Justice League is in good hands with Scott Snyder
Scott Snyder kicks off the second act of Justice League while creating stories and characters that will define an era of comics for future generations.
Scott Snyder is the jack of all trades of the comic book world, a Renaissance Man who captures the essence of beloved characters and then injects them into bold new stories that will resonate for years to come. (He’s also the coolest dad around and he recently adopted two cats and one of them is a polydactyl. Thanks, social media!) Snyder has done a lot of work in the DC Comics universe, but the work he’s doing on Justice League right now will be part of a legacy that represents an era of comics for generations to come.
One of the defining characteristics of comic book fans is that they all can point to a specific comic book issue or graphic novel that defines their entry point into the genre. Between his work on some of the biggest DC stories the creation of a new iconic villain, Snyder’s stories will become representative of the current era of comics because they reflect the world that we live in today.
Snyder’s impressive resume includes work on Batman back in the The New 52 days with artist Greg Capullo, and this dynamic duo might be best known for the time-honored Zero Year stories that are serving as the inspiration for the final season of Gotham. He has also worked on American Vampire, Detective Comics, Superman Unchained and Swamp Thing, to name a few.
But it’s Snyder’s current work on the Justice League title that is getting the most attention these days. The stakes have never been higher for the Justice League. The world they once knew has been rocked by earth-shattering revelations that have rocked the group to its core. The uncertainty that the League faces mirrors our own uncertainties as we navigate a continually changing world
I had the pleasure of talking to Scott Snyder at San Diego Comic Con this past July, just over a month after Justice League #1 hit shelves. With two young sons, one of whom is at an age where he can start reading his dad’s stories, I wanted to know what it was like for Snyder to be writing the stories that his sons, as adults, will point to as the defining comics of their childhood.
Snyder talked about how writing two arcs in Batman, Death in the Family and Court of Owls, were very personal to him based on particular moments in his life. However, it was a story that came about with Zero Year that really inspired how he crafted Justice League with his kids in mind:
"For me, Zero Year was born of a moment when my son came home from school very upset when he was in first grade because they’d had a shooter drill, a lockdown drill, and they’d forgotten that he was in the hallway. From that moment forward he would never go to school without his thermos because he never wanted to leave the classroom.I realized very quickly that I was being tasked at that moment to do an origin about Batman that my children have fears that I never had as a kid. My fears were addressed by the great origins that were put together in Year One when the city was falling apart at that time, and there were gangs and urban decay and all that stuff is there. That death wish and all that kind of 80s stuff is in that. Their fears are much different.For Justice League, it is dedicated to what I want to say to them. At this particular moment in time I feel like we’re all facing these tremendous challenges that seem almost impossible to surmount. That said we all seem to be retreating into these trenches about what we think we should do and there’s no communication. [Lex] Luthor is very much about greatness, that with Doom he wants to make it that. The Justice League is very much about “we have to reach across the divides to find a way to do this regardless of our differences and regardless of what camp we’re in with anything.And so the story is about which side is right, and which side is likely to win. That’s a story that’s very much written for them. I want them to be able to pick it up and enjoy it, love it and be scared by it.”"
When Justice League #1 came out in June 2018 it was a story that spun out of a cacophony of cosmic events from Snyder’s expansive Dark Nights: Metal saga that includes Omega Titans, the complete annihilation of the Source Wall, Nth metal and all of its mysterious properties and something called “the Totality” that shouldn’t be mistaken with the 2017 solar eclipse buzzword. Metal, along with the prelude miniseries Justice League: No Justice, served as Snyder’s foundation for the new Justice League.
One of Snyder’s Metal creations has taken on a life of his own. The Batman Who Laughs is a creature spawned from a Batman in an alternate universe. He is perhaps the most disturbing character in all of DC Comics, mainly because he’s the result of what happens when Batman crosses The Line, the all important line that should never be crossed, with the Joker. As a hybrid of the two, this nefarious fiend knows everything that the Bat and the Clown Prince know, and he’s not afraid to use this knowledge. The Batman Who Laughs made an appearance with the Legion of Doom in Justice League, and his popularity led to his own miniseries written by Snyder with art by Jock. The first issue was the top-selling comic in December 2018.
Justice League reached a new milestone this week as the story moves into Act II with Justice League #17. Clearly, Snyder is fueling up for one hell of a ride.
Without spoiling anything, the story in Justice League #17 is one of an unlikely friendship that forms under the most horrific circumstances as a young J’onn finds himself trapped in a laboratory with people who would do him harm. A young boy at the lab secretly befriends J’onn and tries to help him in spite of the danger. Years later, the Martian Manhunter summons Lex Luthor to the Sh’Anne Valley on Mars for a little trip down memory lane that leads to a shocking revelation, and nothing will ever be the same again.
The story is simple enough, sprinkled with Martian dragons for dramatic effect. At the heart of it, though, is a tale that parallels the gut-wrenching World War II movie The Boy in the Striped Pajamas that features a friendship between two boys on two sides of a fence. The sobering message resonates with today’s audiences as we live in a world where adults act in the name of sameness and differences, and yet children look past names and races because in their eyes they’re all just children.
Snyder’s storytelling is nothing short of epic. His stories are often hard to contain within the scope of a single issue because he writes on such a grand scale, but in this case Justice League #17 gets the job done. While it serves as the first scene in Act II, it’s also a perfect little microcosm of what the Justice League is all about. Instead of focusing on differences, it’s a nod to how connected we all are even when we don’t realize it. It’s a powerful issue that sets the stage for more dynamic storytelling to come, and it’s part of Snyder’s legacy that will inspire comic book fans for years to come.