Summary
- DC All In is a collaborative effort of top creators to create a cohesive narrative in the DC Universe.
- The flip book style of stories in the upcoming DC All In Special promises big surprises and action-packed events.
- The goal of the initiative is to drive back traffic to comic book stores by emphasizing the importance of physical copies over digital.
Only a few weeks have passed since then DC comics announced the upcoming DC All In initiative. The ambitious new push will not only see a shake-up to the core continuity with new creative teams, but also usher in the new reality every fan has been talking about, the Absolute Universe.
One of the people leading the charge for DC All In Superman writer Joshua Williamson. During the DC Comics announcement, it was revealed that Williamson, along with Scott Snyder, Daniel Sampere and Wes Craig, will begin this new era for the DC Universe. DC All Special #1. Screen Rant spoke with Williamson and Sampere about the upcoming one-shot and what's in store for the DC Universe.
Screen Rant: Josh, you've talked a lot about DC All In. Hate to repeat yourself, but what does All In mean to you?
Joshua Williamson: Well, let me talk about the background. Scott and I had been talking about this idea, the dual stories with the mainline and the Absolute line, for about five years. And then we actually started talking two years ago. So the idea was, “If we're going to do this, you can't feel that they're separate. It's a story.” right? And then we all started talking about, “We're all in this together.” as And we started saying it all the time. We all say it, and we mean it from top to bottom. It was not an initiative. It wasn't a reboot. It wasn't a reboot. It was a moment where we could say, “We're all doing the same thing together.”
You and Scott Snyder both brought up the New 52 and Rebirth when talking about DC All In. Did you consider both of these initiatives when trying to create what DC All In is or should be?
Joshua Williamson: Yes, we both worked on them. Scott worked on the New 52, I worked on Rebirth more than he did. So we worked out what worked for them. The New 52 was about being new, while Rebirth was about embracing the mainstream and classic. And we ask, “How do we find both at the same time?” We started to really evaluate both and look at them and say, “What were the key elements that we liked about both of them, and how do we apply that here?”.
We have it DC All Special it turns out that this is the dual narrative itself. It's a flip book, so we get two stories in one. You guys want to talk about the story you made, especially after it Absolute Power?
Joshua Williamson: This is a story where Superman thoroughly evaluates what the DCU looks like right now. But this is a moment of happiness. “We're all in this together,” Superman tells everyone. We are all in this business. I always make this joke, Superman says throughout the DCU, “We're all in this together because Danny has to shoot every hero.”
Daniel Sampere: It's literal. They're literally all in the same room (laughs).
Joshua Williamson: Definitely going to influence every DC book for the next two years. We really have this big plan. There is a character in the book who says, “This is a moment of peace and prosperity.” This is a great celebratory moment. But certain things happen that create catalysts that will bleed later down the line. And some of the things that happen in this issue have massive consequences. And then Danny just makes sense of it and pulls some really big surprises. There are some items there. I think people are like, “What's going on?! What is this? What is this?”. There are some big surprises in the book.
Daniel, as an artist, do you want to get into the technical aspects of working on the flip-book style for the DC All In Special, and what was that like for you?
Daniel Sampere: I didn't know what a flip book was. So they explained it to me and I was like, “That's a great idea, but it seems complicated.” You need to double coat. But it needs to be converted. But it should work when looking at both sides at the same time and only when looking at one side. I was happy with how it turned out.
Joshua Williamson: We had a lot of communication, a lot of whiteboards. I wrote an outline of all this. I literally had to write down what was happening on every page of both sides to see how things would close and actually work? But there are reasons why they are connected and how they are connected. It was a very interesting process.
too Absolute Power panel, Scott talked about using All In to drive traffic to comic book stores. It looks like something you'd want to hold in your hand, not digitally. Is this something you have in mind for a special?
Joshua Williamson: It was something I thought about years ago and I really felt like it was something I wanted people to buy in stores. Before I knew what the special was, I was like, “This is something we want to give to people in stores, how do we do that?” So we started with a flip book and it was really interesting.
During Dawn of DC, you were in charge Superman, Green Arrowand Batman and Robin. You pull back a little, using all your energy to do all this Superman. Yes. What does this mean for you when you're All In?
Joshua Williamson: I think I prefer that book again. I have been feeling very burnt out for the past few years, very tired and exhausted. It was hard because I love Green Arrow and Damian, so it was hard to say goodbye to those characters, and then I just put all my effort into making sure that Superman was what I wanted him to be. But I had to have a lot of fun with Superman, because I have almost too many Superman ideas, so I was like, “I've got to make sure this really, really works.”
Daniel, you still work with Tom King Wonder Woman. You are currently focusing on the Sovereign story. But in the era of All In, is there anything you're really excited to start building for the kids?
Daniel Sampere: Yes, starting in October. A new arc will begin. This is a continuation of the Sovereign story. I think it is now safe to say that the Trinity will be born. And things are about to get pretty tense. It's going to be really awesome and things are going to shake things up a bit for Wonder Woman. We are already talking about future plans for future stories. We have many new ideas. Things are looking great.
Jumps back SupermanJosh, you have Lex Luthor as a big part of your story. It turned out that there was a real change in him. You also attributed this change to fatherhood and his relationship with Lena. What can you tell us about Lex moving forward?
Well, he's still who he is, but his memory was erased during “House of Brainiac.” This story is far from over. Yes, I have more with him. I wanted to make sure we continued this journey with him and Lena because he was taking care of her now. It's hard not to say too much, but the story is far from over.
Waller was a big threat in DC's Dawn, but with DC All In we're moving on to Darkseid. Want to talk about the big change in common villains?
About three years ago we had this conversation about how all of our villains are great space villains and we haven't had a human villain in a while. We've had a human villain for two years now, “Who's the greatest DC villain of all time? We're going into this big story. Who's the greatest villain of all time?” And this is Darkseid. But with Darkseid coming in, there are some big twists that I hope we'll surprise people with when they're all in.
DC All Special #1 Available October 2nd from DC Comics.