WARNING: The following interview contains spoilers for Justice League Odyssey #1, on sale now.


The Justice League is bigger than ever these days. Over the summer, DC launched Justice League and Justice League Dark as two parts of a planned three-pronged attack. The third title, Justice League Odyssey by Joshua Williamson and Stjepan Šejić, had to be pushed back a few months, but the title has finally arrived.

Following up on major plot points from Justice League: No Justice, this series is a space epic in the making. The title brings together Cyborg, Starfire, Green Lantern Jessica Cruz and Azrael as they travel through space in order to explore the Ghost Sector that was formed out of the destruction of Colu. The four heroes will also be joined by Darkseid, who -- yes -- will be joining the Justice League in this mission.

RELATED: Darkseid Isn’t The Weirdest Character In Justice League Odyssey

CBR spoke to Williamson about his new series, the crazy cast of characters on this team, and how the book's delay ultimately improved the final product. We will also get a better sense of how the heck the New God of Evil could actually be part of a team of heroes.

CBR: The Justice League has become bigger than ever before. How does this team fit into the overall mission statement of the JLA? The core team, Justice League Dark and Titans operate out of the Hall of Justice, but Justice League Odyssey is out in space. What is their overall purpose?

Josh Williamson: To explore the unknown and the dangerous. One of the many themes resulting from Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Dark Nights: Metal was that the Justice League needed to continue to take risks, be brave, explore and grow no matter the size of the threat.

RELATED: DC Delays Justice League Odyssey Debut by Nearly Two Months

So, this team is formed really to go out into space to research the new Ghost Sector. It’s brought up within the series that sometimes the Justice League and other Earth based superheroes will have this big epic space adventure but then they don’t stay around to see what happens next. To see if they messed up the balance of the universe. The destruction of Colu and the creation of the Ghost Sector were all things that happened while the Justice League was in deep space. Now these are not necessarily their fault, however they can’t help but feel guilt.

BUT each member has their own reason for going that is more personal then just this mission. They were all, in some way, feeling lost in their current positions on Earth, and felt a calling to go the Ghost Sector.

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Taking a closer look at this team, JLO (is that the name they use?) includes an eclectic bunch of heroes. How did you find yourself bringing Cyborg, Jessica Cruz, Starfire and Azrael together? How will they play off each other?

Cyborg and Starfire were the first two. They were given because of the way the title came together. Jessica was one I asked for. Frankly, we had talked about having a green lantern in the book and debated on her or Kyle. I love Kyle and he’ll always have a place in my nerdy heart but I decided to go with Jessica because I felt like she is an interesting character to explore. Azrael is definitely our wild card, and one of the more difficult heroes to crack as his place in the team. BUT over time I built a new big mythology around him and why he is there in space. It’s been fun to see how these four characters bounce off each other. The friendships and the frustrations they build against each other. For example, and I didn’t plan this, but Cyborg and Azrael have a tension between them. They both see different ways they should be on this mission and often don’t agree.

That’s where a lot of the real fun comes in as a writer, writing these new combinations for the characters in new situations and seeing what happens.

RELATED: Justice League Odyssey Will Feature the Return of L.E.G.I.O.N. to the DCU

The team may include four heroes, but the villainous Darkseid is also supposed to be joining the team. How does that even work? What does Darkseid want, and why would these heroes actually agree to work with him?

That’s a big part of the first few issues. How he puts himself in a position for them to trust him. The opening of #2 is them fighting him, so it’s going to be a long journey before they get to a place where they agree to work with him. Darkseid knows that he needs them, but also that they need him. In some ways it’s all about survival in the Ghost Sector. Darkseid knows things that the team need so that they can survive. But of course Darkseid is super manipulative during all of this. The path to them realizing they MUST work with Darkseid is going to be a rough one.

RELATED: Stjepan Sejic Shares Lost Justice League Odyssey Art Samples

Justice League Odyssey will pick up on some threads from No Justice. Preview pages have shown the return of Vril Dox. Who is he in your series following No Justice, and what role will he play going forward? Brainiac II has never been a very nice guy, but is he really going to be a villain going forward?

Right now, one of the big changes we made when we moved around the story of the series is to push back Vril Dox into later issues. So it’s going to be a bit before we see him now. I’m not really sure if I’d call him the bad guy. He just sees that every time the Justice League goes into space they only make things worse and he wants to keep them out. I love Vril’s elitist, jerk attitude and so he’s a blast to work with. He keeps this calm anger all the time, that you can feel when he does snap, he’s going to go nuclear.

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DC has a large stable of cosmic characters. We have heard a few names mentioned already, but who can we expect to show up over the course of this book? Will we be primarily exploring this brand new sector of space, or can we expect something of a who's who of cosmic characters here?

In the first arc, it will be all new stuff. The Ghost Sector is extremely dangerous and nearly impossible to even get into, so with that we wanted to make sure that we focused on the new things within. When Colu was destroyed we saw hundreds of new worlds unleashed on the galaxy, and that is a LOT of new stuff to play around with. BUT there will for sure be some crazy surprises in there. Eventually as the series goes, and the danger of what is happening in the Ghost Sector becomes impossible to ignore we’ll for sure be bring in a LOT of cosmic characters into the series.

Stjepan Šejić has shown off some of the amazing art he has provided for this series. How do the characters in this book play up to his strengths as an artist? In terms of art, what do fans have to look forward to when they finally get their hands on Justice League Odyssey #1?

RELATED: The Many Looks of Darkseid, from Kirby to Lee & Beyond

Stjepan has been a blast to work with. He has a great sense of design, scope and character. And I think that is his greatest strength. His ability to showcase a range of emotions with the characters. He gives them such personality through small gestures and character beats. You can really feel the emotion come off the page because of his art. He just nails that kind of storytelling. When readers finally get to see that #1 issue you’ll see how beautiful his work is and how much passion he has for emotional storytelling. Stjepan is a terrific talent and has an insane future ahead of him.

We know that this series has been delayed a few months and some things had to be redone. On a creative level, how do you react to that kind of false start, so to speak? Has this extra time allowed you guys to take a step back and rethink how to approach these characters, or has it more been just trying to get around the roadblocks to what you envisioned for this book?

RELATED: Darkseid’s Path To Joining the Justice League Begins in Wonder Woman

It's a hard question because it wasn’t like I was just handed the changes. I was involved in that process. We had a massive summit after the first two issues were finished and we started talking about the main direction of the book. Where it was headed, where the characters were coming from. And a big idea came up that we saw as a missed opportunity if we didn’t do it. BUT we couldn’t do it unless we went back. And really in the end it made for a better book. It’s bigger and a better showcase of the characters. I hate that some of the art that Stjepan did will be lost, but he did some amazing scenes in the new versions. And again, in the end it’s better for it.

For me this book has been a chance to work with an amazing artist I always wanted to work with and I got to play around with a group of characters I haven’t written much of. To see them in a very different situation, that I hope fans enjoy. The biggest part of all of this that was the most rewarding was the ability create new cosmic toys for the DCU that readers will have fun exploring.