Tom King Takes us on A Tour of Danger Street

Tom King Takes us on A Tour of Danger Street

DC Comics is set to bring readers a brand-new series that will spotlight some of the most obscure characters in the DC universe. Danger Street will see the likes of Blue Starman, Metamorpho, and Warlord, plus many more characters cross paths in a story unlike any a reader has experienced before which sees a quest for membership to the Justice League and a summoning of a New God bring about an unexpected ending.

Prepare yourself for a journey with characters inspired by the heroes and villains of 1st Issue Special as writer Tom King and artist Jorge Fornés team up once again after their epic team-up on Rorschach in the maxiseries crime-drama with overlapping events that nobody will see coming but trust me, you will want to stick around till the end.

King shared some details and most importantly his excitement for the new series he and Fornés are putting together at DC which has become one of the series we found ourselves most excited for. After King spoke with us about Danger Street, this series might sneak in and steal 2022 as our favorite series of the year.

Speaking of the creative process that brought about the ambitious series, King shared that he and Fornes were looking for their next project after Batman Annual #4 and Rorschach. They were looking to make waves with their next story and King goes on to say:

“DC had put out a 1st Issue Specials hardcover, which was a collection of these 13 issues from the mid-70s. The first issue specials, which was basically a dumping ground for some very bizarre ideas, some very bizarre, mid-70s DC ideas,”

“It was this utterly bizarre grouping of 13 comics, and I was reading through it and I was like, the whole reason I came to comics and the whole reason I love it is because it exists in this universe. I feel like I’m watching this universe evolve. Everyone’s contributing to it. So there’s some truth in the middle of it.

How can these 13 comics, these 13 stories exist in the same Universe? It makes absolutely no sense. It doesn’t compute that someone like the Dingbats and someone like Darkseid exists in the same story. That’s when the idea came to me… What if I did, you know, all 24 of these characters existing in the same story and told one story that encompassed all of their lives? And I was like, Well, that’s pretty ambitious. And Jorge, and I were looking for something big.”

Speaking of the dynamic between Blue Starman and Star Man. King shares the comparison of “buddy cops,” saying:

“I like the dynamic between Warlord and Star Man. I mean, they’re kind of like the Buddy Cops. You know best friends who don’t get along and who have served from the opposite spectrum. You know Warlord is this former military guy who gave up the military to become you know, basically Conan the Barbarian.

Star Man is a stranger from a strange world. Very much an outsider’s outsider, so for them to find each other to find a deep friendship and to sort of see each other as brothers, as comrades, as best friends, even though they’re coming from opposite locations, they’re both sort of people that couldn’t exist in the mainstream.

You know, like, that’s, that’s their defining qualities, they just don’t quite fit in, to what, you know, what 50s ideal society would have it be. And for them to bond over that and find true companionship and connection through that, I think, became a fascinating sort of thing to explore.”

King also compares Danger Street to what someone might look for on Sunday night HBO with the tone he aims to bring in Danger Street, saying:

“I wrote it to be sort of an HBO Sunday night show, that’s what I wanted it to be. It’s nine o’clock on a Sunday. The kids are asleep. You and your partner go downstairs because you want to watch something that’s gonna be utterly enthralling and leave you dying for more. Something serious and adult and cool and you know Game of Thrones, Sopranos, Breaking Bad, or Mad Men. That’s what I’m always going for in my books.”

As far as what readers can expect from Darkseid in the series, King warns that Darkseid is merely a piece of the story and likens it to the ever-evolving universe of Game of Thrones, saying:

“I can start by saying Darkseid is not the big bad here. This is not, like a cosmic Odyssey, where it’s a group of superheroes and they’re just rising up to fight Darkseid. That’s not the intention of the book. This is more of, I mentioned Game of Thrones before, but I think it’s a good comparison where we’re sort of seeing a bunch of different characters who all have different motivations, and all those motivations clash with each other. So you’ll, at one point, you’ll be Oh, you’ll be rooting for the Green Team.

But the Green Team will have something that conflicts with the Lady Cop’s wants and so then you’ll be wanting what Lady Cop wants and then that will conflict with the team that’s Danger Street and it sort of bounces off each other. So sometimes you’re you know, with Arya, and sometimes you’re with Jamie just to extend the Game of Thrones metaphor. But yeah, this is not a superhero book.

This is not about sort of even Watchmen is about, you know, a band of heroes coming together eventually to fight. Ozymandias. This isn’t that, this is something I don’t think we’ve seen a lot of, this is a book about 23 individuals who are trying to live their lives and find that those lives come into contact with these 22 other people.”

King shares praise for Fornés abilities and the tireless work and talent he put into Danger Street, saying:

“I always want to make sure I emphasize how amazing Jorge is drawing this. This was such a hard series. It’s one of those things when I’m writing it, I just want to send apology notes to Jorge the whole time, because it’s got a lot of panels, it’s got a lot of characters. It’s got a lot of obscure characters, so it’s not like you can be like, Oh, I just did a Superman splash. I can sell it.

No, it’s you know, I just did a Non-Fat splash. Nobody knows who this is. So bringing this to Jorge and being like, can you do your magic on this? That was a big ask. Jorge was incredible and just took on this challenge and, just hit every single one out of the park. I mean, he grounds his characters, and he makes his story real. He’s the heart and soul of this whole thing. So I can’t speak highly enough about Jorge’s work.”

Lastly, of the plot, King does warn readers that death is imminent and that attaching yourself to some of these characters might lead to heartbreak as he not only teases three major deaths in the first issue, but it could very well be a recurring fate we see fall unto the many characters that encompass this series, as he goes on to say:

“You can expect big things. There are three major deaths in the first issue. So we immediately get down to something like 24, it’s when it comes to New Gods, not everyone survives. A lot of these people won’t make it to the end. There will be twists and turns, and it will break your heart and it’ll make you smile. It’s a comic, unlike any I’ve ever done. And it’s a comic, like any you’ve ever seen. And I hope you give it a chance.”

Danger Street #1 will be available at your favorite local comic shop (find a shop near your here) and digitally on December 13th, 2022.