As first announced at New York Comic Con back in October, Brian Michael Bendis‘s Wonder Comics pop-up imprint will revive a fan-favorite title from the ’90s beginning in 2019 in the form of Young Justice.
What’s more, Bendis’s take on Young Justice will be a fairly true continuation of Peter David’s original run, right down to Tim Drake as Robin (not Red Robin — just “Robin”), a costumed (rather than jeans-and-t-shirt-wearing) Conner Kent as Superboy (he will explain it, he promises), and Bart Allen back as Impulse.
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Joining the trio will be a handful of characters from the old days as well as some new faces, included Jinny Hex, a descendant of Western hero Jonah Hex whom Bendis introduced in his Batman Universe series available at Walmart.
Bendis joined ComicBook.com for a quick e-mail Q&A about Young Justice #1, which will be in stores next month. Today is the final order cutoff for the issue, so if you want to be sure to have a copy waiting for you, contact your local comic shop.
Was Bart already coming back into circulation when you started this project, or was that something that happened to facilitate Young Justice?
Nope, actually. Bart was MIA. It was not happening yet and when Josh Williamson heard “Bart” he said, “You know, um, i have a place to bring him back!” And i was, like: great! One less thing i have to do! the magic of a shard universe. Sometimes things just click.
How did you go about modernizing the attitudes and looks of these characters, especially Conner, since he hasn’t been around in a while?
Well, first of all, everything that is old is new again. Our culture, at the moment, is a smorgasbord of past cultures and fashions. One of my daughter’s friends brought up that everyone in their high school dresses like the cast of Friends. So it’s really about staying as true to the character and the energy they bring with them as possible. We just released the most fabulous Superboy cover that has ever existed and Twitter went nuts. I’m very excited to bring Conner back.
The first issue is very kinetic, moving from character to character. Is there a true POV character coming up, or is the plan to kind of shift between team members?
Once the team is established in this issue, we are journeying into a part of the series I am very excited about and is something that separates it from other team books I have done. Starting in issue two, we’re going to structure the series a little like the first seasons of lost. There is a main thrust of story, but inside the story, we will be doing deep character focused moments- some flashbacks, some flash forwards, some just things the audience would like to know about the individuals.
The announcement of Wonder Comics was followed by a large roar of people expressing deep love for these characters and it showed us that this book should focus on that, too. The team, yes — but the characters. The fun and bombast will be there, but this is going to be a surprisingly intimate book.
Obviously you and artist Patrick Gleason have worked together before. Did you develop the book together, or how did that relationship come together?
I am a big fan of Pat. He, Ryan Sook and Ivan were the first names I asked to work with at DC. Once Pat and I started to work together on Action Comics, on Superman, his book, I realized I was in the house he built with Pete Tomasi and that their collaboration was super tight, like Alex Maleev and I. So I thought he and I should build our own house.
At the exact same time, we were putting Wonder Comics together and Pat’s name, because of Superboy, Robin, and the Green Lantern connection, leaped to the top of the list. I gently approached Pat about this only to find out Young Justice was VERY high on his MUST do list. he has already done work on a pitch before he met me. He introduced me to teen lantern. So, instantly I knew I we could make this book ours.
We get Bart and Conner and Cassie just kind of…showing up…in the first issue. Are you going to explain how they came back or did you think th emost important thing was getting back into the action?
See above. Issue 2 is: Where has Cassie been? Issue 3: Conner’s secret!
It will all get revealed, but we have to introduce and reintroduce the characters first. Again, Conner and Cassie have been MIA for a while. Even fans might need to reintroduce themselves. We have to go into this Young Justice #1 ready for this to be a lot of people’s first read of all of these characters. So we’ll show you what they do and then we’ll show you why and then we’ll make you laugh and then we’ll make you cry. 🙂
