they can get. There's a wonderful pack that's going to give them stars on a blue, black background, a texture pack. They can get a couple of different shields to put on their back. There is a great emblem, the 80th-anniversary emblem that DC created, you can actually put on your character in-game. You can get bracers like Wonder Girl has. And then, if you subscribe -- you can also get a transparent Wonder Woman plane accessory.
Looking ahead to the future, there's also the upcoming Blue Beetle Community Style update. Especially coming after the recent news about his upcoming film from DC Fandome, what's it like to be a part of this resurgence for Jamie Reyes?
I think, for me, and, of course, my timeline goes a lot further back than yours. I remember when Ted Kord and other Charlton heroes like Captain Atom were introduced into mainstream DC. I remember the Ted Kord Blue Beetle... I fell in love with him and his series with Paris Cullins's drawing, and, of course, the later partnership with him and Booster Gold in Justice League International, which was, obviously, hilarious in its day and still is. Jaime, for me, came much, much later.
But what I really like about Jaime, and what I really loved about Blue Beetle, introducing him into DCUO and giving him more of a pedestal in the DC universe overall, is that it marries two great elements -- one, diversity. Here's a hero that was actually made quite a while ago. This isn't a new initiative. This is only resurfacing a classic character that DC has had for quite some time and just now giving him more of a spotlight. So I love that element. I also love the fact that it ties deeply into DC lore, where you have generations of the Beetle and Jaime is being helped by Ted understand who he is, what he is with the amulet which, of course, dates back to the original Blue Beetle. You've got three generations. You get the beauty of DC with its history and its background and then mixed with the continuing rainbow of characters that we are getting and what makes DC so fantastic.
DC UNIVERSE ONLINE: Episode 42: LEGION OF DOOM will launch in December on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.