Consider the question answered.

At today’s DCU panel at SDCC, it was announced that Waid had signed a two-year exclusive contract with DC, which will see him writing Legion of Super-Heroes, and the soon to be relaunched Brave and the Bold, as well as having some editorial consultancy responsibilities along the lines of Geoff Johns and Grant Morrison.

Newsarama was able to steal a few minutes with Waid and DC Executive Editor Dan DiDio to talk about the new gig.

“My hope is that Mark saw a lot of exciting things coming on board in what we’re trying to do, and how we’re trying to re envision the DC Universe, refocus, and redirect, and move forward,” DiDio said, adding with a chuckle, “But really, it could’ve been that he just got tired of me asking.”

Citing Waid as someone he knew prior to landing his job at DC, DiDio said that, in his view, Waid is one of the most knowledgeable people on DC, and one of the greatest experts in understanding who our characters are, and what makes them tick. It’s that combination, along with his ability to bring that to the books he writes that made the deal something DiDio pursued and pursued.

“He’s done such a great job in re-imaging the Legion of Super-Heroes – he did everything that we hoped to do with the title and the property,” DiDio said. “I think that’s what his greatest strength is – he understands the history of our characters so well, and isn’t afraid to make the changes necessary in order to make the characters work for a contemporary or new audience. My hope is with what he’s done now is that not only has he been able to reinvigorate the Legion of Super-Heroes franchise, but with something like Brave and the Bold, we’re going to have an exciting book that’s a companion book to Superman/Batman that’s able to tell the big, broad, exciting stories with all the characters of the DCU, and have everyone play in a way and a form that feels both iconic and contemporary.”

For Waid, who’s previously acknowledged that he’d been offered an exclusive contract by DC, the spice that made the deal irresistible this time was the aforementioned editorial role along the same lines as Johns and Morrison.

“That wasn’t a deal-breaker for me, but the fact that it’s there, and will be a part of my contract in some form, that was what did it, and got me to sign this time,” Waid said. “We’re still hammering out the details of it, but we’re looking at me keeping an eye on the A-level characters, and making sure there’s a relatively consistent take on them across the books. Essentially without limiting the ability of writers to tell the stories they want to tell, or telling them what to write, I’ll be doing something along the lines of making sure that, say, Jimmy Olsen remains consistent between his appearances in say, the Superman titles, Firestorm, and say, Brave and the Bold.

“It also allows me the opportunity to peel back the layers and dig down to find the essence of the characters,” Waid said. “What do you find if you take the big characters and deconstruct them - on paper - and build them back up? The idea is then that we’ll have something that we can use to explain who they are.”

As mentioned, the contract will include Brave and the Bold and Legion of Super-Heroes, while at the same time, Waid will be able to continue work at Top Cow.

“DC has graciously allowed me to continue with Hunter-Killer at Top Cow, as that’s a creator-owned project, and the Top Cow guys have been really good to me,” the writer said. “So, in that sense, Legion continues, Brave and Bold gets rolling – and that’s a workload right there, because Brave and Bold will be told in different arcs, so I’ll be writing scripts for different artists at the same time. It’s not like my workload changes that much, it’s just that this locks me into a place that I’m very comfortable with for the next couple of years.”

And yes, the recently signed deal was one of the reasons for DiDio’s broad grin this weekend at San Diego. “I was very excited to work with him in this regard, and feel that Brave and the Bold is going to be a very big book for us that will utilize Mark’s strengths to the fullest. There are other things that Mark and I are talking about, both more projects, and getting his input in other areas – with Mark, obviously, it would be foolish for me not to get his expertise in DC history, his expertise in understanding the individual characters, and we’re exploring ways to get him much more involved not only in the creation of comics, but also in the focusing and setting the direction for the DC Universe.”

[Check out Newsarama’s continually updated 2005 SDCC News Index for all the con coverage from Newsarama and CBR].

Newsarama.com's SDCC coverage is brought to you in part by Tokyopop's Takuhai Online