Scott Snyder Talks Starman’s Return

The Source Wall is Down!

And with that brings a new host of problems and sometimes new friends. Dark Nights: Metal is still spurring out in the DCU and the effects are still being felt. Starman, a famed 80’s DC comics headliner has returned to the Justice League and according to Scott Snyder plays a very important role in the upcoming arc.

Snyder opened up about the upcoming heroes future and what he will play in the Justice League.

“I’ve always loved that mythology, from Ted Knight all the way down, and the generational aspect of it as well, and what James Robinson was able to do with Ted and Jack and everything. The whole Opal City saga was part of what got me into wanting to write comics.

But trying to find a way into that mythology is hard, because so many of the stories are done or are attached to other things, the way Ted Knight is attached to JSA and Jack Knight, that story is really…you know, it’s James [Robinson]’s and is complete, in a lot of ways.

So for us, one of the things we really wanted to do was bring in that mythos but do it in a way, from a standpoint that would give us some elasticity creatively.

So we really started thinking about Will Payton, because he’s a really under-explored character” explained Snyder.

He was then asked Which Starman would appear in the current run:

“Yeah, we started thinking about him back then, during Metal. That’s why he’s featured on the wall back in Challengers Mountain. So you see a picture of him all the way back then and you sort of understand that he’s been part of these explorations of the very boundaries of the Multiverse and its different energies and its limits, since 30 or 40 years ago. So we wanted to bring that story in where we could in Metal, but we’ll really bring it in full here.”

Snyder went on to talk about the characters upcoming importance.

“His role going forward is really important to the Justice League. He’s in the next arc, in ‘Drowned Earth,’ and he figures into the following issues prominently as well.

What he knows about the Totality and what’s inside of it, what they’ve been able to discover in the past — because what you realize is that all of the kind of super-scientists that you saw in Metal, like the Challengers of the Unknown and Will Magnus, they’ve also been exploring this larger mystery, beyond just the mystery of Nth Metal and the Dark Multiverse.

They’ve been trying to figure out what the Multiverse wants to be. What is its core? What is its origin? Who made us? What do they expect of us? Is there some key to unlock and kind of evolve us into what we’re supposed to become? Is that thing good or bad? Is it horrible or wonderful?”

Snyder went on to explain the effects of Metal.

“A lot of it is a continuation. I mean, Metal is a self-standing story that we’re really proud of. But it really was intended as a launch pad for a lot of ideas and a lot of story that we’re going to be weaving in for the next year and a half to two years.”

Snyder also spoke about the side Challengers book:

“One hundred percent. Yeah. I mean, the Challengers — I wanted to give that book a little bit of room, because I think it’s so good under Aaron [Gillespie]’s pen. And I’m very, very proud of what that team’s been able to do. But we’re going to be referencing that. And the Hawkman mythology, like what’s going on with Hawkgirl, Kendra, and what’s going on with Carter is a huge part of what happens in this arc.”

He also went on to speak on the “Incident” with Kendra.

Yeah, you’ve already seen in issue #6 that Kendra, for some reason, is unaffected by the Totality as it’s kind of funneled through the doorknob that Lex has. He’s unable to kind of get rid of her. And her wings are lighting up in a way that doesn’t make sense to her. So the mystery of her whole reincarnation cycle and who she really is, and what her role is in this sort of giant, uber-story about the Multiverse is something that’s key to the whole year in Justice League.

All the stuff that we wanted to set up in Metal, with her being part of the Blackhawks and her relationship to Carter, and the different ways they were reincarnated over the years, and the patterns by which they were reincarnated — all that stuff kind of comes in and is done in tandem with what Rob [Venditti]’s doing on his great Hawkman series with Bryan Hitch.