Tom Taylor first became known to DC Comics fans for his surprising twists in the comic series based on the often dire Injustice series of games. His work there was seen as a surprising elevation of concepts like a mad dictator Superman. He’s bringing a more classic take on the DCU to his next DC event.
He’s also bringing an army of cosmically undead superpeople.
This week sees the launch of DCeased, a new alternate universe event mini from Taylor and the art team of Trevor Hairsine and Stefano Guadiano. The tale takes the classic DC Universe setup and heroes and introduces an outbreak of zombie-like infection that spreads from Darkseid’s Apokolips to the metahumans of Earth. Beyond that core high concept, Taylor has been mum on the many twists he’s planned out for the series.
With DCeased #1 on stands, CBR caught up with the writer about how this unlikely event came together, why it’s not really a zombie story the way we understand it and how every new issue will feature shocks that both celebrate the classic DC superheroes and make them hurt.
CBR: Tom, at its heart DCeased has probably the most direct high concept imaginable: DC superheroes meet zombies. But there seems to be a lot more happening behind the scenes than a simple zombie outbreak story. What was it about the concept that made you sign on last year, and how would you characterize the development of this story since then?
Tom Taylor: Honestly, I’m not a zombie fan. But I love a challenge, and I love twisting the expectations of readers. When editor Ben Abernathy first reached out about this, I was actually neck-deep in another DC project, but I couldn’t stop thinking about this. I kept sending more and more ideas to Ben. And we kept getting more excited as we riffed on this. Working out how the outbreak begins. Why it begins. What it is. And that it’s not actually zombies. It’s something that can only happen in the DC Universe.
The other project fortunately fell through at the perfect time and I immediately said yes to Ben. Then, it just came down to finding the most inventive and traumatic ways to kill my darlings, so to speak.
Obviously, you're known to a lot of readers as the guy who took no prisoners in the DCU with Injustice, and you've promised this will upset the apple cart even more. Why does twisting these typically sunny superheroes seem to jibe with you so well?
There were a lot of moments that hurt in Injustice. But what hurt me the most was having to write my favorite heroes out of character in that universe. I don’t believe the son of Martha and Jonathan Kent could ever turn into a dictator. I don’t believe the Wonder Woman of Injustice resembles the Wonder Woman I know.
There’s more carnage in DCeased, but the difference is I get to write the heroes as I know them. Superman being Superman, Lois Lane being alive and being a damn hero, Wonder Woman not being written out of character as a “Lady Macbeth” type. Cyborg on the side of good. Green Arrow and Harley and Black Canary… actually, no, they’re being written exactly as I wrote them in Injustice, which is a lot of fun. There are a lot of moments that hurt in DCeased, but there’s also room for humor, heroism and heart.
Before we get into the story, we've got to talk about Trevor Hairsine and Stefano Gaudiano as your collaborators. How have you written this story for them as artists -- not just in terms of the zombie gore of it all but also in the overall visual storytelling style?
Ben and I discussed a few artists in the lead-up to this, but as soon as we found out Trev was available, that was it. This story is dramatic and epic and horrific, and Trev can balance all of this so well. Then, having the inker of Walking Dead, Stefano Gaudiano, is just a no-brainer (pun definitely unintended). That was a stroke of genius from Ben Abernathy. Also, Rain Beredo adds so much to this book. We’d teamed up on X-Men: Red and I knew how good he was, but the mood he brings here lifts everything (or tears it to pieces when needed).
What we know so far of DCeased's story is that the outbreak that hits doesn't deliver the typical kinds of zombies. How would you classify this virus on a scale from Romero to World War Z? Is there a level at which zombies in a superhero universe need to function differently than in a world of regular folks?
These aren’t zombies. That’s it. We’ll explore this more next month in DCeased #2, but here are some light spoilers. The blighted ones are just agents of death. They’re pieces of the Anti-Life Equation.
Which explains Darkseid’s major part of this story at the launch. It seems that anytime a New God appears in a DC event, there's a cosmic debt to pay.
Darkseid Was.
But on the bright side, Superman is positioned as a main character, if not the main character, of this story. There does seem to be a kind of tonal question with how the Man of Steel responds to something this dark. How does he ground this story in a more identifiable DC feel?
Superman is my favorite hero, and has been since for as long as I can remember. How he responds to something like this is so much of this story. Because it has to feel real. Superman can’t ignore people in peril, no matter what else is happening. And we’ll see the cost of this in DCeased.
With any universe-wide story, it's of course about more than the biggest heroes. Who in DCeased are you having fun working with that fans would never expect to play a big role in a story like this?
I don’t want to give too much away, but we will see unholy alliances. And characters like Mera and Poison Ivy will pop up.
Overall, this is a story that's meant to be an event -- maybe not in the line-wide crossover scope of things, but definitely in the size of the story as a whole. Do you look at this story as different because of that promise? Have you gone over past DC events (or even past superhero zombie events) to have a measuring stick for what people will or won't expect?
Absolutely not. That’s not how I do things. I don’t ever really look at what’s been done before unless I’m working on something in continuity. I didn’t watch any zombie movies, I’ve never read Marvel Zombies and I didn’t want this to feel like any other event. I wanted this to be a fresh twist on the DC Universe I love.
What I can say about DCeased is every issue ends with a “holy crap” moment. And I urge everyone to pick it up in floppies. Do not trade-wait on this one. I really wanted DCeased to be something that people read every month, because they have to know what happens at the same time as everyone else and talk about it together.
The zombie-esque DCeased #1 is on sale now from DC Comics.