By Brian Truitt, USA TODAY
As excited as Dan DiDio is about DC Comics' newest initiative, the company's co-publisher knows he can walk the hallways of the DC Comics offices in Manhattan and pick up the same vibe from his co-workers.
By Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY
The architects: Geoff Johns, left, and Jim Lee are leading DC Comics' dramatic reworking of its iconic superhero characters and story lines.
By Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY
The architects: Geoff Johns, left, and Jim Lee are leading DC Comics' dramatic reworking of its iconic superhero characters and story lines.
"If we can convince the people here we're doing something brand-new and fresh, we have a good chance to really get the people outside on board," DiDio says.
DC will re-number its entire line of superhero titles, beginning with all-new No. 1 issues starting Aug. 31 ? 52 in all, including a new Justice League No. 1. Fittingly, the publisher put its creative superteam on its trademark superhero superteam.
Guided by writer Geoff Johns and artist Jim Lee, Justice League will begin its first year with an updated secret origin reflecting DC's new initiative, giving the group a reason for coming together that it lacked when the league first appeared in 1960. And while it will ultimately boast 14 members, at its core will be DC's A-list do-gooders: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern and Aquaman.
"The approach is very much about who they are behind the masks and how they interact together and how these personalities mix," explains Johns, DC Entertainment's chief creative officer. "With the world's greatest superheroes, how does that team actually work? Do they all get along? Being able to pull together and see how that relationship is forged and continues to grow has to be at the heart of that book."
For Lee, working on a team book is a different experience than a Superman or Batman, both of which he illustrated in recent years.
"When you have a Green Lantern mixing with a foil like Batman, you get scenes that are comic-book history. There's the epicness of it all. You're dealing with iconic characters and you want to give them all equal grandeur and weight."
In the rollout of the revamped DC Universe, some titles will return, a lot of titles won't, and DC will have a wider range of books starting in September, DiDio says. In addition, three-quarters of the creative teams will be shuffled around ? series that are successful and writer/artist combinations that work well together won't be tweaked too much, he says.
"We've got a new set of creators coming in with new voices in the DC Universe," DiDio says. "We really want to bring a new energy and excitement to our books."
The characters also are getting a makeover. While most of the specifics are still top secret, Lee says he worked with both staff and freelance artists to redesign costumes in a contemporary way as well as alter the physicality of many heroes and villains to modernize the DC Universe.
"You're trying to have your cake and eat it, too," Lee says. "You're trying to keep the iconic elements there, but at the same time freshen up the look so that people are intrigued by what they're seeing and hopefully come and sample the wares."
The recent emphasis on diverse characters such as lesbian superheroine Batwoman, Hispanic hero Blue Beetle and African-American adventurer Cyborg (who will be a core member of Johns and Lee's new Justice League) also will continue.
"He's a character I really see as the modern-day, 21st-century superhero," Johns says of Cyborg. "He represents all of us in a lot of ways. If we have a cellphone and we're texting on it, we are a cyborg ? that's what a cyborg is, using technology as an extension of ourselves."
There will also be a lot of diversity in the products as well, DiDio promises. "It's not just about straight superhero characters and stories. We're going to use war comics, we have stories set in mystery and horror, we've got Westerns."
While Lee allows that this kind of wholesale change is risky for DC, it's far more perilous to play it safe and not periodically examine these characters and how they relate to the readership.
"It's part of our jobs to make sure that these characters stay dynamic and relevant," Lee says. "And that's what drove us on a creative level to make these kinds of changes."
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