News transcript:SO JUST WHERE WILL THE JLA BE DURING NML? from Newsarama

Ever since your trusty Newsarama first broke news of 1999's controversial Batman-event, NO MAN'S LAND, one source of concern in some reader circles has been the JLA's role, or seeming lack thereof, in the story. DC Universe continuity purists have argued that the JLA "should" play a major role in any event of this magnitude taking place in the DCU...that or a pretty good explanation be given as to why they won't.

Well, we can't tell you what the particulars are, but we can tell DC has decided to devote an entire issue of JLA to address those questions. MARK WAID announced during a Thursday evening chat for his current KINGDOM event that he (the designated JLA pinch-hitter) and DEVIN GRAYSON (the NML Huntress pointwoman) will be teaming-up to write JLA #31, a fill-in issue examining how Batman's teammates react and respond to the catastrophe. "It defines the JLA's role in NML, and it's a role no one would expect." Waid told the CBI-N. "They ARE doing something for Gotham...but you'd never guess WHAT."

Grayson confirmed the story and made it perfectly clear this was no afterthought on the parts of DC editorial... "In fact (yay!) it's already written," said Grayson. "The Bat-team has been very conscious all along of the need to address the issue of the JLA's response to No Man's Land, and JLA editor Dan Raspler recently had the bright idea of addressing it directly IN JLA. So the Bat-team and the JLA-Stateside-team got together for a meeting, and we seized on a couple of different interesting ways of dealing with the issue, one of which I'm particularly pleased with. I think we ended up with a nice, tight story that stands on its own quite well - if you're primarily a JLA reader, you don't have to read No Man's Land to understand this, and if you're primarily a Bat-reader and you happen to miss this, it won't cripple your understanding of the central NML storyline. Not, of course, that I can think of any reason why everyone wouldn't be avidly reading both. "

Readers still sitting on the fence regarding No Man's Land should keep an eye on Newsarama in the coming weeks...we just may just reveal a detail or two about the event that could help make up your mind...