Letters to Justice League #75

dat cover tho

Thanks for taking the time to read the book, O! I know how life can get in the way of doing the things we enjoy, but it’s scraping back some time for ourselves which sometimes matters the most. And, as ever, it’s always comforting to know that I’m not writing for the void!

Your kind words are much appreciated, and I’m glad these things have come together for the reader as much as they have for me. It’s been really important to keep the forward momentum going with a lot of these threads, as they’re all quite important in the grand scheme of the world they take place within, so I have to find the right balance of maintaining visibility of bits like the Kherubim colony, as well as the ongoing Daemonite plot, along with the content of whatever story is taking up the A-Plot of any given issue.


Mark and I actually went back and forth on this for a while. I wanted to give her a new name, and a new costume, and really set her apart from Arthur as her own character, not just be his wife. Running around as ‘Aquawoman’ starting in Justice League #67 was the start of that, but it still felt derivative, and the plan with #75 was to give the character her own super-name, but by the end of it… Mark basically convinced me that there wasn’t a point to it. This isn’t the end of it though, and there are some really big plans to spotlight Mera in the coming months.


It meant a lot to me to have Talia make an appearance in this story. Originally, #75 was going to be entitle ‘Breaking Up’-- not for the relationship between Bruce and Diana, but for a relationship we get into in later issues-- and I wanted to feature all of Bruce and Diana’s prominent exes. That’s why Selina appears on the cover, but unfortunately, the story itself didn’t allow for that to happen. It was getting too big and too fractious to accommodate another character joining the fray.

Bruce and Diana don’t have a romance in a void. There were other characters that orbited them throughout their history, so what kind of implication does that have on their ongoing relationship? Why aren’t they with the other prominent loves of their lives? I want to make sure everything was mirrored here, so having both Steve and Talia make an appearance made sense.

Also, be sure to check out next month’s Checkmate #6, because that’s going to sync in nicely with the events of Justice League #75. I’m about to embark on a really fun experiment as 2018 comes to a close. More on that soon.

I don’t have any loyalty to the Steve x Diana pairing, which should be obvious to anyone reading their interactions here. His priorities have changed with his role as the White King of Checkmate, and in coming up with the reasons they aren’t together anymore, it became obvious why that would be. I never liked the idea that Diana would end up with literally the first man she ever met, but she’s also perfect, so how can one stand next to that and feel comfortable, if you’re just a guy? Steve’s just a guy in comparison to Bruce. What’s the implication?


Yup, bringing the Mad Hatter back was one of those things that just fell perfectly into place. He’s been teased in the run up to this issue, namely in one of the stories that appeared in Justice League Presents... The Guardian #2. Back then, a certain Doctor Lutwidge wanted to speak to Harper, but wasn’t available.

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson is better known by his penname Lewis Carroll.

Back in Justice League #53—another story that dealt heavily with Bruce and Diana’s relationship—the Guardian broke all of the usual rules Batman follows in fights against his enemies when he faced off against the Mad Hatter. And you know that these weirdos aren’t going to let that go without a fight. Developing Tetch as a weird nemesis for the Guardian was a lot of fun, and the adventure isn’t over yet.


Can’t wait to hear from you!