Is there ever situations when an editor (think they'd be the person) tells you "You need to use X character" because they're trying to increase their profile or do you get more freedom than that?

I have a reputation for being able to ‘rehabilitate’ characters that have fallen into disuse, a bit.  Characters like Black Canary, Huntress, Barda, Lady Blackhawk, Red Sonja and more, the perception is that I was able to reconstruct them a little so that people were paying attention to them again. 

This is a nice thing, and it’s flattering that editors want me to work on certain characters so that they can see the sun a little more. Since I tend to like these b- and c-list characters, I’m happy to do it.

So it became very common for DC in particular, but also other companies, to ask me to feature a certain character, so that they might be restored somewhat. It’s happened a lot, it’s gone from a simple suggestion to part of significant publishing initiatives, depending on the character. If I loathe a character, I’m sure I could say no, but I generally like those characters.

Of the top of my head, I’ve been asked to do some rehab on Bane, Elongated Man, Big Barda, and the names I mentioned above. As well as the Dynamite females, which was a more formal arrangement.

All writers have different things they’re good at, along with weaknesses. I’m kind of proud of the fact that publishers feel I have a talent for bringing out the best in characters, to make people like them again. That makes me happy.

The other side is, it can be labor and thought intensive. After doing the huge SWORDS OF SORROW thing, where we were trying to present a dozen characters to a new audience, I was offered a relaunch of a major female pulp/comic/movie adventure heroine, but she’d need to be rethought almost from the ground up, and I had character-rehab-fatigue at that moment and turned it down. I honestly felt at that moment like, let someone else do this this time. ;)

But I think it is an actual thing, something I can point to in my career and be proud of, that a lot of people first fell in love with these characters because of how I wrote them. That makes me happy.