Letters to Justice League #34

I got through stylistic phases with a title like Justice League. You mainly want to have fun while doing any kind of fan fiction, so in an effort to achieve that you introduce characters from all quarters to make a fun roster and then see where the characters take you. But at the same time, the title was at its ‘best-selling’ in the real world when it had the Big Seven as the main guys, not when Doctor Light was rubbing shoulders with the likes of Batman and Wonder Woman, so how best to bridge that gap?

When this run was going on, I was thick in my ‘Who-Do-I-Want-To-Write?’ headspace, and that’s how we ended up with the likes of Animal Man, Big Barda and Mister Miracle, et al, in the main roster. And Guy Gardner as the main Green Lantern! These kind of characters are fun to write and have as part of your roster because they’ve not had regular (or any) interactions with other somewhat esoteric characters, so you can create really interesting character dynamics every single issue which have never been seen before.

When it came to relaunching the book as Volume 2 (or as #38 when I went back to the original numbering when #50 neared—only my second on the site, I think!) I decided to go for the Big Seven approach (with John Stewart as my Green Lantern). I wanted the book to be big and accessible, but very quickly I knew the dynamics were boring to write and I needed to find my rhythm, so that’s how all the characters who were once my core team came back (minus a few here and there).

The most important thing about writing anything is having fun with it. So if I have the most fun with Mister Miracle being on the roster instead of Superman, or even dragging Majestic from the Wildstorm universe into the mix instead of the Martian Manhunter, that’s something I’m willing to do.

It’s been years since I wrote these issues but I remember having fun, but I also remember nearing the end of my tether. A lot of the original writers and artists on the site were slowly moving away, Ramon was taking more time working on stuff that paid—and now he’s a certified Marvel talent so it all paid off—so I was losing my drive to deliver. These issues were fun and inspired by Grant Morrison but also the stuff Dwayne McDuffie was writing at the time, and I was trying to mainline the stories that made me love comic books. But if the fun isn’t there… it takes three years before the adventures continued.

The last thing I’ll say is that not only do I have stylistic phases on titles like this, but also narrative ones. I enjoy stories about psychic warfare… dystopian futures… horror tropes mixing with superhero ones… supervillain teams attacking superhero teams…my first run on the book, alongside Kevin who eventually had to drop out due to other commitments, was testing the waters to see if I had what it took to write a book like this!

You imagine, I’d been on the site since day one, and everyone else had dibs on Justice League before me-- I basically couldn’t get my foot in the door! Not that I lacked for writing duties… I’ve written pretty much an issue of at least every other title, but Justice League was always just out of each. But when Don was wrapping his amazing run on the book I spoke to him and our Editor-in-Chief Mark and I was able to take the reins after his final issue.

Was this run successful? There were ups and downs, but I think I’ve proven at this point that I have the chops to write a book of this magnitude. Hell, it’s been forty issues so far!