Comic book superstar Jim Lee took time out of his busy day to give Prodigeek the details of his many projects from his art on All-Star Batman and Wildcats to running Wildstorm to his work on the upcoming DC MMO video game. Check out part one of Jim Lee’s thrilling interview. Now here’s part two.

Prodigeek - How’s the DC MMORPG going?

Jim Lee - It’s going real well. Stuff looks better and better each passing week. I think I’m very happy with the way it’s turning out. It’s a game I want to play. I think that’s kind of why they hired me to come aboard.

Prodigeek - What’s your title?

Jim Lee - Executive creative director. I’m involved in a lot of aspects of the game, most aspects of the game. Things that I know about, like art obviously, but you know even game play and stuff like that. I just give my feedback and sit in on discussions and be the eyes and ears for DC to make sure that [Sony Online] delivers a great game and so far they have been delivering, I mean it’s been a real educational experience to. Have to say I mean it’s one thing to be a gamer playing, it’s another to see and understand how it came together. A really staggering amount of work [is needed] to produce a video game, much less an MMO which is so much more.

Prodigeek - How have you seen the DC MMO change over your time working on the game?

Jim Lee - Oh a lot, you should have seen the early generation models and buildings. It’s not just, Sony’s development or my development in the process that’s are growing, but the whole team. All the people that are working on the game care. All the guys have learned and improved the game by leaps and bounds. The stuff their knocking out now in terms of environment and figures and designs are light years ahead of what we were doing a year ago. All aspects of the game are steadily improved upon. [Sony says] This is a first model of this character. We’re going to rebuild it a couple of times. You have to kind of go through this process to get to the final good stuff. We’ll get closer and closer to the final good stuff so it’s exciting.

Prodigeek - How did your creative work on Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu affect your work on the DC MMO?

Jim Lee - It’s completely different. This is definitely immersive for me. [Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu] was more a one-off. It came and it’s just design this, whatever. [The DC MMO] is a daily preoccupation, a daily obsession. Everyday there’s stuff we’re fine tuning. And we’re much more an integral organic part of the whole, in fact we’re a necessity in the whole thing. We’re doing the whole concept art in the game so everything you see in the game starts here, so there’s a lot of things need to be build and a lot of questions that need to be answered in terms of like what are the costumes, what are the powers, things like that. It’s a tremendous amount of work but it’s awesome.

Prodigeek - Are they letting you have first choice of character?

Jim Lee - I think we’re get something that’s pretty close. I’m not cherry picking this stuff, like the sweet stuff and I’m going to do all the major characters and you’ve got to do all the Legion of Substitute Heroes. It all comes down to who’s available and who’s good for what. I got to say I delegate a lot of it. Everyone gets to work on the good stuff here.

Prodigeek - I meant playing. Are we going to find out Jim Lee is Batman in the DC MMO?

Jim Lee - No, I really can’t get into the details of it but I don’t think any of these types of games allow you to log on and be Han Solo. It’s more about you create someone that exists in that universe and you get to meet Han Solo versus actually playing these characters.

Prodigeek - How are DC and Sony working together on the MMO? Is the game going to affect the comic book universe at all?

Jim Lee - I can’t really speak to that. A lot of stuff we’re doing we’re keeping under wraps partly because it’s still being worked on: nothing’s definite yet. But obviously those are all things we want to explore and try to do. Things you’re talking about. I think this is not just another cookie cutter template game that’s been rubber stamped. This will be a very new kind of experience, new kind of game, new kind of MMO, and I think that we’re going to do a lot of new, maybe even experimental things. There’s going to be a lot of cool things people haven’t seen before.

Prodigeek - How much influence does DC have?

Jim Lee - A lot of it is on me because I’m involved on a daily basis. So creatively I’m sort of spear heading that on DC’s part. Obviously they have a number of differently quality control people who are involved. It’s not just me in that respect. But on the creative level, I’m first and foremost knee deep in this stuff.

Prodigeek - Is DC asking for specific characters to give specific character prominent placement in order to coordinate with their own stories like Countdown or Final Crisis?

Jim Lee - I think some of this stuff, anyone can figure out that Superman Batman, and Wonder Woman will be very prominent. But beyond that, it’s like what else is included? How many cities are we going to have? How many characters can you interact with? Are we going to have every DC character? Yeah, these are the decisions that are made with the team and there’s some real parameters or limitations of what you can do in the game. Our goal is to figure out ways to circumvent that - to deliver stuff that people have previously thought undoable in the gaming space.

Prodigeek - Where is the storyline for the game coming from? Is it coming from DC or Sony?

Jim Lee - It’s developed between the lead creative on the game, myself, and DC. I see a number of different people involved. But yes, there will be some sort of overriding story and at the same time the whole thing about MMOs is allowing players to…it’s not just about setting and following a set course a to z. It’s much more open-ended in terms of game play and the kinds of things you can do. It’s a world just like ours. When you step outside there’s all these different things you can do, and the same thing in an MMO.

Prodigeek - What attracted you working to a video game rather than a comic or other media?

Jim Lee - Well video games definitely need a different mindset. You’re using different skills. Game theory, what makes something fun, I mean, in some ways it’s the same as what we’re doing in comics, but obviously different. I mean it’s a crazy challenge and that’s what I look for. I’ll always have the visually aesthetic element. How do we take my style, the way we want to see the DC Universe and how do we translate it into 3D models that look good on the screen. But another part of it is like what’s the DC Universe really about. How do we capture that spirit in terms of a game. And if I weren’t a gamer, I would probably be less interested in working on something like this. But because gaming is one of my passions, along with comics, it’s just a natural fit so this is something I definitely demanded to be involved with.

Prodigeek - What aspects of video games most appeal to you?

Jim Lee - You know a lot of these games, I’m looking at mostly for visuals. In general the story delivered by video games is not as a strong of an experience you get in print, whether it’s comics or books. So I play a lot of these games for how fun it is and how cool does it look. I think about how they’re delivering [the story], but they’re feeding me the story through game play and once you start thinking about that kind of stuff, it’s takes a little bit of the fun out of it. You know it’s like watching a movie and thinking about how many light sources or where the cameras were set. Once you start thinking about that, you’re no longer suspending your disbelief. You’re no longer in the story, you’re no longer in the moment. And you’re out of it so you’re running on a technical level, on a craft level but you’re not experiencing it the way 99 percent of the audience looks at the thing that’s purely for entertainment value or purely for artistic value.

Prodigeek - What games are you playing now?

Jim Lee - Right now, not a lot of anything just cause I’m swamped with work. A little BioShock. I’m trying to play a little here and there. Visually stunning game. I’m not far enough to see what else they have in store for me. Also Halo 3.

Check out Jim Lee’s work on All-Star Batman and Robin as well as all things Wildstorm. I believe he makes 25 cents for every single comic you buy.