2001 Comic Book News Archives

JLA #61

September 14, 2001: Joe Kelly Talk JLA

Newsarama have interview Joe Kelly about his job as writer of the JLA comic books. Here's a small excerpt from the interview:

Q: Let's start with an entry level question - if you had to explain to readers who haven't picked up a DC book for a good while, what this JLA is about, what would you say? Obviously every incarnation has their flavor and buzzwords, what is this team about?

JK: In a lot of ways, the JLA are the embodiment of gods on earth. I find it so difficult to talk about these guys in anything but generic terms because it's like talking about a sub-genre within a genre. We keep refining down - there are superheroes, and then there are the really cool superheroes, and then the mega-ultra-super-duper heroes. They're all the best in their class and unique and iconic, and the distillation point for all other superheroes - you can distill all funny characters down to Plastic Man, all dark characters down to Batman, and all the super-powerful characters down to Superman. They really are the origin points for everything else.

So, yeah, they are like the legends of gods that walk among us. I really like to look at them, at first blush, in that way, like giant Greek statues. But then, as soon as you get closer, you see that there's a real person next to them that has to worry about getting to work on time, paying the bills, and juggling their lives between spending time with their wife and superheroing. These are gods who walk among men as men, so they've got the same kind of troubles as we do. That was one of the things that Mark [Waid] was really good at nailing down, and something I definitely want to keep. My issues so far have all got this big, crazy, kinetic action, but I'm trying to ground it all in character whenever I can.

Read the complete interview at the Newsarama website.



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