Dan Jurgens on Justice League International #8

The second arc of Dan Jurgens and Aaron Lopresti's Justice League International is now well and truly underway, with three major new villains stepping forward this issue and making themselves, their powers and a bit of their agenda known. Meanwhile, Booster Gold is struggling to keep things from falling apart, with members in the hospital, new members joining willy-nilly and a team that has far more determination than they do direction. Dan Jurgens joined us as always to talk about the issue, and while he was a little more evasive than usual, he did drop hints about what's next--and name names as far as a villain we still haven't seen come into play yet on the page. Russ Burlingame: There's an interesting opening sequence between Batwing and Vixen. In establishing a past relationship between these two characters, did you have to run it by the Bat-office to make sure that nobody was stepping on David's timeline? Dan Jurgens: Of course. As Mike Marts edits both Batwing and Justice League International, it was easily done. I'm happy we could make it work and I think it's cool to have a previous connection between David and Mari. Women and minorities have a hard time supporting their own books, and there's always the rumor of a "wave three" around the corner, theoretically replete with its own spate of cancellations. Does it ever feel like putting a character like Batwing on a team book can hurt his title as much as it can help it? I can't say that I think this would hurt Batwing's title in any way. We'll do whatever we can to be true to the character and book. Wow! It's been a while since we had the old "Booster Gold's suit is out of batteries" problem. I kinda thought it had gone the way of Green Lantern's 24-hour charge. Not quite. It's still make of a fiberweave circuitry that depends on a power supply.

That said, shouldn't Booster have been able to swoop down to save Batwing using nothing but his good looks and Legion flight ring? ESPECIALLY the good looks! We've got three cool new villains--and we keep going back to the well of the same heroes. there are certainly reasons for that, but can you explain a little bit about new villains versus new heroes? Breakdown, Lightweaver, Intersek and Cross Cut-- whoops! Did I give something away there?-- are new villains who have simply had enough of a world and political system that no longer looks out for the "little guy". Will Cross Cut be another hands-on type or might we find out that one of these guys is the man behind the monitors from the first arc? Stay tuned! It's interesting that the "standing up for the little guy" thing also plays a role in Grant's Superman. Do you think it's just pervasive right now in everyone's minds? I mean, doing the math you guys were writing a lot of this stuff right around the time that Occupy was in the news in a big way. My take on the "Occupy" movement is that it's an unfocused and selfish one. There was a time in this country when people protested on behalf of equal rights for minorities and women or to bring the boys home from Vietnam. That's a lot different than protesting because you used $100,000 worth of loans to major in basket weaving and can't find work. Or you simply want the rich to pay more taxes. However, there is justifiable and undeniable anger out there. That's what I'm trying to play off. With Batwing being both so straight-laced and so anti-Booster, you can see fissures starting to form in the team's future. I can't imagine him getting along with Guy, who also doesn't like Booster much, but August General might see eye to eye with him. Will the chemistry in the next iteration of the team be a bit more complicated than it was the first time around? I wouldn't say Batwing is anti-Booster. It's more fair to say that he doubts him, as well as his motives. More on this as the series unfolds. And Batman continues to show faith in Booster, regardless of what we saw over in Justice League #7. Will Bruce continue to hang around for the time being? Yes, and we'll also explore his relationship with Booster. Where's the line between what's a legitimate use of "you're a threat, get out of my building" versus flat-out discrimination against people with powers who--aside from Guy and Booster--were really just born that way? That's a very interesting question. To a certain extent, it might depend on the nature of the power. If someone can fly, they aren't likely going to pose a threat. If they can sit in a 300 unit building and read the minds of every resident, it's a bit of a different story, isn't it? Is it telling that it's the August General, who really actively represents his government, who stands up to Bao and tells her that, in effect, she can't just close down the JLI? Yes, very much so. I think we've made it clear that she respects him above all other members. The appearance of OMAC at the end of the issue wasn't entirely unexpected, but the way he immediately attacks the team certainly raises a question about Checkmate's relationship to the Justice League International. Will we see that explored a little more in the near future? To start with, we'll concentrate on OMAC's relationship with the team. He's... compromised. That will pose a special problem for the team. In the meantime, he makes for an interesting presence-- especially with the great job Aaron Lopresti does in portraying him.