DCU Online: This could get interesting

OH. HOLY. FUCK.

"Of course, a Superman nerd like myself is never content to just hear Jim Lee talk about the game he's helping envision, I want to see it. I want to know it. I want to play it. Sadly, Sony Online Entertainment wasn't ready to let me slip into my tights and try out the MMO that lets you create a hero or a villain, but they were happy to show me a brand new, behind the scenes trailer.

Some of the footage was used in the press conference trailer, which just so happens to be below this paragraph, but there was plenty of stuff I hadn't seen before. A wide shot of the Batcave revealed that the giant Joker playing card and penny in the game; I saw Supergirl beat on some bad guys; concept art for both the Hall of Justice and Wayne Manor popped up; character sheets for Adam Strange, Captain Atom, Hawkgirl, Sinestro, and the Mad Hatter made an appearance; even Batwoman showed up to wail on some baddies."

The video blew my fuckin mind too. And don't read the interview if you have a weak heart:

"IGN: What is DCUO bringing to MMOs that we haven't seen before?

John Blakely: Well, first of all, there's the DC Universe -- Gotham, Metropolis, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Joker, Penguin, Solomon Grundy -- a whole host of heroes, a whole bunch of villains. Over 150 of these all penned by Jim Lee and his team at Wildstorm Entertainment -- they have put together probably over 1,500 concepts to kind of layout the official DCU, what it looks like. There's an official map of Metropolis now. There's an official map of Gotham. We're building those in the Unreal 3 engine. It's going to be shipped on the PlayStation 3 and on the PC so it'll be a console experience, and a big thing on that is moment to moment, this is an action game. First and foremost, superhero game and then we're layering in the pieces you'd expect with an MMO -- character progression, end games, rule the world or save the world, levels, loot, character-invested storylines like your hero's journey or your villain's journey. We're really trying to put all of those pieces together as you'd expect in an MMO but moment to moment it really is an action game like you'd play on your console.

IGN: If somebody wasn't familiar with it, what is their role in it? You're not playing as Superman or Batman.

John Blakely: You're not. What you're doing is stepping in. We're opening a portal or a door into the DC Universe that you can step into for the first time with your own custom superhero or super-villain and then fight alongside all your favorite heroes and/or villains, fight against them or fight for them in those settings. Navigating through those stories you've learned to love over the over the last 70 years.

IGN: The first thing that jumps to my mind is that if I'm a villain and I get locked up in Arkham, what happens to my game?

John Blakely: Well, you don't get locked up in Arkham. You'll get knocked out. There will be some penalties for those kinds of things. You won't actually be sitting in a cell looking out, and just hoping that some day someone will come rescue you. Now, however, you can go into Arkham as a villain or as a hero and help free those other characters that may be locked in there -- maybe amass those characters and then go raid the Batcave if you're good enough."