?? - 13 February 1998

Grant Morrison on JLA’s far Future

By Steve Johnson

Just like a crazed supervillain, Grant Morrison plans to go out with a bang.

He's written JLA for fourteen issues and brought the title new attention from fans and pros alike. Now he's planning his swan song, in the issue dated December 1999, to kick off the new millennium in style.

"It involves the New Gods, the old Gods, and something much worse than Darkseid," he says. "Much worse. It's the scariest thing I've ever come up with. But I don't want to say too much yet, except that it's something that's been building in the background since, well, since Midsummer's Nightmare, in fact."

In that mini-series, an immortal named Know Man tricks the Justice League into re-forming, because they will b needed to oppose a threat beyond the capacity of any one superhero, even Superman. He doesn't say what it is, and many of us assumed it was the Hyperclan, the octet of evil Martians who attack the Earth in the first four issues of JLA. But it's not.

Morrison confirmed that the Big Bad Thing in his final arc is also the menace that the heroes of Wonderworld, the idealized Super-Silver Age world introduced in the recent "Rock of Ages" story, are preparing to confront. These beings are titanic ultraheroes, as far beyond Superman and Batman as Supes and Bats are above mere mortal couch potatoes. And the enemy that the JLA faces manages to slaughter most of the Wonderworld heroes before they can blink.

How, HOW will our heroes prevail? Probably in a highly satisfying way having almost nothing to do with grimaces, grunts, bulging pectorals or hysterical boasts. Save that for the other guys.

Between now and then, however, are two full years of JLA hijinks, and we do mean FULL years. In addition to an issue of JLA every month, Morrison is working on the summer DC event, DC ONE MILLION, which is "essentially a JLA story that affects the entire DC Universe."

The one millionth issue of each DC comic will be published (well, is PLANNED to be published, anyway!) sometime in the 853rd century. In that time, the Solar System is guarded by Justice Legion A, the first-string superheroes of the future, modelled on the present-day JLA. Each of the Justice Legionnaires has a whole planet to protect, but they're up to the task.

"Some of the heroes are easy: the Flash, for example, has Mercury, and Wonder Woman has Venus," Morrison said, hearkening back to the mythic basis of these heroes. "The Earth is guarded by the Superman of the 853^rd century, a descendant of the present Superman, and the Martian Manhunter has Mars, obviously. Pluto is

Batman's abode, because it's the asylum of the Solar System, out there in the dark. And Jupiter is the meeting place of Justice Legion A."

There are also Justice Legions B and C, backup groups to help the JLA. And the present-day Superman, Clark Kent, is still alive in the 853rd century, living in the heart of the Sun, which has become his Fortress of Solitude. He's just

soaking up that solar energy for the Big One, which is good, because in DC One Million, the Big One is here.

No, not the Big Enemy from JLA #30, December 1999: another one. Vandal Savage, the immortal caveman, is also around in 85,300 AD, and he's got an ally in an intelligent supercomputer in the form of a miniature sun.

"It can attack with radio frequencies, light, gamma rays - everything a sun can do," Morrison exults. "And it's super-intelligent. There's a time-travel story in which the Justice League goes up to the future and Justice Legion A comes back to the past, but they've been infected with a virus which will destroy the past," he said.

That's just a four-issue miniseries. For the remaining 22 or so issues of his JLA run, Morrison has even more in store for the World's Greatest Heroes:

After Mark Waid's four-issue run, the League takes on the new, improved Starro. He's still shaped like a starfish, but he's much tougher than the old Starro. The Star Conquerors put everyone in North America to sleep, and then on Page Two, They… oh, wait, that would ruin the surprise. Besides, he didn't tell me.

Then the JLA finds itself up against the UltraMarines, a superhero group created by the government to protect the President. The UltraMarines are pitted against the JLA to test their powers, but they turn out to be pawns in a larger game.

Want more? How about the first JLA/JSA crossover in 20 years? The Justice Society, heroes of the Forties, team up with the JLA to battle the Shaggy Man(another classic JLA villain) and other menaces after the UltraMarines story. And by the time you've digested that, it'll be time for the four, five, or six issues of the Final Apocalyptic End of the Millennium Showdown.

And after THAT?

"I've got ideas for just about every character in the DC Universe," said Morrison seriously.