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http://comics.ign.com/articles/763/763340p1.html
Exclusive Interview & Preview: Mark Waid Speaks
One of the DC architects chats with IGN about Brave and the Bold, 52 and Kingdom Come.
by Dan Phillips
February 9, 2007 - As one of the writers of 52, Mark Waid plays a critical role in the future of the DC Universe. By working on the weekly project, the writer is responsible for determining the fates of dozens of characters. Though fans have already seen the result of 52 in each monthly DC title, they get their many questions answered through what is arguably one of the most pivotal books on the market. In just a few weeks, 52 will spawn World War III, an epic battle that affects the current existence of many heroes.
52 has led to some interesting revelations that have filtered out into other books. One of the biggest plot points is the apparent integration of Waid's seminal, futuristic classic Kingdom Come into the DC Universe. The exact relationship of Kingdom to the current reality is unknown. Is it another Earth? Is it the actual future of the world? For DC fans, the fact that an Elseworlds (out of continuity) story is being absorbed into current plotlines is definitely noteworthy.
But 52 is not all Mark Waid is crafting. In addition to Supergirl and the Legion of Superheroes, Waid is teaming with industry legend George Pérez on The Brave and the Bold. Bold is a long-time DC series that features two different heroes in each issue trying to save the world from devastation. The series has not seen publication for some time. The first issue of Waid's collaboration with Pérez is scheduled to ship February 21, 2007. The writer took some time to chat with IGN about Brave and the Bold, Kingdom Come and 52.
Editor's Note: DC Comics has provided IGN with exclusive pages from the upcoming Brave and the Bold #1. The preview can be located throughout the interview.
IGN Comics: So let's start with Brave and the Bold. It seems like we've been hearing about this book for a while now. Can you tell us a little about how you and George got on the book and how this project came to be?
Mark Waid: Well, it came up about a year and a half ago. Dan DiDio came up to me when I was looking to sign an exclusive. We were looking to figure out what that last piece of the puzzle might be that would make me sign. Offering Brave and the Bold, and dangling that in front of me, was a huge temptation, because it would give me a chance to play with everything in the DC Universe. I'm not limited to one or two characters; I can play across the line.
Part of the stated goal of this book too, both at the time, and even more importantly now that we've gone through Infinite Crisis and 52, is that Brave and the Bold is supposed to be a kind of journeyman's tour through the new DC Universe. It's not the stated or most obvious goal of the series, but I think as you get into it, you'll realize that we're trying to, when you finish the first dozen or so issues, give you a pretty good picture of the overall DC Universe these days, like how the characters interact with each other now. We'll see some of the more famous places, and try to get a sense of the DCU as a cohesive universe.
So Dan held this out to me, it sounded great, and we started talking. Then months and months went by and, as I recall, George Pérez said that he was offered something else first - I want to say it was Green Lantern, but I can't swear to it - but he was interested when he heard about Brave and the Bold, and thought it was cool, because he'd get to play with all the characters, instead of just one or two. So it coincided nicely with George saying, "If you don't have anyone for Brave and the Bold, I'm up for that!" We'd be idiots not to put George on Brave and the Bold. He's the perfect guy for it.
The scheduling nightmare of it has been my involvement in 52, which ended up being so huge, and all that George has been involved in: fill-in pages for Infinite Crisis, covers and special projects. It's been really hard to pin both of us down. I had written the first issue - holy smokes - I finished the first issue's script almost a year ago. The second issue's script I started about six months ago, I want to say. So that's how far ahead we began. Luckily, we're now at a point where 52 is pretty much wrapped, and George's other commitments are pretty much wrapped, so this now becomes our full-time job and first priority. So we're full steam ahead.
IGN Comics: Will Brave and the Bold definitely have a central impact on the DCU and current continuity, or will it be more like Superman/Batman, which seems to have taken place more on the periphery of continuity and what is going on in the main universe?
Waid Well Superman/Batman kind of was and kind of wasn't on the periphery. The "President Luthor" story was resolved in Superman/Batman. Supergirl was introduced in Superman/Batman. The great thing about Superman/Batman, and the smart thing to do with that series was, even though it wasn't the main series for either of those characters, big things still happened.
The trick with Brave and the Bold is trying to find a way to make that true across the DC Universe. I think this book will be in trouble fast if it just becomes interchangeable, fun stories that can be read in any order, and there's no real sense of momentum or impact to them. So George and I have been putting our heads together to create new villains for use throughout the DC Universe, create new devices, places, and characters that can be used above and beyond the DC Universe and touch upon some of the other books.
IGN Comics: So in the same way that 52 has served as a tour of sorts of the new DC Universe, Brave and the Bold will be in that same vein?
Waid Yeah, exactly. With Brave and the Bold, even though there will always be a couple characters featured on the cover that'll be teaming, there's no limit to who you may find inside. There can be any number of surprise guests and people wondering through as needed. Part of the goal of this series -and part of the fun of it - is to start bringing in characters that wouldn't necessarily have a lot of marquee value if you put them on the cover, like the Adam Strange's of the world and the Metamorpho's of the world. But that doesn't mean that you can't play them through this series.
IGN Comics: A lot of the fun of 52 has been watching you and the other writers flesh-out the more obscure characters, making them more important and entertaining than they might have been in the past. In Brave and the Bold, do you have any plans or desires to do a similar thing with any specific characters?
Waid Well George and I both love Metamorpho. We love the Metal Men. Between George and I, there's really nobody that we don't have an attachment to. I have to be a little cagey, because some of the characters that will play through in the first year of Brave and the Bold, if I told you who they were, I'd be revealing a couple secrets about 52. So let's just say that some survivors of 52 will have a big, important impact on Brave and the Bold.
IGN Comics: Any plans do to what writer Brad Meltzer's been doing in Justice League of America, taking some more obscure, d-list villains and revamping them into imposing threats?
Waid Yeah, we've got the Lord of Time showing up in issue #3. He was an old Justice League villain who was sort of a knock-off time-traveler who wasn't very interesting, and we've found a good hook for him. We've got the Fatal Five also showing up in issue #3. They haven't shown up yet in the Legion of Superheroes continuity, but we're going to play them up in Brave and the Bold and hopefully stir up some interest in them. We've got a couple other guys lined up, like Starbreaker, who last appeared in the Rann/Thanagar War.
There are a few other really good underused villains out there who we want to pick up on, but to me it's more important to focus on the relationships between the heroes, which is what the book really focuses on. Each individual story, even though it's part of a particular arc, always hinges on some conflict or issue between the two heroes, so we get a feeling of not only who they are, but also how they relate to each other. How do Supergirl and Green Lantern get along? How do Supergirl and Lobo get along? Are they going to butt heads, or are they going to bond because they're both survivors of a lost world? There's an infinite number of ways to go there.
IGN Comics: George Perez is an accomplished storyteller in his own right, and he did some great work writing books like Wonder Woman. How closely did you two work conceptualizing the storylines for Brave and the Bold?
Waid The original idea was to write it full script. George got the first full script, and was fine with it, but he pointed out that he's a good storyteller as well. So he suggested we break down the plot and I can do the dialogue later. And that's great, because George brings a lot more to it that way, and adds a lot of his own little touches. He does what George Pérez does, which is take a six panel page and turn it into an 18 panel page. He's become critical to the storytelling process. I'd like the credits to read "Mark Waid and George Perez: Storytellers" and not "Mark Waid: Writer and George Perez: Artist."
IGN Comics: How long are you guys onboard?
Waid I think they'll have to pry this book out of my cold, dead hands. I know that George has sworn he wants to be onboard for at least the first year and really make it his book, his beachhead at DC Comics. Hopefully we can keep him on for longer.
IGN Comics: Moving on to 52: Obviously, we're moving towards the conclusion of the series, and we can see that many of the various storylines are beginning to tie together. Is World War III literally these storylines crashing together?
Waid Actually, no. Not even remotely. It's a couple of the storylines crashing together. It turns out to be a big seminal thing in the DC Universe, but one of the things that's often misunderstood about World War III is that, even though we haven't even begun it yet, one of the immediate fan reactions seemed to be, "Well if it's such a big deal, how come we never heard about it in the Post-52 Universe?" Our answer is: read the story. The answer is that you can have something called World War III without most of the people in the world even knowing the full extent of what's going on, because it's huge.
World War III doesn't necessarily mean the armies of the world rolling their tanks into position. You're thinking small. We're talking about a much more massive and a much faster conflict. When you have characters like Supergirl, the Flash, and Captain Marvel involved in a fight, these fights happen very quickly. It doesn't mean these fights aren't very savage and very important, but there's a reason World War III is contained to a week. There's a reason it takes place in one issue of the book, because it doesn't take but a week to have a World War III because it's so huge.
IGN Comics: Is the common man in the DCU Universe -let's say any layman in Keystone City - aware of an event called World War III?
Waid You know, I'm not sure we've decided yet. We've pretty much wrapped up 52, but that's a good question. I think it's more of a designation that the superheroes give it retroactively. I don't think it's going to go down in the history books as World War III, but we'll see.
IGN Comics: Dan DiDio revealed in last week's DC Nation column that World War III is basically Black Adam vs. the heroes of the DC Universe
Waid Thanks, Dan! [laughs]
IGN Comics: How will other storylines like Intergang and the scientists on Ooblong Island play into World War III?
Waid Those storylines will, but some of the other storylines won't. Steel's storyline pretty much wraps up in this week's issue [Week 40], and Ralph's storyline pretty much caps off with issue 42 in a couple of weeks. The Booster Gold stuff, while that storyline crosses over with World War III, it doesn't crash together with World War III.
Part of what we decided going in was that it would be great if these stories can dovetail here and there when it's natural, like when Montoya and Black Adam's paths come together, but we're not going to structure it so in the last two issues, everybody stands in one place and fights one giant evil. I think it's a lot better if the space heroes can have their own adventure as long as some of the stuff there spills back to Earth and World War III and so forth. Some of the storylines lead directly into World War III and some of them are more tangential.
IGN Comics: It's been obvious to anyone reading 52 that the writers have worked together fairly seamlessly. You all have been pretty vocal about the lack of conflicts and egos involved. Still, considering the sheer scope of the project and the complex process behind it, there had to be some difficulties. What were some of the biggest headaches you've experienced working on 52?
Waid [laughs] I know it sounds like a baloney answer, but I don't think I have to establish my credentials or scream loudly when I feel like I've been mistreated. I have a rep for calling people on their bull****, so when I say that the process has been pretty smooth, I mean it. I'm not trying to give you the Hollywood answer; it really has been shockingly smooth.
The biggest road bumps have occurred because the DC Universe is a continually evolving thing beyond 52. For instance, if the Helmet of Fate shows up in a miniseries, suddenly we're all going, gosh, I guess everyone knows Ralph Dibny doesn't become Dr. Fate! There have been little adjustments we've had to make to our series because sometimes, inadvertently other books in the DCU have revealed a little too much about what might happen to the characters in our series. That's really been the only real headache.
IGN Comics: In writing 52 you've had a huge hand in the overall direction of the DC Universe. Now that the series is nearing its end, how involved are you in the editorial or creative direction of the DCU?
Waid Unfortunately, none of the 52 writers really are. It's kind of heartbreaking, because we were really hoping to have more of a chance to play with and help shape some of the stuff we set in motion. I think DC's goal was to keep our noses to the grindstone and get us to finish 52, which is fine, but I'm a little disappointed. We also had a bunch of ideas for spin-off books, or projects that could rise out of 52, or new characters that could rise out of what we've done, but DC didn't seem very interested. I don't know if that's because they're putting all their energy into the next weekly or what. It's a shame, but I can use the break.
IGN Comics: In writer Geoff Johns' Justice Society of America, it has been revealed, or at least strongly suggested, that Kingdom Come is another reality or one of the other multiple Earths. Did you have any role in bringing that into the current picture?
Waid Well we all kind of did. As Dan [DiDio] also revealed - much to our surprise, in his DC Nation page and his secret cipher - that, well I don't want to say the exact words, but you can feel free to assume what you'd like. The big "secret" he revealed is just one of the secrets of 52. People think that's the finale of 52, but what is interesting is that's really not the finale of 52. It's the starting point of issue #52. How we got there, and what comes of that and what it means to the DC pantheon of heroes at the other end of 52, that's really the story of issue #52. So, when it's all said and done, it looks like there will be room for the Kingdom Come Universe and what have you. We'll see.
IGN Comics: You've been involved in a previous attempt to tie Kingdom Come to the regular DC Universe with Hypertime. How will this differ from that attempt? Is Kingdom Come another Earth? Will there be an Earth "KC"?
Waid You'll have to keep reading. The biggest difference between Hypertime and what we're trying to do with 52 is that DC will hopefully not immediately turn its back on 52 like they did with Hypertime.
IGN Comics: Have there been any characters that you've fell in love with over the course of writing 52, characters you might not have had any interest in before?
Waid I wouldn't have given you a nickel for Booster Gold before this. That's not a reflection on the character or his creator. It's just that he's a character who came along at a time after that first rush of magic happened for me as a comic reader. You know how it is. Pretty much any character created after you were in high school isn't as cool to you as a character created when you were a kid. So with Booster, I started reading his adventures too late, but I really like him now. I sure hope he makes it through!
IGN Comics: I've always seen him as the Pete Rose of superheroes.
Waid Yeah, he's the guy who's good enough to be in the hall of fame, but has also done a bunch of jerk-wad things in his life.
IGN Comics: Besides the initial relief of almost being done, is there anything else you'd like to say about 52?
Waid I'm so grateful for almost being done! Finally! Otherwise, I'm still continually surprised that it has come together as well as it has. I still pick up a copy each week when I go to the store, even though DC provides us with one. It's fun to be part of that weekly reading experience. And I couldn't be working with a better bunch of guys. Greg [Rucka], Geoff [Johns], and Grant [Morrison] are just the perfect collaborators. I've really enjoyed all of our conference calls, which I can't say has always been true about other collaborative processes.
IGN Comics: Finally, do you have any plans to revisit the Flash either in Brave and the Bold or anywhere else? I'm sure many fans would love to see you answer some questions about Wally West .
Waid Well, it'd certainly be fun. It's an interesting possibility, and it's something we can work with, but that's all I can say for now.
IGN Comics: All right, thanks for talking with us, Mark!
Waid Thank you!
Exclusive Interview & Preview: Mark Waid Speaks
One of the DC architects chats with IGN about Brave and the Bold, 52 and Kingdom Come.
by Dan Phillips
February 9, 2007 - As one of the writers of 52, Mark Waid plays a critical role in the future of the DC Universe. By working on the weekly project, the writer is responsible for determining the fates of dozens of characters. Though fans have already seen the result of 52 in each monthly DC title, they get their many questions answered through what is arguably one of the most pivotal books on the market. In just a few weeks, 52 will spawn World War III, an epic battle that affects the current existence of many heroes.
52 has led to some interesting revelations that have filtered out into other books. One of the biggest plot points is the apparent integration of Waid's seminal, futuristic classic Kingdom Come into the DC Universe. The exact relationship of Kingdom to the current reality is unknown. Is it another Earth? Is it the actual future of the world? For DC fans, the fact that an Elseworlds (out of continuity) story is being absorbed into current plotlines is definitely noteworthy.
But 52 is not all Mark Waid is crafting. In addition to Supergirl and the Legion of Superheroes, Waid is teaming with industry legend George Pérez on The Brave and the Bold. Bold is a long-time DC series that features two different heroes in each issue trying to save the world from devastation. The series has not seen publication for some time. The first issue of Waid's collaboration with Pérez is scheduled to ship February 21, 2007. The writer took some time to chat with IGN about Brave and the Bold, Kingdom Come and 52.
Editor's Note: DC Comics has provided IGN with exclusive pages from the upcoming Brave and the Bold #1. The preview can be located throughout the interview.
IGN Comics: So let's start with Brave and the Bold. It seems like we've been hearing about this book for a while now. Can you tell us a little about how you and George got on the book and how this project came to be?
Mark Waid: Well, it came up about a year and a half ago. Dan DiDio came up to me when I was looking to sign an exclusive. We were looking to figure out what that last piece of the puzzle might be that would make me sign. Offering Brave and the Bold, and dangling that in front of me, was a huge temptation, because it would give me a chance to play with everything in the DC Universe. I'm not limited to one or two characters; I can play across the line.
Part of the stated goal of this book too, both at the time, and even more importantly now that we've gone through Infinite Crisis and 52, is that Brave and the Bold is supposed to be a kind of journeyman's tour through the new DC Universe. It's not the stated or most obvious goal of the series, but I think as you get into it, you'll realize that we're trying to, when you finish the first dozen or so issues, give you a pretty good picture of the overall DC Universe these days, like how the characters interact with each other now. We'll see some of the more famous places, and try to get a sense of the DCU as a cohesive universe.
So Dan held this out to me, it sounded great, and we started talking. Then months and months went by and, as I recall, George Pérez said that he was offered something else first - I want to say it was Green Lantern, but I can't swear to it - but he was interested when he heard about Brave and the Bold, and thought it was cool, because he'd get to play with all the characters, instead of just one or two. So it coincided nicely with George saying, "If you don't have anyone for Brave and the Bold, I'm up for that!" We'd be idiots not to put George on Brave and the Bold. He's the perfect guy for it.
The scheduling nightmare of it has been my involvement in 52, which ended up being so huge, and all that George has been involved in: fill-in pages for Infinite Crisis, covers and special projects. It's been really hard to pin both of us down. I had written the first issue - holy smokes - I finished the first issue's script almost a year ago. The second issue's script I started about six months ago, I want to say. So that's how far ahead we began. Luckily, we're now at a point where 52 is pretty much wrapped, and George's other commitments are pretty much wrapped, so this now becomes our full-time job and first priority. So we're full steam ahead.
IGN Comics: Will Brave and the Bold definitely have a central impact on the DCU and current continuity, or will it be more like Superman/Batman, which seems to have taken place more on the periphery of continuity and what is going on in the main universe?
Waid Well Superman/Batman kind of was and kind of wasn't on the periphery. The "President Luthor" story was resolved in Superman/Batman. Supergirl was introduced in Superman/Batman. The great thing about Superman/Batman, and the smart thing to do with that series was, even though it wasn't the main series for either of those characters, big things still happened.
The trick with Brave and the Bold is trying to find a way to make that true across the DC Universe. I think this book will be in trouble fast if it just becomes interchangeable, fun stories that can be read in any order, and there's no real sense of momentum or impact to them. So George and I have been putting our heads together to create new villains for use throughout the DC Universe, create new devices, places, and characters that can be used above and beyond the DC Universe and touch upon some of the other books.
IGN Comics: So in the same way that 52 has served as a tour of sorts of the new DC Universe, Brave and the Bold will be in that same vein?
Waid Yeah, exactly. With Brave and the Bold, even though there will always be a couple characters featured on the cover that'll be teaming, there's no limit to who you may find inside. There can be any number of surprise guests and people wondering through as needed. Part of the goal of this series -and part of the fun of it - is to start bringing in characters that wouldn't necessarily have a lot of marquee value if you put them on the cover, like the Adam Strange's of the world and the Metamorpho's of the world. But that doesn't mean that you can't play them through this series.
IGN Comics: A lot of the fun of 52 has been watching you and the other writers flesh-out the more obscure characters, making them more important and entertaining than they might have been in the past. In Brave and the Bold, do you have any plans or desires to do a similar thing with any specific characters?
Waid Well George and I both love Metamorpho. We love the Metal Men. Between George and I, there's really nobody that we don't have an attachment to. I have to be a little cagey, because some of the characters that will play through in the first year of Brave and the Bold, if I told you who they were, I'd be revealing a couple secrets about 52. So let's just say that some survivors of 52 will have a big, important impact on Brave and the Bold.
IGN Comics: Any plans do to what writer Brad Meltzer's been doing in Justice League of America, taking some more obscure, d-list villains and revamping them into imposing threats?
Waid Yeah, we've got the Lord of Time showing up in issue #3. He was an old Justice League villain who was sort of a knock-off time-traveler who wasn't very interesting, and we've found a good hook for him. We've got the Fatal Five also showing up in issue #3. They haven't shown up yet in the Legion of Superheroes continuity, but we're going to play them up in Brave and the Bold and hopefully stir up some interest in them. We've got a couple other guys lined up, like Starbreaker, who last appeared in the Rann/Thanagar War.
There are a few other really good underused villains out there who we want to pick up on, but to me it's more important to focus on the relationships between the heroes, which is what the book really focuses on. Each individual story, even though it's part of a particular arc, always hinges on some conflict or issue between the two heroes, so we get a feeling of not only who they are, but also how they relate to each other. How do Supergirl and Green Lantern get along? How do Supergirl and Lobo get along? Are they going to butt heads, or are they going to bond because they're both survivors of a lost world? There's an infinite number of ways to go there.
IGN Comics: George Perez is an accomplished storyteller in his own right, and he did some great work writing books like Wonder Woman. How closely did you two work conceptualizing the storylines for Brave and the Bold?
Waid The original idea was to write it full script. George got the first full script, and was fine with it, but he pointed out that he's a good storyteller as well. So he suggested we break down the plot and I can do the dialogue later. And that's great, because George brings a lot more to it that way, and adds a lot of his own little touches. He does what George Pérez does, which is take a six panel page and turn it into an 18 panel page. He's become critical to the storytelling process. I'd like the credits to read "Mark Waid and George Perez: Storytellers" and not "Mark Waid: Writer and George Perez: Artist."
IGN Comics: How long are you guys onboard?
Waid I think they'll have to pry this book out of my cold, dead hands. I know that George has sworn he wants to be onboard for at least the first year and really make it his book, his beachhead at DC Comics. Hopefully we can keep him on for longer.
IGN Comics: Moving on to 52: Obviously, we're moving towards the conclusion of the series, and we can see that many of the various storylines are beginning to tie together. Is World War III literally these storylines crashing together?
Waid Actually, no. Not even remotely. It's a couple of the storylines crashing together. It turns out to be a big seminal thing in the DC Universe, but one of the things that's often misunderstood about World War III is that, even though we haven't even begun it yet, one of the immediate fan reactions seemed to be, "Well if it's such a big deal, how come we never heard about it in the Post-52 Universe?" Our answer is: read the story. The answer is that you can have something called World War III without most of the people in the world even knowing the full extent of what's going on, because it's huge.
World War III doesn't necessarily mean the armies of the world rolling their tanks into position. You're thinking small. We're talking about a much more massive and a much faster conflict. When you have characters like Supergirl, the Flash, and Captain Marvel involved in a fight, these fights happen very quickly. It doesn't mean these fights aren't very savage and very important, but there's a reason World War III is contained to a week. There's a reason it takes place in one issue of the book, because it doesn't take but a week to have a World War III because it's so huge.
IGN Comics: Is the common man in the DCU Universe -let's say any layman in Keystone City - aware of an event called World War III?
Waid You know, I'm not sure we've decided yet. We've pretty much wrapped up 52, but that's a good question. I think it's more of a designation that the superheroes give it retroactively. I don't think it's going to go down in the history books as World War III, but we'll see.
IGN Comics: Dan DiDio revealed in last week's DC Nation column that World War III is basically Black Adam vs. the heroes of the DC Universe
Waid Thanks, Dan! [laughs]
IGN Comics: How will other storylines like Intergang and the scientists on Ooblong Island play into World War III?
Waid Those storylines will, but some of the other storylines won't. Steel's storyline pretty much wraps up in this week's issue [Week 40], and Ralph's storyline pretty much caps off with issue 42 in a couple of weeks. The Booster Gold stuff, while that storyline crosses over with World War III, it doesn't crash together with World War III.
Part of what we decided going in was that it would be great if these stories can dovetail here and there when it's natural, like when Montoya and Black Adam's paths come together, but we're not going to structure it so in the last two issues, everybody stands in one place and fights one giant evil. I think it's a lot better if the space heroes can have their own adventure as long as some of the stuff there spills back to Earth and World War III and so forth. Some of the storylines lead directly into World War III and some of them are more tangential.
IGN Comics: It's been obvious to anyone reading 52 that the writers have worked together fairly seamlessly. You all have been pretty vocal about the lack of conflicts and egos involved. Still, considering the sheer scope of the project and the complex process behind it, there had to be some difficulties. What were some of the biggest headaches you've experienced working on 52?
Waid [laughs] I know it sounds like a baloney answer, but I don't think I have to establish my credentials or scream loudly when I feel like I've been mistreated. I have a rep for calling people on their bull****, so when I say that the process has been pretty smooth, I mean it. I'm not trying to give you the Hollywood answer; it really has been shockingly smooth.
The biggest road bumps have occurred because the DC Universe is a continually evolving thing beyond 52. For instance, if the Helmet of Fate shows up in a miniseries, suddenly we're all going, gosh, I guess everyone knows Ralph Dibny doesn't become Dr. Fate! There have been little adjustments we've had to make to our series because sometimes, inadvertently other books in the DCU have revealed a little too much about what might happen to the characters in our series. That's really been the only real headache.
IGN Comics: In writing 52 you've had a huge hand in the overall direction of the DC Universe. Now that the series is nearing its end, how involved are you in the editorial or creative direction of the DCU?
Waid Unfortunately, none of the 52 writers really are. It's kind of heartbreaking, because we were really hoping to have more of a chance to play with and help shape some of the stuff we set in motion. I think DC's goal was to keep our noses to the grindstone and get us to finish 52, which is fine, but I'm a little disappointed. We also had a bunch of ideas for spin-off books, or projects that could rise out of 52, or new characters that could rise out of what we've done, but DC didn't seem very interested. I don't know if that's because they're putting all their energy into the next weekly or what. It's a shame, but I can use the break.
IGN Comics: In writer Geoff Johns' Justice Society of America, it has been revealed, or at least strongly suggested, that Kingdom Come is another reality or one of the other multiple Earths. Did you have any role in bringing that into the current picture?
Waid Well we all kind of did. As Dan [DiDio] also revealed - much to our surprise, in his DC Nation page and his secret cipher - that, well I don't want to say the exact words, but you can feel free to assume what you'd like. The big "secret" he revealed is just one of the secrets of 52. People think that's the finale of 52, but what is interesting is that's really not the finale of 52. It's the starting point of issue #52. How we got there, and what comes of that and what it means to the DC pantheon of heroes at the other end of 52, that's really the story of issue #52. So, when it's all said and done, it looks like there will be room for the Kingdom Come Universe and what have you. We'll see.
IGN Comics: You've been involved in a previous attempt to tie Kingdom Come to the regular DC Universe with Hypertime. How will this differ from that attempt? Is Kingdom Come another Earth? Will there be an Earth "KC"?
Waid You'll have to keep reading. The biggest difference between Hypertime and what we're trying to do with 52 is that DC will hopefully not immediately turn its back on 52 like they did with Hypertime.
IGN Comics: Have there been any characters that you've fell in love with over the course of writing 52, characters you might not have had any interest in before?
Waid I wouldn't have given you a nickel for Booster Gold before this. That's not a reflection on the character or his creator. It's just that he's a character who came along at a time after that first rush of magic happened for me as a comic reader. You know how it is. Pretty much any character created after you were in high school isn't as cool to you as a character created when you were a kid. So with Booster, I started reading his adventures too late, but I really like him now. I sure hope he makes it through!
IGN Comics: I've always seen him as the Pete Rose of superheroes.
Waid Yeah, he's the guy who's good enough to be in the hall of fame, but has also done a bunch of jerk-wad things in his life.
IGN Comics: Besides the initial relief of almost being done, is there anything else you'd like to say about 52?
Waid I'm so grateful for almost being done! Finally! Otherwise, I'm still continually surprised that it has come together as well as it has. I still pick up a copy each week when I go to the store, even though DC provides us with one. It's fun to be part of that weekly reading experience. And I couldn't be working with a better bunch of guys. Greg [Rucka], Geoff [Johns], and Grant [Morrison] are just the perfect collaborators. I've really enjoyed all of our conference calls, which I can't say has always been true about other collaborative processes.
IGN Comics: Finally, do you have any plans to revisit the Flash either in Brave and the Bold or anywhere else? I'm sure many fans would love to see you answer some questions about Wally West .
Waid Well, it'd certainly be fun. It's an interesting possibility, and it's something we can work with, but that's all I can say for now.
IGN Comics: All right, thanks for talking with us, Mark!
Waid Thank you!
