|  October
sees the starts of one of DC's worst kept secrets as Justice
Society of America launches, following the end of JSA
with July's issue #87. Making good on teases that he wasn't done
with the team, Geoff Johns will be returning to write the series,
with Dale (Villains United) Eaglesham coming onboard as the
regular artist. Alex Ross will be back as the series' cover artist,
as well as "creative consultant," though as far as he's concerned,
it's kind of just "kibitzing." The series will be edited by Stephen
Wacker.
Currently,
the only members Ross and DCU Exective Editor would confirm for
Newsarama are Power Girl, Hourman (Rick Tyler), Damage (son
of the Golden Age Atom, and sporting a new costume designed by Ross),
and the new Starman.
For Ross, his involvement with the series began a while back,
when Johns asked him to join the series as cover artist with issue
#68. As both are huge fans of the collection of characters, the
kibitzing began in earnest.
"Since we left off last
year, both Geoff and I intended to pick back up again with the new
relaunch which we knew was coming this year," Ross told Newsarama.
"The relaunch would then lead into storylines that we had been planning,
regarding bringing some elements of Kingdom Come characters
into the JSA."
Primarily, that would
be Starman.
 "Back
when Geoff had first invited me to be a part of the series, I said
to Geoff that he had a great group of characters, but he didn't
have a Starman," Ross said. "I love my Kingdom Come Starman,
so could we bring him into this? That was the one boon that I asked.
"Of course, I'm greedy,
so I didn't stop there, and we've talked about a million different
story possibilities since then, and that's where we're hoping to
take the series, and to fulfill some of these things and the promises
they would deliver on. There's a load of unfinished stories that
we left off of from a year ago that basically once Geoff got caught
up in the grind of producing Crisis, the book had to go to
the side for him and for me a little."
Currently, as mentioned,
Ross is kibitzing with Johns about the series, but that will change
as the series moves forward, he said. "As storylines go forward,
there's a major one coming up that I'll be involved with as a co-plotter
as that kicks in."
Back to the new face
on the team, Starman, one of the initial mysteries of the series
will be figuring out who the new hero is. Ross' version of Starman
has already made an appearance in the post-Crisis DCU, as one of
the array of heroes seen in the splash page of Infinite Crisis
#7. But who is he? Good question - while the new Starman is
from Opal City, home of Jack Knight, the previous Starman created
by James Robinson and Tony Harris, although, that's about all he
knows, and is looking for the Justice Society to help him find…a
way, his identity, his purpose, pick one.
Of course, there are
some options from the start - in the Starman series, Danny
Blaine (later revealed to be Thom Kallor, "Star Boy" of the Legion
of Super-Heroes) was seen to wear a costume like what Starman has
going on here, and it was revelaed that Kallor took on the mantle
of Starman in the 21st century, with the full knowledge that he
will die there.
Regardless, neither
Ross nor Didio are talking.
Speaking of Didio, he
explained that, as he and Johns saw it, JSA was coming to
a natural conclusion, which made the restart with a tweaked title
and new #1 a no-brainer.
"The storyline that
we're going to be relaunching Justice Society with was really something
that Geoff had worked on for a quite a while with Alex, and it really
had a real sense and direction to it, and between the two of them,
they really wanted to reinvigorate the team and bring new members
in, and really give a sense of the generational aspect of Justice
Society," Didio said. "One of the things that I wanted to do was
to have the original book be able to run its natural course, and
wanted Paul [Levitz, DC President and writer of the final JSA
arc] to be involved in it. It just felt like that particular series
reached its natural conclusion, and just like with Justice League
of America, I feel that this is a new beginning, and it's nice
to see both of those books have a relaunch around each other with
a new sense of direction."
Any more than that?
After all, as Didio has said with each relaunch of a previous series
(Justice League, Wonder Woman, Flash, etc) he doesn't want
to restart a series unless there's a definite change in the feel
of the characters' story that itself feeds the relaunch. So what's
the change with the Justice Society? The only teaser that could
be squeaked out was that someone is trying to destroy individuals
with legacies reaching back to Golden Age heroes... so how's that
different?
"Oh, if only I could
give the story away," Didio said, chuckling. "There are aspects
of the DC Universe that we want Justice Society of America
to build on, and one of the things that I'm most excited about is
the story that Geoff pulled together with Alex, from direction characters
take to the designs of the characters. You're going to see really
dramatic things occurring with this particular book that will make
it feel like it has a different sensibility than the series that
came before. There's a lot of fun stuff coming out of this."
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