COUNTING DOWN: DAN DIDIO & MIKE MARTS ON DC'S NEW WEEKLY SERIES

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Per DC Comics.com

Dan DiDio and Mike Marts answer Newsarama’s COUNTDOWN questions

Countdown, DC’s new year long weekly series that sees Paul Dini take the chair as head writer, orchestrating a story that will span several other writers, artists and a universe.

We sat down with DC Senior VP-Executive Editor Dan Didio and Senior Editor Mike Marts (who’ll be editing Countdown) to talk about the project in depth.

Newsarama: Since we’re starting from the ground up here, the first question is probably the most basic: What is Countdown?

Dan Didio: Countdown is the next weekly comic book series coming from DC that starts the week following the conclusion of 52. So, we’ve got 52 #52 coming out on 5/2, an amazing coincidence in and of itself, and then on 5/9, we start with the beginning of Countdown.

It’s a weekly comic, and that’s probably where most of the similarities begin and end between Countdown and 52. 52 existed in its own time slot, meaning that it was occurring in a “year out of time,” meaning that it was occurring in a period when we weren’t, or didn’t tell any other stories at the same time, so as a result, it didn’t interact much with what was going on in the concurrent comics. Countdown, however, will act as a spine for the DC Universe, and will be reflective of the events taking place across the DCU, month by month as the series progresses.

NRAMA: So basically, to define it by what it isn’t, Countdown isn’t 52 II: Electric Boogaloo?

DD: Right. The way Countdown is constructed is different from how 52 was done. With 52, we had a team of four incredibly talented writers working in unison to produce each issue. As we called it, it was the first comic book rock band, or super group, I guess, working together on the story. And then, of course, we had Keith Giffen doing the breakdowns on the art and it was passed on to different individual artists who best fit with the story that was being told.

What’s being done with Countdown is different in the sense that the sensibilities and the way we assembled the art on the 52 side is now being done on the writing side. We’ve got one head writer in Paul Dini, who’s working in conjunction with the editor on the book, Mike Marts, and together, they’re breaking out the story on a week by week basis. Paul has written the overall outline for the entire year, and together with Mike, they get on the phone with the individual writers of the issues, and together, they break the book out page by page. The writers actually do the execution of the book, and then Paul does the finished polish on the dialogue. So now, we’ve got one voice at the top that will be unifying and pacing the story out from issue to issue more so than four writers working in unison, writing from issue to issue. So it’s a little different and in some ways it’s a little easier for creating a better sense of flow for how the story is told.

With Paul, given his background, expertise and knowledge of the DC Universe, he’s the best choice for this, because he has a way to separate the voices of the characters in the book, and be able to pace the story properly. He’s taking a lot of what he’s done over the years in animation and applying it to the production process in building this weekly comic.

NRAMA: And in that vein, the larger structure here is more reminiscent of television production, with the head writer leading up a group of writers.

DD: Exactly. You can look at Paul as the head writer, Keith as the storyboard artist, and everyone else doing execution from that point forward. I don’t want to diminish the level of involvement the other writers have, because they’re all adding to the story, and making key contributions, and they’ve al been incredibly professional in regards to how it works, but it’s all structured a little differently than it was with 52, because so much of what was done in the beginning was done with Paul, Mike and myself.

NRAMA: You’ve spoken before about this grand vision you have for the DC Universe, which began back with Identity Crisis and gained steam with Countdown and through Infinite Crisis to this present point. When did Countdown come into the mix as the “next step,” and when was it decided that the best format would be a weekly series? Did it have to wait for 52 to prove itself in the market in terms of format?

DD: We knew we were doing the “Countdown” story, and we knew we were going to do it by creating benchmark specials and events to keep the story motivated and moving along. But again, we had such success with 52, and such outcry from retailers and fans alike, asking for another weekly series; and also, something that really can’t be ignored, we learned so much from 52 in terms of creating a system by which we were able to do a weekly comic book series and have it work, both editorially and production wise. We’ve got a machine built now that has all the kinks worked out, that can create weekly comics.

Once we saw we had a way to produce weekly comics, once we saw that there was an appetite for weekly comics, it only made sense to create something that we felt had enough value in regards to story and characters, to be able to continue along. So that’s how Countdown began life and got running as a weekly series.

NRAMA: Mike, how did you get involved in this? Was this something like [original 52 editor] Steve Wacker’s case where Dan asked for volunteers, and he was the only one left as everyone quickly took a step backwards, or was this something that was on the boards even when you were brought over from Marvel?

Mike Marts: Well, a lot of the story pieces were in place prior to me coming over to DC, but as soon as I came in, I was approached. I think it was a case where Dan wanted someone with a set of fresh eyes to come in and tackle this project, because it was trying to tackle so many different things, and reach so many different goals. What Dan had said to me was that he wanted someone who was unencumbered by everything else that had taken place over the last few years to be connected to it.

DD: Also, the best part about Mike, and I use this as a real plus now, is that he was unfamiliar with so much of the DC Universe. Being a Marvel guy for so long, which we’ve forgiven him for [laughs], he wasn’t as familiar with our characters and our stories. The best aspect of that is that in creating a weekly book, we’re hoping to attract new readers so here’s the guy who’s running the project that actually has a fresh set of eyes, and is unfamiliar with some of the characters and the stories that took place prior to this. One of the things that he’s able to do is to take that sense of, “Okay, you’re being introduced to an entirely new world and entire continuity, but I’m creating it with the idea that you, the new reader, won’t feel like you’re walking into the middle of a movie. Rather, you’re coming in at the beginning, and you’ll want to be with us until the end.”

MM: Right. Because I’d been learning as I’d been going along, I’ve been trying to approach the project in the same way and thinking that there will be readers who will be in the same boat.

NRAMA: So, going back to Paul’s involvement, and invoking his previous work with the DC Universe, you’re looking for Countdown to have a feel similar to the DC animated projects, in that, the continuity was there for the people who knew it and wanted it, but at the same time, nearly anyone could sit down to an episode of Batman: The Animated Series and enjoy a good story.

MM: Exactly. We’re dealing with characters in this series where some are heavy hitters, and some are more secondary, but for anyone picking up this series, be it someone new to the DC Universe, or someone who’s been reading it for years, they’ll be able to figure out who the character is, what they’re about, and what their goal is right off the bat.

NRAMA: Back to the production side of things, Paul’s the head writer, and you’ve mentioned that there are others, who are they?

DD: For the first four books, we’ve brought in Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, Adam Beechem, Sean McKeever, and Tony Bedard. These are our key writers who will be working with Paul in the beginning, but also that doesn’t stop us from bringing other writers in to work on the project. One of the things that we like about this, in the way it’s structured, and in the way Mike is assembling it, is that they’re working far enough in advance so that if we choose to crossover with another storyline or a book which is being driven by another writer, we can allow that writer to come onboard and tell their portion of the story inside Countdown and working with Paul. That way, there will be a real feeling of cohesiveness between the series and Countdown, but it also allows the writer to maintain some level of input and control over the character they’re writing on a monthly basis.

NRAMA: Talking about the structure for a moment, will Countdown follow the same pattern as 52, that is, each issue equals one week of real time?

DD: No. One of the huge challenges for the writers of 52 was telling a linear story. That is, they were telling seven days’ worth of events in a particular comic, and then, in the next week when the issue came out, you told another seven days’ worth of events. It’s wonderful in regards to the simplicity of understanding how the story unfolds, but it can be very difficult in creating key moments or cliffhangers from week to week, because it’s hard to have a scene where a guy pulls a gun on a hero, and then leave that as the cliffhanger. IF each issue equals one week, then, unless that guy pulled the gun at 11:59 on day seven, by the time the next issue comes out, he’s had that gun pulled for a few hours or a day.

So they lost some of the ability to use cliffhangers for momentum, just due to how 52 was created, but they did a great job in finding ways around that tool of sequential storytelling that we took out of the toolbox to tell 52. What we’re crafting in Countdown is a little different. The four issues of Countdown all occur within the same month. So therefore, all four issues can occur in one minute of the month, or they can occur in thirty days of the month. That way, it allows us more flexibility in regards to the pacing and the cliffhangers in the story itself.

NRAMA: How will that work with tying in to the DC Universe, then?

DD: With that structure set up, in one month of Countdown, the main line of the DCU will be reflective of what’s occurring in Countdown, and Countdown will be reflective of what’s happening in the DCU. That’s not saying that you have to read everything or buy everything to understand it. But, if someone is injured in their book, you’ll see that they’re injured in Countdown as well. If something is occurring in the backdrop of the DCU or the larger world that could easily be seen in Countdown, it will. That way you just get a better sense of scope and continuity in the DC Universe, which will give everything a much more cohesive feel.

On top of that though, if we feel that a story is major enough that a character crosses in to Countdown and then moves out, then we’ll have clear crossovers that occur so each story feels like it’s occurring in its own book. I don’t want to get into a situation where everything has to come out on a particular week at a particular time, but we are saying that every month, you feel that something is happening, and with every month, you feel that the DC Universe is progressing along with Countdown. That way, the message and the feel that will come across is that the entire DC Universe is counting down.

MM: When all is said and done, the entire series will have taken place over the course of a year, so fans will get the sense that there was a year long journey with many things happening. But major things that happen in the DC Universe, if someone dies, we will see it and deal with it in Countdown. If someone gets married, we’ll see it in Countdown. Something like Amazons Attack, that will be reflected in Countdown.

NRAMA: With that mention of Amazons Attack, Dan, you’ve kind of become famous for putting things into book that payoff farther down the line. That said, have we seen the startup to Countdown in the regular DCU titles?

DD: Absolutely. Amazons Attack is key to one of the main through lines of Countdown, but it exists as its own story, in its own right. Again, we’re in the business to tell serialized stories. So, realistically speaking, we bring our stories to a conclusion, but we always want to leave some thread or two that can carry on to something else so we always feel like we’re building, and feel cohesive in respect to the world our stories take place in.

So, yes, there are things that have been revealed already, and we’re going to continue to reveal more. I will say that one of the richest areas of DC’s history that we’re using to tell this story is a lot of what Kirby’s Fourth World is about. So much of what Kirby created was brilliant in regards to its ideas and concepts, and what we’re trying to do is realize a lot of what he created, and really bring it into the universe as a whole.

NRAMA: Before we talk about the various through lines that are going to be running through Countdown, where did that desire to have Countdown be the project that would pull the Kirby aspects of DC back into the fold, proper, come from? When did that notion get rolling?

DD: When I walked in the door.

NRAMA: So this is part of “Dan Didio, Day One: My Goals:”?

DD: DC Comics, what you’ve got to do in my position and what we all did when planning out the larger picture, is that you want to identify things that are great in the DC Universe, things that stood out and things that people still remember. The things that Kirby created when he first started at DC Comics over 30 years ago still resonate today. There are still so many things in there that people hold so fondly, not just in regards to things from his Fourth World characters, but also things like the Demon or Kamandi or any of these other characters that he created over the years here at DC. There’s a special fondness for that with so many people through to today. Also, personally, I have to add in there that I think in his creation of the character of Darkseid, you have one of the greatest single characters created in comics.

NRAMA: But if he’s so great, where is he? Why isn’t he being used more?

DD: Just like so many of our characters can get overused and overexposed, one of the first things we did was remove Darkseid from a lot of our storytelling. If you go back through our comics, you can probably count on one hand how many times Darkseid appeared over the last five years. Probably the most prominent appearance was with the return of Supergirl in the Superman/Batman arc.

One of the things that we wanted to do with Darkseid was that we wanted to create a story that was elevated to what we felt the true value of the character was. In Countdown, you’ll see some of that come to fruition, as well as other aspects of Kirby’s creations and characters.

There are so many wonderful things about DC that have been explored and told over the years that one of the things that we always try to do it look to the past for ideas and find a way to make them feel contemporary and new for today. We’ve gone to many of the various corners of the DCU to do this so far, but this is one of the corners that has not been fully mined or realized in the 30-plus years since its creation.

NRAMA: It’s probably also fair to say that it’s a tricky corner to mine though, after all, in those thirty-plus years, it’s not as if others, both creators and editorial administrations haven’t tried to explore the Fourth World and shine it up for modern times, meeting with varying degrees of short term success.

DD: This is where Mike and Paul have been key, actually. Like I said, Mike’s not familiar with the DC Universe, so he’s approaching Darkseid and the entire Fourth World with a fresh eye; and Paul, obviously, is a guy who’s been able to distill down the strengths and weaknesses of so much of the DC Universe, in regards to how he told stories in the various cartoons and animation that he’s worked on over the years.

So, with the two of them working side by side on these characters, they found a way to unfold a story that I believe really identifies the strengths of the characters and what makes the characters great, all the while with an eye on moving them toward the future. As I said, it’s such a strong concept and an idea that it has to be addressed, and I think we’re doing it in the best way possible.

NRAMA: So let’s go back and talk about some of the through lines of Countdown. One of the chief characteristics of 52 was that it followed distinct, established storylines throughout its year long run. Are you following that same model here?

DD: Yes, there are going to be separate storylines. One of the key storylines follows Jimmy Olsen throughout the DC Universe, and touched upon a lot of what our long time fans will remember Jimmy to be with the character from the ’60s and into the ‘70s, again, while keeping it fresh and contemporary for a modern audience.

NRAMA: And that keeps a connection to the Kirby theme, as he included Jimmy Olsen in a lot of his Fourth World material when he was on the title in that time.

DD: Right. We’re also going to deal with Mary Marvel in a big way in this series. As Freddy has taken the forefront in Trials of Shazam, we wanted to focus on the other members of the Marvel Family, and this is a great place for us to push Mary Marvel to the forefront and examine that character.

There’s going to be another storyline that will focus on some of the key villains of the DC Universe that will take us through the underbelly of the DCU again, with lines that will tie all the way back to Identity Crisis. And also, there’s going to be one of our key characters who’s been missing form the DCU for an extended period of time, who becomes the focal point of so much of what the DC Universe will be about over the next year.

NRAMA: You’re not going to confirm or deny anything, but there’s only a small handful of characters who’ve been missing from the DC Universe for an extended period of time, some with small hands.

DD: [laughs] I’m saying nothing. There are also one or two other key stories that will be taking place at the same time, but the interesting thing about them is that the stories spin out from other projects into Countdown, and then go into other places as well. You’ll see things weaving in and out of Countdown, but work solely for Countdown. So, if you’re just a Countdown reader, you’re getting a full comic book story experience. Just like everything we do, we’re trying to make sure that you’re getting the full experience in the title that you’re purchasing, but if you want to know more about the DCU, and what to know more about the characters, then we’re going to be putting out other things to capture the same flavor and excitement of what’s going on in Countdown.

Where 52 is world building, which is what was so interesting about it, as we were rebuilding the DC Universe from the ground up following the events of Infinite Crisis, Countdown is the book where, the expression goes sh** blows up. There’s a lot of excitement within the pages, and again, how the book is being crafted and paced is different from the way 52 was crafted, just because of the way it’s being assembled.

NRAMA: Since we’re talking about specific parts of Countdown, another aspect that made 52 distinctive were the covers, both with J.G. Jones drawing all of them, and their overall look and trade dress. Are you going to be approaching that in the same way with Countdown? Well, before that, are you bringing JG back for this, and are you going to work him until he’s dead?

DD: [laughs] No, no. I think of all the accomplishments of 52, you cannot diminish what JG has done for that series. That is something that is a benchmark to the production alone, and we would be very foolish to try and find someone who could follow JG with the level of style and diversification in looks and attitude, and just the level of craft and beauty that he put into those books. So, we decided not to go with one artist, because it was too tough of an act to follow, to be very honest.

MM: Right, what we’ll be doing is we’ll have one artist do a full cover month for each of the months of Countdown. So, in other words, in May, we’ll have one artist Andy Kubert, do all four covers, in June, we’ll have another artist do all four covers. Basically what we’re getting is twelve different artists, about ten of which are DC’s heavy hitters, and two or three of which are what we consider DC’s up and comers. The trade dress will be somewhat similar to what we saw in 52, but that will change as well, to clearly identify Countdown as its own thing.

Oh, and in regards to JG, we didn’t want to leave him out of the mix completely, so he’ll be doing a few guest variant covers.

NRAMA: With the approach of having one artist on covers for a month, it’s safe to assume that’s being done to unify that month’s feel or theme?

DD: Absolutely.

NRAMA: Wrapping things up then, probably the most obvious question, what is Countdown counting down to?

DD: It’s pretty simple, we’re counting down to the next big event at DC Comics.