The JLA heads in a new direction this month with issue #61, a stand-alone issue by the new creative team of writer Joe Kelly (Action Comics, Deadpool) and penciler Doug Mahnke (Superman: Man of Steel). This special issue also includes a preview of DC’s newest team, The Power Company, by writer Kurt Busiek (Avengers) and penciler Tom Grummett (Superboy). When the call came, what attracted the new creative team to JLA? “The main attraction to me is the characters,” says writer Joe Kelly. “Specifically interactions between these interesting iconic characters and playing the human side of these demi-gods. To get to do that kind of thing with characters on that scale is very cool. The team aspect of it, or the scope of the adventures; that’s all very, very cool, but the character stuff is always more fun to me.”

“From the standpoint of being asked to work on one of DC’s best books, that in itself is quite attractive,” says penciler Doug Mahnke. “Also, it was a stand-alone book. I’m used to working on Man of Steel which is part of 4 weekly stories. Even though that’s a great book to work on, for anyone who likes to tell an entire story, as opposed to just being one part of the story, I’d say that that is a big attraction to working on JLA. That is good. Plus, they’re characters that I enjoy and admire in the DCU.”

Both Kelly and Mahnke realize they have some big shoes to fill on JLA. Grant Morrison, Howard Porter, Mark Waid and Bryan Hitch, among others, all had quite an impact on the JLA and their fans. What do the new creators bring to the table? “Editor Dan Raspler and I used to talk about what’s my little sound bite for what this book is going to be,” replies Kelly. “Morrison did all the big, widescreen stuff and Mark did all the character stuff. In a lot of ways, I’m trying to integrate elements of both. What I’m hoping is that it’s going to be an extremely unexpected run. There are guys who only know me for Deadpool. They’re sorta surprised that I’d get a job like this and think it’s all laughs and fun and games. And then they read an issue where it’s a little grittier and a little heavier and see that I can do an issue without making jokes all the time. I’m kinda hoping that my run on JLA is gonna be total creativity and excitement and surprise. And, as a whole, when you step back and look at the thing in a year block, say, it has the feel of an epic. There are story elements that are seeded in the first couple issues that pay off months down the road. You really get that roller coaster feel of ‘we just finished this mission, and now we’re right into this next one.’ Really keep the chaos level very high.”

“If I look at, for example, Bryan Hitch’s art,” says Mahnke, “he’s environmentally incredible. Great character stuff. Some of my strengths don’t necessarily lie only in that kind of thing, not that his do, but he’s supreme at it. A lot of man-on-the-street stuff for me is always fun to draw; the peripheral characters, fleshing out the backgrounds, things that are going to add a little extra fun to the story. The characters that you see on the sidelines have always been one of my favorite things to draw. Plus, my own quirky way of doing action.”

Working on a team book presents challenges over working on a single-character book. “Giving everybody their due is always sort of the first thing,” says Kelly. “Making sure everybody’s favorite is represented as well as possible and giving them their own scenes and character bits. And then just keeping their subplots straight and not forgetting that you set up 3 issues ago that this guy has money trouble or this guy has an ex-wife. And then just literally trying to figure out what to do with 7 or 8 characters in a particular scene. You want to make sure that they’re all actively doing something, using their powers in interesting ways. So, the technical ins and outs of maintaining everybody on the page and not driving your penciler crazy when you do give everybody something to do. Those are the hard parts. The fun parts of the team book are the depths of the storyline that you can get and the infighting and romances and all that sort of stuff that comes out of any family unit. And I definitely look at the JLA as a family unit.”

Mahnke agrees that the number of characters is the greatest challenge. “In Superman, in spite of there occasionally being several characters, it’s never as many as the JLA. I’ve really had to scratch my head over a few panels already, where Joe has asked for a phenomenal amount of information to be put forth. At the same time, I have to put the characters in. You want people to get their money’s worth and you want to really present these characters in a fun way and you can’t just keep clipping here and dropping them out there. You try to get them in as much as possible. That can be difficult. That has been the one thing that has slowed down work occasionally and I go, ‘C’mon Joe. How do I do this?’”

Even though he is finding the number of characters challenging, there are a couple he’s definitely been enjoying drawing. “I’ve spent plenty of time drawing big, strong male characters – obviously Superman. But Wonder Woman has been a lot of fun. Even though I’ve drawn plenty of female characters over the years, they haven’t been the super heroine type. So, right away I’m enjoying Wonder Woman. Some of the first stories we’re doing focus quite heavily on her, so I will definitely get the experience of drawing her. Next in line is Plastic Man. He’s an under appreciated character in the DCU, I think, especially if you look at the archival editions. That is my opinion. So hopefully Joe and I can do some really good stuff with him. He’s a neat guy.”

For someone who used to draw Dark Horse’s The Mask, it’s no surprise that he enjoys drawing Plastic Man. Mahnke is quick, however, to point out the difference between the characters. “I would say that Plastic Man is beyond over-the-top. The Mask was only pushed over-the-top occasionally. We usually tried to have some fairly straight storytelling. The Mask didn’t spend all of his time being zany. Plastic Man gets a bit more goofy. He’s playing out the maniacal, crazy character role a bit more than the Mask ever did.”

Kelly says he’s finding a couple of the characters rather challenging to write. “I don’t totally have my hooks into The Flash yet. I’ve actually been talking to Geoff Johns a lot to get his opinion on him and just talk to him about The Flash. I like The Flash, I just don’t really know him as a character. And probably Green Lantern a little bit, but I’m warming up to those guys pretty quickly.” Kelly is looking forward to writing these characters and exploring other DCU characters. “Manhunter is a great example. Wonder Woman. All the guys on the team. Batman I’m very excited about. And then having the JLA allows you to walk through the candy store and take all the different guys you might want. There’s definitely going to be some Captain Marvel stuff coming down the pike. There’s like a ton of villains I want to use.”

So, with all this being said, what can we look forward to in JLA? “Everything under the sun,” enthuses Kelly. “It starts out pretty big. The first issue happens to be during this single issue month at DC, so it’s a really good jumping on point. That’s just a mad chaos issue. Then the first arc is pretty Wonder Woman-centric. I’m looking to try and focus the stories on a couple characters at a time, even though the whole League would be in it. Wonder Woman drives the first arc and it definitely hits all the big, cosmic level notes that the guys before have been doing. You’re definitely going to see team roster changes over the course of time, nothing for the first few months, but things down the road. New characters are going to be added, some old characters are going to come back, some revamps. I can’t really be specific about which threats are going to show up, but we have a lot of very nasty things planned for these guys for the next couple of months. And some really funny ones. There’s a Batman/Plastic Man issue that’s sort of a team-up of just those 2 guys that’s going to be pretty hysterical. And trying to dig a little deeper into each of these character’s lives, learning a lot more about what makes them tick, and what they do when they’re not in costume. Certainly not turning it into a soap opera book, but plenty of slices-of-life so that you really get a sense of these guys as real people.”

Considering that many of the members of the JLA have their own book, Kelly says he’s had no trouble coordinating JLA with what’s going on in the character’s monthly book. “Everybody’s cool and it’s all been very friendly. I don’t know how it’s been for other guys, but so far for me it’s been really good. Obviously, being in the Superman offices is a huge help. The Batman guys are doing a big stunt at the beginning of the year with Batman, so even though it’s my first couple of issues, Batman is affected in it in a different way based on what they wanted me to do. It’s all really friendly. Sometimes it gets frustrating because you want to pull the trigger on an idea that has you really jazzed and you have to go through 3 or 4 hoops to make sure it’s ok. And sometimes it’s not and you have to step back and go, ‘Ok. These are not my characters. I gotta think of something else to do.’ But as a general rule, everybody’s been really sweet.”

How much input does Mahnke have on the stories? “Honestly, he has as much as he wants,” says Kelly. “So far, I think we’re trying to learn each others rhythms so he’s really just trying to keep up with the type of scripting I do which, I’ll openly admit, has way too many words and way too many things jammed on a page. I keep telling him, ‘draw what you want, it’ll be ok.’ He’s such a pro that he tries to fit everything in even when I’m kind of babbling. Some of his biggest input comes from just the interpretations of the characters. When I see the way he draws Wonder Woman or the way he draws Manhunter, that inspires certain ideas a lot of times.”

And Mahnke is happy with this arrangement. “I’ve never had a great need to tell the story when that’s the job of the writer,” he says. “I try to visually bring as much of it as I can to the pages and try to be true to what they had in mind. That is my focus.

“I’m going to try to be as regular an artist as possible. I’m going to shy away from taking anything else extra. Besides, I want JLA to look really good. I don’t want to stretch myself too thin.”

Kelly is also dedicating himself to JLA. “I’m really excited to be a part of this project because it’s the biggest sandbox ever. It’s like the universe is your sandbox and you get to do stuff in this book. You get to pace it in a different way, you get to spread out stories so that you can really enjoy yourself. Pretty soon, for at least a 2 or 3 month stretch, the only two books I’m going to be working on are Action and JLA. I just decided that it was time to put other things on hold and focus on that stuff for a while. So I’m gonna be really devoted to this book.”

But before that happens, he is writing a book he’s very excited about: Green Lantern: Legacy – The Last Will & Testament of Hal Jordan HC. “It’s really coming out great. Brent Anderson and Bill Sienkiewicz are working really hard on it. It just looks fantastic. I really can’t wait to see it all come together. I’ve never written anything that big, so I’m very much looking forward to that book and seeing how that’s going to come out. Hopefully it’ll do well.”

But what about the other part of JLA #61, the Power Company preview? Exactly who and what are the Power Company? “The Power Company is a full-service professional superhero team, organized along the lines of a law firm,” says writer Kurt Busiek. “There are partners, associates, pro bono work, billable hours, clients, supports staff... the whole nine yards. But instead of arguing cases in court or negotiating contracts, the Power Company fight villains, saves hostages, recovers stolen treasures, rescues kidnap victims... the kind of thing superheroes are good at.

“The Power Company members are: Josiah Power, who had been a successful attorney until he gained super-powers in the wake of an alien invasion - unsettling and destructive powers that effectively ended his law career. Now he's started up a new business, one that uses both his old skills and his new abilities.

“Witchfire, an all-round celebrity - a model/actress/singer/movie star/daredevil stunt-cyclist - whatever gets her name in the news, she's generally up for it. She's also dabbled in the occult, gaining mystic abilities that she uses in her act - and that she'll use as a partner in the Power Company.

“Skyrocket, who for years has been the local hero of St. Louis, using a hi-tech power-harness that gives her a variety of energy powers. But she needs the support of a company like the Power Company to allow her to keep going, to keep the harness working and to let her be the hero she wants to be 24/7.

“Manhunter is... well, he's Manhunter. We're not saying much about him, except to say that yes, he's connected in some way to the classic Archie Goodwin/Walt Simonson Manhunter, and that we wouldn't have touched that legacy if Walt hadn't given us his blessing. For more on who he is, what his connection to the classic Manhunter is and why he's in the Power Company, readers will have to check out the book.

“Those four are the partners. The associates are: Striker Z, a former Hong Kong action-movie stuntman who was accidentally given super-powers, and who is now a living battery, powering an arsenal of weapons and gadgets. He's an up-and-coming young superhero now, unsure as to which he wants more - fame and success, or integrity and respect. The Power Company will offer him a chance at whichever he wants most.

“Bork is an old foe of Batman and the Flash (who appeared in a Neal-Adams-drawn Brave & Bold), who has been in jail for years. Now he's out, and mutated into a monstrous, superstrong form. But he needs a job, and he doesn't want to return to crime. So the Power Company's ideal for him... if he doesn't screw up and get fired.

“Sapphire was a teenage runaway who wound up bonded to a hi-tech super-weapon, the artificial gemstone that gives her her codename. Unfortunately, the gemstone belonged to the international terrorist known as Kobra - and not only does he want it back, but he wants the thief who stole it dead. So she'll need the Power Company's help just to survive.

“That's the cast - the engine that makes the Power Company go as a series, aside from the whole business setting, is that each member of the team is there for a different reason. One might want to do good, another wants fame, another wants wealth, and so on. And those various motivations will lead the characters to make different choices, which will lead to a lot of character clash over the team's future, and (hopefully) a lot of involving interpersonal drama.

“The Power Company is also a new monthly series, written by me, penciled by Tom Grummett, inked by Wade von Grawbadger, lettered by Comicraft, colored by Alex Sinclair and edited by Peter Tomasi and Steve Wacker.”

The preview this month leads into a Power Company event next month before it becomes a series. Busiek is quick to point out that this is not an event along the lines of Our Worlds at War and Joker: Last Laugh. “It's not that kind of event. It's not a crossover, not something that'll intrude into anyone else's books, and not one big sprawling story, so I don't think it should contribute to the ‘event overload’ that some readers have complained of recently. It's seven self-contained stories, each starring one of the Power Company heroes and having them team with, clash with or otherwise cross paths with one of more established DC heroes.

“We decided to start the series with this kind of fanfare just to make a lot of noise. DC's very happy with the series, so we want to show off, get as many readers as possible to notice it and give it a try. That's why the preview in JLA #61 - it's a free taste of the series in DC's most-popular book, so it'll give the largest number of DC readers an advance look at the series.

“The ‘event’ itself is something of a ‘premiere party,’ celebrating the launch - and it also gives us the chance to give each character a thorough introduction, and to "cement" them solidly into the DCU before the series proper starts. Most of these characters are new, but their histories, their origins, are braided in to different points in DC history. So by showing one of the Power Company characters dealing with Hal Jordan, or Nightwing, or Barry Allen, we get to create a sense that they've been around a while, that they have a past, a history.

“Naturally, none of this is required in order to understand the series itself - we'll make sure that anyone picking up Power Company will be able to follow it just fine, whether they start with the whole event, or with #1, or with #7, or whenever. But readers who pick up some or all of the event books will get an additional look at the characters, and will get to see some pretty cool artists, and get to see the characters in adventures with DC's best and brightest. So we're avoiding making this anything readers feel forced to read we want it to be something they'll want to read.

“That said, the "event" consists of:

“Power Company: Josiah Power - the story of Josiah Power's gaining super-powers, and the events that lead him to start the Power Company. Set shortly after the Invasion! crossover of a few years back, it features Superman and the JLI (the Giffen-era League) and is drawn by Keith Giffen and Al Milgrom.

“Power Company: Witchfire - disaster strikes at a Witchfire concert, and she and Wonder Woman wind up working together to stop it, in a story that fully introduces Witchfire. Set during the time Wonder Woman was based in Boston (the Pérez era), this one features art by Matt Haley and Karl Kesel.

“Power Company: Skyrocket - Skyrocket's origin story, set about seven years ago, DC-time. She and Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) take on terrorists who've had a devastating effect on Skyrocket's life, in a story drawn by classic GL-artist Joe Staton and inked by Christian Alamy.

“Power Company: Manhunter - An introduction to this Manhunter, in a tale that begins during the Goodwin/Simonson Manhunter epic and builds to a clash between Manhunter and Nightwing in Africa, over a smuggled shipment of stolen plutonium. Art by Dan Jurgens and Bob Layton.

“Power Company: Striker Z - a story set in Hong Kong, shortly after the official handover to mainland China, during the period that Superboy was based out of Hawaii. He and Striker Z work together against a menace connected to Striker Z's origins. Art by Ramon Bachs and Raul Fernandez, who've been doing very nice work on Dark Horse's Star Wars line recently.

“Power Company: Bork - the story of the jailbreak that changes Bork's life forever. Set after he was captured by Batman and the Flash (in Brave & Bold, long ago), this story features him clashing with... Batman and the Flash! Why not? The art is by Kieron Dwyer and Rick Remender.

“Power Company: Sapphire - during a clash between two factions of the Kobra Cult and the JLA, we see the events that lead to Sapphire gaining her powers, and earning her the enmity of Kobra himself. Featuring the JLA, of course - and the first full-length DC art of Mark Bagley, inked by Mark Farmer.

After the event is over, what can we expect to see in the series itself? “All kinds of stuff, from cosmic blowouts to crime stories to intrigue, romance and character drama,” responds Busiek.

“One of the great things about writing Power Company is that they're not a conventional team - they're a business. As such, the whole team doesn't go out on every job. They'll all be called into service at times, when circumstances require it, but ordinarily, they'll send whomever's needed to do the job. So we might see one Power Company member dealing with a mystery on the San Francisco waterfront, while another wines and dines a client in Metropolis and three more are fighting off monsters above the Arctic Circle. I can do full-on epics, intimate one-character spotlight stories, multiple interweaving storylines at once - anything we choose to.

“We'll kick off the series showing how the team gets put together, more or less, and plunging them into a conflict involving Dr. Cyber and some new major villains we're introducing into the DCU. After that, we'll deal with the Company's grand opening festivities, and send the individual members off in their own directions, dealing with their own crises, before bringing them all back together again to tackle a global threat. Then waiting in the wings, we've got Kobra, a host of other villains, old entanglements, natural disasters, at least two Power Company members targeted for death, threats from the future, from outer space, from other realities and more.

“It ought to be a lot of fun.”

As this is his first ongoing DC monthly, Busiek is looking forward to exploring the DCU. “As Tom and my editors will tell you, I've got a list of characters that I'd like to use (mostly villains) longer than your arm. Mostly, though, the real attraction isn't any one character (beyond my lead cast, that is), but the DCU as a whole. I'm more charged up about having a whole new (to me, at least) world to play in, from Dinosaur Island to Metropolis to Thanagar, than I am about any one superhero guest-star. Though we've already worked out circumstances in which either the Flash or the Blue Beetle might guest-star, or Superman, or the whole JLA we haven't worked out exactly when any of this might happen, but we've got the story ideas in our notes.

“I'm just thrilled to be writing a book that can go anywhere in the DCU, and I intend to take full advantage of that.”

Busiek is very pleased with what penciler Tom Grummett has brought to the book. “Tom's been invaluable, not simply as an artist, but as a collaborator and sounding-board. He's done a great job on all the character-designs, and he's a fantastic storyteller - but he's also great to talk to when I'm working out a big chunk of stories and trying to balance them all and figure out how best to braid them all together. I do some of my best work when I can bounce ideas off someone else, and talk things through, and Tom's got the experience - and the patience! - to be good at that.

“So far, the stories are pretty much mine, with Tom chiming in on how best to tell them, but as time goes on I'm sure that'll change. But working with Tom has been nothing but positive so far - and I’ve been wanting to work with him since I saw his first published work, back in the mid-to-late Eighties, so for me this is one more longtime wish fulfilled.”

And if you must refer to Power Company by an abbreviation, Busiek has this to say. “After much consideration, we've decided that we prefer the abbreviation ‘PowerCo or ‘Pco’ for Power Company. ‘PC’ has too many meanings as is - and I'm a Mac guy from way back, anyway - so we're hoping fans won't use that one.”

If you’re a fan of Busiek’s writing there are a few other projects you can check out. “The new Defenders arc/mini-series - Overlords: Defenders Against The Earth - launches the same month as Power Company #1. And of course, I'm still doing Avengers, and Astro City still lurches slowly and haltingly toward reappearing on the schedule. And then there's JLA/Avengers...”

So not only does JLA #61 launch the book in an exciting new direction, it includes a preview of a great new team in the DCU. Don’t be left behind!