In a means, that collaborative method hearkens again to 52, which Waid wrote with Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, and Geoff Johns, with designs by the late, nice artist Keith Giffen. However there are two massive variations between 52 and Absolute Energy.
“Certainly one of them is we didn’t have Superman, Batman, and Surprise Lady to play with, which is sort of the purpose of the sequence. The opposite massive distinction is [in 52] we had been telling myriad tales that tied into one another. In Absolute Energy, I’ve acquired 120 pages over 4 points to essentially deal with one sturdy story with some aspect beats and persona beats and somewhat little bit of subplot stuff right here and there.”
As disappointing as that is perhaps to readers who would love for Waid “to float off and spend 5 pages with Adam Unusual,” the main target additionally helped Waid distinguish Absolute Energy from different comedian ebook crossovers.
“We’ve all learn crossovers the place the primary story is the primary story, after which all of the tie-in books are the C-list books, and it’s actually only a money seize to slap a brand on their cowl. And I actually resisted that,” Waid explains. “One of many first issues I requested of the varied DC writers is to commit three problems with Superman, Batman, and Surprise Lady to this story.”
He admits that the request “is a giant ask, however on the similar time, that makes it really feel greater, that provides it weight. Proper off the bat, now we have Superman, Batman, and Surprise Lady all going off on particular missions that feed into the climax that takes them off the board for concern three and provides the chance for lots of different lesser characters to shine.”
If anybody is suited to writing B- and C-list characters, it’s Waid, along with his encyclopedic information of the universe. On the similar time, Waid needed to keep away from the primary pitfall of writing crossover occasions that reference a long time of DC lore.