It's a new day for the DC Universe. And with the dawn of the Infinite Frontier era, DC's flagship title, Justice League, is heading in a new direction with an impressive new set of creators at the helm.
CBR participated in a roundtable interview with superstar writer Brian Michael Bendis (Alias, Superman, Ultimate Spider-Man) and red-hot artist David Marquez (All-New X-Men, Civil War II, Ultimate Spider-Man) to discuss where they plan on taking the team with colorist Tamra Bonvillain, as well as background on the decision to include 0ccasional villain Black Adam and the new character Naomi on the team and teased the general direction of the team in the near future.
CBR: One of the fun things about team books is playing with different character combinations. Are there any character pairings you're looking forward to writing or drawing in this era of the Justice League?
Brian Michael Bendis: It's already happened. Black Canary and Hawkgirl are the coolest, and the cartoon and other creative teams have set the table for us beautifully. This feels very similar to things that happened with other team books that we've been on. In this case, the table is set, and we can just have fun. And these characters really like and admire each other, even in the middle of being challenged which makes for the best dynamic. The friendship is there, even though everything around them is on fire.
David Marquez: There's the classic combinations for me, like Green Arrow, and Black Canary. And they're a ton of fun to draw. I've worked on Batman and Superman before with Josh Williamson, so I'm pretty comfortable drawing them. A lot of the fun for me is drawing characters I haven't gotten to drawn before. One combination that Brian has had a lot of fun with in the scripts is Batman and Naomi. And in the issue I just finished drawing, there's a whole sequence with them together, and the way they bounce off each other is a lot of fun. And we have a pretty large cast, even for a team book. Just a few issues in, I find myself constantly having these new combinations and new contrasts to draw. Every issue has a new one to play with. So there's a lot of opportunities as both an artist as a writer, and plenty for the audience to enjoy.
CBR: I'm sure you've seen the rumors online about DC supposedly renaming Black Adam. Can you clarify whether this is true and talk a little about Adam's arc and how this series builds on his attempts to become a more relatable and benevolent leader?
Bendis: All right, just so we're very, very clear. At no time ever, in the history of the planning of this book, in any format, in any stage along the way, has there been a production about Black Adam changing his name. His name is Black Adam, and someone called him something else in the book. It's like someone putting out a headline saying that Marvel changed Spider-Man's named to "Web-Headed Menace" because somebody called him that, and that's why I didn't respond to it. It's just so so ridiculous. Even responding to now is like helping a click-machine.
That being said, we're very excited about the Black Adam storyline here, because it is unique to the character's story and celebrates it in a very surprising way. I must say, we will be forever grateful to The Rock for stepping out into the role of Black Adam. We actually didn't expect that. But it surely makes people look at what we're doing with a curious eyebrow, and wonder what's going on here.
Marquez: We're not making any concrete statements about the world and what should or shouldn't be. But it's interesting considering the perspective of somebody who has done so much bad stuff, like Black Adam, and then questioning whether or not that should be the only thing they're judged for. It's a very relevant thing right now and is worth thinking about.
CBR: There's a Green Lantern symbol on the first page of Justice League #59, but no Lantern appears in the issue. Will there eventually be a Lantern on this iteration of the team?
Bendis: There is a Green Lantern-focused story coming very soon. And I'm going to pause my answer at this point because I legitimately don't know what's a spoiler at this point. The only bad part of doing things like this is that almost every character in this book is being shared in another story. I'm desperate not to accidentally spoil someone else's very hard work. Some of these people are working their ass off through pandemic to deliver the goods. And I want to make sure that everyone gets to surprise you the way they want to.
CBR: Are there any particular characters that the two of you are looking forward to writing or drawing?
Bendis: Well, if you're talking about the main cast, then all of them. Also, because it's the Justice League, and it's the Hall of Justice, we're going to have an opportunity for a lot of guest stars and guest spots. The Flash has appeared in every single issue so far, to the point where I'm not sure why he's not on the cover at this point. And there are other guest stars coming. And we have this great new format, where our backup story is Justice League Dark -- which actually takes place in the same building -- which to me just opens up all kinds of interesting possibilities. It's all mixed up together in unique ways. So after the story we're telling right now we're gonna dive into a very big magic-themed story that is basically a Justice League Dark team-up story, but the format of the book allows us a very unique way to tell the story.
Marquez: It's a team book, and I love drawing everyone. One of the cool things with this lineup that we have is I got to do a little bit of design work. I did an entirely new design for Hippolyta. There's always kind of a funny dynamic as an artist coming up with a design, in that what's fun to design doesn't always play into how fun it is to draw on every single page.
It's always fun to get to draw your own designs on the page. I also got to do a slight update to Black Canary that I'm really enjoying, and there's some very enthusiastic Black Canary fans online who have given the design their approval.
CBR: Is there anyone outside of the expected norm that you would personally like to see on this team?
Bendis: I can't give it away, but yes, absolutely. I will say, in that regard, that we have a couple of storylines coming up that use stuff we set up at the end of my Superman run. There are some new characters and new ideas with the opening of the United Planets that have their own sort of Justice League that we reintroduced at the end of my last issue of Superman, and they're going to come into play, which brings a whole lot of new characters to the table that feels very entrenched in the DC mythos that I think are going to be very inviting to some people.
CBR: Whose idea was it to include Black Adam on this team?
Bendis: This came to me editorially, and it might have been Jim Lee's idea. In fact, I believe it was. He wanted to know if I liked the idea, and I did. This was decided on a while ago, so it's given me the opportunity to plan and coordinate and even set up things in my Superman run that I knew I could build upon. I dropped a lot of new villains in my last three issues of Superman because I knew I was going to have them to play with in Justice League.
Marquez: From the very first conversation Brian and I had about me coming on to draw Justice League, Black Adam was was one of the first things out of his mouth about it. It seemed like that alone was a unique Justice League like that was a story in and of itself.
Bendis: I've got some runs under my belt, and I did things that people at the time were mad at me about but now they're happy about. And so I wanted to bring all I know now about writing Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and X-Men to the Justice League. I've learned lessons that I apply to the very first pages. Black Adam and Naomi were awesome added elements to the book, and I really want to write this class of Justice League in a way that keeps everyone excited.