WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Future State: Justice League #1, by Joshua Williamson, Robson Rocha, Daniel Henriques, Romulo Fajardo, Jr. and Tom Napolitano, on sale now.

From the ashes of the crossover event Dark Nights: Death Metal, a new potential future for the DC Multiverse was opened up, and it's currently being explored throughout the two-month publishing initiative Future State. Featuring the next generation of superheroes rising up to carry on the DC Universe's iconic legacies, the stories will heavily inform the upcoming Infinite Frontier era, launching with an oversized special this March. Helmed by acclaimed comic book creator Joshua Williamson, Infinite Frontier #0 immerses readers in the DCU.

In an exclusive interview with CBR, Williamson talks about the inspirations behind Infinite Frontier, how Future State -- including Williamson's work on Future State: Justice League -- will help set up the bold, new era and teases some major developments for the DCU's biggest superheroes on the horizon.

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CBR: We're seeing the plot threads from Future State start to inform Infinite Frontier, especially in your Justice League series. What was it about pitting the team against the White Martians?

Joshua Williamson: With the Future State stuff, that Justice League book, in particular, is one that's further in the future than some of the other ones, so it's going to be a while before we see some of those things come to fruition. There's definitely stuff that'll come up in the next couple of years that I hint at.

Why the White Martians? I've tried to get the Hyperclan back for the past five years. [Laughs] Whenever I was pitching stuff and it was bigger -- Batman/Superman, Justice League: No Justice -- I was always the one in the room going "Hyperclan!" I just think the visuals are so cool and they're fun and interesting characters. The White Martians were like "We're going to pose as these superheroes that you're going to worship and we're going to take advantage of that" It's interesting how they predate the Authority and were going on the same time as Stormwatch and they ran with them. Grant [Morrison] and Howard [Porter] were able to build this really cool group of characters and then reveal they were White Martians and they've come back a few times, but they never went back to that Hyperclan form. So every time I was in a meeting, I'd ask to use the Hyperclan; Justice League vs. Suicide Squad, I asked to use the Hyperclan.

Hyperclan Future State Justice League

Finally with this, when we started building up who this group was and who they'd be going up against, I had originally given them a different villain. I had written up this whole other script and they went up against a completely different villain, and it wasn't working. I went for a long walk and I called Alex Carr, our group editor, and I told him this villain and this story wasn't working, it wasn't what I wanted to do with them, and I don't feel like it's fun or has the right energy for it; it's just missing something. He brought up something he wanted to do with imposter syndrome with the Justice League, and he was saying they wouldn't feel that way at this point, which is why T.O. Morrow has that speech at the beginning.

After I got off the phone with him, I was thinking about the voices of the characters and what T.O. Morrow was saying about that and then it clicked with the Hyperclan. I called Alex and was like "I'm just going to write, I'm not going to pitch it to you, I'm just going to write and see what happens." And when he read it, he loved it but had no idea who the Hyperclan were and had to ask somebody else in the office but I was like "Trust me on this, it's going to be a cool reveal. People will be surprised." That's why I chose the Hyperclan. I've always loved those characters and thought they were interesting and that they could take advantage of people's worship of superheroes and use it to take over. And I could tie that new Justice League at this point in the world and instead of the Hyperclan [introducing themselves as separate heroes] they took out the Justice League and replaced them to take advantage of what they had built. A lot of stuff I've been trying to sneak in is coming: Infinite Frontier, Future State: Justice League, some other stuff coming, it's all stuff I've been trying to do for years and now have the freedom to bring it in.

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I was talking to Scott Snyder and he said you were taking point on this. As a big DC guy, how is it building the DCU's future and what's the guiding mission statement for Infinite Frontier?

Williamson: The past five years, I've been working on a lot of big stuff. I was writing The Flash, but I was working on the events too, I was in those rooms talking about Rebirth stuff at the very big and obviously Justice League vs. Suicide Squad and all the stuff that came out of that. Me being in the room with a lot of talented creators, like Scott and Geoff [Johns], it kind of put me in the mindset of not just thinking bigger but wider; what we could do with the line, with the DCU and not just one book.

Last year, when we were talking about what I was thinking about doing after The Flash, my mind was really focused on Dark Nights: Death Metal and working with James [Tynion IV] and Scott as the showrunners on that and on other books like Batman/Superman. When The Flash ended, I talked to some editors and other creators to see what they were interested in and trying to find my place in it too because I really have to be obsessed with something and want to work on that book. One of the things I was obsessed with, and I was talking with Marie Javins about this after The Flash ended, was I wanted to do something really big, I was thinking things that were on a wider scale for the line.

So we started to talk about Infinite Frontier and pulled in Scott to talk about how Death Metal was going to end and what the epilogues were going to be and, at the end of Death Metal, everything mattered. All those things happened and we wanted to take everything we love about the DCU and move it forward and that's a really big part of what Infinite Frontier is. There's so many possibilities ahead of us, there's so much freedom, let's just go and have fun and play with these things and tell the best stories we possibly can. That's what Infinite Frontier is, going out and doing these things. You look at Future State and how much of that stuff is exciting, bold and there's a lot of fun to it and there's a variety across those books.

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When you read Infinite Frontier #0, the Spectre and Wonder Woman go on this journey, they're looking for something. At the end of Death Metal, the presence beyond the Source Wall warns Wonder Woman there's going to be a cost to this: [They're] going to rebuild everything and the timeline will be reset but there's going to be a cost. She thinks it's going to be her death but [instead] she gets to ascend and, on the way to ascending, she meets the Spectre and some other characters. And they explain all these things to her and she says "I'm not ready to ascend yet, I have to find out what this cost is, I have to see it." So Wonder Woman and the Spectre go on a search to find out what this cost is, and it gives the readers a chance to see what the new DCU is and some of themes we're going to be playing with. It's not every book but there's a part towards the ending where the Spectre and Wonder Woman move through everything and tease some of the future plans...you get a lot of cool stuff in that.

When the Spectre and Wonder Woman talk about what the DCU is now and what the DCU is moving forward. And you'll get to see some of the stuff we've been talking about: Doctor Manhattan had stolen these things from them -- the legacy, the hope, the idea of things being generational -- he stole it, but now they have it all back. And so they're exploring what that means and those concepts as they go through.

I was looking at Infinite Frontier #0 yesterday, and all the different creators we have in it and all the different plans we have for it, and it's really a cool collection of not just creators and characters but different themes and styles. It's really cool to see this snippet of what the DCU is going to be this year all packed into one special.

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I do have to mention one member of the Future State Justice League specifically: Jesse Chambers. They're from another world in the multiverse and helped stopped a multiversal conspiracy before deciding to stay behind. What can you tease about them and that background? 

Williamson: There are a lot of teases of things that are coming within their story. I have plans for them that I want to do that I can't get too deep into until after Infinite Frontier #0 has come out. [Laughs] I would say, read Infinite Frontier, and then you'll get a glimpse at some of the things other characters will be involved in throughout Infinite Frontier that will have major impact. With Jess, I really enjoyed writing that particular roster of Justice League characters that were in Future State. They have a place in the future of DC and, as we go through, I think you're going to see some of those things start to play out from Future State. Not everything! There's a part early on in Infinite Frontier where the Spectre and Wonder Woman talk about what she saw in Future State [and if it plays out]. When it comes to Jess, there's definitely a plan moving forward after Future State for them, there's things I want to do with them.

Infinite Frontier has a huge impact on the DCU. When I look at it sometimes, there are things that will have an immediate impact. Things in Infinite Frontier will immediately impact the [Batman] books and they'll have an immediate impact on Superman, on Justice League, Green Lantern, The Flash; so much stuff that's going to be happening. It's not just a preview, there's going to be huge ramifications moving forward from Infinite Frontier.

Batman Infinite Frontier 2021

The way we wrote [the special], I wrote the structure of it and several chapters of it; I wrote four chapters, including the epilogue. James [Tynion IV] wrote a chapter with Alan Scott and wrote the Batman chapter and, because I know James so well, I knew James had the Batman chapter [without my input]; he knows Batman better than anybody, he'll be fine. I read it and it's amazing and Jorge [Jimenez's] pages were amazing, and then I realized how much of a big deal it is. There are moments that I think are pretty big -- three or four moments in his story alone -- one that really grabbed me. It's one thing to know about it and another to actually see it. I think there a few moments where people are definitely going to be like "Oh my god!" People are going to be cheering for a couple of different moments that happen through it.

With Future State: Justice League, there are things in both issues that were teased for a reason. I think when you look at my Flash run, I don't tease anything just because. [Laughs] I tease stuff out, I don't know about four years [like The Flash], but it's here. There's definitely stuff in those two issues that are going to be surprising, eventually, you'll see it was planned the whole time. There's also stuff leftover from Death Metal that people will see too.

Written and illustrated by a whole host of superstar comic book creators, Infinite Frontier #0 goes on sale March 2 from DC.

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