Reading Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong, the brand new intercompany crossover between DC Comics and Legendary Films, is like watching a 12-year-old win a $25,000 procuring spree: toys joyfully piled atop one another whilst you surprise how they’re all going to slot in his room. Talking with JLGK author Brian Buccellato, one will get the sense that writing it’s the similar means. “The battle is we’ve got 30 pages per problem to suit the story in, and the large, large monsters, we wish to give them area,” he tells Den of Geek journal. “How do I navigate the large moments and the alternatives for Christian [Duce, artist on JLGK] to [draw] superior pinup motion photographs with getting all people in there and ensuring all of them get their due?”
The reply to Buccellato’s query is, apparently, to shout YOLO and maintain escalating. The guide reads like a gleeful “sure, and” train. Toyman as the angle character in a sequence that’s, at its core, about toys being mashed collectively? Yes, and likewise, Gorilla Grodd thinks King Kong is his individuals’s god. Yes! And let’s have Batman struggle Camazotz, the bat kaiju, within the sky above Gotham!
Buccellato is, in fact, greater than only a figurative child within the DC/Legendary sweet retailer. He’s an achieved comics creator, a celebrated colorist, and an achieved author. He’s additionally, unsurprisingly, an enormous fan of each worlds. “Serendipitously, I’ve a tattoo of the Flash on my proper arm, and on my left arm, I’ve the unique King Kong film poster.”
His work contains lengthy runs on The Flash and Injustice, in addition to Godzilla specials, so he’s performed with nearly all of those toys earlier than. In different phrases, nobody is healthier suited to jot down this guide: he’s a man who has a protracted historical past with these characters, understands why followers love them, and who is aware of the right way to decide the very best elements of every hero and villain for the story he’s telling. For instance, long-time DC readers will acknowledge an iconic callback in problem #2: Batgirl knocks Red Hood out with one punch, similar to Batman did to Guy Gardner within the basic Giffen/DeMatteis/Maguire Justice League International story. What he does with every character’s continuity must be obvious early on, too—Superman is about to suggest to Lois, whereas Batman has a full Dick by Damian Batfamily. “They didn’t hand me an Earth or a continuity that I needed to place it in,” Buccellato says. “I obtained to cherry-pick what I believe is my favourite model of every character.” So you get a really Christopher Reeve Superman, or a really George Perez Nightwing, or a really Tom King Batman.
