When you’re smack dab in the middle of something, you sometimes don’t realize how special or meaningful it is. But hearing the growing anticipation from readers and freelancers alike and then seeing the huge success our first month of the New 52 was, I can’t help but step back and feel a certain level of awe at all that’s been accomplished. And we’re only getting started! You’ve seen and heard plenty about some of the more familiar titles I work on, like ACTION COMICS, SUPERMAN and WONDER WOMAN, and truth be told, these aren’t books that need any help – they’ve turned out amazingly well (as I hope you know by now)! But working on the New 52 has given me the chance to diversify a little, and thanks to the well-deserved promotions of Chris Conroy and Wil Moss to Associate Editor, I’ve been able to give up SUPERBOY and SUPERGIRL and work on some more offbeat titles like I, VAMPIRE, SWAMP THING, and DEMON KNIGHTS. Since I’ve written about VAMPY (as we like to call it) recently on the DCU blog, and you’d have to be hiding under a rock not to have heard the buzz about SWAMPY (see a trend?), I wanted to wax a little bit about DEMON KNIGHTS (no clever title shortening here—any suggestions?) Paul Cornell, the madman behind Lex Luthor’s “Black Ring” saga in ACTION COMICS, was invited write a new Demon series. Our only request: that it be set in the dark ages of the DCU. What Paul came back with was a whole team around the Demon, with Etrigan and his reluctant host Jason Blood in the unlikely role of leader. With two issues in your hands, I think you can see he’s not only brought a whole new take to the team dynamic, but he’s built a living, breathing world where events from the dark ages will/have/did have an important impact on the goings-on of today’s new DCU (unless you thought their cameo in STORMWATCH #1 was an oversight). Of course, all he’s written would be just words if not for Diogenes Neves, Oclair Albert and Marcelo Maiolo, who’ve brought this world to life in a way I didn’t dare to hope. I love this book, I hope you do, too. -- Matt Idelson
Editorial
DC ALL ACCESS: Matt Idelson
BY: Matt Idelson
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011