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Interview: Art Baltazar and Franco Talk THE GREEN TEAM

We get some answers about the new upcoming series.

Recently DC Comics announced two new series that seem to have a loose connection, THE GREEN TEAM by Art Baltazar and Franco with art by Ig Guara and THE MOVEMENT by Gail Simone with art by Freddie Williams II.

These two series have ideas that have come out of Occupy Wall Street. Art and Franco are best known for TINY TITANS, SUPERMAN FAMILY ADVENTURES, PATRICK THE WOLF BOY and their new upcoming AW YEAH COMICS. Seeing the guys writing a comic in the New 52 Universe dealing with money and greed, we had to find out more.

No Caption Provided

Comic Vine: We've heard the general premise for THE GREEN TEAM, what more can you tell us about the series?

FRANCO: How much money do YOU have? It's not enough, these guys have a ton more of it.

ART: If you were a trillionaire, what would you do to get powers? These guys have already thought about it and are working on it!

FRANCO: This is a group of teenagers that are emotional, in love, or at least they think they are, and live a life none of us can ever dream about and they're doing it in the DC universe.

== TEASER ==
Here's how the characters first appeared.
Here's how the characters first appeared.

CV: What aspects of the original DC 1ST ISSUE SPECIAL: GREEN TEAM wouldn't work for this new book, no matter how much you wanted to make it work?

FRANCO: All of it! With all due respect to Joe Simon and Jerry Grandenetti this is far removed from the time they came out with this.

ART: The basic idea is the same but everything else is all new. We took the characters and made them awesome and relevant to today's times.

CV: How did you guys get involved with this series?

ART: They had us in mind before we knew they had us in mind. Dan and Chris approached us about the series and told us that we were the guys they wanted for the book

FRANCO: They wanted our sense of humor and approach to story and they wanted us to take it to the extreme.

CV: You guys are known for your great and hilarious storytelling, how will that style fit into this series?

FRANCO: Yes, that's true, we're known for that.

ART: The humor is still there and we have a sense for writing young characters.

FRANCO: Yeah, us being 40 something year old teenagers we are able to fit right into the mindset.

CV: This is your first 'New 52' series, is there a sense of being constricted since you have to play by the established rules versus being able to do pretty much anything in TINY TITANS or SUPERMAN FAMILY ADVENTURES?

ART: We're approaching this the same way as we do with all of our comics.

FRANCO: Yeah, we figure we'll find out the rules as we go through this, but the good thing about our characters is with the amount of money these guys have, they aren't really constricted by any rules.

No Caption Provided

CV: Where does this book fit in with Gail Simone's THE MOVEMENT? Are they tied together or completely separate?

FRANCO: You tell Gail, if she wants to mess with us to bring it on!!!

ART: THE MOVEMENT? What's that? Her 99% will meet our 1% and then it'll be 100%. No, seriously, We're looking forward to a team up with Gail.

CV: Will the book focus on only the characters in the title or will other New 52 characters pop up? Is there any chance of other characters from the 1st Issue Special series, like Dingbats of Danger Street or Lady Cop, making their way into this book?

FRANCO: We're in the New 52 so they are bound to run into other people at some point. As far as who exactly shows up? You'll see when you check out the book.

ART: Anything can happen and we're planning on getting you to come back and keep checking out the book, after all, this is the same universe as Superman and Batman.

No Caption Provided

CV: The idea of money being able to buy anything, not just material items, seems to be the point of this book. However, poet Jennifer Lopez once stated "Love Don't Cost a Thing." So, you "Can't Buy Me Love" if it don't cost a thing. Will this be explored in the new series?

FRANCO: I'm more of a classic poetry guy, like RUSH says : "Big money goes around the world."

ART: I'd still go with the OJ's and Donald Trump "Money Money Money, MONEY"... There's just something about the Donald's hair.

THE GREEN TEAM #1 is on sale May 22, 2013.

29 Comments

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impossibilly

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Edited By impossibilly

I'm really interested in seeing what this book will look like.

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rav4

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Edited By rav4

Probably won't last 10 issues

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JakeN7

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Edited By JakeN7

I still don't see the appeal of either of these books. Not to mention I still haven't a clue what they're about. Rich people and poor people in the DCNU? Seems pretty lame...

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AltyAce

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Edited By AltyAce

The irony of a huge corporation like DC selling and making money from a book about "the 99%".

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ptigrusmagus

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Edited By ptigrusmagus

Still have zero interest in these two, will certainly be picking up Batman/Superman and Larfleeze over these. Its very off-putting how they use the 1% and 99% tag line that was all the buzz last year. I don't read comic books to be reminded how 1% of the nation's population owns almost all of the wealth.

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dondave

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Edited By dondave

Might pick this up

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inferiorego

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Edited By inferiorego  Staff

This book is going to be hilarious. I love when these guys work together.

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xblah_blahx

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Edited By xblah_blahx

Yea, no interest in this at all.

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kennybaese

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Edited By kennybaese

@inferiorego said:

This book is going to be hilarious. I love when these guys work together.

Same here. Plus, Gail Simone has said that The Movement has a very Secret Six feel to it, so I'm on board with both books.

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BR_Havoc

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Edited By BR_Havoc

OK so they told us nothing about the plot right now it just sounds like a bunch of rich people having a reality show type of comic set in the DC universe. Is this really what the new 52 has come to? why not fix some of the broken books you have now.

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derf_jenkins

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Edited By derf_jenkins

Still undecided on whether to give this pair a look. Maybe read each first issue and see if I'm blown away.

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the_stegman

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Edited By the_stegman  Moderator
You cancel Deathstroke for this?!?
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impossibilly

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Edited By impossibilly

@inferiorego said:

This book is going to be hilarious. I love when these guys work together.

I couldn't agree more. I'm glad the end of Superman Adventures isn't the end of Art and Franco at DC. And I'm also quite excited for their Kickstarter Alert: Art Baltazar & Franco's AW YEAH COMICS

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Jenkale

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Edited By Jenkale

going to check it so i can find out what these books are about

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Mezmero

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Edited By Mezmero

I wonder if they go down the Project A-ko route and feature one character who just buys a bionic power suit like B-ko. Not really into the idea of rich folk as heroes unless they're awesome like Tony Stark or Bruce Wayne. If it was a book about villains it could be cool otherwise I'll probably pass.

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RedheadedAtrocitus

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Getting both of these books when May runs around. I'm intrigued at the political allegory that the two titles no doubt are espousing so, that's all I need.

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MeloDet

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Edited By MeloDet

I was planning on adding this to my lists, until they announced Batman/Superman. Don't have enough room any more :(

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wmwadeii

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Edited By wmwadeii

@Ravager4 said:

Probably won't last 10 issues

I know and they get rid of books that are IMO better than what these Political statements will ever be. IMO there are things that should be left alone when it comes to comics one being political beliefs and opinions the other is religious beliefs (not religious characters but the author writing from their religious standpoint forcing it on the reader).

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Cavemold

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Edited By Cavemold

LAST 8 ISSUES.

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CrashBang

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Edited By CrashBang

I wasn't gonna pick this up. Then they quoted Rush. So, yeah, getting.

Seriously, that's all it takes.

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butters911

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Edited By butters911

These books sound great but two of my biggest hobbies are politics and comics

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Jonny_Anonymous

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Edited By Jonny_Anonymous

@inferiorego said:

This book is going to be hilarious. I love when these guys work together.

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Krakoa

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Edited By Krakoa

@AltyAce said:

The irony of a huge corporation like DC selling and making money from a book about "the 99%".

To be fair the 99% started the irony when they wore Guy Fawkes masks to these protests, for which Time Warner got a cut.

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KnightRise

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Edited By KnightRise

@Ravager4 said:

Probably won't last 10 issues

Which is why it would've worked better as a miniseries

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gmanfromheck

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Edited By gmanfromheck

It's a shame so many are so quick to judge a book way before it's even released. I'm excited to see the guys on a New 52 book and I'm excited it's not another Batman book (even though I love Batman).

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MadeinBangladesh

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Edited By MadeinBangladesh

this could be great but I'm still mad at Deathstroke getting cancelled.

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gmanfromheck

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Edited By gmanfromheck

@MadeinBangladesh: Believe me, I am too. You can't blame a new series for the cancellation of another. (not saying YOU are necessarily). Just another reason for people to buy books they like, etc etc.

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Beast_in_the_Shadows

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@G-Man said:

It's a shame so many are so quick to judge a book way before it's even released. I'm excited to see the guys on a New 52 book and I'm excited it's not another Batman book (even though I love Batman).

I don't think most people are judging the book a much as making predictions based on DC's past cancellations. Pretty much ever book since the inception of the New 52 that wasn't straight forward cape and tights has been cancelled.

I don't remember who said it, but when the last ring of cancellations came down someone on this site remarked that with every cut list the DCnU gets less and less diverse.

Add to that how a lot of the teasers and publicity for these titles has been based off of annoying buzz words from a year ago and it doesn't seem too promising. Not to say that they won't be good, but more that they won't sell enough to meet DC stricter new standards.

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DanteTheRedKnight

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I'm extremely excited for these books! Politics and Comic Books are my two number one hobbies!