Jim Lee confirms 'Justice League' #1 digital record, defends "slow build"

Jim Lee has confirmed that Justice League #1 set a record for digital comics sales last week.

DC Comics' co-publisher discussed the debut issue of its 52 title relaunch with Salon.

Some reviewers and readers have criticised the slow beginning to Lee and Geoff Johns's new series, which mainly portrayed the first meeting between Batman and Green Lantern.

"Some people have asked, 'Where's the rest of the Justice League?'" said Lee.

"I guarantee you if we did a story that had every single member in it, people would say, 'This is not for new readers! It's too complicated!'

"People have said also, because of your track record, it's a no-brainer to succeed. Yes and no - this book is getting a lot more scrutiny because of that.

"You have a very different hurdle to jump to achieve success. Batman and Green Lantern are two of the best-known characters and gateway characters. And honestly, Geoff writes such character-driven storylines. There's a lot of humanity in the book, a lot of humour. You see the characters behind the masks.

"Also, people also said, 'It's too slowly paced! You guys have said you aren't writing for the trade!' What [we are doing] is letting writers write the length of stories they want. Geoff wanted to have a slow build, with a lot of action and suspense. We're very happy. The second is better than the first, and the third is better than the second.

"It's also setting records digitally. I can't give numbers, but on the first day it set a record for us."

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