On Friday, Warner Bros. will releaseJustice League, featuring the most powerful heroes in the DC Extended Universe.
This week, EW is talking to three of the most iconic creators whove worked with the League.
Yesterday we spoke toJ.M.
Credit: DC Comics
DeMatteis.Today, Grant Morrison talks about his redefining work onJLA.
[laughs] The basic structure of storytelling and drama, I hated it!
So I loved the idea of these [Justice League] characters.
They were all friends.
And then theyd all go home laughing.
When I was a kid, I just loved that!
I didnt like the Marvel Comics stuff, because they were always arguing, always angry and angsty.
That was what brought me to Justice League.
There had been a very successful revamp in the 90s by Keith Giffen and J.M.
DeMatteis, done almost as a comedy-drama, a really great reimagining ofJustice League.
Like Bloodwynd, which is one of the worst superhero names ever.
These werent bad characters, and the writers and artists were good.
It wasnt selling very well.
I think it was selling 20,000 copies a month.
At the time, that was seen as a radical notion.
Why was it a hard sell?Denny ONeil was in charge of Batman at the time.
Obviously, Dennys one of the great Batman writers, and one of the great Batman editors.
Im a huge Batman fan, and Ive written a lot of Batman stories.
I love the Batman who can go out at night and save kids from the pimps.
At the same time, Batman lives in the DC universe and has done so for a long time.
In the company of the Justice League, Batman represents humanity, the optimum man.
Hes our representative at the table of the gods.
And that makes him interesting in a really different way.
All these characters have a lot of edges and facets, and I think they can handle different stories.
I think Batman can handle a teleport in the basement.
He seems to have a really good time, and he comes back laughing.
Those are the people he goes out and does the really crazy stuff with.
ThatsThe Hangover Part 2.
That did help smooth the way a little bit.
Like I said, its kind of a no-brainer to put those characters together.
It was a definite attempt to do things which really expanded the DC universe.
We went to heaven and hell and the fifth dimension.
To take a slight digression, look atthe first issue ofJLAcompared tothe 1980sJustice League.
Youre put in this position of almost superiority.
We understand theres an ironic distance.
Youre looking up at them from the perspective of a child.
We made a decision to position these characters as these grown-up, god-like figures.
Howard Porter, my artist on it, he was perfect for it.
He combined the Image Comics style of the time with a Jack Kirby giantism.
I loved the final story, where everyone on Earth gets superpowers.
If I had to choose one that summed up the book, it would be that one.
Im really keen to see it.
To explain Darkseid is simple: Hes the devil.
Hes Miltons Satan via Hitler.
Hes a tyrannical, unstoppable, narcissistic monster.
I think hes a great villain for the 21st century.
Theres another one coming out early next year.
