Bryan Hitch On Rebirth: "Most Importantly, Cracking Justice League Stories"

After a month of non-stop sellouts, DC launched Justice League: Rebirth today from writer/artist Bryan Hitch.

During Geoff Johns's fifty-plus issues on Justice League, the team went through a number of permutations. Starting as the "big seven" of the Morrison days, but with Martian Manhunter swapped out for former Teen Titan Cyborg, the team always strove to retain that core -- Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and The Flash -- as much as was possible given the fact that each of them had major events happening in their own comics.

New characters, of course, were swapped in and out, most notably during and following the events of Forever Evil, when Lex Luthor and Captain Cold joined the team. Luthor, particularly, became a focus of Justice League during the latter part of Johns's run, and played a major role in Darkseid War, which ended with Justice League #50.

The series' final two issues, both by fill-in creative teams, dealt with the fallout of that event.

Over the course of the last year, meanwhile, writer/artist Bryan Hitch had launched JLA: Justice League America, which reverted to the model of the "big seven," and seemed to exist almost out of continuity, with the events of their solo titles not particularly impacting how the heroes operated in JLA.

Hitch's story, though, played a role in "The Final Days of Superman," in which the New 52 Superman died. With Superman: Rebirth and the renumbering of Action Comics, DC has replaced him with the pre-Flashpoint Superman -- and just as he did in the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths timeline, that Superman hesitated when he was invited to join the League.

No more, though; Superman, pressed on by his wife Lois, elected to join the Justice League alongside Earth's two newest Green Lanterns, Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz, in today's Justice League: Rebirth by Hitch.

With Hal Jordan gone and the New 52 Superman dead, those three will play a key role in forming an iconic Justice League alongside stalwarts Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg, and Batman.

Hitch joined ComicBook.com via e-mail to discuss today's one-shot, and the changing status quo for the series going forward.

You can get a copy of Justice League: Rebirth at your local comic shop or buy one digitally on ComiXology.

How has your mission statement changed -- or has it? -- since you moved from JLA to Justice League for Rebirth?

If anything, it's only become bigger. Justice League is more a flagship title in the current DCU and so carries a little more consequence than JLA did in the way it effects the rest of the line. The important distinction between the two is the understanding that Justice League is the only place in the DCU that all those characters share time together.

As such it will instrumental in defining just what those relationships are and who the work across the line. But also, given a much longer planned commitment there's a chance to play with much broader long-form storytelling and the chance to shape how that effects the big picture at DC

And it really does. Big time!

Are we still going to see you drawing issues occasionally?

I drew the Rebirth issue (how could I pass that chance up…) but given the double shipping schedule and the fact I'm a slow artist, I should probably not screw up the schedule by trying to do more!

There's a two-part story in issues 6 and 7 I would have KILLED to draw but I could never have managed the schedule so that was disappointing. That said I can't be too disappointed as we have terrific artists with Tony Daniel and Fernando Pasarin, to name two, and the work they've done is spectacular.

Also, I do have other stuff to draw so need to get on with that too.

The new Superman plays a major role here -- his part in the League almost seems to be what this issue is "about," even more than introducing the threat. Is that a fair assessment?

It was equal parts but yes, Superman and what is happening to him is part of the big picture. Given too that their teammate, the New 52 Superman, has died, their relationship with the old/new one is a cornerstone of the book initially.

That's a relationship that will play out over quite a few issues but also one that has deep connections with what's happening in the DCU.

The post-Crisis/Pre-Flashpoint Superman was often evasive about joining the League. Was it your intent to mirror that, or just kind of a happy accident?

There's nothing accidental in Rebirth, trust me!

When discussing your JLA, I often described it as a wide-screen summer blockbuster. If you had a tone you were going for, how would you describe it?

Certainly I wanted Rebirth to be epic in Tone. It was quite a challenge to try a done-in-one 20-page story but be true to all characters, handle introductions where necessary, a tether to a larger coming plot and serve as a mission statement for what's to come! With material like this, you want to hit the beats and have the crowd cheering; those heroic moments are essential in this type of fiction.

With Justice League, though, I also get a chance to deepen the relationships of all these characters. Having two new Green Lanterns and different Superman only gives us much richer material to play with.

I really loved seeing Lois here, and I felt like you really "got" her characterization. Will we be seeing more of the people around the League, or is it a fairly laser-focused story?

I think it's common knowledge that I adore Superman and his world. It was my entry into comics and what fired my childhood imagination simultaneously with Superman the Movie. They are part of my creative DNA. Lois still has her part to play but that's also key to what makes this version of Superman different form the new 52 one.

We're used to Superman saving the world and he's still that altruistic, heroic ideal but the way I see it is there's a new beat to that now, he's saving it for Lois and Jon to live in. That love for family is a whole new reason the world can't end and a much more personal one at that. Everyone can relate to those feelings. I've heard from time to time that Superman is a hard character to relate to with those almost god-like powers and a seemingly messianic ideal and I understand that, even if I never agreed with it.

Now his world saving has a more immediately understandable dimension and that's great material for a writer. Lois is very much part of the book. She comes with Superman.

Yours is the first book where I've really seen Wonder Woman's feelings about this new Superman dealt with. Is that an area you're staking out a little bit as a writer?

Not really. I think I've said it. She's upset and angry and though issue one picks up with that same anger, she's redirected it and moving on. She's far form heartless but she's a very pragmatic figure, I think.

Whilst she can grieve for the loss of 'her' Superman, she doesn't have those feelings for the current one. There's a whole new relationship to build there. I'm much more interested in her relationships with the rest of the team and there's some very rich material to mine there as we'll see.

From both this issue and the solicitations we've seen, it seems like you're doing a kind of longer-term, high-concept story here. You just wrapped something similar with the Rao story. Will we see you doing some more small-scale, one-and-done kind of stuff down the line?

There are two-part, three-, four- and five-part stories planned for the first year so a good mix. I'm certainly proud of what we achieved with Justice League: Rebirth and if other done-in-one stories come up, I'm certainly not afraid of doing them and thinking of them as less epic for their brevity.

That said, there are very big and very long term plans for the run as a whole and in part with plans in large phases and these are going to impact the larger DCU in several ways but first and most importantly be cracking great Justice League Stories. We'll see later that the story with Rao is part of the tapestry.

Now, you mention Starro in the Rebirth issue, which is funny because that's kind of what this new threat reminds me of. Since this is the "first mission," was that an intentional parallel?

Yes, very much. I thought, when I came up with the idea of The Reapers it would be fun to throw in a visual homage to Starro, that of spitting out small seafood creepies that attached to the victim's head. It's a slight connection with the original JLA too and part of Rebirth is about us reconnecting with those classic books as much as it is about our mutual love of DC history. I LOVED the Starro stories as a kid!

Is it a challenge to write for another artist rather than yourself? Does it affect how you write?

Only in as much as when I write for myself I do so in a very shorthanded. I don't need to write detailed descriptions and have often worked from just a few long hand notes. Issue 8 of JLA had no script at all but I had the issue in my head so just worked from that.

So there's a difference there in writing for somebody else; I actually have to write stuff down. I write a full script as it's easy for me to visualize the beats and rhythms but I don't give the artists any more than a clear description of what's happening. I certainly don't want to dictate layout; 'put that here, left side, right side…' etc. I hope what I write is enough to inspire the artists to go to town on the images and so far I've been far from disappointed. I'll do a dialogue polish before and maybe after lettering to make sure everything's in synch with the art and as good as I can get it. Very traditional process, really.

Whilst not a challenge, I did worry that I'd miss drawing these stories but, honestly when the art's as good as it is on this book, I'm just happy to stand back and be impressed with everyone else!