2003 Comic Book News Archives

JLA: Liberty and Justice

August 24, 2003: Paul Dini Talks “JLA: Liberty and Justice”

The Pulse have conducted an interview with writer Paul Dini discussing the treasury sized DC Comics "JLA: Liberty and Justice" book due out this November. Here's part of the interview...

Q: What does "Liberty & Justice" mean to you?

A: As the theme and title of the book, it means what the Justice League stands for and what they fight for, even against the tide of public opinion. In some ways, this is a rather dark story. Earth faces a great threat and the Justice League has to take action immediately, without protocol or waiting for approval. This leaves a lot of the world in a state of confusion, and the League finds itself at odds with the very people they are trying to save. It gets kind of frightening as they are forced to use their powers against mankind in an effort to get everyone through this time of crisis. Liberty, in this case, is not the liberty for people to do what they want, but the liberty the Justice League has to take in order to stop them.

Q: Which members were your favorites to tackle in this?

A: When I started the book, I really didn't have any favorites. Sure, there are characters I enjoy writing, like Batman, but this wasn't a solo Batman story or an adventure that takes place exclusively in his world. Yet the more I worked with the different League members, the more I found myself having fun with them. At one point Flash and Aquaman run afoul of a Russian submarine crew and that turned out to be an amusing sequence. Batman's pretty much a judgmental hardass through the whole thing and I had fun rubbing him the wrong way against Superman and some of the others. He's not the chummy good ol' "Superfriends" Batman in this story. There's a sequence I liked where a number of the Justice league associate members are trying to straighten out a bad situation, all with varying degrees of success. When it comes to crowd control, Metamorpho definitely needs to work on his people skills. And it's probably never a good idea to put a live TV camera on Zatanna during a national emergency as that gives her an excellent means of zapping lots of people at once. But the character I think I enjoyed writing the most was the Martian Manhunter. J'Onn's narration conveys a unique perspective on humankind and it was a chance I welcomed as a writer to show his great compassion and empathy toward people in need. I also scripted an upcoming episode of Cartoon Network's "Justice League" that features J'Onn in a major role, and I experimented with some of those same emotions there as well.

Read the complete interview at The Pulse website.



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