52 Titles. One Universe.

As we keep having more and more success with The New 52 (thanks to you readers!) we find that we're also having more and more fun. Getting up and running was tricky, but right now I'm reading scripts for issues #6 and 7 of most series and all I can think about is how amazing this is. We're at the point where we can start adding some new wrinkles for our characters and really drive home the sense that there are no limits with our comics. So far we've been talking a lot about 52 different books, but it's important to remember that all of these stories take place in the same universe. You're going to be seeing more of that continuity as we go along. But maybe not the way you'd expect. Let me explain ...

Jeff Lemire and Scott Snyder dropped by my office the other day. Jeff--in case you didn't know--writes ANIMAL MAN, a truly awesome series (drawn by the amazingly talented Travel Foreman) that's taken comics by storm. Scott helms SWAMP THING, an equally awesome series drawn by the equally talented Yanick Paquette. They were in to present a story that involves both characters in an intertwined saga that will change the lives of Buddy Baker and Alec Holland forever. After the pitch, Executive Editor Eddie Berganza and I were quite simply blown away. I advise fans of phenomenal storytelling everywhere to check out these two titles--as seeds for this upcoming epic are already being sown organically throughout these two books from the Dark corner of our world.

Scott and Jeff certainly aren't the only creators exchanging ideas and cross-pollinating series. Another Scott-Lobdell, this time--and Fabian Nicieza are working on a storyline that will flow between TEEN TITANS, SUPERBOY and LEGION LOST. It explores everything from the mystery of Project N.O.W.H.E.R.E, the organization that developed Superboy as the ultimate weapon, to the tragedy of the mysterious Hypertaxis virus brought to our century from the future by the time-lost Legionnaires, to how both impact our newly formed group of young heroes.

And over in the BATMAN titles, the aforementioned and prolific Mr. Scott Snyder has crafted a tale involving the Court of Owls and its deadly Talon assassins that may soon impact the storylines in NIGHTWING, BATGIRL, BIRDS OF PREY and even RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS.

All these upcoming stories encapsulate the excitement our writers and artists are feeling, as they explore our characters and their natural connections. The key idea here is "natural connections." All these ideas are being generated by the excitement our talent and editors have for all these amazing characters sharing our universe. In short, we're building a new mythology with The New 52, and it is a privilege to be a part of it.

Keep reading, folks--I guarantee, you too are going to be blown away!

-- Bob Harras, Editor-in-Chief

As we prepare for another 12 titles from DC Comics-The New 52 to be published tomorrow, coverage and buzz continues to roll in. Here are some of the highlights.

AIN’T IT COOL NEWS caught up with Geoff Johns to discuss JUSTICE LEAGUE, AQUAMAN, GREEN LANTERN and DC Comics-The New 52 as a whole. “My big story-line for my first year of AQUAMAN is him on a quest to find out who sank Atlantis,” Johns revealed. “Because it wasn't an accident.”

USA TODAY ran an exclusive preview of SUPERGIRL #1 and interviewed series co-writer Mike Johnson. "We're really excited about the opportunity to hand this book to a female reader who is into things like The Hunger Games. This is a strong character with her own point of view," Johnson told them of Kara.

MTV GEEK spoke with Jeff Lemire about FRANKENSTEIN, AGENT OF S.H.A.D.E. “He is absolutely humorless, which in turn leads to a lot of humor down the line,” Lemire said about the series’ protagonist. “But he is a noble soldier, an unstoppable killing machine with the heart of a poet and the manners of a Victorian gentleman.”

IGN continued their series of interviews with all of the creative teams behind DC Comics-The New 52. Check out what Nathan Edmondson (GRIFTER), Adam Glass (SUICIDE SQUAD), Peter Milligan (RED LANTERNS), Fabian Nicieza and Pete Woods (LEGION LOST) and Peter Tomasi (BATMAN AND ROBIN) had to say about their respective series. “Their relationship is a father and son at odds right from the start,” Tomasi said to IGN of Bruce and Damian Wayne in BATMAN AND ROBIN. “Bruce struggles to get a handle on Damian and his past, trying to his best to teach his son what it means to be a just and moral person but making plenty of mistakes along the way. Damian wants to be accepted for who and what he is, but his past and present are locked in a constant battle that threatens to take a terrible toll.”

NEWSARAMA has the exclusive preview of LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #1 by Paul Levitz and Francis Portela. The issue goes on sale tomorrow.

To be continued …

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

FABIAN NICIEZA: I don't think about it that way, I think about the first SCENE of a new series. I try to do something that introduces us immediately to the characters or sets the tone of what the book will be about. In LEGION LOST, I was able to introduce the tone and theme of the book on Page 1 then introduce our characters on pages 2-3, so I feel the opening scene worked!

How do you introduce a new hero or villain?

I just try to come up with an inventive way to bring them in, make them do something or say something unexpected, try to set the page up in a way that allows for a dynamic intro panel either to start the page or end the page. The goal is to try and introduce new characters doing something that both helps define who they are, what they're about and how they do things -- plus trying to have a memorable or catchy line in there too! Easy, huh?

What was the first comic you ever worked on?

I wrote a DC Guest Meanwhile... column in the early 80's -- my first paying work -- $25! After I got a job at Marvel, my first real freelance job was interviewing Stan Lee for a Marvel Age article in 1985. My first published comic book work as a writer was Psi-Force #9 in 1987.

Who was the first character you followed?

Superman and Batman. My brother and I came to the U.S. from Argentina in 1966 and those were the first characters we recognized on the old comic spinner racks, plus the Adam West-Batman show was on TV back then. We learned how to read and write English from comics.

What was the first comic book you read?

Don't remember. Likely in Argentina, a magazine called Antiojito y Antfias -- though at 3 or 4 years old, I doubt I read it, but I still remember the characters.

What was the first piece of original art you bought?

I have received original pages from various artists I've worked with, and paid for a few pieces as well, but I have no idea which one was the first I paid for.

On your creative process:

Breaking down an individual issue is hard enough, especially with a team book like LEGION LOST, but breaking it down into multi-issue story plans gets even more challenging, especially with something like the new DCU. WIth so much happening in so many titles, it's hard to plan too far in advance for fear that you will learn about something happening in another title that you might want to tie into or you find out a new take on a character excites you enough that you want to use them in your own book.

So basically, you need to balance self-contained elements for an issue, along with on-going subplots, along with an overall "thematic thru-line" for an arc so that when collected, it reads as a complete packaged.

For LEGION LOST, we really wanted to tell an opening arc that was very focused on the core characters coming back in time, feeling disoriented and dispirited, unable to ask anyone in the present day they know for help -- and in many ways, fearful of doing anything for fear of making a bad situation worse.

The first 6 issues takes place over a week-long, desperate, rushing search for Alastor, the terrorist who came back in time to release a deadly pathogen. We even have a running clock telling you how many hours have passed since the pathogen was released and we also get glimpses of how it is beginning to spread, creating human/alien hybrid known as Hypersapiens.

By the end of the first arc, the heroes will all have been affected by the spread of the Hypertaxis pathogen, the media will know a deadly virus has been released across the planet, the lost Legionnaires will be blamed for it, and they will be wanted outlaws who are trying to help save the very world that is casting them as pariahs.

So the breakdown of this multi-issue arc wasn't as hard to plan because it had its core elements defined by both its beginning -- Legion group arrives back in time -- and its end -- they fail! So everything had to be built within the context of knowing the beginning and ending of the first arc, raising questions, answering some, leaving others lingering, etc.

I'm several issues into the scripting of LEGION LOST now and I think it's a pretty unique book and a very interesting addition to the DC Universe. Pete Woods is drawing the living daylights out of the book and I think fans are going to really enjoy what we're doing!