Not long ago, Keith Giffen was charged with making Marvel Comics’ catalog of cosmic characters relevant again. Little more than a year later, Nova, Guardians of the Galaxy and various other spin-offs from Giffen’s critically praised Annihilation storyline are still finding success on the shelf, and the results of Marvel’s grand experiment speak for themselves. That’s why it seemed like a no-brainer that DC would turn to its now-exclusively held contract with Giffen to revitalize one of its own subsections of characters.

Starting in June, Giffen will begin redefining DC’s magic users alongside artist Matthew Clark in an 8-issue miniseries titled Reign in Hell. The story will focus on a battle for dominion over the plane of hell waged between the forces of Neron (last seen imprisoned in Doctor Fate’s tower at the end of 52) and  the combined efforts of Lord Satannus and his sister, Blaze, who gained a foothold over the realm in Neron’s absence.

According to Giffen, one of the initial plot points of Reign in Hell will include a roll call for DC’s magic users — especially those with ties to the "real" underworld. I spoke with Giffen recently about his plans for the series, what impact he hopes it will have, and some of the characters that might be called into service for a "war in hell."

COMICMIX: Keith, you’re becoming an old pro at this type of story, it seems. How do you approach the task of kick-starting an entire subsection of a publisher’s universe?

KEITH GIFFEN: I love world-building. That’s always been my favorite thing to do since I took on Legion of Superheroes. When DC approached me and asked me to rethink hell, that was right up my alley. I just looked back over different versions of hell in Marvel, DC and other publishers, and realized that I didn’t want to do any of that.

What I’m trying to do is create an infernal realm that stands on its own — that’s unique. The DC hell will not resemble, aside from the fact that it’s about damnation and torment, any of the hells that we’ve seen in comics before. It’s a different take on the environment, with different characters and motives, how  it runs, its hierarchy and what it means to have a "war" in hell.

CMix: What characters will play significant roles in the series? What characters should readers be watching out for?

KG: Doctor Occult is definitely a major player. I’m going to go in and see what makes that character tick. It will mostly be the DC mystics that you would expect to be involved in something like this. [It will be] Zatanna, Doctor Fate and some of the newer guys from that Countdown to Mystery series, like Sargon the Sorcerer, Ibis the Invincible — or whatever he’s calling himself these days — and Black Alice.

It utilizes some of DC’s matchbook characters, and also unearthes this magic bible — these rules of magic that Michael Moorcock had done for DC years ago that had never really been implemented. There were some spectacular ideas in there about the nature of magic and the price you pay for wielding certain kinds of magic. For example, every time you use infernal magic, you’re putting your soul in jeopardy. How does that affect the character? (more…)