CARLIN ON JLA
The times, they are a changin’ for the Justice League of America. As DC announced in San Diego, a spin-off title is coming, while rotating creative teams will handle the main title. We caught up with JLA editor Mike Carlin for a roadmap.
Carlin inherited the series as a result of the editorial restructuring that went on at DC earlier this year which saw former JLA editor Dan Raspler fired by the publisher, and Carlin stepping down from VP – Executive Editor to Senior group Editor.
“When I stepped down from being the head cheese, a couple of editors were cut from the roster, so JLA was a pretty logical place for me to go,” Carlin said. “It made sense since, being in charge of all the characters for so long, I’m now in charge of the book that has most of them. It was all logical and sensible.”
In Carlin’s view, so far he has made one important change to the book. “The most important thing I did, and maybe might do, I think, was to put the words ‘Justice League of America’ at the top, and not just ‘JLA.’ ‘JLA’ means something to us comic book folks, but it doesn’t mean anything to anybody else who might bump into the book somewhere along the road. So, in the interest of trying to reach people who are not as steeped in it as regulars, I just wanted to say what it was. That’s the biggest sweeping change I made right off the bat.”
And yes, there are more to come.
Something else Carlin likes about the series is the current creative team of Joe Kelly and Doug Mahnke. Doug is just great on the art, and I think Joe is on the money more often than not,” Carlin said. “We’ve really focused him on getting the stories to be really big and important about the Justice League, and not so much about peripheral characters, and I think that’s paid off.”
One of Kelly and Mahnke’s more acclaimed recent stories in fact, was the impetus for a fairly radical change in the book, as announced in San Diego. “My favorite comic book of the last 15 years, was probably Action #775, which was by Joe and Doug,” Carlin said. “IT was that issue, that story that led me to talking to them about doing some kind of a spin-off book of the Justice League, which is the first thing we talked about when I came on to the title. Hm - I guess that might be a bigger change than just changing the wording on the cover.
“So what we have in the works, spilling out of JLA #100 will be a new series called Justice League Elite [which, by the way, will not be called JLE – which means something else to JLA fans]. Justice League Elite will be a spin off of the Justice League in that this team gets their hands a little dirtier than our main characters can every now and then. The team will be headed by the sister of Manchester Black who, people will remember, was the leader of The Elite team in Action #100.”
Kelly and Mahnke’s story from issue #100 will lay the ground work for the founding of the new branch of the League, and, as Carlin explained, the team will be made up of some new faces, as well as some members of the current League who move over. And no, Carlin’s not saying who will be there just yet. Justice League Elite is slated to start until 2004.
In the meantime, Kelly and Mahnke’s current run on JLA will wrap with December’s #89. Issue #90 will be a standalone issue by Kelly with art by ChrisCross, a sequel of sorts to issue #83 (also illustrated by ChrisCross). “He’s doing six one shots that will eventually make a nice little collection, but taken individually, they’re nice little sorbets in between big deals to cleanse the palate,” Carlin said. “I won’t be putting Justice League: Sorbet on the cover, though.”
Following the standalone issue, Carlin’s theory of “one great JLA story” kicks in with Denny O’Neil and Tan Eng Huat collaborating on a three part story (#91-#93), which is in turn followed by the six-issue Chris Claremont/John Byrne arc, which will ship twice a month.
“I really do believe that all the good creators out there have one good Justice League story in them,” Carlin said. “Maybe they’ve got two or three, and we can get to those later. To me, the best way to get really good stories in the series and not have it married tightly to continuity – which we really can’t anyway, given that most of these characters have their own, home books - is to throw it out there to some top talent and let them have their say for a time. That way, it’s not a regular gig that they either have to quit something they don’t want to quit, or feel bogged down by having to top themselves with every storyline.
“This way, guys will naturally top each other in different zones, but it won’t be a pressure. I think there’s some sense in thinking in this manner, and since a lot of stories these days are being written as arcs so that they are collection friendly, it seems sensible to take a shot with this approach. So while Joe and Doug will still have their JLA franchise to play in, I can expand and do some really swell things with this group. It’s a chance for me to work with some masters of the craft, as well as some up and comers. It really will keep the pitch that we’re throwing changing from arc to arc.”
So far, creators Carlin has lined up for contributions to the series include: Chuck Austen, Bill Willingham, Howard Chaykin and Killian Plunkett, with more on the way. “It’s already a good pile of established talent,” Carlin said. “Walt Simonson has talked to me about doing an arc as well with Jerry Ordway. Then we’ve got some new folks like Gail Simone, who’s doing a great job on Birds of Prey right now, and also has a six issue Rose and Thorn miniseries that she’s been doing for me. Her stuff is real solid and real good, and she’s one of the newer people to place a bet on. We’ve also got Dan Slott, who’s finishing the Arkham Asylum miniseries right now. His work on that just blew me away – I thought it was the best miniseries we’d done in years, and a lot of it is because of him. He’s working with Dan Jurgens on an arc.”
The look of the team on the arcs will be well, iconic. “I want creators to keep the big guns in there,” Carlin said. “I want the I want the team to be relatively stable, and as close to what’s on Cartoon Network right now as possible. Again, if you can reach somebody who sees the Justice League there, you may want to try and speak to them in the same language that they already understand. That said, John Stewart will be the Green Lantern we use. We won’t have Hawkwoman, but we definitely will look TV-viewer friendly.
“Also, by keeping the roster pretty stable, it’s easier to stockpile this kind of stuff. Therefore, the idea of a run coming out monthly becomes a real option to a slower writer/artist team.”
Of course, meanwhile, Kelly and Mahkne’s Justice League Elite will be running parallel to the main book, but not tying in, as the stories in JLA will be relatively discrete, standalone arcs. “The Justice League will be available to appear in Elite, but since we’re doing story arcs in the JLA, you won’t see the Elite in the regular Justice League book,” Carlin said. “They’re going to be off working separately.”
Carlin’s arc approach currently has about a year’s worth of material lined up, matching with Justice League Elite, which is set to run for 12 issues. Wrapping up Kelly and Mahnke’s run relatively early, Carlin explained, will give Mahnke enough time to get a head start on Elite, and a fighting chance at illustrating the entire series.
That said, folding Elite back into JLA after a year is not a foregone conclusion, according to Carlin. “If this approach to the JLA works, it can be indefinite. If it doesn’t, when Elite is done, and if those guys are still interested in coming back, we could do that, or maybe they’ll have had enough, and it will be time for another regular team to come on the book. All in all, I’d say I can easily see about a year – maybe two of this.
“With a spin-off and double shipping for six months at least, there’s going to be a lot of JLA projects out there, which I think is part of what we’ve been wanting for years on the title – to capitalize on something where clearly, there’s room for more. Obviously, if we put out a bunch of stinkers, it’s not going to help, but I think that if we can put out five Batman books and four Superman books every month with just the one character in them, why can’t we just do two Justice League books a month every now and then.
“And obviously, I think JLA/Avengers is going to satisfy the world. It will sell, but it will satisfy as well, which is not always the case. People have been waiting a long time for this, and it could have easily been something that was ruined by anticipation, but I really think that Kurt and George have hit the mark. I think it’s going to be great. Hopefully, that will help to whet people’s appetites for a little more JLA than they’ve seen in a while – and we’ve got that covered.”
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Out of all this, I think that the only two things that are can't misses are Claremont/Byrne's JLA and Busiesk/Perez' JLA vs. Avengers. I haven't been liking the direction of the book in the last year, so I wound up dropping it. Hopefully the rotating creative teams will help.
As far as Justice League Elite, I think it's going to either be very good, or suck like Kelly's JLA. I know nothing about it, and a Google search turned up unproductive.
