The DC All In publishing initiative is set to take the comic industry by storm starting in October. Based on pre-orders, fan interaction on social media and the buzz around the new Absolute Universe DC is launching, it is safe to say that the level of excitement is high regarding DC. It all kicks off October 2nd in the DC All In Special.

This flipbook relates the events that unfold 52 days after the end of the Absolute Power event. Revolving around the New God Darkseid and his role in the larger DCU, what happens in this book will have long-lasting ramifications for the entire DC multiverse going forward. For such a momentous story, DC invited several journalists to talk to co-writers, Scott Snyder and Joshua Williamson, as well as the two artists on the book, Wes Craig and Daniel Sampere. The interviews were spread over two sessions with Snyder and Craig up first.

Check out what Scott and Wes had to say about the DC All In Special specifically and what it means for the DCU going forward.

Please note – The questions and responses have been edited for clarity.

As a flip book leading to a single point, did you start at the end point or did that come naturally?

Scott Snyder – Josh and I kind of co-wrote both sides.  So, we wrote the whole thing and we really began with what the whole book was about. We didn’t really start with one side of the story or the other. We were trying to make a thesis statement about what the whole initiative stood for. All In as an initiative and a concept, was born out of this desire that Josh and I felt over the last few years to do the kind of big seismic moment at DC that we were lucky enough to be a part of over the last decade a couple of times. 

I was in the new 52 and then he was part of Rebirth along with me and it felt like once in a while, the company could kind of all gather around and take a big swing and make a make a mission statement. A book that would dictate a story that would carry the message of the whole line for the next year or two. And so, with this, we began with what do we want to say? What is this moment about for us?

And it really felt like in the cultural zeitgeist, there was this whole conversation about how superheroes were over or how superheroes were in [this period of] malaise because the cinematic universes had peaked or were going to start over soon. And there were all these autopsies in the Times and then the Wall Street Journal and all these places.

And so for us, what we wanted to do was, do an initiative that reminded people that not only are these heroes alive and well in comics, but they’re living some of their most epic stories. And the comics is where they can also be reborn.

So, we wanted to tell the story that would create a villain or elevate one of our villains to a degree where he could stand in for that voice that we all hear sometimes about how these stories are finished, how these stories should have ended a long time ago, how the whole medium is done.

And then the other side, we wanted to tell a super heroic story where we wanted to create a challenge for the heroes to think bigger and to expand not just their physical roster, but to expand the way that they approach their own mission to include things and to include worlds and heroes that they might not otherwise in order to face this new challenge. So it came from that.

It came from this idea that we wanted to say something through the initiative that was about the conversation being had in comics. And from there we started to really have fun with it. where it was like, well, who’s the villain?

There’s only one villain that felt like he could occupy that world ending, universe shaking status for this one and it felt like Darkseid.

Darkseid has had some awesome stories and events and moments in the last like 15 years but we thought maybe with this we’d be able to elevate him even further and create a scenario where he discovers that there’s a role for him he didn’t even recognize in the DCU kind of an almost new kind of variation on what he’s been doing all these years, but something far more frightening.

So, with this book that was the part that Wes and I really got to dig into. It was all about Darkseid discovering that he’s not just a New God. He’s not just the Omega in the context of stories where he plays these roles, like in Darkseid War or in Final Crisis or in Dark Crisis, but instead, in this moment, when the multiverse has broken away in Absolute Power, he discovers that he has a role in the universe to end everything. That these aspects of him have existed in all of these different worlds across the multiverse. He’s the only character that has no double, but just because now the multiverse is locked away, he has the opportunity to gather all those into himself and become something almost like a Darkseid Prime or kind of a huge Darkseid Omega-Galactus level villain.

Sorry. It’s like the longest answer to your question, but that’s where it all came from story wise. From that basic [idea] “How do we say something that we really care about with comics” and then this side of it became, how do we create a threat that feels like that ominous repeating narrative that comics are over, they should be over, they’ve been over and they will soon be gone.

Wes Craig – It was just kind of cool. I felt those same feelings talking to Scott on the phone. I immediately was able to lock into what he was talking about. That kind of negativity and fighting against that. And yeah, in terms of what we were doing here, I thought it was a bold move for Scott and Josh to make and DC to make. Also creating the Absolute Universe.

As a reader, I’m picking those comics up. You know what I mean? Being able to keep the continuity of the DC universe and also to have a fresh starting point. It just seemed like the right decision to make right now, get people excited about it, about some new exciting, chaotic kind of punk rock or metal kind of takes on these characters.

Scott Snyder – And Wes was so great. We were so thrilled when you agreed to do it, Wes. I think one of the things about this moment in superhero comics and just mainstream comics in general that feel so exciting, Is that a lot of classically unconventional styles are being accepted and celebrated within the superhero space, more and more centrally, I think from Daniel Warren Johnson on Transformers and now Nick [Dragotta] on Absolute Batman, Hayden [Sherman] on Absolute Wonder Woman, Wes has been great. It’s just the power of his storytelling and the emotion and the energy he’s able to bring to a story and it’s always story forward.

The priority is always the best storytelling so that kind of aesthetic too, that has this feel to it that is almost a little dangerous and wild felt perfect for this side of the book, and I just love what he did. It’s has a Kirby-esque quality. It’s got a Moebius quality. It’s just really, really stunning.

Wes Craig – Thanks, man. Yeah, I could feel that about some of the people that are taking on the Absolute Universe and also in the All In flip book. It’s interesting because Daniel’s style is so classical and beautiful, and my style is a bit more rough. I thought that made it interesting contrast.

There’s aspects that we have in common, but generally speaking, they’re two pretty different styles and it suited the classical DC universe with this new kind of crazier DC universe. The contrast I think will make for an interesting, interesting comic.

How much did the now famous line “Darkseid is” came to mind when writing this series?

Scott Snyder – Ohh, I mean a lot. What Tom ]King] was able to do with Darkseid and Mr. Miracle was [the] gold standard and I actually showed it to him, our side of it early and we walked through the whole story with Tom and a couple other people that we wanted opinions on because they worked on Darkseid, Booster [Gold,} other characters that played a prominent role like Dan Jurgens.

So for us, we didn’t take it lightly, trying to give Darkseid a new footing in the DCU and we didn’t want it to ring hollow or not seem like a real corollary to his history. We wanted it to feel like an evolution of everything he’s been to something more dangerous, but it still feels like Darkseid.

So that’s the idea. It really is going from Anti-Life to Omega in a way, where, instead of, pursuing the Anti-life Equation, he’s embracing that role as the Ender instead, of control. It’s about ending things and being entropic.

Wes anything to add with to add to that.

Wes Craig – No, I just loved drawing him.

Scott Snyder – Your drawing with the axe hand and the whole of it, was fun too. That’s the other thing, I hope you get this from Josh and Danny too, the one thing I’ll say about All In is for all of the heavy lifting and all of the work to put it together, it’s just been a ton of fun. Honestly, you guys have been around, all of you have been around a while. I think sometimes, these days, it’s very easy with people not always in the office, everyone working in different capacities, part of larger constellations to sometimes get into your silos and make great stuff, but there is loss. Loss of centrality or loss of that feeling that we’re all in this neighborhood together. And so, the fun of this initiative really was getting to go out there with Josh and get everybody in a room and be like, “We’re still DC Comics from New York City out here.” It’s still the same people and some great new faces young editors, young creators too, but we need to do something that reminds everyone what we stand for. The biggest, best storytelling that can be bold and radical and brand new with Absolute, that can be cosmic and epic and respect legacy with the mainline. They can just take big swings across the board.

And so this issue, it was a lot of work about how to do the flip book and I think we took years off everyone’s life in editorial with the actual pint printing and the dialogue and the holes in the book to show that, but at the end of the day, we wanted to make an artifact that was really fun and that that got people into stores that you’d want to physically read.

Similarly like the initiative that we’re doing with the cards, the Justice League cards where the first week when Absolute Power and All In #1 come out, you get, the first of the five Justice League cards where we’ve sent to retailers for each week and they can give them out at their own discretion. To anyone that buys three to four DC Comics of any kind, or if they just decide they want to give one to a kid. The goal is to try and create this energy around going back to the stores every week celebrating superhero comics of every stripe reminding people there’s always something at this buffet of superhero craziness.

Every week from October 2nd, October 9th all the way down through December, we’re gonna be announcing stuff into January. There’s gonna be new books, there’s gonna be creators coming you haven’t seen yet. More in the Absolute line. More in the main line and so this book is meant to capture that energy and just feel like this is the start of something that feels inclusive, that feels refreshing, that feels like it’s additive without taking anything away that you love. It’s just a big party that we want everyone to celebrate, the whole expanse of awesomeness of like the superhero story potential.

Wes, what was the best part about drawing Apocalypse?

Wes Craig – It’s pretty intense. Obviously in terms of detail, you really gotta go in. You can’t fake it really, but I think just in general, Apocalypse as part of that, just being able to exist in that Jack Kirby world was one of the incentives for doing the book. When I got the pitch from from DC, I do another book called Kaya over at Image Comics and that is an ongoing monthly book, but they came at me with this idea for this comic and I had plans to take a nice summer break and I got the e-mail and I was like “Well, that’s out the window. I have to do this.”

And there’s a bunch of there’s a bunch of reasons. They gave me a long enough deadline which helps. I’ve never worked with Scott. Actually. No, we have. Me and Scott have worked together on a Batman annual with Marguerite but that’s the only one.  And that wasn’t directly really in a way. So, it’s working with Scott, working in the Jack Kirby New God Universe, what this was gonna start off with, what this was gonna kick off in terms of DC Comics as a whole, there’s just too many positives [and] almost no negatives. So, I was kind of like “I have to make this happen.” I have to work my schedule in some way that I can make this happen. And yeah, part of that was just drawing Apocalypse, drawing Darkseid, his family, all of that stuff, is a ton of fun, huge inspiration. So, it’s easy to get into that world. Whenever I get commission requests at conventions and stuff, if anybody ever mentions a New Gods character, I’m always like, “Yep, I can do that.” I can lock into that world very easily because I love it so much.

Was recontextualizing Darkseid across the multiverse something you felt like you needed to do to make him more relevant in general, or was this more relevant to the story you wanted to tell?

Scott Snyder – I think both. I love the stories he’s been a part of, but I think one of the criticisms was that, and Josh did it deliberately in Dark Crisis, to set some of this stuff up because Josh and I have been talking about All In since I left after Death Metal. There are even hints of it at the end of Death Metal, but then I wasn’t sure if and when I would come back to actually do any of this or if it was a slightly different form of all of this than what we really came back with over those intervening years, but he and I have been talking about it all the way through.

One of the goals once he was doing Dark Crisis, it was clear I was getting a lot closer to coming back and architecting this with him, was the idea to reduce Darkseid. To have it be that he’s one character among many. That’s he’s kind of this horseman of the dark apocalypse, but he’s a shadow of what he could be. So to allow that to be the final time we see him before this in any real way and then for him to come back and say, over the years it feels like I’ve been diminished, not because of the quality of stories he’s been in, but he’s going from being this cosmic force at the beginning of the universe to being something that, as the multiverse has expanded, feels not less threatening, but maybe less central as a threat.

So, him feeling like “I want to understand how to feel primal again and how to become something bigger than I’ve been” just felt right. It felt like it would put him back at the center of everything and also give a fun answer to why he has no doubles throughout the multiverse and again, Josh started to touch on some of this stuff in Justice League Odyssey and some of the things that he was working on before, so it’s all built into the mythology that we’ve been trying to create for a while around him, but this is really the culmination where he gets to be his biggest, baddest self. And when you see him at the end of the book a bit and when you really see him come back, it’s going to be a lot of fun.

Wes, anything to add?

Wes Craig – Yeah, I can only talk about how I felt when I when I heard the plans from Scott and my internal reaction to them and I was like “That’s just the right thing to do right now.” These superheroes and super villains are held in stasis to a certain amount because they’re set up in a certain way and everyone has such reverence for the original version of all their characters, but at some point they have to evolve. They have to change obviously. Sometimes you revert back to the core of the idea, but Darkseid has been stressing about that Anti-Life Equation for a very long time now. So it’s an interesting thing to take him in a new direction and in a new evolution.

 Yeah I I think it’s the right thing for these characters. You’ve got to push them and pull them in different directions and kind of see where that takes or else they just become fossilized.

Wes, was there anything different about your process when building the visual narrative as they head towards the same point of the Darkseid/Justice League battle?

There’s Scott script and there’s talking on the phone with Scott, more about the general feel and vibe of the whole thing and what they were going for. And I think it was just kind of like, there’s the Alpha side, the Omega side, the light side, the dark side. No pun intended; but it’s going to be, our side [of the book] was going to be more chaotic energy, the more kind of, I don’t know exactly the word I’m looking for to describe it, but just the darker perspective of the whole thing. So that’s what I was trying to do, whenever I’m doing a book, whatever the book may be, I still have my style, but I’m trying to turn the knobs a little bit on certain things depending on the genre and what would serve the story best. And I think in this one I was staying a little bit, punk, a little metal, a little bit more chaotic. So, I was just trying to bring some of that energy, turn that up a little bit in my own style to kind of suit the suit the narrative.

Scott, when you were touting that your major priority was making every story matter and not ignoring DC’s history, fans really seemed to hear and appreciate your intentions. Why did that message enrage Darkseid as much as it appears to?

Scott Snyder – [Chuckles] Well, I feel like in this version, Darkseid sees the multiplication of worlds, the multiplication of superhero possibilities as a reduction of him, because he starts to understand himself as the end of stories and the way, not to spoil that much because you don’t see it in this issue, but the way his Omega beams begin to function and the energy that he starts to envelop in this new universe isn’t Anti-Life, so much as it is this kind of Omega idea and the heroes will have to find Alpha. There’s all kinds of fun stuff coming over the course of the year but the Life Equation has a hidden part, the Anti-Life Equation has a hidden part. So we’re building this big epic.

When he hits you with his beams, your entire story is told, every multiversal possibility exists at once, and you’re gone, erased, so not just gone, but your past is, you no longer exist, or have ever existed. So he becomes far more dangerous, in terms of his capabilities physically and his mission, and his zealotry. He starts to really believe “This my purpose.  I am the God who appears when the New Gods are old gods, and it’s time for everything to end and possibly begin again in a new way.

So that’s the idea with him and the designs and everything coming in are really fun and what I hope it signals too, is the initiative had three priorities, it had three creative priorities. One was to create a meta story that would be compelling, and that’s this, that’s this book and this book’s [impact] carries forward for the next couple years. We have plans now for what we’re doing for fall, they’re still nascent, but I’m a part of them and they’re for fall of 2025.

That sort of tails off a lot of this material and does the next chapter of it. So, there’s a meta story that organizes things and creates kind of a real thesis statement about what we’re trying to say as a company. Then there’s sort of jumping on points across the line, but in the main line, in particular, we wanted everybody to be starting new story arcs. So that’s why we really planned the whole initiative two years ago, got it approved, wanted everybody to have enough time to really think about what their biggest thing would be Is it a continuation of the series you’re doing? I had a long talk with Tom King, for example, and he has big plans for Wonder Woman, but felt like if he could work it so that in October one of the biggest story beats, is you see the baby, and so on happens in October. It would be a great launch point for new readers and be a recap.

Other people really wanted to try a new book like Tom Taylor coming on Detective, which is going to be a fantastic book as well. So, it was like giving everyone the room to decide what would be their best and biggest superhero swing for the main line. And the third part was the Absolute line, which was, how do we do kind of Rebirth in the main line and then New 52 in the Absolute line where you could really reinvent the characters in radical ways that were personal to you and you felt made them even more exciting for you, for readers, as long as they’re true to core.

And so, it was trying to create all those things at once and try to organize it around this idea of three. We’re all in as creators and a company, meaning everybody from the creatives to editorial to sales and marketing from Jim [Lee} and Anne [Leung DePies] and everybody’s in, we’re all excited. Then it’s all in the books, meaning every single book is a jumping on point, a new story, whether it’s a radical reinvention of a character or it’s just a new story, or a jumping on point in a continuing book and then it’s all in the stores. And that was about giving stores big initiatives like not only big jumping on points but committing to lowering the threshold of variant cover prices and buy ins and giving them the Justice League cards and trying to allow more store signings, more engagement with retailers, more zooms, all this kind of stuff, going to the retailer dinners, finding out what things work for them. And so it was that. It’s very pure, it feels. I don’t know. It sounds corny, but I mean it, it feels like a very pure initiative not from me or from Josh, but all of us as a company. It’s very sincere. I really love being a small part of it. It makes me very happy, honestly, that we were able to put it together this way.

With the Justice League looking to expand its roster to become truly unlimited and with Darkseid already planning his next move with the Elseworld, it does look like the Justice League will need to pull every resource they can to not only get Booster Gold back but to deal with the greater threat of Darkseid now that he’s created a whole new world, the Elseworld. Can fans expect to see more DC heroes from different eras, timelines and other Earths to make surprise routine surprise returns to offer their assistance to the Justice League Unlimited?

Scott Snyder – Yeah. We’re gonna go everywhere, and again not talking out of school, but at the same time like you guys have been around a long time too. I think you’ve seen different eras of DC and how they’ve played out in good ways and in sometimes ways that we’re challenging. And I think, part of the thing that was hard occasionally over the last 10 years, and a lot of it is no one’s fault, it’s just the corporate machinations of companies being bought by other companies being bought by other companies. And a lot of that constant churn is that sometimes you can’t commit to something for a long time because you don’t know what the initiative is going to be 6 months later or a year later, and that kind of thing. So, you didn’t have the time to plan a lot, I think.

So, for this, the idea is really to sit, we’ve really been planning ahead, there’s a great sense of calm and a great sense of buy in. For example, the other day I was just talking to Ram V about all of his New Gods stuff, which we’ve talked about many times over the last couple of years. And all the ways that that could really drive stuff in the mainline about a new Darkseid and how that might tie in. Maybe I could spin something off in a year or nine months and we’ve been talking about stuff.

So, the fun is, we’re ahead of it and we have plenty of time to develop as we go, so we wanna bring in everybody. We want to bring in every character you want to see, we want to be a part of this whole big tapestry. That’s the fun of this one and again, there’s no big gimmicks. It’s not renumbering or rebooting. It’s more about just trying to be additive and just tell a huge, awesome story that gives you every kind of superhero book you could want all at once.

Wes anything to add there?

Wes Craig – I’d say it’s above my pay grade, but I’m excited to see what happens there.

Scott Snyder – You come draw, it’ll be good.

Wes Craig – Yeah, yeah, yeah. [Chuckles] I got it one way or the other. Just like this. Just like the All In Special, if it’s exciting. I’ll make it work.

Scott, where did the idea for the League’s new membership cards and their innate powers come from, and what role will they play now that they are much more than just a badge or an access pass?

Scott Snyder – We were talking about how fun it was when I when I was writing Justice League I did this this kind of opening about the Hall of Justice and Josh really helped me with that and we [said] if we’re going to expand the Justice League and Mark and Dan’s amazing book Justice League Unlimited, it feels like we need that kind of majesty, and we want everyone to feel, as readers invited in. So how better to invite them into the new Watchtower than to give everybody a card and to really describe the making of that card.

It was the fun of who would make the hardware, the science guys, Batman would lead that part. Who would make the sort of cosmic tech, well Superman and Mr. Terrific. Then, well, who would encase it in magic, Wonder Woman. And then it became, well, what if we made these actual relics, like from in story and give them to retailers and every little weird thing, as long as we got in front of them and got to talk to them. DC was really responsive. The key was flying out there, everybody in the same room remembering who we are and just saying, let’s have fun and take a big swing and try and make this super retailer friendly fan friendly and yeah, and do that. So the cards came about that way. It was really how best to make people feel welcomed into this event and part of the Justice League themselves.

Scott. throughout your Batman run, the Joker has had such a prime role and in a sense, he’s defined Batman. Does Darkseid define a specific hero for you? Is he an actual villain at the end of this evolution or more of a force of nature/natural disaster? He seems to have the ability to almost be the most transcendent character in the DC universe.

Scott Snyder – Yeah, that’s a great comment and question. I haven’t worked with Darkseid in a big way before this, so for me, I think a lot of the fun was really going back and getting to read a lot of the original 4th World stuff and then take a look at the ways in which he’s been employed in the last like 10 to 15 years, So, his counterpoint to me, is the entire DCU, is life in the DCU. But I also see him, in this particular story, his antagonist is Superman. In that Superman is the character that not only embodies hope, but we wanted to tie into the mythology from Geoff Johns in Doomsday Clock that established the Metaverse concept where a lot of the kind of multiverse functions around Superman’s energy, his history, in these different ways, but he’s kind of a focal point. So if he’s a focal point of that kind of possibility of life, of life bursting from the dark and then trying to find a way forward and a leap of faith, then Darkseid is that darkness that’s not only pursuing, but closing in from the other side. So, they do have this kind of symbolic antagonism, in addition, to their real hatred of each other. But in this story, as much as Superman is a focal point, I almost see Darkseid as the enemy of everything living, all stories, every kind of causal event Darkseid has done.

Booster Gold is elevated to a new height in this issue as the person bridging 2 universes. Why is he the right person to connect these two storylines and will that remain his role in the future? Also, will his popped up collar or costume change be a mystery or a spoiler?

Scott Snyder – I was talking to Josh and we wanted somebody who hasn’t been a huge part of the Justice League, but who would have a different perspective on it and be so excited to be welcomed in. So, we thought of a lot of different characters you wouldn’t expect to be on there, from Ambush Bug to whoever. Then it was, you know what, Booster has this really powerful view of it because having been, not only a time traveler, but specifically being familiar with this kind of resplendent Superman inflected future of Legion, it feels like he would understand this moment in the trajectory of the DCU narrative, and he would see its importance. And so if he was kind of both the comical character who you’re like. How could he be invited and then you start to get a sense of what it means to him to be here at this moment because he knows it goes a certain way and then suddenly when that moment doesn’t go that way, he understands the gravity of why and how badly things can go because of that. So he felt like just the right kind of figure to bring both those things and we were really happy when Dan Jurgens liked the idea when we saw him.

We were on the Superman set in Atlanta and he was there. It was me and Josh and him and that’s where we told him about it. When we got to visit the James Gunn Superman set and we’re like, what if he hates it and we have to change it? But he liked it.

Wes, any additional thoughts?

Wes Craig – I was just happy he was there. I love that character. Ever since I was a little kid reading those original Booster Gold Comics. Seeing him in the in the Justice League cartoon and stuff like that. I’ve just always thought he’s been a really unique, perfect character. Nobody else has that kind of origin really. And like all of superheroes, whether it be DC, Marvel, etcetera. I feel like he’s almost underused in a way, this guy could make a great movie, a great cartoon and a great TV show, etcetera.

But yeah, I’m glad he’s getting some shine here, because he’s just finding that coming from the future and always up against it, he’s always got to rise to the occasion. He’s kind of a naturally selfish character that has to overcome that. I just always find that to be like a fascinating character and he’s got that same problem in this comic. So happy he’s there.

The DC All In Special reacknowledges the existence of the DC Omniverse from Dark Night’s Death Metal, but also states that the DC Multiverse has been severed seemingly from Prime Earth. Can you talk about how and why the multiverse was severed and what role the larger DC Multiverse will play in Darkseid’s plans for the Elseworld, now that he’s experienced his power surge.

Scott Snyder – I don’t wanna spoil too much from Absolute Power just because it’s part of that. It’s part of that storyline, but it was built with Mark Waid. It was actually a year ago. It was at New York Comic Con last year. So in October of last year that we settled on the way we could do all of this and which pieces could go where, and Mark really liked the idea of having Absolute Power reduce the DC Universe into this kind of singular space. While the multiverse is still out there somewhere, so it’s not dead, we’re not killing it. It’s not like we’re getting rid of it forever, but at this particular moment it’s lost. Everything is sort of lost, except this main DCU and subsequently then Darkseid realizes this and allows himself to end and then begin again in this new universe that’s hidden from this main DCU. So I don’t know how much it’s out yet or how much it’s been talked about in terms of how that mechanism actually happens, but you can look for it in Absolute Power and then it gets explained in this book in terms of the consequences of that and how they play into Darkseid’s essence.

With Darkseid’s actions leading to the creation of the Absolute Universe. His plans for this world seem to imply that he intends to replace Prime Earth with this world, possibly leading to the first DC Multiverse crossover since the pre-crisis era. Assuming this crossover event takes place further down the line can this crossover potentially open the door for more lines of comics to be set on different Earths of the DC multiverse, like what Multiversity was supposed to originally accomplished before the new 52 reboot?

Yeah, I’m a tremendous fan of Multiversity, and that that whole concept. Right now, we’re just hoping that the Absolute Universe takes off and that fans respond to it the way that we as creators and as a company have really been thrilled with how it’s coming out. So, I don’t want to get too ahead of myself and be like, well, we have a plan for a year from now when we expand it and then we do a crossover with the main universe. Our priority right now at least is to just make sure that every single book in the Absolute Universe has plenty of room to be special and feel like it exists on its own, while still being part of a shared universe.

So, you’ll see Easter eggs. I just read the finished version of Absolute Wonder Woman #1, and it’s so good, you guys are gonna love it. I have no doubt that it’s gonna go out and blow people away. You’ll see Easter eggs after the first couple of issues where you see how characters are mentioned or things are mentioned across books, but we really want it to feel like every book gets plenty of room to just thrive without being harnessed and kind of commandeered into a bigger story. So, we’re already talking about how our characters within the Absolute Universe can start to cross at the end of the first year. And we’re also talking about ways in which this universe can interact with the main universe without interrupting the stories we’re telling after that year.

We have a lot of plans if this does as well as we’re hoping in terms of fan excitement and with Absolute Batman, we were really blown away. I was really scared and nervous coming back to a Batman book and it was James Tynion who really convinced me to do it. I’ve said it a couple of times, but it’s true. Like, I didn’t know what book I was gonna write, if any, for the Absolute line. I didn’t know if I’d be in the main line.

My role with DC was as a consultant, and then I ultimately told them, you can tell me where you need me the most, and I’ll try and write in that zone. And so, if you need me in the main line, I’ll write a book over there. If you need me in Absolute, I’ll write a book over there.

Batman was one of the last books that just wasn’t populated. The Absolute Batman book It was the pitch for that book that was the pitch that I was using to go around to pitch the Absolute line to other creators, where it was the ethos of the Absolute Universe, where we want to make the characters feel dangerous and exciting and underdogs and new, could be if you did Batman like this and then I would pitch the Absolute Batman that I wound up doing. And so, James was the one that [said] your biggest swing would be to go back and do that. Point being when I came back and did it, I never thought that it would get numbers like the new 52 Batman or any of that stuff. There wasn’t any goal for that. It was just to try and be a part of a bigger initiative and generate enthusiasm, but the numbers were way beyond what we had hoped and so the hope with this, if people show that kind of excitement for Absolute Wonder Woman for Absolute Superman, which are both just unquestionably fantastic books then we’ll get to not only expand the Absolute Universe more than we already have planned, and we do have plans for more books with Dennis Camp, Che Grayson, and Pornsak Pichetshote. And obviously with Jeff Lemire and Al Ewing, then we’ll talk about expanding further or doing more universes or more offshoots. So that’s the hope.

The hope is this just really get fans as energized as we are about all aspects of the DCU, and we can keep going and bringing in more people and in the mainline and in this and just keep doing great stories.

Can you speak about the role played by the Spectre and where this character is, when he’s discovered as one of the more mysterious and abstract players in the story?

Scott Snyder – The Spectre is one of those really majestic and ethereal characters that has a role that can really change, and I think where he was before this in the DCU was really interesting. He was rebonded to Jim Corrigan and so he had this earthly body. And the idea that we wanted to do is he would also be one of the only characters outside of the quintessence that would know Darkseid’s true nature, true role, even the New gods might not fully understand, other than Metron, what his energy and his essence, what it does to the whole multiverse. Here it bounds it. The idea is the Darkseid is the end of all things, and as worlds multiply some small piece of him, energy wise goes into those worlds to help bound all of the kind of crazy possibilities that could make more and more worlds out of it. And so the greater the multiverse gets, the more expansive, the more it turns to an omniverse the bigger it expands the more he’s spread thin. So the idea was really to be able to have a character in the Spectre that could tell him the truth and then he could bond with. It just felt epic because, the Spectre to me, I go back to Crisis on Infinite Earths, the original, and that picture of the Spectre and the Anti-Monitor and he loomed so large that the idea of somebody bonding with him and then fighting the Justice League bound to him just felt like it had the right epic scale.

It was one of the first things we came up with. The thing we were like with the story, Josh and me were like we’re doing it.

Wes any thoughts? What came to mind when you realized that, not only you’d be drawing Darkseid, but the Spectre as well?

Wes Craig – Yeah, since I was a kid, I really loved that character. Also, the way he was handled in Kingdom come, it was always just that Alex Ross version of the character, I tried to channel some of that energy and on the metal level too.

I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure the Spectre was also created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and the way that Spectre and Superman tie into the story I felt was perfect in that way. These two characters that were created, by the creators that started off the whole superhero explosion in the in the 30s, I thought that was kind of a cool. Whether the readers realize it or not, in my mind, I thought it was a cool little convergence of ideas.

Scott Snyder – It is. Yeah, it is Jerry Siegel, and the fun with him is that sometimes, especially in the last 20 years, we go back and forth between embracing the big cosmic lunacy of superhero comics and then moving away from it sometimes to more grounded stuff. And with this, we really wanted to bring all of that scope and that kind of Kirby-esque, larger than life scale to it. So having the Spectre, the Quintessence, the multiverse locked away, the new worlds born, just the epic-ness of the DCU in a flip book that you could read either way We wanted it to just be this explosive fun  mission statement about superhero comics and it’s weird not to include those larger than life characters.

Wes Craig – Yeah, Darkseid’s journey within those 25 pages is literally heaven and hell and everything in between. And it’s as much of a journey as you can possibly get for a character in that amount of pages, I think. So, I you packed in a lot of fun in there.

Scott Snyder – Thanks man.

In Darkseid’s narration, he mentions using element X from the Forge of Worlds to create his Miracle Machine that allowed him to bond with Spectre, this seems to imply the return of the World Forger and possibly the Dark Multiverse. If element X originated from there to facilitate such a merger, can you tease if both will be featured more prominently as we learn more about what element X is? What else Darkseid’s Miracle Machine can do, and how this factors into Darkseid’s quest for more power?

Scott Snyder – I can’t spoil it, the whole epic story will take you to the forge world and you will definitely see the multiverse in the ways that you expect and in ways you don’t expect, and those characters, from the Monitors, the Anti-Monitor. We love that whole cast and we never want to use them lightly, but we’ll definitely be touching on the biggest cosmic roll call that we’ve done in a long time. We just want to build to it.

So some of the times with stuff like metal or death metal we had we had all the freedom in the world and it was a blast doing it, but it was also, you have five issues or six issues and everything has to go in those. And then when it’s over, you’re not sure how much you can do on the other side or what it could connect to and it worked out a lot, but there wasn’t the same sense of long-term planning and commitment over time.

What we wanted to do here, was really announce with this initiative, that we were planning it ahead of time. So, you could you see that we planned it for a couple of years, we have all the receipts of that and also what’s planned ahead is given time to really gestate.

So with the return of a character like the World Forger or the Dark Multiverse, or any of them, we want to make sure it’s done right. It doesn’t feel rushed, doesn’t feel like it’s a gimmick, doesn’t feel like we’re just throwing it in, cuz we have to get it all done. So, what we really want is for this to be something that’s a spine story and we go back to the way the Marvel Cinematic Universe was doing it and all that, and we really roll stuff out in a patient and in a committed way and I’m not going anywhere. this Batman, Absolute Batman is a serious ongoing series and just the sales on one alone mean that we’ll go for a couple of years. I’m not leaving it, nor is Nick. Nick is the artist. I’m the writer, we’re a team. We’ll have interstitial issues just to let Nick get ahead and also to texture the book, but we’re on it for at least a couple of years.

So that means being at DC and helping to be involved in whatever capacity is needed on some of this stuff. Does that mean writing an event? I don’t know. If that’s what other creators and editors think is good. Does that mean not doing anything like that, just staying on Absolute Batman and supporting what everybody else is doing, great. So, my role is trying to be more of a monkey wrench, but I can tell you that the plans that are already in place for the stuff in 2025 are really awesome. I’m excited about the way it really moves forward and brings everything together in ways that it’s big, epic, old school kind of fun, but done in a fresh way, where it feels like everyone coming together, every book, every creator, supportive. Everyone getting to do the thing they’re excited about, as best we can, without anything feeling like a giant boot on you being like you have to do this or it has to happen and it has to happen fast. Everything [for creators] is, you knew about it coming, you had time to plan you do what you think you’re best at during this time.

I told all the creators, I got to read a lot of the pitches, especially for the Absolute stuff, but in the main universe too, as did Josh and there were some books where it was, look I’m going to give you some notes, if you take them, great. If you don’t take them, we’ll still be out there as your biggest supporter, because if this is your biggest swing and you’re passionate about it, then we’ll go out and cheer for it. No matter what. I think all the books have turned out great. I’m really, really proud of what we’re launching in October and November. It’s fun to be a part of DC again right now. I love being there. I mean, I’ve always loved being there and I loved the people that were there over the last 10 years that I was there, but this era is particularly fun with Marie and Jim and the let’s go out and just have fun and show them who we are mentality, the return to superhero comics on the page just feels great.

Wes anything to add there.

Wes Craig – Just that I’m going to be at New York Comic Con bugging all these guys to tell me all their secret plans because I’m just so I hate not knowing what all the all the different books are going to do in the next year or so. Scott’s got me kind of enticed talking about that stuff, but I think froom my just my perspective, that’s the right approach too. It’s great to have this overall plan, but also, you don’t want to stymie creativity in any way So you have to let the creators do their thing, It’s like new jumping on points, you’re trying to bring new readers in. That’s what you have to do for sure, but also allowing the creators to continue doing their stories. That’s just a smart way to run the overall initiative. So, I’m glad that’s what they’re doing.

With the Justice League Unlimited bringing in the potential for a story starring any hero, is there someone you would love to bring back to write or draw? And why is it Jarro?

Scott Snyder – Yes, I would love to bring back Jarro. Oh, my God. I have a Jarro if I was in my office, I have a fan art and fan statue of Jarro that people have given me. He’s in a jar. It’s like a clay thing. I would love to bring him back. I would love to.

There’s so many characters, so I don’t know. When I didn’t know I was gonna do Absolute, I was gearing up to do a Darkseid series and then when we knew we were gonna have Darkseid covered in other things, I was gonna do a Detective Chimp [book]. That was my big pitch.

I love Detective Chimp and in the Tom King vein of doing a really serious version of that, then Absolute Batman came along and I did that. So, I’m just having fun being in the sandbox again, but I’m excited. I genuinely am. I was always thrilled to be a part of DC before, but sometimes it felt like I got shot out of a cannon into DC because I was so brand new when I wound up on Detective and then wound up on Batman and it just it never stopped.

From the moment I was on Batman, through Metal and Death Metal and it was chaotic times between moving to LA and companies buying companies. And so there was always sort of a nervous “who are we, what are we doing” energy and to be able to come back now, having done a kind of whole creative walkabout in the indie world and still doing it, but coming back without feeling that pressure, without feeling that nervousness, to just have time to think about everything, time to plan, everything with Josh, time to plan Absolute Batman, all of it. It just feels really great. I love being there.

I feel super relaxed. I don’t feel any big stress about what I have to do or don’t have to do, and I just really enjoy the attitude at DC right now. It really just feels like everyone’s, pumped to show people who we are and what we can do and they’ve been out of the office a long time, you know, and they feel like they’re excited to be in the same room, even if it’s virtual, right? Now everyone feels like on the same page. So it feels exciting. When I call the office and everyone feels like, yeah, you know what, let’s remind them what we can do.

Wes, how about you?

Wes Craig – I don’t know about the Justice League necessarily, but I’m kind of talking to a few different editors and I’ve got my list of my favorite DC characters, Mr. Miracle and Swamp Thing, and I don’t know, there’s a lot of, it’s a pretty random selection of characters, but I’ve got a few favorites and I’ve got a few kind of, we’ll see if I can find a spot in what’s going on at DC in terms of whether it be as a writer or as a writer/artist or whatever. I am excited to explore those characters again. I’ve loved a lot of them since I was a little kid. So it’s like getting a little high five to 13 year old Wes and also trying to do a mature, interesting take with the chops that I’ve hopefully developed since then. So, yeah, I’m looking forward to talking and seeing where I can fit in that universe.

Wes, as one of the few artists that have gotten the chance to draw all three members of the Absolute Trinity, who’s the most fun to draw?

Wes Craig – Oh man, that’s not fair. I feel like I’m going to insult the artist or something if I give an answer. I’d say they’re all fun for different reasons. I would say that Superman is my all-time favorite superhero character, so seeing this cool new take on him is really fascinating. Nick is one of my favorite artists and just seeing his crazy, just bold, bold, kind of take on Batman was exciting to see immediately. It’s just so stunning. Like as soon as you see that image of him your like. Oh, wow, that’s such a Nick Dragotta kind of thing that only he can do, but also I think honestly Wonder Woman’s new style is just so crazy. It’s pretty exciting. I’m looking forward to maybe drawing her once or twice as some commissions. It’s just a really cool take on the character.

 Maybe inspired by some of the Metal and Death Metal stuff where you can hear the guitars going off when she appears and her horse and the whole world they created for her it’s very cool.

So yeah, a bit of a non-answer, but they are honestly all pretty cool.

Scott Snyder – I will say also really quick, just thank you to all the fans. The fact that we’ve never received the kind of fan art that were seeing for all the stuff happening, not just in Absolute, but in the main line too, but with some of the Absolute designs People have drawn Batman Who Laughs or our Batman as fan art, but usually after the book is out or whatever. It is every day we’re getting more and more fan art of Absolute Wonder Woman, Absolute Superman, Absolute Batman and it’s just been such fun.

It’s really nice to see because it just shows us that fans are not only excited about any one character, but about the whole idea of having something new, having something that’s part of a bigger initiative that welcomes them in and gets them talking.

DC called when, like, there was that whole conversation about the emblem That it was so big and some people were yelling about it, on Absolute Batman. And [DC asked] do you want to do some interviews to correct the narrative? And I was just like, no, this is awesome. I love that they’re upset and they’re engaged and some people are defending it and love it. And some people hate it. And getting them talking, getting them excited and engaged about it, [them saying] I don’t believe in this or I do believe in it, that’s what you want. If I love it, I’m happy to have them, hate it or love it, as long as they’re engaged. So it was fun to see the level of fan investment already.

So much information to unpack here. We were especially intrigued by the way Darkseid is changing both in terms of his Omega Beams and power level. Also the news about what’s to come, both in terms of the impact of Darkseid and the changing DC cosmology and more creators and books to still be announced is exciting. It’s also easy to underestimate the impact of how a welcoming environement can impact the level of creativity and freshness a publisher has in its content. It seems clear that based on what Snyder says, DC has one of it’s best creative environments in years. That is not to say that corporate interference can’t still derail things, but we remain hopeful that we are on the verge of a golden age of stories for DC Comics. Be sure to come back Friday for part two of our All In preview as we chat with Joshua Williamson and Daniel Sampere.

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