Writer Joshua Williamson continues to be a big influence on the Infinite Frontier era of the DC comic book universe.
In addition to co-writing the Future State: Gotham series with Dennis Culver, the Robin ongoing series starring Damian Wayne, and the upcoming new Deathstroke, Inc. ongoing series with artist Howard Porter, Williamson is the architect of the current Infinite Frontier six-issue limited series, which seems to be setting the entire DCU up for big things ... perhaps even big crossover event things … in 2022.
In November, the Infinite Frontier series gives away to Justice League Incarnate, what DC is calling the second act of the Infinite Frontier saga, a five-issue series co-written by Williamson and his Future State: Gotham cohort Culver that stars the Multiversal version of DC's premiere super-team. The series pits them against Darkseid, or more accurately, the "one true Darkseid" (cue ominous music).
Williamson recently spoke to Newsarama briefly about Justice League Incarnate and what it and the entire Infinite Frontier saga is leading to, and the writer revealed that while Justice League Incarnate is a second act, it's only one 'scene' in the second act.
"I'm not even sure I'd call it a sequel," Williamson said of the relationship between Infinite Frontier and Justice League Incarnate. "It's all pieces of the same story. We started telling a story in Infinite Frontier, and we knew that story was going to be broken up into pieces. The first act was going to be the Infinite Frontier mini-series. The second act starts essentially the moment that Infinite Frontier #6 comes out. The second act includes Justice League Incarnate but also includes some other books we have that all lead into the bigger third act."
The writer says it was always part of the plan to tell the story and to have it "spin out and have some of the ramifications from Infinite Frontier #6 go out into other books."
"Part of that was we knew those multiverse characters like President Superman – they don’t have a home, in terms of a book. We wanted to give them their own book, and then there will be other spinoffs and things that we haven't announced yet down the line," he reveals.
Williamson says while Infinite Frontier focused on a variety of characters such as Roy Harper, Cameron Chase, and Alan Scott, Justice League Incarnate mostly focuses on the titular team.
"That's President Superman, and now has Thomas Wayne - Flashpoint Batman, Captain Carrot, a new character called Dr. Multiverse, Mary Marvel from Earth-5, Aquawoman, Thunder," he says. "We wanted to focus on those characters that were from the Multiverse that we've been kind of fleshing out. That book focuses on that piece, but Roy will go into another book. We have plans for different characters to go different places."
[It's probably worth noting here the new Dr. Multiverse is from Earth-8, which is a Marvel Comics analog Earth.]
But as the writer keeps reminding readers in the first three issues of Infinite Frontier, everything in this story comes back to Darkseid.
"I say read issue #6 of Infinite Frontier," Williamson says when asked for an idea of what Darkseid's plans are.
"Darkseid is in part of issue #5 and plays a major part in issue #6. You get some really big pieces for what's coming and what Darkseid is actually up to. A lot of this has been about Darkseid. Darkseid is obsessed with control and has finally figured out there is something bigger than him in the Multiverse that he wants to control. Everything he's doing is about trying to control this thing that's bigger than him."
Williamson says readers will gradually see the "bigger than him" challenges Darkseid faces, which will also be a challenge for the DC heroes.
"There are clues scattered about. I've been re-reading Crisis on Infinite Earths, Infinite Crisis, Final Crisis," Williamson reveals, perhaps indicating knowledgeable DC readers might find clues in what's coming in those classic DC stories.
"I've also been looking at some of the stories that were happening around the same time as those stories. It will all come together. There's a character that hasn't been used in a really long time that we’re bringing back that'll kind of clue people in on what's coming."
Internet, start your research and theorizing. And stay tuned for more from Newsarama's conversation with Williamson about Robin, plus lots of talk about and a preview of his Deathstroke, Inc. series later this week.
Williamson clearly suggests there are clues in past DC Crises. Newsarama conveniently ranks them from best to worst for you.
