THE SOURCE: How do you write the first line of a new series?

PAUL CORNELL: Just dive in, I'll rewrite it later anyway.

How do you introduce a new hero?

I like to give them a big hero shot, like the Horsewoman in DEMON KNIGHTS #1 gets a big cinematic entrance.

How do you introduce characters?

In action, usually, then we'll get to know them when we're interested.

How do you introduce a new villain?

Through their actions. They can't just talk in a bad way, they have to be seen to do bad.

What was the first comic you ever worked on?

Doctor Who Magazine.

Who was the first character you followed?

Probably the Bash Street Kids in the Beano.

Who was the first writer you followed?

Consciously, I think Chris Claremont, but way before that Stan Lee was all I knew about anything.

Who was the first artist you followed?

George Perez. I used to try and draw the moon like he did!

What was the first convention you attended as a fan?

The Longleat Doctor Who Experience!

What was the first convention you attended as a professional?

It must have been one of the Bristol Comics Expos, or the Gallifrey con in LA. Kind of slipped easily between the categories without thinking about it, business as usual.

What was the first comic book you read?

It would have been an issue of Pippen and Playhour. Get your British Auntie to look it up.

What was your first job in the comic book industry?

Co-writing a short 7th Doctor strip in Doctor Who Magazine.

On your creative process:

Initially, I'll plot out a story arc, just saying in a couple of paragraphs what happens in each issue. Most editors are happy, once we've worked that back and forth, for me to go from that to writing an issue. Sometimes for my own use I'll write the numbers one to twenty down the side of a piece of paper, then a quick few words about happens on each page of the issue, often starting by working out how much space I need for the ending. I'll often have a scene or a line in mind for many issues before finding the right place to use it. I keep those on my iPad.

As Steel, Superboy, and Supergirl use all of their might to beat Doomsdays across the world into submission, Superman faces down with the real mastermind behind the reign of terror. But even with all of their powers combined, is the super-team strong enough to defeat all of the Doomsdays? Perhaps the help of an unexpected ally will bring them the victory they’re hoping for and stop the Reign of the Doomsdays once and for all.

Written by Paul Cornell and with art by Axel Gimenez, ACTION COMICS #903 arrives in stores tomorrow.

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In the second issues of the “Edge” group books, the odds are not in our protagonists’ favor. In DEATHSTROKE, MEN OF WAR and ALL-STAR WESTERN, new villains will be revealed. Grifter and Voodoo are on the run while Stormwatch, the Blackhawks, O.M.A.C. and the Suicide Squad must fight battles that’ll have grave consequences.

STORMWATCH #2

Written by PAUL CORNELL

Art by MIGUEL SEPULVEDA and AL BARRIONUEVO

Art and cover by MIGUEL SEPULVEDA

On sale OCTOBER 5 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T+

The moon is alive! Following the events of SUPERMAN #1 where [TEXT REDACTED], the covert team of sci-fi Super Heroes known as Stormwatch must not only battle the Earth’s moon, but find a way to hide its monstrous metamorphosis from the rest of the Earth! How? Uh, they’re working on it. Meanwhile, the recruitment of Midnighter goes poorly, and we learn why the Martian Manhunter is a member of the team. Written by Paul Cornell (Doctor Who)!

DEATHSTROKE #2

Written by KYLE HIGGINS

Art by JOE BENNETT and ART THIBERT

Cover by SIMON BISLEY

On sale OCTOBER 12 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T+

Deathstroke’s tactical prowess is put to the test when the man who hired him attempts to renege on the contract. Pitted against a salvo of new assassins, including the vicious Road Rage, Slade must take his giant sword to the 405 freeway and proclaim himself the most vicious killer in the city of Angels!

GRIFTER #2

Written by NATHAN EDMONDSON

Art and cover by CAFU and JASON GORDER

On sale OCTOBER 12 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

The police are looking for him. Government operatives are hunting him down. And Cole Cash can hear the voices of an alien race in his head. Escaping New Orleans will require quick thinking and a violent streak straight out of Cole’s Special Operations background – and just like that, his life will be turned upside down, figuratively as well as literally.

SUICIDE SQUAD #2

Written by ADAM GLASS

Art by FEDERICO DELLOCCHIO and RANSOM GETTY

Cover by RYAN BENJAMIN

On sale OCTOBER 12 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T+

80,000 ordinary people vs. the Squad! Well, they’re not really “people.” Not anymore. With an entire sports stadium on lockdown following the outbreak of an unknown virus, Deadshot, Harley Quinn and the rest of the Squad must sneak past a military perimeter and fight their way through the infected to retrieve... “it.” What is “it”…? Brace yourself for a stomach-churning reveal as the most brutal version of the Suicide Squad soldiers on! Plus: Bring a body bag – it’s the team’s first Squad fatality!

VOODOO #2

Written by RON MARZ

Art and cover by SAMI BASRI

On sale OCTOBER 26 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T+

Is she a hero? Is she a villain? Voodoo is on the run in the new DC Universe, trying to stay one step ahead of her pursuers, using all of her considerable skills to complete a mission that will put the entire Earth in danger. DC’s sexy, edgy new series goes into overdrive with one of the most unexpected opening scenes ever!

O.M.A.C. #2

Written by DAN DIDIO and KEITH GIFFEN

Art and cover by KEITH GIFFEN and SCOTT KOBLISH

On sale OCTOBER 5 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

Brother Eye gives Kevin Kho the ground rules to their new “arrangement.” New players are introduced to the game as Sarge Steel and Checkmate begin their hunt for the One Machine Army Corp, but O.M.A.C.’s appearance may be short-lived when he faces the incredible threat of Rocker Bonn, the Amazing Man!

MEN OF WAR #2

Written by IVAN BRANDON and JONATHAN VANKIN

Art by TOM DERENICK and PHIL WINSLADE

Cover by VIKTOR KALVACHEV

On sale OCTOBER 5 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T+

In the split second after a heavy-weapons blast the air goes silent and still, just as it does in the ghostly realm of Circe. How will Rock and his team of men – battle-hardened, but still human – survive a villainess who can walk on the very wind?

Plus, Navy Seals Ice and Tracker go where no boots are on the ground, but when their mission is compromised, how will they tell friend from foe?

BLACKHAWKS #2

Written by MIKE COSTA

Art and GRAHAM NOLAN and NORM RAPMUND

Cover by KEN LASHLEY

On sale OCTOBER 26 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

While the Blackhawks deal with a potential public exposure, Lady Blackhawk is keeping dangerous secrets of her own! And the first clues of a vast conspiracy throughout the DC Universe begin to take shape. The action ratchets up for DC’s newest team of high-tech military operatives.

ALL-STAR WESTERN #2

Written by JUSTIN GRAY and JIMMY PALMIOTTI

Art by MORITAT and JORDI BERNET

Cover by MORITAT

On sale OCTOBER 26 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T+

What happens when a psychologist and a sociopath have to work together to track down Gotham City’s first serial killer? They’ll soon find that crime in the big city runs deeper than its foundations, and it’s all mapped out in the mysterious Crime Bible – that is, if they don’t kill each other first.

Plus: No zombie is safe in the Wild West when Lazarus Lane summons the demon known as El Diablo!

This week on THE SOURCE, we’ll be having a roundtable discussion with many of the writers and artists behind this fall’s books in “The Edge” and “The Dark” families. Keep checking back to THE SOURCE as we invite more and more writers and artists to divulge details about the titles they’re working on.

Kicking off this series is Paul Cornell. Coming right off of his New York Times bestselling run on ACTION COMICS, Cornell will be writing two new series come this fall: DEMON KNIGHTS and STORMWATCH.

THE SOURCE: What about DC's new 52 titles excites you the most?

PAUL CORNELL: I think giving the general public both a reason to, and the ability to, buy their first comic, at the same moment, is the single thing that will save the industry. I think DC has done a tremendous thing here, and they should be applauded tremendously for it.

How and why are you shaking up the series' status quo?

I'm giving the Demon a bunch of comrades to smash teeth with, having him rhyme only at the end of a scene (or when it's particularly cool for him to do so), giving the Shining Knight a continuing existence in Medieval times, showing how hard 'Madam Xanadu' (if that is her real name) had to be to get by, showing the moment Apollo and the Midnighter met, giving the Martian Manhunter conflicted warrior feelings about how super heroes do what they do, making Jenny Q age with the century she's the spirit of, making The Engineer obviously better qualified to lead her team that the man who actually leads it... I could go on.

What new characters will debut in the series?

DEMON KNIGHTS: Al Jabr, the medieval playboy inventor; Clytemnestra, mysteriously independent from her people on the Island of the Amazons, the greatest archer of her age, who makes her way through Europe, staying apart, able to ride but not to walk.

STORMWATCH: Adam One, who's been aging backwards since the Big Bang, the master of tactics who... forgets things and isn't that great at convincing people he knows what he's doing; the Projectionist, the voice of and god of the internet and the Eminence of Blades, the universal master of bladed weapons, who has terrible doubts.

Will we see new character designs?

Yes.

What's the first line of dialogue in the first issue?

DEMON KNIGHTS: 'The beasts have broken us! The castle has fallen! Flee, you innocents unprotected! Flee while we die!'

STORMWATCH: 'I am not a (expletive deleted) super hero!' (That's how it actually reads in the issue.)

What's the biggest surprise you've had working on this character/book?

STORMWATCH: How easy it was to just set it in the DC Universe. Stormwatch have always been there.

DEMON KNIGHTS: That everyone thinks it's going to be set in Camelot. It's not, it's hundreds of years later.

What secret has been the hardest to keep?

The Martian Manhunter. The way Stormwatch ties in to everything that's happening in the rest of the DCU. Vandal Savage being on the Demon Knights team.

What’s the unofficial tagline for this series, in your own words?

DEMON KNIGHTS: Swords and sorcery and super heroes. The Magnificent Seven in Dragon Age. Some previous sword and sorcery books always seemed a bit grey and brown to me. This one's got a team of huge characters in a proper, mapped out, fantasy setting, with a certain grim Game Of Thrones edge to it.

STORMWATCH: We are not (expletive deleted) super heroes. This one's the angry teenage sibling of the DC Universe, except in this case it does know better. Stormwatch were here first, saving the world is their job and they think super heroes are decadent gaudy amateurs. They're the ruthless stone cold professionals. Right now it looks like they might be facing the enormous threat they were created to combat, only to find themselves having a bit of a crisis of leadership.

What were your thoughts about the day-and-date digital announcement?

The best thing ever. I've been arguing for it for years with anyone in sight.