DC's Justice League of America comic has been at the forefront of the ongoing Rebirth conflict. The series spun directly out of the events of Justice League vs. Suicide Squad earlier this year. And with the latest storyline, "Panic in the Microverse," JLA will tackle one of the biggest loose ends from last year's DC Universe Rebirth #1 - the disappearance of original Atom Ray Palmer.
We recently had the chance to chat on the phone with writer Steve Orlando and learn more about why Ray Palmer's return is such a big deal for the JLA and the DCU as a whole. As he explains, "Panic in the Multiverse" will work hand in hand with stories like Dark Nights: Metal and Doomsday Clock to redefine the very nature of the DCU. Orlando also teased what to expect from the recently announced sequel to the current Batman/The Shadow crossover. Scroll down to find out what he had to say.
IGN: More than with most of the Justice League books, this one really seems to hinge on the character dynamics. Have any of the relationships really stood out to you or surprised you, maybe, as you've been exploring them over the past few months?
Orlando: Yeah, I think definitely. There were the ones I expected. Things like the Batman and Vixen interplay - that they both came up from being orphans but, obviously, through very different experiences, being Bruce Wayne and being an orphaned woman of color who's not from the US. I was excited to dig into that. But a lot of things started to surprise me. Honestly, a lot of it is probably Lobo and Ryan. That relationship and the older brother dynamic sort of developed as we talked about the characters and the book got going. Lobo is a lot of things, but he's not stupid. That split moment where you see some type of connection and empathy pop through, where he sees Batman judging Ryan based on what he looks like and making a lot of assumptions about him - that's what gets Lobo, as a guy who most people think of as nothing more than a dumb biker assh***. Watching those ideas germinate and figuring out how he can take someone like that under his wing has been really fun for me. he doesn't really know how to do it, and he doesn't really know how to care for anything that's not a space dolphin, so it's all new for him, too.
And in the same respect, it's been interesting to watch things go back and forth between Black Canary and Killer Frost, because Black Canary and Frost were at odds in the beginning. But Canary knows that people can change. She's not as black-and-white as some characters. She's very real. Even though she was maybe less trusting of Frost at the beginning, watching them sort of blossom into a respect and finding places where they can meet and connect and respect each other has been really fun, as well.
IGN: On The CW we've seen Caitlin evolve into Killer Frost over the course of The Flash: Season 3. I'm wondering - does that show influence your depiction of Killer Frost at all, or do you try and keep your version more or less separate from that?
Orlando: Well, I think some core elements of the character are influenced by the show. Similar to when people ask if I'm influenced by Supergirl, what the show does right is understand the core of the character. It's sort of an ouroboros, because they do well by these characters by being so good at whittling down what makes them so interesting and lovable in the source material. So I think, yeah, but the characters are in different places in their journeys right now. Frost in the Justice league is someone who wants to be better and hasn't necessarily succumbed in the same way we've seen with the CW version. She's already done that. If anything, our Killer Frost - or Frost, as she'd hope people will call her now - is a little further along. She's been at her lowest point, or so she thinks. Lower points may be coming up. And she's ready to start climbing back up. I don't know - I don't have any secrets - but I think we'll see Caitlin go there in the show, as well.
IGN: These most recent couple of arcs have focused a lot on the tension between Batman and the rest of the team. It seems like Ray especially is really bristling under Batman's leadership right now. Do yo usee that as being the overarching struggle for this tea, - just finding a way to work together and cooperate?
Orlando: Yeah, I think a lot of this book is about "the best laid plans." The fallibility of icons is also a big theme of the book, and Batman is an icon for us and an icon for the DC Universe. But he is still a human being and still imperfect. This idea that maybe he needed to step away from himself and be a part of this Justice League was a little more than he can handle. He bit off more than he can chew. He falls back on ideas of distrust and the idea that he has to do everything himself and take everything upon himself. Even if he's strong enough to do that, how does the rest of the team react to that? That's a huge part of the book. This was an idea that got started sooner than they wanted to happen. The Extremists attacked before they really got a chance to build their headquarters and settle in. Everything with Justice League of America is about the best intentions and that slow avalanche of continuously trying to put Band-aids on problems and trying to keep your eye on the ball as things get more and more out of control. Because these are just imperfect people, and that's the big message the Justice League cling onto - power, structures.
We tend to deify celebrities and out other icons and put our best qualities on the, But at the end of the day, they're just people. That is a lot of what JLA is about. It's focused through Batman's own inability to deliver on something that he, maybe, in his heart really wants to do, but just like us, sometimes one mistake is enough and it's just outside of our realm. And maybe he'll get there, and we hope he will, but there is tension in the team because some of them were sold a bill of goods that he's out of his reach to deliver. A lot of them, in seeing that, are learning that Batman isn't perfect, and finding that out about your icons and the people who lead you is intensely emotional and draining and chaotic. It's a huge part of the book, and the tension and back-and-forth is going to continue as more and more problems arise in the DC Universe and the team tries to hold those stitches together and go help people.
IGN: This next big arc you have coming up involves the team traveling into the Microverse and searching for Ray Palmer. Is it safe to assume this is a story you've been planning and building towards from the beginning?
Orlando: Absolutely. Ryan's journey on the team - in some ways he's the POV character for the series. He's the newest hero on the team, even more so, maybe, than the Ray. "Panic in the Microverse" is something that we have been building to, because, as he gets more confident from being on the team, he continues to take this huge burden on and find Ray Palmer. And you'll see that he's been failing and hasn't been able to do it. It brings him back down and creates that sort of sign curve - the push and pull we all feel with the confidence in ourselves. So as "Panic in the Microverse" starts, he's made some strides, but he is sort of frazzled as he realizes he hasn't been able to find that tether signal that Ray mentions in DC Universe Rebirth. He finally has to reach out to his friends, and it's a huge moment for him to finally have enough trust in this team to reach out and say, "I need your help. I need to find my friend. I'm not sure I can do it alone." He's making himself a little vulnerable to these people because they've been through enough for him to know that's a risk he's willing to accept. We couldn't have gotten to a place where Ryan is willing to do that without the stories that came before this and the experiences he had leading up to issue #12.
IGN: We got a taste of the Ray/Ryan dynamic in DC Universe Rebirth and then the Atom Rebirth one-shot. For you, what's the appeal in having both these versions of the Atom working along side each other rather than focusing on one or the other?
Orlando: Well, I think that they, in many ways, offering differing points of view. Ray kind of says that in the Atom special. He's a very Type A person. He's able to actually do things and think of things. Ray is older, obviously, and has more life experience, but he's a tunnel vision person on work and everything else. Sort of like Batman. All this generation of Silver Age heroes - "I have to be the one that does these things." But the Justice League is about community, and it's about meeting problems where they live, not bringing them up to you or putting your own solutions upon them. And Ryan knows that, coming from outside the US and being from Hong Kong, he knows that people's experiences and the scale of their lives are extremely different. It's interesting to see the limitations of Ray Palmer as the Atom because of who he is and the potential of Ryan Choi as the Atom for the same reason.
Head to page 2 to learn how "Panic in the Microverse" conencts to Doomsday Clock and Dark Nights: metal and what to expect from the recently announced sequel to Batman/The Shadow.
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