DC Comics will be launching Threshold written by Keith Giffen with Scott Kolins and Tom Raney on art, in February. Speaking with CBR, Giffen dishes out some details and inspiration for the first arc, entitled “The Hunted” and even gives us a breakdown of the new Green Lantern. Check out the highlights below.
Keith Giffen on a few characters that will be in the book:
…it’s something that I’ve wanted for years. All of the characters are there like Space Ranger, Space Cabbie, Stealth and quite a few new characters. It’s a little slice that I’ve carved out of the DCU. And I’ve said, “Now just leave me alone for a little while ’til I get it set up.” And they have. And I’m having fun with it. I love world-building. It’s right up my alley.
Inspiration for the first arc of Threshold:
Yes, it’s sort of “Running Man” by way of “Battle Royale.” I’m a huge fan of “Battle Royale.” I have been since I got my first bootleg copy of the movie. I actually volunteered to Tokyopop to do the smoothing out of the manga.
I think it was Dan who came up with the idea that maybe there should be some sort of “Running Man”/”Hunger Games” type competition. And I thought it was a good core idea but I had to sit down and see if I could do something with it that made it different. I didn’t want this to be DC’s “Hunger Games” or DC’s “Running Man.” Because the question becomes, if there was no “Running Man,” why would [they] do this?
Once I set down the rules and figured out how I was going to make the whole thing work and what the context is within this section of space, and how the game works, what is their primary motivation — other than staying alive? Because once you’re released, once you’re part of the game, you have 24 hours to do whatever it is that you feel you have to do and then anybody can take you down. Anybody for any reason can take you down and get the money.
Details on the new Green Lantern, Jediah Caul:
When you get involved with stuff like this, you try to find as many connections, if you’re smart, to the established DCU as humanly possible without crippling yourself in continuity.
Once we had Lady Styx, we asked, why hasn’t she been more of a presence? The idea is way back when the Guardians had the Manhunters, Lady Styx and the Guardians signed a mutual, non-aggression treaty. They realized if we go to war, we are mutually destructive and we’ll just wipe each other out. They’re basically just snarling at one another until somebody breaks the treaty.
Even during our Cold War with Russia, we always had spies. And Jediah Caul is an undercover Green Lantern behind enemy lines. Events that happen in the “New Guardians” Annual, which is sort of a lead-in to “Threshold,” kind of complicate his life. Let’s put it that way. [Laughs] But unlike most people who learn from their travails and say, “You know what? I’ll be a better person for it.” Nope. Jediah Caul doesn’t.
There’s that Green Lantern connection, and you’ll see how we play that, but really, that’s it. He’s off and running. And there is going to be some other DC characters dropping by too to be hunted or to interact.
The connection between the main story and the Larfleeze backup:
And in “Threshold” #2, I’m not going to give this away, but we’ll introduce who I swear will be the breakaway character for this book. This will be the one fans start buying the book. And by the way, Larfleeze has nothing to do with “The Hunted” story. Larfleeze is a 10-page co-feature and a completely different story.
Giffen’s approach to Larfleeze and his new supporting cast:
when I sat down with Larfleeze, I could really see how he falls into what I do. He’s a massively flawed character but he’s hilariously flawed in circumstances where those flaws come to the surface. The bwa-ha-ha is in “Ambush Bug.” And this isn’t Lobo. It’s Larfleeze, which is a whole other set of circumstances.
We also introduce a new character there. I really thought that Larfleeze needed a butler like Arthur. We figured out who that would be and the cast of characters that he would come with and we’re good to go.
Long term plans for Threshold?
“Threshold,” as far as I understand it, is a book to showcase science fiction properties in the DCU. It’s the same way, I assume, that “Sword of Sorcery” is not going to stay Amethyst’s book forever. If Amethyst proves to be popular enough, she’ll go into a book called “Amethyst” and something else will be slated into the spot. It’s almost like a limited showcase.
That said, I see “The Hunted” being a long-term story to tell. It’s not five issues and solved. You can’t solve something this big in five issues. But this first arc of “The Hunted,” whether it is five or six issues, will essentially be Jediah Caul’s arc. Were it to continue or be popular enough to continue as a monthly book called “The Hunted,” Jediah would eventually fade into the background and somebody else’s story arc would come forward, all the while forwarding the primary story arc of “The Hunted,” which is how can we turn this game to our advantage.
After Jediah Caul, the next five or six issues might focus on Stealth or Space Ranger or Tommy Tomorrow or Jaime or on a character that we haven’t even see yet. In “The Hunted,” I am thinking long-term but planning short-term.
Relationship so far with artists Tom Raney and Scott Kolins:
I can’t think of a single artist that I haven’t gotten along with or had a good working relationship with mostly because I don’t just hand them a script and say, “Draw it, peon.” I like to get in touch with the artist, get them invested in the book. Ask them what they like to draw, what they don’t like to draw. I hate drawing horses so don’t give me a western. Or if you do give me one, give me one where they walk a lot. I like to bring the guy in and so far, Raney’s doing great. His designs are spot-on. He’s really taken the whole idea of what DC is trying to do to heart. She’s called Stealth. She’s appeared before but you don’t have to draw her anything like she’s appeared before. It’s just like I do with O.M.A.C. We just have the name. We can do whatever we want with it.
I just love the work he’s doing and with Scott Kolins on the Larfleeze backup, the stuff he’s doing to establish this world, working in hand with Raney, is spectacular. The cool thing about Scott Kolins and the reason I like working with him so much is that he’s on-time, he does great work, blah, blah, blah, but he understands — like when he’s doing something like the [“New Guardians”] annual, when he’s introducing all this stuff — he has to defer to Tom Raney if he has a design he wants for a character because Tom’s the one that has to draw it over and over and over again and you don’t want to have to go backwards.
No problem at all as a matter of fact. Things are almost going too smoothly on this book. [Laughs] It makes me nervous but I have a good team backing me up. I feel that when I write a script, I don’t have to re-read to see if there is something in there because this guy might screw it up. I can just put it down and they’re adding to it. There was one scene where I saw it one way and Tom did it a different way, he actually put a whole new spin on it and I was actually annoyed that it didn’t dawn on me to do that. That’s the best kind of working relationship that you can have with somebody.