![]() To a lot of people, to DC Comics readers who are, say, younger than 30, Katana is a character who is as legitimate a part of the DC universe as, say, Superman. What I can say to that is it is very gratifying to see the character of Katana, like the character of Kobra, have a very long life beyond its original series. To me, the DC universe evolves so often and so quickly that when you see somebody revisiting a character or a concept - and this can apply obviously to Katana just as much - one of the most interesting things to me as a reader is seeing how you as a writer can carry through those through lines and those themes and still remain consistent with everything that's happened in between now and the last time that you worked on them. It's great because it's like basically having a hand in almost co-creating or at least fashioning a Jack Kirby character. We're able to supply a lot of that and, basically to some extent mold the character. Kirby only wrote the one story of Kobra just as a one issue in the last jobs he did for DC back in the 70s, so there was not a lot of really solid definition and back story with the characters. It being created by Jack Kirby, you do want to do a good job with the toys that Kirby gave you. When you're dealing with Kirby characters, is there kind of that unique challenge to operate within a set of strictures because you can't go too far off the reservation with that without alienating any of the people who love Kirby and/or his creation so much? We pretty much just continue with his roots and his ambitions as an international terrorist. He's been used a fair amount since then, so there's not a lot of redefinition involved in the character. Kobra was created by Jack Kirby, of course, and had been set up and then was used a little bit and then sort of fell fallow until we brought him back in the Outsiders on a more or less regular basis. The first time I used Kobra back in Batman and the Outsiders, the character had not received a lot of exposure for a while. Do you think that gives you a really great opportunity to redefine the organization for the post- Flashpoint DC Universe? Going to the series directly, and I know there's not a ton you can talk about because it's just barely been solicited, but Kobra playing a role in Katana's story is interesting to me because it's an organization that played a huge role for a fairly short time in the DC universe and since then has drifted in and out. I have to admit that I probably would have rather written the title myself but it's very gratifying to know, as you pointed out, that you've created something that has caused enough of a ripple in this immense organization of the DC universe that has its own niche, that's able to be its own thing even after all these years. Was it odd to see somebody delving back into that iteration of the team, or was it gratifying to know that, again, something that you'd created had left an ever-lasting impression that when DC was putting together their All-Star team of titles, that it's like, "No. Obviously that period in time was revisited during Convergence. That was where the character of Katana came from when we came time to put together The Outsiders. I've always enjoyed stories of samurais when I was a kid. You mean samurai characters other than Katana? ![]() Do you have any personal favorite samurai comic stories? I have to ask because I have a few myself. ![]() In the same sense, and in that sense only, she's perhaps like Batman in that she has this central core that you can't stray too far from, otherwise you don't have the character anymore. It's very gratifying that no matter who seems to write the character, they all seem to appreciate the core of the samurai nature of the character and they never take her too far away from that no matter what kind of adventure she has. ![]()
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