With more than 10 New York Times best-selling novels and an Eisner Award, Brad Meltzer’s career as an author is impressive, to say the least. Coupled with these accolades, Meltzer has also been a television host and is famously the man behind finding the missing 9/11 flag, along with many more endeavors. 2022 marks his 25th year working in the industry. His thrillers, from The Inner Circle to The Book of Fate, are bestsellers, and his writing is so popular that it’s even caught the attention of former Presidents of the United States. Meanwhile, as a comic writer, Meltzer has tackled some of the most popular characters, like Batman and Superman, and his work on The Justice League of America (with art by Ed Bene) in particular is renowned.
Even with all of these past books, Meltzer is still hard at work. His latest book, The Lightning Rod, hit shelves on March 8. On top of that, he continues his work alongside Chris Eliopoulos on the children’s series Stories That Change the World, a spinoff of their other historical series Ordinary People Change the World. In honor of his 25th year as an author and his new projects, Meltzer took the time to talk to CBR in an exclusive interview.
CBR: I would first love to dive into your work with the thriller genre. What about thrillers appeals to you so much?
Brad Meltzer: I’ll tell you the story about myself as a kid. [I’ll] probably reveal too much about myself and my psyche, but my favorite game when I was a kid… When I first moved from New York to Florida, I didn’t have any friends. My favorite game was getting on my bicycle, and I would bike as fast as I could. I’d look over my shoulder and pretend someone was chasing me. That was the game. It was a game you could play by yourself, and I used to think it was fun. Now looking back, I’m like, “What is wrong with me as a kid?” That was what I liked, so there I was. I think in a strange, odd way that’s where I wind up for thrillers still to this moment. It’s just the genre I always react to. I think it’s built on my love of comics and built on that love of action. Then you have to mix in the character with it as well, or else it’s just gonna all fall apart.
Your new book is The Lightning Rod. You’ve written so many thrillers before, worked in this genre for so long, what about this thriller makes it stand out?
After writing [for] Superman and Batman and even Spider-Man, those characters that I loved for so [long], I forgot the fact that the reason they stand the test of time is because those problems aren’t solved in one story. The problems they have as characters can’t be solved in one story. I had to write 20 years of novels before I realized. In every novel I used to write, it was always a new character, every book. Then when I started writing for DC, I realized, “Wait a minute. These characters are so well defined, you can tell infinite stories with them.” I realized that my problem was I never had a character who had the depth that deserved to be told [in] more than one story. For me, for Zig and Nola, I finally found the characters to me that kind of got to core truths.
Touching on what you’re saying about what you’ve done with DC, you worked on a number of different Superheroes over the years in comics. Is there a favorite of yours, and why?
Zig and Nola are the two main characters in The Lightning Rod. Zig believes in the good in the universe and that if you just shower some more kindness out there, good things will happen. That is an argument that is worth fighting for. Nola believes that if you want to make the world a better place, you grab it by the throat and force it to be a better place. That’s a fair point as well. It’s what I think, personally. Those are my two points of view that argue back and forth.
I don’t think it’s any surprise that my two favorite characters are Superman and Batman. Again, they just have that point of view that, depending on when you catch me, I will side with one or the other as to what is the right way to make the world a better place.
Transitioning a bit more to Batman and Superman, you have your series Stories Change the World. You’ve had other stories under this title about real-life people, too. What inspired you to start looping in fictional superheroes, like Batman and Superman, into this long-running cannon that you have going on about historical figures?
When Chris Eliopoulos and I launched the Ordinary People Change the World series, we just were trying to do something good for our kids. We were tired of the garbage that our kids are being fed online every day. I think over the years, we realized that as much as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Amelia Earhart, and Rosa Parks are American icons, so too are Batman and Superman and Wonder Woman. Yes, we realize that three of those people are fictional and the others are real, but their stories persist because those stories say something about us as people. It just seemed a logical next jump to say, “Hey, can we take our love and those lessons that we got in comic books growing up and turn it into something passionate that kids can use today to be better people?”
Focusing on the Trinity in these books, was there a favorite of yours to work on? If so, which one? I know we’ve already addressed you love Batman and Superman, but in this specific medium, what was the standoff?
In this medium, I don’t think it’s close. I think the Superman story we sold the publisher — what we told them was going to be a kid’s book for Superman but it’s just me writing Superman. It’s my version of Superman at its purest. It just lent itself to Chris’ art, to the story, to the lessons of inspiration, and to Smallville itself, and to the kindest people in the world and the influence that they can have on your life.
As for the historical figures in the series prior, is there one you haven’t had a chance to include that you would like to shed more light on?
The great thing about my experience in DC or Marvel or even with Penguin Random House with these kids’ books is they really give Chris and I… They let us have a pretty wide berth in terms of playing creatively. The same way [that] when I did Justice League, whoever we asked for they gave us and said, “Have fun.” I’m thankful that when it came to the historical figures, there’s no one that the publisher has said, “You can’t tell that story.”
I will say it took a while to do Muhammad Ali. I think our editor was, for a while, pretty doubtful about Muhammad Ali simply because she was like, “Do we want to encourage kids to fight?” I’m like, “That’s not the fight that we’re highlighting here.” Muhammad Ali’s fight is so much bigger than what happened inside a boxing ring. So I love the fact that we finally got to put Muhammad Ali out there. You better believe that at the end of I Am Muhammad Ali, the last page of the book says, “You know, he fought Superman. You should read that, too.”
I would love to touch on how, in both your adult and children’s books, there is an immense amount of research you pour into these works. What about history drew you into incorporating it so often into your work in comics and prose?
I just think that it’s what I like. When I started The Lightning Rod, I’ve done the secret tunnels below the White House. I’ve done the catacombs below the US Capitol. I was doing some research and found out that the US government has about a dozen secret warehouses all across the country stocked with things to deal with bioterrorist attacks. I’m telling you that one of these warehouses is close to where you live and you don’t even know what’s there. I said, “You’re telling me that there’s something right in front of our faces? In plain sight, the government has secret warehouses?” I said, “I want to know what’s inside it.” That drove The Lightning Rod for the setup of the thriller and what was going to take place there.
To me, it just gives that character that I’m working on a kind of realistic place to play in. Obviously, it always comes down to the character. For me, as a reader, I just love when I’m reading and I go, “Oh, I’ve learned something.” Whether it’s researching Vixen’s powers and animal statistics and facts and factoids when I was doing Justice League, or whether it’s doing it for how the government can secretly communicate and how you can communicate without the government seeing you for The Lightning Rod, those are the same exact thing for me. It just makes it more fun.
Looking at your broader history with writing, with working in both comics and prose, what’s been the biggest difference when it comes to writing for both of these media?
I think as a novelist, I get to paint with the palette of words. I can pick all the infinite words I want, but that’s all I got. When you write comics, you’re painting with words, but now you’re painting with pictures, so the novelist in me just has to learn to shut up. That’s it. You have to let the artists do their job. Chris Eliopoulos will never, ever shy away from telling me just stop talking.
Continuing to look back at your 25 years as a writer, again, congratulations.
Thank you.
What advice do you wish you could have given yourself when you started writing?
If you asked me that question, year one, I would have given you this kind of really pat answer that just says, “Oh, it’s all gonna be fine.” I look back now, and I was so terrified. I’m still so terrified. It’s hard every single day. As a fellow author said to me years and years ago, if it was easy, everyone would do it. Every day I sit down to write and it’s still hard. Again, it’s a fight worth fighting.
Wrapping this up, I know you have a long catalog of writing. With this being your 25th year as an author, I would love to know, have there been any specific highlights in your long-running career that stand out to you that you’d love to touch on?
I think the most humbling was a couple [of] years ago. I’ve gotten what can only be described as fan letters from President Clinton and President Bush about my thrillers. I’ve gotten to go to the Senate and talk to Senator Patrick Leahy about Batman and Green Arrow. That’s always fun. I’ve gotten to go to the White House and have lunch in the President’s private dining room. They invited me for lunch, but I think the most humbling moment came when President Bush was sick; he was dying.
What no one knew at the time was [that] they were inviting some of his favorite writers to read to him, and I got the call. I was in Kennebunkport, Maine and they invited me in. The Secret Service leave, and they tell me, “You’re only gonna read for five minutes because he’s gonna fall asleep. He’s just sleeping most of the days now.” The Secret Service left, and I knew it was the end. It was President Bush, his service dog Sully, my wife, and myself, and that’s it. I can see he has one of my books on his desk, a copy of The First Conspiracy, about a secret plot to kill George Washington. It looks like it’s been read over and over and over. It was dog-eared.
I said to him, “Sir, you want to read this?” He says, “Mhm,” because he can’t even speak at that point. He says, “Mhm” or “Uh uh.” Five minutes in, he falls asleep. Sure enough, after five minutes. I’m like, “I’m just gonna finish the chapter and be done.” I get to those words we all know: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” In that moment, President Bush’s eyes pop open, and he’s wide awake, and I get to the end of the chapter and say, “Sir, you want to read another?” He says, “Mhm.” And another? “Mhm.” And another? “Mhm.”
Instead of being there for five minutes, I’m there for a full hour. I eventually, of course, said goodbye. I knew I’d never see him again, but to be reading about the first President of the United States to [the person] who, at that point, was the oldest living President in the United States, was just something that I couldn’t make up in my wildest imagination.
Catch Brad Meltzer’s The Lightning Rod, available in stores now.
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