While, like all event series, it was occasionally difficult to jump from book to book, you created a fantastic crossover. I've never enjoyed crossover events in comics--they always seem stretched to fit all of the material into a few short issues, with every character getting short thrift--but you utilized the strength of the written medium to great effect. The scale and scope of the story was magnificent--from the troops on the ground to the depths of space.
I think that
The Apokolips Imperative was a seminal moment for the DC2. We started planning its shape before the site even started, agreeing that we’d have an ’Issue Ten Event’-- or as we code-named it, the ‘IXE’-- before the zero issues event hit.
I think the planning threads might be buried somewhere on the site still, but it stands as a massive undertaking, and I’d be curious if other websites managed anything of a similar size, or of similar creative success, elsewhere.
Interestingly, this was the only time we did an event of this type. After, code-name IXXE--
Justice League Vs America-- was a miniseries
with tie-ins, and a success on its own two feet. You’ll see that as you progress through
Wonder Woman, as it’s a title that ties in yet again. After IXE, I think due to the size of the site, we leaned into event miniseries and tie-in issues.
Gotham: City of the Dead,
Zero Hour,
DC2 Nemesis (that one was mine!), all great stories in my opinion (especially the latter
) but nothing of the scale we had with IXE.
David was the Editor-in-Chief at the time, and I know that he tightened up my very
loose at the time writing in the tie-ins you see. A lot of mythos-heavy stuff was his, and it worked well intertwined with my more bulldozer-style writing at the time. I was probably fifteen or sixteen when the story hit the site, and I know that I wasn’t as good as I am now. My tendency toward awkward tense changes, guest star-ridden stories… I caught a lot of fair (and maybe not-so-fair) flak during the time, but it made me the writer I am today.
I’ll say it here: If David Charlton taught me how to structure a damn story, Don Walsh taught me how to write stories that actually bloody matter. I owe them both a lot, and that’s why I keep the lights shining in the DC2. It made me the writer I am today.
The editors and writers crafted a terrifying version of Apokolips in great detail (including elements that always seemed missing from the comics: officers, battleships, weapons, planning) and revealed the "ground war" in a way that wouldn't necessarily have been possible given the space limitations in a comic.
I loved the cosmic scale of this story, and we had the freedom to really deliver something different because of the medium. The ground war, the occupation of Gotham, the events on Apokolips that involved the New Outsiders… all massive. All making great sense. Notice the events of the nu52’s
Justice League opening arc? A more compact version, but a similar scale to it. That’s what Apokolips and Darkseid should mean. Hell on Earth.
I believe that IXE hit at a time when Darkseid wasn’t the Great Darkness he is today. Post-
Rock of Ages but pre-
Final Crisis, I love the guy but I think I’d struggle to write him in another event. The scale of him… he’s not someone you can
really punch out, and the utter nihilism is something that I find very attractive, but don’t think I ever had an opportunity to approach.
I actually started one, called
The Omega Point, and wrote a massive overarching subplot in my first
Justice League run to tie into it. The last issue of that run actually launched the event-- then I lost my drive. I couldn’t figure out how to break the story, even though I planned the four issues of the event. I’d recently finished b
Nemesis to some success, but I tihnk maybe that was my big event, that’s what I could deliver ‘main event’-wise, and another big story like that wasn’t in me.
I’ve recently re-plotted out my entire
Justice League run based on some additional story beats I want to get out there, and I’m a lunatic because I think I’ve committed my brain to writing for the site until I’m 35. This might fall to the wayside, of course, I might find success elsewhere and leave debris in my wake, but the final arc on my agenda, lastining seven issues, is currently entitled
As-Yet-Unnamed-Darkseid-Epic. Might see you in 2025, yeah?
Each writer got to reveal a piece of the picture while focusing on one of the many heroes battling the forces of darkness. I particularly enjoyed Batman's role in the story--playing to his strengths as a fighter and a character. Batman's battles with Devilance and Knato were fascinating and clever.
I loved writing the Batman-titles for IXE. I think I did both the
Batman and
Detective Comics tie-ins? The fight with Kanto was my attempt at telling a long form fight scene, utilising everything I’d learnt in the however-many-issues I’d been on the book (not many, to be fair), and Kanto having every Arkham Rogue’s shtick at him and him laughing it off was brutal for Batman.
We forget that these guys are
gods. Going up against any of Darkseid’s ‘inner circle’ should be a near-death scenario. Even the lowest of the rungs, like Desaad
is a god. It was important to convey this.
I remember Bruce’s reaction to him thinking he’d killed Kanto, only for the god to start regenerating… tense stuff, and I think if I wrote the issues now, there’d be much more of a personal exploration of how that impacted the Batman.
Interestingly, Devilance came back in
Green Lantern Corps when I returned to the site a few years back, and he’s still around in that title, lurking about…
I was not as enamored with the Outsiders--it was an interesting idea, putting them on Apokolips, but the level of graphic violence was off-putting and, in some cases, gratuitous; I hope that the following run reflects on the massive trauma they would have suffered as a result. To each their own, however! It was neither poorly plotted nor poorly written.
Wow. Yeah. I remember those
New Outsiders issues. The impact on Black Canary was felt for
years to come, and there was also some payback on Desaad a couple of dozen issues after, if I remember rightly. Apokolips always had a role in that title, even from the beginning, even if the ways were subtle.
Even Batman’s broadcast was followed through on, and I know that I tied later issues of
Green Lantern Corps into the event. John Stewart was a soldier during that time, for example, and the horrors are still under the skin of the world like a splinter. A few issues ago in
Justice League, we see the Apokoliptikan-twisted Silver Swan again, and there’ll be more going on in that title as we progress.
It’s almost crass to say, almost ugly to compare, but the Apokolips war was the DC2’s 9/11, and it’s very much a ‘never forget’ moment. Where were you when Apokolips appeared in the skies above Earth? Who did you lose?
Later in the saga, I was very interested in how this site's version of Captain Marvel and his relationship with Superman added a new layer to Superman's origin story. The final battles with Darkseid made me feel his inhuman strength and invulnerability. Wonder Woman led the charge and, as always, David Charlton's characterization was perfect. Her brief struggle with Batman, Superman, et al. was superb. I enjoyed this use of the Lasso, and it was one of the more clever and believable excuses for a brief battle between heroes. However, they turned their efforts on Darkseid in the final issue. The league's solution to their opponent's invulnerability was inspired (or, rather, the writer's solution.)
Captain Marvel as a legacy character was a David Charlton idea, and I know that some people aren’t happy with it, but it added such sadness to CC Batson that was juxtaposed against the eternally hopeful Captain Marvel. I don’t think the concept was ever explored to its fullest, and I think that Earth-1’s Marvel Family was given short shrift as the site progressed. Earth-S/5’s
Mightiest Mortals is perfection though, so I’m eternally grateful we had the chance to see Don Walsh’s take on the character there.
I think the last story I’ll write for the DC2, if it ever comes to it, is the story that started it all-- Captain Marvel meeting Superman after the latter finally arrives in Metropolis, uniting after the Parasite runs rampant across the city. David and I have talked plot before, but I think it would be a good capper after whatever world-ending tale I choose to write prior to that. We’ll see the end, we’ll see the beginning, then I’m off. Not for a while yet though…
"The Apokolips Imperative" is an impressive accomplishment. Congratulations to all involved, and I look forward to reading more issues in the future.
Thanks, Oblique. I’ve given David a nudge regarding your feedback, so we might see his take on the IXE later! I know I’d love to hear it (again), ha.
) months before this issue, you've got to understand that I am so wowed by this issue, it was awe-inspiring. So many little thing that just make this PHENOMENAL! Wonder Woman vs Batman & Superman, Darkseid triumphant and three words that turn the tide of the tale in a tumultuous moment of tenderness! And that is me all Stan Lee'd out for now. Justice League #0 next week, be there, ELSE I'LL FIND YOU!
