Last week, I had the opportunity to speak with one of my all-time favorite writers, Paul Levitz, about my favorite team book, Legion of Super-Heroes, for an upcoming issue of Wizard. While you will have to wait for that part of the interview, I did also ask a few questions about Mr. Levitz’s return to Adventure Comics, a title near and dear to his heart. Here’s how that part of the conversation went.
I want to ask you about your previous times around with Adventure. The JSA have their own titles again, but back then they were your characters. What was your comfort level with writing the JSA back then? And I know it was a while ago, but how much do you remember about the process behind the decision to kill the Earth-2 Batman?
I loved writing the first JSA. The first comic I remember buying on the newsstand I remember was a JLA/JSA team, the first one. I’ve always loved those characters. I came into them at a beautiful moment in their careers. As a young collector, I always loved the chance of going back and buying the All Star Comics issues. I’m much happier just having the archive; that works out well. But still. I had a ball on that strip. I was so happy being the assistant editor on it when Gerry {Conway} was re-launching it and being his sort of fan kibitzer, and Roy {Thomas} doing the same unofficially from his desk at Marvel – he’s probably the classic All Star fan, one of Gerry’s great buddies over the years. He was getting beat up from both sides. When Gerry left and I inherited the strip, it was my first superhero team assignment. It was very thrilling.
I think that that the death of the Earth-2 Batman I would do very differently today with the greater experience I’ve got, and a number of regrets about that story line. But it was a sincere attempt. And I’m so pleased that there was stories in my JSA run that have been so fondly remembered.
And also two characters from your time there have become, in their own way, major characters in DCU now too. Power Girl has certainly been in the spotlight, as has Huntress with Birds of Prey. So is there a part of you still that feels those are your characters still? Or did that go away when you got The Legion?
Well, the Huntress, certainly I still think of as my kid; perhaps she’s now taken another name, she’s been adopted and she’s changed around, but I have a very great parental comfort there. Power Girl wasn’t my creation, she was Gerry’s, but I got to write a lot of her early stories and helped define her, I guess. So I have great affection for both of them.
One thing I need to add here is that I said in another interview that this was my second time with Adventure, but it’s really my third, as I had Starman there too.
Now you also did Aquaman for Adventure too, right?
Oh, yeah. That’s right. That was in Adventure also. Good God. A fourth time with Adventure Comics.
Was Aquaman not a very memorable one I take it?
It was enormously memorable; I’m just old! It was so long ago. It was very exciting because it was my first superhero lead feature. My first superhero comic, the story was one of the Aquaman back-ups in Adventure. It’s a long time ago.
