DC Comics is entering a bold new era with endless possibilities, and it all begins in October’s much anticipated DC All In Special #1. The special lives up to its namesake in more ways than one, as it not only deals with the direct aftermath of Absolute Power #4, but also then delivers an epic story that will set the stage for the core universe and the Absolute universe moving forward, and all in flipbook form. One side of the story is being handled by Scott Snyder (Absolute Batman) and Wes Craig (Deadly Class), while the other side is handled by Joshua Williamson (Superman) and Daniel Sampere (Wonder Woman), and both stories will run parallel but will also interact until their inevitable collision. ComicBook had the chance to speak to Snyder, Williamson, and Sampere all about creating this new unified world that expands the toybox while also retaining the legacy DC fans hold dear, and what eventually led to this All In era.
Embracing Everything
“The goal is to celebrate every kind of superhero storytelling at once. You know, I was lucky enough in my decade plus of DC to be part of a couple of really awesome initiatives. One, the New 52 was all about new things and sort of reinventing the heroes from the ground up and inviting in readers that wanted reimaginative takes. Another, Rebirth, was about celebrating this great incredible tapestry of continuous storytelling that we’ve had, this epic kind of collective story, possibly in centuries.So each one was a big success but they had sort of totally different sensibilities. and sometimes during the time that I was at DC, it felt like those those sort of sensibilities were in conflict,” Snyder said. “But my belief and the belief of I think most creators and editors and everybody there was that if we could do both of those things together at the same time, we’d have an incredible seismic moment and initiative that embraced all kinds of readers. Continuing, new. People that are hungry for really daring, different takes. People that love the classic takes, and people that just want big epic storytelling.”
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“And and that is the thing that I’m most excited about with all of this is just being able to approach it in a very different way than we’ve done in the past. Trying to find a ways to make all these things work, but then it’s also been, we call it the core line side, but when it comes to the DCU side, it’s really fun to watch creators come in and try new ideas, try to take as Scott likes to say big swings,” Williamson said. “And then watching Scott work on the Absolute side, working with him on that side and watch him come in with new ideas, and that was what a big part of our goal was with this, was to make it so it didn’t feel like, the thing we did not want to do is be like this is a new side, this is the old side. That was very important to us to really distinguish that’s not what we were doing. It was about taking both sides and really embracing all the cool new stuff we could do for both and do something really special with them, and I think that’s been part of the fun of it.”
“And if we were going to do this big initiative, it all had to begin with a story, and the story had to be big and grandiose but also really simple. It had to be something that would invite in new readers and also sort of, you know, speak to this incredible legacy of storytelling that I think long time readers are used to,” Snyder said.
Enter Darkseid
While there are many looming threats in the DC Universe, few if any are on the level of Darkseid, and Snyder and Williamson wanted to take that idea even further. “And so we started planning this story that would be about Darkseid. Darkseid is the villain that for both me and Josh always felt like he is sort of the core, the core antagonist of the entire DCU,” Snyder said. “I think over the last few years, he’s had some fantastic stories from you know 15 years ago I can’t believe it’s that long almost but Final Crisis to you know the Darkseid War, all these different ones, but we felt like maybe it was time to do something with him where he leveled up.
“What Superman represents about Hope and doing things together, Darkseid is about despair, entropy, and chaos really, and doing things on his own,” Williamson said. “That’s something interesting about Darkseid, because like normally Darkseid represents order and has always been about order, but this new, I don’t want to call him new, but after what Darkseid has been going through the last few years, now instead of embracing order he’s beginning to embrace chaos and you’re gonna see that in this special on that side.”
A World of Heroes
“And then ultimately what we’re doing in the superhero side is to say the opposite. Say the thing that we believe is the the premise of the entire initiative. It’s to survive and thrive, you have to embrace everyone. The Justice League is bigger all of a sudden, it’s the Justice League Unlimited. It invites every hero in. It’s supposed to be a new way of doing it, where the connectivity, the collectivism, all of it says, look, everyone is a part of this and with these, the heroes eventually are going to have to sort of figure out their relationship to this brand new world with new heroes that they don’t even recognize as themselves in some way. All of it needs to come together to defeat Darkseid eventually. You have to embrace all kinds of Heroes, all kinds of Storytelling all kinds of superhero comics,” Snyder said.
“So on the one hand, it’s a it’s a huge epic cosmic, you know, crescendo of things, and it will guide the DCU for the next year or couple of years honestly at least, but in another way it’s a mission statement. The story itself is about how we need to embrace all kinds of superhero storytelling and remind everyone why Comics has always been said to be dying but can overcome any threat because of the amazing stuff that happens between these pages and all of the passion of the fans and the creators and the retailers, and everybody that’s a part of this community,” Snyder said.
Making It Special
While there are two stories playing out in the flipbook format, they are still intricately connected, and will also obviously run into each other by book’s end. They will also directly connect at times throughout the story, something that the team paid a lot of attention to as the story developed.
“You’re going to see that these stories are independent of each other but they run parallel with each other and they interact with each other. Even though they’re separate, they interact with each other, and so, that was really tricky to be like, there were times where Scott was like, well, I want to add this page in this sequence, and I’m like, well, if you do that, that means you have to move this scene over here because of this on the other side. So it really was a lot of logistical stuff,” Williamson said.
“And then giving it to both Wes and Daniel, and Daniel and I would do the same thing we did on Dark Crisis. We would get on Zooms, we’d talk some stuff out, and Daniel was really killing the pages, and there were times where I would have to… there’s one page in particular where I had to go into Photoshop and be like I have no idea how I’m going to explain this so I’m just gonna try and draw itand we did it while we’re on the Zoom. I literally drew it on the Zoom and then handed it to Daniel and Daniel was like ‘ooohhh’, and then knocked it out. Daniel and Alejandro did a dope job with some of the weirder stuff we try to pull off at this issue. It gets pretty crazy,” Williamson said.
“This page in particular, I’m pretty sure that this has never done before, at least I’ve never seen something like that, and I think it’s quite an accomplishment these days to do something in comic books that is absolutely new, and I’m pretty sure this has never been done before in a page, so I think people will will like it,” Sampere said.
One of a Kind
The flipbook nature of the story also makes this a perfect fit for the comic store experience, as while fans can get the whole story digitally if they prefer, there is something truly special about heading to the comic store and reading the physical copy.
“And actually, that’s something about this special that I find really interesting. Me and Daniel were signing at San Diego Comic-Con when I realized something. One of the things that I love about the flip book is is that it is something you kind of have to read in print,” Williamson said. “Like if you read it digitally you can still get the story, but you’re not going to get the same effect if you read it in print. I think it is something that is an experience to be read, and so it is something that you need to go into your comic shop and pick it up to actually see how it is and how it works and why it’s a flipbook. And the amount of work we put into it so you can have that experience, it’s really the best way to read it is in the flipbook form and like pick it up from your comic book store.”
The flipbook style did pose some challenges along the way, and Sampere had actually never worked on that style of book to this point. Seeing the final version now, that’s hard to believe, and he remembers when he first got the email about it.
“When I read the first email with the cover idea I was like, I’ve never heard of a flipbook before. I didn’t know what was that, and the pitch was like you need to make a double cover, but it needs to work like in regular view, and upside down at the same time, and I was like, what? (laughs). It’s been challenging and super fun from the beginning,” Sampere said.
You can read the DC All In Special when it hits comic stores on October 2nd.
Are you excited for All In? You can talk all things comics with me on Threads and Twitter @mattaguilarcb!
