Warning! Spoilers for Tales from Earth-6: A Celebration of Stan Lee by DC Comics
This month, Stan Lee's version of Batman and the Justice League will return in a new anthology, Tales from Earth-6: A Celebration of Stan Lee, where several all-star and up-and-coming creators will tackle new stories involving his takes on popular DC heroes. Michael Uslan, who played a significant role in the creation of the alternate universe, will tackle the new Batman story - with the writer admitting he's incredibly excited to continue Lee's legacy and celebrate his 100th birthday in style.
We got the chance to speak to producer and writer Michael Uslan, who teamed up with Stan Lee in creating the Just Imagine universe, where Lee provided his own unique takes (alongside talented artists and creators) of Justice League heroes. Uslan told us about how the world originally came to be, tackling a new Batman story with Wayne Williams' version of the hero and what readers can expect in the upcoming anthology.
For those who don't know, what was your original role in the Justice Imagine universe, and what was it like to collaborate on something so unique with Stan Lee?
Well, it was an opportunity of a lifetime. As a comic book fan, it just didn't get any better than this.
I knew that Stan had in his contract with Marvel, one golden out, and that there was one project he can pick outside the Marvel Universe to go out and do on his own. So knowing that I had lunch with him in Beverly Hills one day and I said, Stan, "what would you think if I brought you over to DC Comics to reinvent Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman" - all those characters as if you had created them at Marvel. And he laughed and said, "what are you out of yout to your mind?" He goes, "that couldn't happen, Michael! That would be like Henry Ford being brought to GM to design Chevrolets, or back then it would be like the president of Coke taking the Pepsi Challenge and choosing Pepsi." He goes, "they would never go for it's crazy."
The origin of this whole thing was the night of the premiere of our 1989 Batman movie. At the premiere, virtually every star in Hollywood was out. And I could almost care less because I was hanging out with Stan Lee and Bob Kane that night - amid meeting all of the actors from the Batman TV show who played the villains. And Stan and Bob were ribbing each other. Stan turned to Bob and said, "you know, look at all this hoopla. I really could have made a success of this movie if I had written this character." And Bob said, "well, I could have made a bigger success out of Spider-Man if I drew it." And I'm standing there between the two guys thinking, "wow, I wonder what Stan Lee's Batman would have been like?" That was the actual seed that was planted in June of 1989.
So now we're in the early 2000s. Stan said, "you're crazy." I said, "all right. Let me see." So I went over to my friend, Paul Levitz, Paul was president of DC Comics, he and I had known each other since we were teenagers, and we started a DC together. And I bounce it off of Paul and said, "not only could we do this, we must do this. I can't think of anything that would be any more fun." So Paul assigned the great Mike Carlin to the team to be the editor. And we made a quick deal with Stan and DC. And then Mike and I had to line up the greatest living legends of comic book art. And some of the real breakout newer talent. People like Darwyn Cooke, for example. And we assembled, and everybody wanted in on this project. And we sat down with Stan, and we presented him with a menu of many of DCs characters, and it was, "okay pick." And I was basically advising him at that point in time, steering him through the history of the different DC characters until he finally settled on the ones he wanted. And that began a 13-month run that we worked together on this - it was Stan, me and Mike.
Speaking specifically about Wayne Williams' Batman, I think it's a nice change of pace, both in terms of characterization and background from Bruce Wayne. Was that daunting to reimagine characters as big as Batman and reimagine them alongside Stan Lee and see how audiences would react to that?
You know, Stan was so far ahead of his time. This was 20 years ago. And look at the series... he had a Black Batman, Hispanic Wonder Woman, Hispanic Aquaman, Shazam is rooted in Indian culture, a Latino Robin, and a young female Flash. I mean, he truly was ahead of his time, he always hated to be categorized as retro and that was always important to him as well.
With Stan Lee's Batman... First, both versions are initially motivated by revenge. Wayne Williams comes out of poverty, as opposed to Bruce Wayne coming out of great wealth. Wayne Williams has an aide-de-camp in the form of Frederick, who, in many ways echoes, Alfred. But it's a little bit more tilted toward being his Yoda in terms of his training and his tech - and I thought it was absolutely fascinating. Yeah, there was a little hit the Spider-Man in there the fact that he started out as a wrestler. As you go through the whole Just Imagine series, which is now being called Earth-Six, you can see the influences. For example, when it came time, Stan wanted to do Aquaman. And we were kicking it around and I said, "Stan, he's the Human Torch, except of water." And then Stan goes, Yes. And then off, he was running. And by the way, our Aquaman's secret identity was Ramon. And you spell it backward. Namor. So you know, there are a lot of easter eggs in the whole thing.
So how did the new Tales of Earth-Six anthology come to be? And did you ever think you would get a chance to revisit these characters? I know some of them have, like, scattered across a little tiny bit across DC Comics since but not in any big way. So what is it like to show a new generation these characters and stories?
Yeah, not only did I think it could, I was almost compelled to see it happen. Two items were on Stan Lee's bucket list coming down the stretch. One was he always wanted to do a cameo in a DC movie. And in the last months of his life, thanks to the great Sam Register over at Warner Brothers Animation, we were able to pull it off. If you saw the animated feature film Teen Titans Go! To The Movies, Stan has an absolutely hysterical cameo in that. And that was literally in the waning months of his life. So he was thrilled to do that. But the other thing that was on Stan's bucket list, he says Michael, these, Just Imagine heroes should be done in animation. He goes, I know with their name, and my name attached, they could be really commercially viable. It could open up new merchandise, it could be a whole new thing. And he always wanted to see them done in animation. And I think it's something I would love to see.
I'm hoping this brand-new comic book edition will spark enough reader interest and interest the part of the general public at this moment in time - with the centennial birthday of Stan Lee - and maybe you know down the road stands, when it stands, last wishes will come true, I really hope they will. But again, once again, this new series has attracted the top talent of writers and artists. And everybody wants in, and everybody's committed to not doing these things in a retro style. And I think because of that specifically, there's a really great opportunity for this to take hold again. I mean, how can you not want to see a Jim Lee Wonder Woman based on Incan mythology, and follow some adventures? I mean, it's crazy.
Was Batman the character you were most eager to write? And what was it like going back to his world?
There's no question that was the character I wanted to write. You know, as soon as our great editor Andrew Marino said, which one do you want to do? I couldn't get the words out of my mouth fast enough. And at first, we were debating whether I could combine Stan Lee's Batman, Stan Lee's Robin, and Stan Lee's Catwoman into the same story, but we had a limited number of pages to do. So the idea quickly became okay, concentrate specifically on a Batman tale. And that was the focus for me.
There were two great things in particular that were important. Number one, Stan just didn't want to reflect or be a reflection of the DC superheroes. He wanted to flip them. He wanted moments of flipping. So he already flipped the character of Batman. So without adding to any spoilers in the last panel of my story, I added one more little Stan Lee type of flip that I thought he would appreciate in terms of traditional Batman. And the other thing was, who would the villain be? And there was no question in my mind, I had a big smile on my face because I could hear Stan laughing. I chose a guy who is a serial killer in Gotham City, he's, he strangles women. And the press labeled him the Choker.
I was just going to ask about the Choker. I thought it was a grounded way of doing the Joker while paying homage to the original but feeling very fresh...
And that's what Stan set out to do. That's what this is all about. And in every comic book, he said he wanted it stated flat-out that nobody should think he was doing this to better the characters. The creators of all these characters were his personal friends. And he had great admiration, and respect for them in their creations. And this was just a bit of having fun in that "what-if" kind of way and wanted to be sure everyone would take it that way.
Going to Flash for a second, one of the things that Stan mandated, and I thought Kevin Maguire did a brilliant job, he said, "there's got to be a new way to show superspeed." He said he and Kevin got the idea of banners, colorful banners in the helmet, or on the costume. So when she runs, you get like a rainbow streak. And that will be different from flash different from Quicksilver and all of those characters. And I thought visually, it was incredibly effective.
That's one thing that I liked and was happy to see again in the anthology. Just Imagine's Flash has a unique way of doing something we've seen so many times before, which is, I think really what makes it stand out.
Yeah, there's no question about it. And I have to tell you my favorite moment of the 13 months, I was sitting in Stan's office when the original artwork was delivered from John Buscema on Stan Lee's Superman. And Stan was a huge John fan. I mean, you look back at the work that they did together at Marvel. And he was so excited, couldn't wait to get it. And he's going page by page... and he's just raising and handing me each page. And then it gets this one page. And he goes, "No, no, no, no, no, no, he didn't do what I told him to do here." And I go, "what's the problem?" and he goes, "I wanted him to show Superman coming toward the audience with his arms outstretched with his chest out. And it's not here," and he goes, "we're going to fix this." I go, "what do you mean, we're going to fix it?" He goes, "wait a minute," and he goes to his desk, gets tissue paper and tape and tapes it over the page. He gets a pen and hands it to me, and he goes, "okay, draw the panel borders." So I'm drawing the panel borders. He said, "reconfigure the panels." He goes, "now, I want you to draw this and we're going to send it to John, so he can make a correction." I said, "Stan, I'm a doodler. I'm not an artist. He goes, No, no, no, you'll do fine. He says, "I'll show you what to do." And with that, Stan gets up on his couch, puts one foot up on his end table, virtually knocking over a lamp in the process, stretches his arms out and leans in and goes, "Okay, Michael, this front view, draw this, draw this." And I'm thinking, oh my god, you know, everything I ever read about how he was working with Jack Kirby in the early days was, you know, he would get on the furniture and pose. I said, "I am frickin Jack Kirby in this moment." It was, I think the ultimate fanboy moment of my entire life.
This story with Williams' Batman is sort of the reintroduction of Hal Jordan in the Just Imagine universe, but in a different role than he had before. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Jordan was mentioned in a backup story in one of the original stories.
Yeah, in the Catwoman backup where we introduced the Black Canary...
Yeah. So, what was it like to introduce an established DC hero into the universe, but in an entirely different role, flipping that on its head?
Alright. So here's how it happened. Stan Lee in the Catwoman story created her as Joanie Jordan. And you know, he liked the alliteration. He always did in the names. And I wrote the backup story for that. And we're working on it. And Joanie Jordan, her father as a cop or an ex-cop. So I said to Stan, "listen, I need Joanie's father in this. And the last name is Jordan. I'm going to call him [Hal]" and he said, "that's fine". I said, Well, let me explain who Jordan is. And I said, he's Green Lantern in the DC Universe and he goes, "ohhh, well, that's fine! It's another little easter egg." So when I was doing Batman now, I remembered back on that story. And with Joanie's father being a cop, so I said, okay, they bring them back now to clean up the town. And he's Commissioner Jordan, it just, it just all came together.
But you got to do it subtly. If it becomes focused on just the FANBOY winks, you're going to lose in terms of plot and character. So it has to organically fit into the story. And then when it happens, don't make a big to-do about it, you know, whoever will catch it will catch it. So you can read the story without knowing any of this stuff. And it's not going to lower the value of the story in the eyes of the reader, you'll be able to read it without knowing any of this stuff. And that I think is the key.
Writing the story and bringing back this world must have been an emotional experience. With Stan Lee's 100th birthday, it made this kind of the perfect way to celebrate him and the stories he wrote.
It's his 100th birthday. And the first big celebration for it comes from DC Comics. I mean, if that doesn't say at all, I don't know what else to add to that.
What do you hope readers get from this new story? And what hopes do you have for the Just Imagine universe going forward?
Well, I think this is the test. You know, in all honesty, this is the test. I think if we get a good response, if the fans like it as much as I truly believe they will, and if the public you know, catches on to this with Stan's 100th birthday, I think we have an opportunity to continue these adventures and expand on them, which they deserve. Especially in this era, the focus should be on Hispanic Wonder Woman and Aquaman or Latino Robin, etcetera. It's a great opportunity. And that my great hope is that down the line, it pushes enough buttons so that Stan's final bucket list can be accomplished and we can cross off Earth-Six in animation.
Thank you so much to Michael Uslan for taking the time to talk with us. You can read his Batman story with art by Lee Weeks when Tales from Earth-6: A Celebration of Stan Lee arrives in comic book stores on December 27, 2022.