Things currently aren't looking too good for DC's premier superhero team, the Justice League. Along with trying to uncover the mysteries surrounding the Totality and the formation of the Legion of Doom, there is the issue of the Earth being flooded from coast-to-coast by a group of vengeful sea gods in "Drowned Earth."

The man orchestrating these obstacles is writer Scott Snyder, and these events are just the latest in his multi-year plan for not only Justice League, but the DC Universe at-large. CBR spoke with Snyder about "Drowned Earth"'s three primary characters (Aquaman, Mera and Black Manta), Arion and Poseidon's roles in the story, the surprising father-son relationship between Batman and Jarro, and how Justice League and other titles are setting the stage for something big in 2019.

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CBR: With Mera being the ruler of Atlantis, it was good to see her play just as important a role in "Drowned Earth" as Aquaman. Was that something you made sure to focus on when plotting out the story structure?

Scott Snyder: Yeah, one hundred percent. I love what Dan Abnett has been doing with her in Aquaman right now. And she’s a character I’ve wanted to work with for a while in addition to Arthur. So we knew the three big characters in this arc would be her, Arthur and Black Manta. Next issue we begin with a flashback to Black Manta’s childhood as well. They form the triangle of almost different takes on what not only Atlantis should be, but what the mission of what oceanic heroes should be versus their villains.

Right now Mera really feels like she should have defended Atlantis, protected it against these sea gods and she worries she’s failed as a leader because she didn’t look to weaponize things around Atlantis against any kind of threats and instead was looking to how to build it into something special. Arthur worries he was looking to the horizons for new adventures and new ways to use his powers and missed the threats coming. Black Manta, on the other hand, has always said we revered the oceans and always bowed down to them. Well now its time to take control and rule them.

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Each character is at a crisis point in their lives where they’re rethinking what their role is, and trying to figure out if they’re staying true to their core values. It’s a great moment to pick them all up and I really love the story for that. It gives me a way to look at them in new angles and consider new roles for them.

The opening pages that you’ve been setting up have shown Aquaman as a kid, and Justice League #11 started with Mera as a child. Are there clues in these pages that fans should be looking for in those beats?

Thematically, it all comes back in the end. There’s definitely a clue in the Mera one about Atlantis and how it was originally designed that comes back later. The Arthur one comes back in the final moments of the story as well, in his relationship to his father and what he says to his father and how his father actually responds to him, which you don’t see in the scene. They’re meant to be emotional anchors and set you up as a reader for where these characters are in their lives when the event starts.

NEXT PAGE: POSEIDON'S STATE OF MIND IN THE GRAVEYARD OF GODS

We saw Aquaman learn the sea gods were the original invaders of Earth back in the early days of Atlantis, but will "Drowned Earth" also introduce the real gods that helped Arion?

You’ll have to see. In Justice League #12 (the Legion of Doom issue) when Wonder Woman and Aquaman finally get the truth out of Poseidon about what really happened back then with Arion, you’ll see it might be different than what they expect. The whole arc is about how our gods and our heroes let us down and what we down when we have to chart a brand-new course because those old myths and legends don’t hold up.

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Will Justice League #12 also show what happened to Wonder Woman after she and Aquaman were swept away by the Kraken in Issue #10?

Yeah, one hundred percent. Basically, in Justice League #11 they have to venture to the Graveyard of Gods to find Poseidon to see if he still exists at all, and get his help defeating these gods like Arion did back in the past. Meanwhile, Mera, Flash and Superman go to the Tomb of Arion to try and find this weapon, the Tear of Extinction, with which he banished these gods once before to the Graveyard of Gods. So they’re on these dual missions in a race against time as the flood waters are rising and changing everyone into these fish monsters that Black Manta can control because he has Arthur’s powers.

Justice League #11 by Francis Manapul

What is Poseidon’s state of mind when Aquaman and Wonder Woman find him in the Graveyard of Gods? It looks like he’s given up hope after falling to Cheetah.

The idea is supposed to be the Graveyard of Gods is this necrotic place where you go there and your mind begins to rot away. The sea gods (Gall, Drogue and Tyyde) have been there for eons and even in their design, are supposed to reflect this ghostly, phantom-like husk quality that they’ve developed over the years. They’re almost like corpses of themselves. It sort of ruins you; you become a rotten version of yourself. So Poseidon isn’t quite who you know him as. But he’s also very reflective at this point. When we find him he’s ready to tell them the truth of what happened in the past.

With this we wanted to create something that played with all the big characters in the Aquaman mythology but also introduce new ones and went back to some the ancient myths of Aquaman, like the way Atlantis was before it sank and its hero, Arion, and at the same time bring you a brand-new take on those things. So we’re trying to fulfill the same mission we’ve been doing on Justice League where we honor the past and give you the things we know you love and we love too, but do it in a way where it takes you somewhere unexpected.

NEXT PAGE: BATMAN AND STARRO AKA JARRO VS. THE LEGION OF DOOM

We saw Jarro call Batman “Dad” inside the Hall of Justice in Issue #11, which was cool to see. Is it safe to say with how long Batman has been tending to Jarro that the young alien now looks up to the Dark Knight as a father figure?

Yes, that will continue for a bit in Justice League. We really like that relationship. The idea is that Batman has been using Jarro for a few weeks to try and probe the memories of Starman, who appeared in the Hall of Justice back in Issue #7. Starman’s memories hold the key to what Lex Luthor is up to with the Totality and what might lie inside of it, what Celestial being is trapped in there and what her connection might be to beings like the Monitor, the Anti-Monitor and the World Forager from Dark Nights: Metal. Starro, or Jarro’s plot, is something that has a lot of humor and affection but is also something important moving forward.

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To follow up on that, what craziness can fans expect when they see a crippled Batman and Jarro face off with the Legion of Doom? Was there anything that stuck out to you that was fun to see Francis Manapul bring to life?

I think the fun thing to remind fans of is the Legion of Doom just broke into the Hall of Justice where the armory is along with the trophy room. So Batman has quite a lot at his disposal to fight back with. Plus, the chair he’s in, he makes a joke at one point in another issue where he’s like, ‘The weapons on this thing have weapons.’ So there’s no way you’re going to catch Batman that unexpected. It doesn’t mean he’s not in danger and he won’t go down, but he’ll definitely fight back. That lends itself to some of the most fun storytelling we’ve gotten to do in Justice League so far.

Justice League #11 by Francis Manapul

There were a couple of small things I noticed in Justice League #11; for example, Superman has the S-emblem eyepatch like he’s getting into the pirate-theme of the story arc.

Yes, that was meant to be a thing from Batman where he gave Superman a solar patch that helps him heal faster, but also lends itself to some fun pirate esthetic. By the end of this arc you’re going to have a full-on pirate Justice League battle with alien sea gods with death Krakens and interstellar armadas and all of that kind of goodness.

I don’t know if this was intentional, but we also saw Mister Miracle and Big Barda make quick cameo appearances in "Drowned Earth" as they were lending a helping hand in the rescue missions during the floods, and then we saw them as possessed sea monsters. Should fans look into this as sort of being tied to Mitch Gerads and Tom King’s Mister Miracle series?

It’s definitely a nod. Mitch and Tom are two of my closest friends at DC, and I’m so proud of what they’ve been able to do with that series and all the good stuff they have planned. So we’ll always try to plan to do little homages and nods to the series that we love, and that’s definitely one of them. At the very least, as a hat’s off to them.

NEXT PAGE: JUSTICE LEAGUE'S IMPORTANCE TO THE DCU IN 2019

Let’s talk about some of the gorgeous art from Francis Manapul. There were three set pieces I really enjoyed: the Blood Reef, Arion’s tomb and the Graveyard of Gods, along with the sea Kraken. What’s it been like to collaborate with him again after teaming up back in "No Justice?"

He became a really good friend back when he was doing Detective Comics, so he and I have known each other for quite a while, but No Justice was the first time we really got to collaborate in earnest. I’m so thrilled to have him back; he’s such a perfect artist for this because he gives every design or every moment that sense of majesty and grandeur that I think Justice League really needs. And yet, he’s so good with the emotionality of the scenes too.

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When you drill down and see Superman upset and talking to Flash and Mera about, ‘What are we going to do?’ It’s all there on their face, I barely have to use any dialogue. He’s a sea god or Kraken of art on this thing. It’s incredible to watch. I feel extremely lucky to have him, along with Howard Porter too. Howard and I are friends as well, and to see what he’s been able to do on The Flash and what he’s doing with Joshua Williamson on "Flash: Year One" is out of this world.

I’m giving him my A-game and I do feel safe in the way that I could basically rewrite the phone book and it’d still be a good book because their art is so incredible.

Justice League #11 by Francis Manapul

Finally, is there anything you want to leave fans with to tease what’s coming up in Justice League #11 and #12 moving forward?

First of all, I just want to say thanks. The fans have been so supportive of the series. It’s always nerve-racking when you take something new on that’s different from what you’ve done before. The inclusion of the Legion of Doom, Lex Luthor’s plan, the fact that we’re building a big plot – everyone’s been so great to us, I really appreciate it.

If I were going to leave the fans with one thing outside of the gratitude, it’s to keep an eye out for things building over the course of the year. I want to hit this note that for us, Justice League is arc by arc, so we want you to feel like you can pick up "Drowned Earth," read "Drowned Earth" and hopefully not put it down, but put it down and have a complete story. But if you look at some of the things we’re trying to build between the Totality, some of the hints in Issue #1, things happening in Justice League Odyssey, things happening in Justice League Dark and "The Witching Hour," things that are going to happen in The Batman Who Laughs, we’re building to something really big and special, I think, summer into fall.

And we want people to keep their eyes open in terms of the big architecture because we’re really, really proud of the amount of planning we were able to do and DC supported us in doing for this kind of huge, uber story we’re trying to do as a team – me, Josh, James Tynion and other people in the DCU as well. We hope you’re enjoying it and also we can promise you there’s a big plan that runs from Metal all the way through to the end of 2019.