Geoff Johns Explains Why Helena Wayne is the Key to the New Justice Society of America (Exclusive)
The New Golden Age has arrived at DC with Justice Society of America #1 this week. The new monthly series picks up the story introduced in The New Golden Age one-shot and delves into the biggest threat that the iconic JSA has ever faced as every iteration of the team across generations has been killed by a mysterious and malevolent enemy who has invaded their entire history. However, there is one survivor in one future iteration of the team: Helena Wayne/Huntress. As a lone survivor, it's up to her to solve this mystery and save the JSA in a story that is as much about legacy as it is about history as it introduces new characters, revisits old ones, and explores untold stories of one of comics' most beloved teams.
But why center such a story around Helena Wayne? ComicBook.com recently spoke with writer Geoff Johns about Justice Society of America #1 and he explained that Helena is a very compelling character to anchor this story around, in part because of her heritage but because of the legacy she struggles with. Warning: spoilers for Justice Society of America #1 beyond this point.
"There's two reasons. I'll talk about the one that for me as a writer is so compelling is that she's such an interesting legacy character because she comes from the most impactful superhero arguably ever, Batman and one of the most impactful super villains, and I use that in quotes, ever, Catwoman," Johns said. "I think that dichotomy of it. And then there's a really interesting thing, and she mentions it, that when she talks about her father's legacy, everyone's like, 'It's about fear and vengeance and darkness and this.' And she's like, 'That was my dad. He was not like that. That was not who he was. That was not what he embodied.' And for her to struggle like, 'How do I carry it on? I assumed I would be about vengeance, but that's not what I'm about.'
He continued, "She struggles with what's her dad's legacy really about. Who is she going to be? And it's not just about putting arrows in people's chest. That's just not Batman to her. He was her dad. And I think that when you know someone like that, it's completely different. She saw a completely different side of him, and she saw him do things and live a life that was not just about vengeance. He opened his heart up and he fell in love, and he had a daughter, and she was that daughter. And then he stopped being Batman to save that family. And then having her mom still around, she's not yet carrying her mom's legacy on really. She's really focused on her dad right now and her mom and her obviously have a very different opinion on what she should be doing."
He went on to explain that Helena is also an extremely interesting character, and she's one that we haven't seen used in DC to this extent in a long time.
"Selina does not want her daughter doing this, especially the way she's going about it. And one of my favorite scenes is the argument between them in the library where she's saying, 'How could you possibly work with these people? If somebody's been murdered... if Dr. Fate's been murdered, one of them had to have been involved and blah blah blah, and how can you trust them?' And she's like, 'Mom, you don't think I checked in?' And they have this great argument where Helena says to her mom, 'This is what dad did... dad did this with you." And she's like, "It's completely different situation.' And they're both right, which I love. But that's why she's become the anchor. That's the first reason. Emotionally, she's so interesting to me as a character. And she hasn't been used in the context of the greater DC universe in a long, long time. So, I wanted to bring her back and put her in the center of it."
Justice Society of America #1 is on sale now.