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by Pete Goodrich
For a long time, the ‘Standard of LSH Excellence’ for me has been the long-ago Legion of Super-Heroes Volume 4. Following the ‘Baxter’ series (I believe known as such due to the better stock of paper used to print) started in 1989 and ran up until 1994; when Zero Hour hit and revamped the Legion from top to bottom. But all I’m going to cover are the first 38 issues of this series. For these are amongst the best revisionist super-hero/sci comics I have known, and so few people remember them now. I've never seen anything like it since.
Sure, the Legion of Super-Heroes has always been somewhat scorned in the past. Maybe it was the names? I’m willing to bet that had something to do with it. All the ‘Lad’s’ and ‘Lasses’ do sound kind of cheese, if you know what I mean. So I’m sure that when people think ‘Legion’ the first thing they think of is “Dipshit Lad versus the Space Dragons!” and then write it off as silver age garbage and never look back. But LSH v4 (as I will refer to the run for the rest of this article) is solid, space drama. They don’t run from their admittedly cheesy past, but they use it. And they use it well.
I’m a big continuity fan in comics. I like it- no, I love it when a title reaches back and uses what was done in the past to craft something new and different. And v4 does not shy away from what was done in the past instead they use it to make something that was quite contemporary for the time, and holds up even today. Well, holds up if you’re a tremendous geek for continuity, character development, and the 9 panel grid. I loved the 9 panel grid.
The majority of the issues were done by Keith Giffen, Tom and Mary Bierbaum, and Al Gordon. Brandon Peterson, Paris Cullins, Coleen Doran, and Jason Pearson all worked on the series as well; my favorite of the bunch being Jason Pearson's work on the title. I think it's some of Keith Giffen’s best work, before he ate that page of acid that led him to the style he used on Image’s Trencher. Don't get me wrong, I really like Giffen's more abstract style as well. But I really appreciate the dirty future he gives us in v4, it truly suits the darker 30th century that these issues takes place in. And as Giffen did the art chores on the earlier LSH series (written by current DC overlord Paul Levitz) it's really fitting to have him draw the broken down future of his own series.
Warning: While the majority of what is to follow will be a straight forward explanation of what happens and what works in a given issue, I may refer to some concepts that are in fact perfectly natural for a LSH fan, but not so for others. I’ll try to address all of them in the body here, but if I miss something feel free to bring it up in our forums.
Not unlike the current wave of “One Year Later” DCU titles (could they have gotten the idea for that from here?...after all Keith Giffen is deeply involved in 52) this starts off in 2994, Five Years after the conclusion of the previous series. I only recently found those issues in a quarter bin a year ago. The close of that series wasn't all that special. This is a setup issue, giving us the background of what has happened to Earth and to the United Planets (like the space UN) since that five years has passed. Basically, everything is screwed. The UP has collapsed into bankruptcy, Earth has broken away from the UP (as have other worlds) entirely, and the Legion of Super-Heroes has been disbanded.
We don't get a full picture of how dark the universe has become since the Legion and UP fell apart, but we do get little slices. Rokk "Cosmic Boy" Krinn is on his home planet of Braal, left in ruins after a failed war with neighboring planet Imsk. We get a little Rambo moment from Rokk as he flashes back to something known as Venado Bay; where the former team leader had lost his powers. He is then recruited by teamate Reep "Chameleon Kid" Daggle to restart the Legion, in an effort to well; be super-heroes. We don't get to see how fully messed up the universe is at this point, but it's coming.
We get to see bits of other former members, like Dirk "Sun Boy" Morgna; who is a government shill for Earthgov. Earthgov being the ruling body of our planet. We learn as the series goes on that theres a lot of shady business going on behind the scenes at Earthgov. We also get a moment with Salu "Shrinking Violet" Digby, as she is dishonorably discharged from the Imskian army; where she too has the hard-bitten war veteran thing going on. She leaves the army prison, and heads out to join up with Ayla "Light Lass" Ranzz elsewhere. We also get a scene in the dark with someone sketchy, who'd just been released from prison to attend to some nefarious details.
This was some serious comic book to me. I knew these guys as the heroes with the silly code names and the doofy costumes, and here they are and everything is so grim, and...well gritty. I don't like coining thisphrase; as is gotten something of a bad rap to it. But face it: the grim and gritty approach to superheroics can be awesome if it's handled right. And here; it was.
The backup text features lend more insight into what happened to the universe since we last saw the Legion. An Omnicom (think futuristic Blackberry) entry details how the United Planets had suffered a massive economic collapse and fell apart, a pair of documents detailing the hostility between Earthgov and the LSH, and finally an advertisement for condos situated in the former LSH headquarters, staffed by Validus-styled robots. Would you want a Roomba made to look like an interplanetary destroyer? …me too.
SIGN OF THE TIMES: The back cover features an ad for ‘Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” on VHS. I'd forgotten about all the 'funny' fake reviews from Socrates and such they used for that ad campaign. I guess a bad joke from Genghis Khan is still better than Roger Ebert calling it a turdburger. And inside the back cover, we have an old DC checklist, and also ‘news with Johnny DC.’ In this issue we see an announcement that David Lloyd and Grant Morrison will be doing a little fill-in on Hellblazer issues #26-27. And they did, and those were awesome.
Now again: there's going to be some silly names for these people. Bear in mind a lot of these characters were supposed to be from the future, not from Earth, and were created in the Silver Age. So we're going to get some goofy stuff here. Roll with it. It's no worse than Knightsabre, Bloodwraith, or Killgore. In fact, I'll argue that "Matter-Eater Lad" is a lot less lame than "Warstrike."
Former "Ultra Boy" Jo Nah is back on his home world of Rimbor, and is smuggling ersatz ‘Silverale,’ Silverale being not unlike the Red Bull of the 30th century. The Khunds (evil alien empire, they showed up in the Rann-Thanagar war, IIRC) send in a pair of android assassins in to take him out, but mainly to get his sidekick Kono, she being a traitor of some sort to the Khund race. So we get some fight scene, and after the fight scene we get a little slice of what had happened with Jo and his longtime love Tinya "Phantom Girl" Wazzo. It did not end well. We also get a moment with Shvaughn Erin (old school Legion ally) being spied upon by Circe, director of the Earthgov secret police. It’s sketchy. This is only scratching the surface as to how sketchyEarthgov really was.
Oh, and at the end of the issue we get to see who the shadowy character was from the end of issue 1: it’s Roxxas the space pirate. He's on the move, and ready to cause some problems. Before you write this off as cheesy bullshit, he’s not the kind of space pirate who’d make you walk the ‘space plank’ (I don’t think…) but the kind of space pirate who committed genocide on the planet Trom, home of LSH member Element Lad. And like I said, get over the names.
The 9-panel grid (Giffens layout of choice back then, likely inspired from the same layout being used so prominently in Watchmen) really impresses on one particular page. An explosion of a city block, broken up into nine separate but connected panels. Good stuff.
SIGNS OF THE TIMES: News with Johnny DC mentions 'star in the making' Chris Bachalo, there’s a free poster for the horror movie “Shocker” (saw it, there's a cameo from John Tesh in the middle of it but aside from that there's no redeeming value to this film) in the middle of the book, and the back cover as an ad for “Speed Zone,” starring ‘big stars like’ Melody Anderson, Peter Boyle, Donna Dixon, and John Candy. Yeah, 'big stars.' Not classy enough to earn the rights to be a Cannonball Run sequel.
In this issue we see Blok (my favorite Legionairre) die. I dug this character a lot; he was prominently featured in one of the very first LSH comics I'd ever read, aside from his own natural perks (made of stone, super-strong, Swamp Thingy speech patterns) and this issue bummed me out a lot. When I was 14 and reading this, I think I consoled myself by convincing myself that they killed him off because he was just too much cooler than the rest of the LSH put together, and more powerful to boot. And today I realize that I was so very right.
Roxxas the Butcher (who if I remember correctly in his earliest appearances did not wear lipstick or dress like Austin Powers) takes him down on behalf of the Dominators, the banana-headed aliens behind the long past DCU mega event “Invasion.” In this issue we see that the Dominators are pulling the strings behind Earthgov, and so we can also surmise that they were the ones behind the smear campaign and government harassment that eventually led to the LSH dissolving. Roxxas was loosed into the wld from Labyrinth (space prison linked to a tiny red star by a bolt of electricity- shit Morrison, do something with THAT idea) to try and put a stop to the Legion reforming, hence him blowing Blok up ino a pile of rubble.
We also learn that Science Police (it sounds better than Secret Police. Also, they're not a secret.) officer Shvaughn Erin is working behind the scenes on behalf of a resistance group, presumably to bring down Earthgov. More on that in subsequent issues.
On Winath we see that a number of former Legionairres are all living together in an interstellar, clothing optional farming community, the former Saturn Girl (Imra Ardeen), Lightning Lad (Garth Ranzz), Lightning Lass (Ayla Ranzz), Lightning Lord (Mekt Ranzz, a reformed villain), and the newly-released-from-an-Imskian prison Shrinking Violet (henceforth to be referred to as 'Vi.') are all together, so Roxxas mails the broken pieces of Blok to them for a funny. The bastard. And here they plant the seeds for what was at the time a controversial character development for a pair of characters...the seeds of a love thang, were born.
We also get a glimpse of Mordru, the Dark Lord who some readers only know from the pages of JSA. Well he started in the pages of the LSH, tho admittedly when he started out he was just some old wizard archetype in a Thor helmet. Now he’s ruling his own world, and using a series of mystically-modified Probes to spy on a number of former Legionairres. The Probes are a very interesting population in this series, and one that doesn’t ever really get explained as much as I would have liked. Blue and eyeless, they seem to be used as some sort of weird android administrative assistants in every corner of the galaxy. It's like if the Blue Man Group and our office copier had babies. Oh yeah, Mordru also has a Green Lantern in captivity (former LSH supporting guy Rond Vidar) and is torturing him for giggles. Eeeeevil.
Also the text pages give some more background info on the Winathian contingent of ex-Legionairres, and some detail on the Validus Plague, which will lead us to the reintroduction of Brainiac 5; one of my favorite characters from this new series. The letters pages (remember letters pages?!) has bios on the creators behind this title, and an ad for a subscription to the comic book adaptation of the TV syncated Superboy series from long ago. Smallville 1.0!
SIGNS OF THE TIMES: The “News With Johnny DC” and the back cover of the comic both pimp the hell out of the upcoming VHS edition of “Batman,” for only $24.95. Added bonus within that VHS scial release: that Diet Coke ad that Michael Gough did way back when. They also have an ad for the very first (and arguably the very best) Elseworlds, “Gotham By Gaslight.”
We’ll stop here for now, as the next few issues take us into some heavily-convoluted territory. Okay, it’s sort of convoluted here as well but the next few issues are a bit of a continuity nightmare that stemmed from the Superman relaunch, so We might as well start fresh with those. Stick with it, once we get past these “hey, we need to retcon a bunch of shit” issue we start getting into some high quality space opera.
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Posted by YourMomsBasement at 08:00 AM
by Rajan Khanna
Tad Williams is an enormously successful, bestselling fantasy author (Tailchaser's Song, Otherland, Shadowmarch) who recently made his foray into comics with a 6-issue miniseries for DC Comics, called "The Next". Issue 1 is on the stands now. We talked to Tad regarding this series and other upcoming comics work.
1. For those who haven't read the first issue yet, who are the Next and what are they the next of?
The Next are young people from our future (except a little sideways.) Maybe it's better to say they're from one possible future. They're running away from their rather oppressive government, the Iron Ring, but are forced to make an unplanned stop in our time and reality.
2. Old time members of your message board, Shadowmarch, recall that you grew up a fan of the Marvel Universe. What made you go to DC with this concept?
I approached DC originally with a radical re-launch of Captain Marvel Junior (because they own the Big Red Cheese) which didn't work out because of other things going on with the property. But it led to conversations and me sending other proposals. They liked THE NEXT so we went from there.
3. As a writer of large fantasy novels, how was it switching to comic
scripts? Was it something you enjoyed or was it challenging?
It's actually a relief to write short, and also to be able to leave
so much of the work to the talented people drawing the comics.
4. Do you think that prose writers are more or less suited to writing comics?
Well, as with anything else, it's how well you adapt to the change of
medium. I'm wordier than your average comic book writer because I'm a wordy writer in general. That may drive some comic readers crazy. Then again, you won't feel like you paid for a book that was all illustrations and only about three lines of dialogue that you finish in thirty seconds...
5. How was your experience working with artists, Dietrich Smith and Walden Wong?
Great. I only worked directly with Dietrich, who I thought did
really nifty work. As I'm looking at the proofs (I just proofed
number 3) I'm appreciating what he did more and more. You've
reminded me that I need to call him or drop him an email and tell him again what nice stuff he did. (He can pass along my similar
sentiments to Walden and Rob Leigh, the letterer, and Chris Chuckry, the colorist, who all did excellent work.)
6. Superman appears in this series, and is even featured on the cover of the first issue. Was it always your intention to set the mini in the DC universe or was that something that came about afterward?
No, that sprang from a concern on DC's part that they wouldn't be
able to sell the comic at all without someone recognizable in it, so
they asked me if I could put Superman in. I felt as though I was
being offered the keys to Dad's expensive car. Yeah, take the big
guy out for a test drive? Sure! I promise I won't scratch him up
too much.
7. Did you have to do any research into the DC Universe to prepare for this series?
Not this one so much, because it's fairly self-contained, but the
next project I'm working on (THE FACTORY) is chockablock with
connections into the mainstream DCU. Also, me being me, I'm looking into some of the more obscure corners of it, and resurrecting some of the more obscure characters.
8. Are there any other guest stars that we can expect to see?
I think the only "real" DCU characters in THE NEXT are Superman and Metron, but we will definitely see a great deal more of both of them.
9. The Next is a 6-issue series. Any plans to revisit the title if there is interest down the road? Or is this a self-contained idea?
I'd love it if there was interest in continuing THE NEXT. Although
the minseries has what I think is a quite satisfying conclusion, I've
left it so that it can go forward from there if anyone so desires.
10. Back in our first interview with you, you mentioned a second project with DC. Is that still progressing? Any information that you can share with us?
Yes, as described above, it's called THE FACTORY, and we're only
really trying to settle on how long it will be, six or twelve issues.
The basic premise is that it's the (secret) location where beginning
supervillains break in, where henchfolk are trained and hired, etc.
But if course the minseries will have its own very complex story
featuring some pretty well-known DCU characters and more than a few surprises. One in particular will answer a major fanboy question and -- I hope -- create a major villain for years to come.
11. Are there any established comic properties that you'd like to take a crack at? Any artists that you would love to work with in the future?
At DC, I'd love to have a shot at making Martian Manhunter something really interesting (to me.) I think I could do some interesting things with some Marvel characters as well -- Daredevil, Iron Man, Captain America -- but I also like to invent new characters, especially villains.
12. Any other plans to do more comic work, either directly written by you, or adapted from your fiction, like the Burning Man?
Other than THE FACTORY, and a one-shot IBIS story as part of DC's 52 (which I haven't started writing yet so I can't say anything intelligent about it), who knows? I still have all that other writing to do, too, which at last count was about four books in progress and two awaiting publication.
I tell my kids, "What do you mean, you're bored? I'd pay MONEY to be bored!"
Thank to Tad for this interview. I urge people to go out and pick up this series and give it a shot. You will certainly get your money's worth.
Check out our prior interview with Tad Williams.
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Posted by YourMomsBasement at 01:34 PM
by Mike Collins
1. When we last spoke you had just been announced as the new writer on X-Men. After all the interviews and online commentary how did it feel to actually sit down and start the first script?
It's hard to describe. The first script on any new project is always hard. You have to get the feel for the individual voices of the characters you're writing, and you have to get the "big voice", the pace and tone of the story, the way the narrative is articulated, right too. It's slow, at first, and then if it's working you get the sense of it building and building, and by the end you sort of slipstream along because there's only one way it can go.
All those processes were compounded here by the fact that this was a book with thirty years of continuity - or forty-three years, if you go back to the first publication of X-Men#1. That's a little intimidating. I wouldn't want to exaggerate, but there's a sense in which you feel the weight of all that history sitting on your shoulder. And there's a part of you that's muttering "can I do this?" the whole time.
But it was exhilarating, too. I mean, how could it not be? To get my hands on those characters, to write the X-Men, after reading them for so long... The only analogy I can think of is, you've got a friend with a top-of-the-range Porsche 928 S, and he's giving you a lift somewhere, and then out of the blue he says "would you like to drive for a while? I'm getting tired here." And you turn the key and it's all there, in your hands, all that perfect engineering. Lousy metaphor. I'm not a car fetishist, and I don't even like driving these days, because in London you can't go a hundred yards without hitting a jam, but it's a bit like that - something you coveted but never expected to own, but, well, there you are. You can't own it - it's too big to own - but it's in your hands.
2. Your first issue begins the "Super Novas" arc. How would you describe your intial storyline?
I designed it to be a sort of inexorable build from tension to crisis to carnage. There's a sense in which, from the moment Sabretooth walks through the doors of the mansion in #188, the action doesn't stop until the big confrontation in #193. That gives a slightly false impression, though, because of course there's a lot of other stuff going on in there as well. I needed to define characters and relationships, and I needed to build the mystery as to what the Children are and how they're different from the threats that are already out there in the X-verse.
And of course I'm also seeding references to some later stories in there - particularly, for the story that comes to a head in #200. We start getting hints about that from #189 onwards.
2A. Speaking of defining character relationships, how is that going so far? You have a main team that many people scratched their heads over, including Sabretooth and Mystique. It's a great chance to have the team constantly at odds with each other isn't it?
Oh yeah, you bet. That was what I was aiming for, really, and I'm enjoying playing with the ramifications of that. I wasn't interested in creating controversy for its own sake - honest - but I was very much interested in having a team that had that richness of past interactions and past tensions to draw on. It's like scripting a comic book set in the house of Atreus. Pure madness, but dark, resonant madness.
The first arc is really about bringing the team together, and obviously we're already feeling the strain at that point - but it's nothing compared to what's going to come later.
3. The cover to issue #188 gives us our first glimpse of the Children. Who are they and where do they come from? Kind of a scary looking bunch...
Well, I don't want to give too much away here. Who are they? They're your children, and mine. Where do they come from? From a sealed environment called the Vault - and that's their full name, the Children of the Vault. They're not mutants and they're not humans: they're an intended solution to a problem, but now they've become a problem in their own right - and the thing that brings them into play at this moment in the history of the Marvel Universe is M-Day. Moreover, they don't have super-powers - but they have something that's even better in a way. And yeah, they're very scary. They even scare Sabretooth, who isn't exactly a timid sort of guy.
3a. Where did the idea for the Children of the Vault spring from? Can you give us any more details on who they are individually?
Hmm. I'd rather not get too specific here. The initial idea was to have a threat that wasn't mutant in origin - that wasn't even super-powered, arguably - but came in at right angles to what we already know and worked in its own scary way. The Children can do things that normal people can't do, but the explanation doesn't have anything to do with the usual logic of superpowers. And they can actually use each other's abilities if they need to, which makes them pretty formidable.
But the scariest thing about them is the way they see the world. Even the affection of the Children is dangerous, as we get to see in #191.
Individually... I'll just throw out a few names. Sangre. Serafina. Perro. Fuego. Aguja. I guess you can spot the common theme there...
4. How long is Super Novas and what is it's main focus?
It's a six-issue arc, running from #188 to #193. There's a double focus, really: it's partly about defining the Children and building up to the big confrontation between them and the X-Men, and it's partly about creating my team - which is anything but a smooth and automatic process. it's more of an accretion around a core - Rogue, then Iceman and Cannonball, then the others, with a few interesting question marks around the edges.
And in the middle of that, of course, we've got the return of Northstar and Aurora.
5. How do Northstar and Aurora fit into the story?
By means of a set-up. They're rather ruthlessly used by the Children to achieve a specific goal, and we'll see some very nasty stuff happen as a result of that. As you know, Aurora is in a fragile state, psychologically, emotionally - and Northstar is very literally not himself. What happens here is going to move them onwards, but initially not in a good direction.
7. You're a new voice in the world of costumed super hero's. How would you describe your writing style for people not familiar with it?
Hmm. Kind of a hard question. My style has tended in the past to lean very heavily on strong (I hope) back-and-forth dialogue and on character. That's not likely to change, although I hope I've proved with my work in the Ultimate universe that I can do compelling action scenes as well. I've got a name for being poetic and allusive, but that's mainly because it's my Vertigo work that's got me noticed. I can work in very different styles from that.
8. I'd like to talk about your main cast in more detail. What kind of character arcs do you have planned for them? How do they fit into your overall run?
Again, I have to be careful what I say because I don't want to give too much of the game plan away in advance.
Rogue is team leader and emphatically at centre stage. She's chosen for that role because she can improvise and take risks - because she's hard for an enemy to predict, as Cyclops says in #188. I want to bring the boldness and directness of her character to the fore, and I want increasingly - through the events of the first few arcs - to take her to a point where a lot of her self-doubts and regrets about the past don't seem quite so important any more: where she's acknowledging her strengths, and where she's more comfortable with herself. Even her relationship with Mystique is going to change, not so much because she's prepared to forgive and forget as because Mystique's emotional hold on her - which is very much a legacy of her childhood - is going to lessen.
Iceman and Cannonball are the other two strong veterans in the team - leaving out Cable, whose experience and situation are somewhat different. I want Bobby, like Rogue, to start using his powers in a wide range of striking and innovative ways, so we stop thinking of him as just the guy who can make ice slides - like Frozone in the Incredibles. In terms of his character arc, though, he's going to get into a relationship which will make him re-assess himself, his life, his core values. If we see Rogue becoming stronger and more assertive in these early issues, we may see Bobby becoming more hesitant in some ways and more uneasy about choices he's made.
Cannonball is also going to have a relationship which screws him up in a more direct and immediate way. He's going to descend into a crisis whose outcome is not at all clear. Having established him as the "safe pair of hands", steady as a rock sort of guy - one of the mainstays of the team - we kick all of that security away and watch how he reacts to a situation where things aren't so clear cut and where his whole life is at stake.
Sabretooth has no character arc in the accepted sense of that phrase. Don't expect him to change. He's too self-centred to compromise, too ruthless to want to. But he's got some surprises in store for him, and he's not going to come out of his time on the X-Men roster unscathed.
Mystique, by contrast, is so malleable in some ways that you can't get a handle on her at all. She's a survivor, a pragmatist - someone who reads the ground, reads the situation and does whatever is necessary to survive. We do see her change, but we're not sure how far the changes are real, how far they're just a concession to the place where she finds herself. Something is going to touch her, though, more deeply than she believes she can be touched, and it's not going to be easy for her to get over.
And at some point she and Rogue are going to have to fight each other for something that they both need but only one of them - or maybe neither - can have.
9. Is there a theme that you are working with for Super Novas and beyond?
Not so much, no - unless the forging of the team and the relationships within it is a theme. The stories intertwine and inter-relate, and as always in the X-Men there'll be revelations about the team members which arise out of the missions and the threats and the decisions they have to take. But I'm not banging a specific drum. I suppose in Supernovas there's an underlying concern with the kind of Darwinian competition you get when space is limited and habitats are threatened. And later on, too, the X-Men will meet another contender for "who takes over when humanity kick the collective bucket?" That's probably just a reflection of the stuff that's on my mind right now.
Meeting the alien, in yourself and elsewhere. That's the theme, if there is one.
10. Pan. You made a somewhat mysterious mention of a potential adversary on your site. Is there anything you can say about him/her/it/them?
If the Children have had their humanity stripped from them by someone else, for reasons that you could call mistaken but idealistic, Pan (not his full name) has voluntarily given away his own humanity in order to gain an advantage in the ultimate game of survival of the fittest. He's the reason why both Lady Mastermind and... someone else who I don't think we've named yet... are present in the X-mansion in #188, and he's someone who Rogue comes to have a very personal grudge against. He's a very nasty piece of work - physically and morally repulsive, and more or less impossible to kill. I think he'll be one of my scariest bad guys.
11. Aside from the main cast who else might we see in the initial story arc?
Well there's Lady M, of course. And someone else who guested in Uncanny a few issues back, but otherwise hasn't been seen in X-circles for ages. Val Cooper, for obvious reasons. Northstar and Aurora you know about. A former mutant named Pasco who we don't get to know well enough to become attached to. Lots of Astonishing and New X-Men characters popping in for cameos. And someone who'll come to be the main antagonist in the second arc, but who we won't even recognise as a threat when we first see them.
12. Your team goes on the road. Where are they headed? Can you reveal why they leave the mansion as a home base?
I can't say anything about where, but as for why, it's kind of the obvious reason. Life at the mansion has become unbearable - very tightly circumscribed, very tightly controlled and observed. My team come to the conclusion that they can do a lot better by being outside of that situation.
The new base is a very peculiar one, and roads are about the one transport infrastructure that it can't use. It's better by sea or air or almost anything else.
13. The cover to issue #190 is a bit of a jaw dropper. Will inter-team fraternizing be one of the themes of Super Novas?
Well, only in the background, as it were. These are beats I'm hitting partly because they help to ramp up the tensions in the team from the start, and partly because they're hard to resist when a perfect opportunity comes up. I'm not going to be leaning hard on the old mix-and-match mating dance aspect of things: just allowing characters to come together - romantically, sexually or otherwise - when it seems natural and appropriate. Which I admit still makes that cover something of a surprise. It's absolutely spectacular, isn't it? Admit that it made your pulse quicken just a little...
14. How tied into the current Marvel Universe will X-Men be?
Depends what you mean, really. We acknowledge the big events that are going on in the MU, because that's our setting. But they only impact on the story we're telling at a couple of removes, at least to begin with. You won't see a lot of Civil War references in X-Men, for example.
15. Going forward where do you see this title going? What comes after Super Novas?
After Supernovas we're going to have an issue or two where the team are sort of dealing with the after-shocks of the events they've just been involved in. That's when the move out of the mansion becomes official, and when the team roster is - for the time being - finalised.
And then in #196 the X-Men take possession of their new home and realise that there's a menace already there before them - a menace which is both new and old, and very, very nasty. The possibility exists that they've been manipulated into a trap that was set up a long time before. That story arc (no title as yet) will feature the return of a villain who for my money was about the scariest and most formidable the X-Men ever faced, and who this time has brought reinforcements.
16. For me, your book seems very much like a Vertigo take on the X-Men.(I mean that in a good way!!) Will your stories have more of a dark nature to them?
There are certainly going to be dark elements, but I'm not thinking in terms of bringing a Vertigo sensibility to the book. My goals are more specific than that. There's a danger that when you start talking about "dark", people assume the worst - heroes who are so morally ambivalent and so ruthless that they become repellent; battles where everybody loses; carnage for the sake of carnage. I'm not interested, really, in taking the book in that direction. I'm not saying, by the way, that that's what Vertigo books are about either. It's just that word "dark" and the overtones it's accreted around itself ever since Miller's The Dark Knight Returns.
Yes, I want the book to have a scary edge. I want the threats the X-Men face to be genuinely disturbing and monstrous, and for the reader to feel that everything is at stake. I'm not interested, though, in the kind of coarsening of the fictional world that sometimes accompanies those goals. I'm not going to drag the X-Men themselves through the mud and make them behave in ways that destroy the dramatic illusion. They'll face some hard choices, and they'll go through terrible experiences, as you'd expect. But they won't suddenly turn out to have been bastards all along, if that makes any sense.
17. For readers still on the fence about X-Men, what would you say to them to entice them into giving it a try?
I'd say take a look at Chris's covers for #188 and #190. If you're not interested enough to pick up the issues after seeing those images, go read a funny animal book.
18. What else are you working on Mike?
For Marvel I'm doing Ultimate Fantastic Four, taking over when Mark MIllar's run finishes with #32. Pasqual Ferry is doing the art, and we're having the time of our lives. Cosmic warfare, casts of thousands, superpowers you never heard of, the works. I'm also writing an Ultimate Vision miniseries, which picks up where Ultimate Extinction ends. I've got one or two other projects in the pipeline, but that's enough to keep me busy and happy in the meantime.
At Vertigo I'm doing the Faker miniseries with Jock and a new monthly, debuting later this year, with Jim Fern. We think we've finally got a title we like for that one, but it's early days so I'm not going to say what it is.
I've got an OGN coming out under the Sandman Presents umbrella later this year or early in 2007, and another book with Sonny Liew and Marc Hempel probably hitting the stores a little while after that.
And I'm pitching a book that I'll be co-writing with my daughter, Louise. How cool is that?
19. Aside from your comics work you are also a novelist. Can you tell us a little about your novels?
They're supernatural crime thrillers set against the backdrop of the rising of the dead. The protagonist, Felix Castor, is an exorcist living in London at this time - our time, just after the turn of the new millennium. And the streets are filling up with revenants. You've got the dead who come back in the flesh, as zombies; in the spirit, as ghosts; in stolen flesh, as werewolves, and so on and so forth. So suddenly there's a great demand for exorcists, and Castor is one of the guys who steps up to the plate. He's not religious or anything, he just has this gift: he can perceive the dead and he can bind them. And he makes a living at it, kind of like a Raymond Chandler private detective, working for a set fee plus expenses.
The first novel, The Devil You Know, has Castor taking on a job at a London archive. There's a faceless female ghost in among the book stacks and she's scaring the staff, so he's brought in to bind and banish her. But he gets interested in the question of why she's there, if this isn't where she died - and things sort of snowball from there. At one point, someone raises a succubus - a sex-demon - to kill him, and this demon, Ajulutsikael, known as Juliet, becomes a main character in the book.
I'm writing the series for Orbit in the UK and Hachette in America. The first book is already out, and the second, Vicious Circle, follows in October. I'm halfway through the third book now and still going strong. I hope ultimately there'll be at least half a dozen of them, with a big revelation and resolution coming at the close of book six.
20. Thanks for taking the time to speak with us again Mike!
My pleasure.
Posted by YourMomsBasement at 08:05 AM
by Mike Collins
1. Mike Carey was kind enough to go into some detail on his thought process for your Super Novas arc on X-Men. Can you tell us a bit about how you approach not only working with a new writer, but on a different title with a different cast?
Usually, when working with a new writer, we touch base and I may ask him what he'd like to see from me and we go from there. MC's script are nice in that they are full scripts complete with dialogue and aren't so compacted that there isn't room for improvisation. When reading a script I often have snapshots of images that I'd like to expand upon and if there isn't sufficient room to do so it can be frustrating. I was rummaging through some books a few months ago and ran across Millers and Darrow's Hardboiled series. Amazing work. I really enjoy the covers with the figures and white BG's and i wanted to emulate that layout somewhere. I ended up using it by expanding on one of the early scenes in XMEN 188 by adding a double page spread featuring Rogue. And, I expanded upon that as I plan on using it as an element throughout the entire arc. MC has been terrific thus far regarding my liberal interpretations of his script. He says everything looks "brilliant", though I fear that one day I'll visit his study and there will be a pic of yours truly tacked on the dart board riddled with puncture marks. MC's work, having read through three scripts thus far, has been "brilliant". His handling of the characters is well thought out, the use of sub-plots well conceived and his dialogue precise. It's the best X-Material I've ever worked on and I'm having the time of my life.
2. Mike has spoken greatly of your concept design for this run, specifically your character designs. Where did your design ideas come from for the looks for the team as well as their adversaries The Children of the Vault?
Let me say that I'm super happy to have had the opportuntiy to re-imagine most of the characters on this title (Thanks MM!!. For me, there is nothing worse than working on a book with characters designed by someone else. When the time came to jump on X-MEN I was pleased to learn that I could modify the look of the line up. Mostly, the modifications were small things: I like Rogue's classic green and I added a cape to fit her new role in the book. Capes make a character a little more imposing--see Magneto, Batman and Superman--and she will be more "imposing" in Carey's book. I liked Dazzlers look in AOA. We're not using that any more, so I thought I'd take the essence of that costume and use the sexy nasty look for Lady Mastermind. Mystique, I like her classic garb with the white and Golden skulls. Sabertooth, I enjoyed the look I gave him in New X-Men so I ran with that and gave him a mountain man scheme, which I feel is more indicative of his feral nature. In regards to The Vault Kids, I read over MC's description of the characters and reacted. I always keep in mind the personality type of the character and what they'll be doing. Originally, Aguja was the "B" personality and Serafina the "A". Upon reading up on them I suggested that it may better if their personality traits were reversed. With costumes, If the character flies, its often best to keep they're tights simple. If they crash into things, perhaps armor is best. If they a swim, perhaps camoflauge blue and green are required. I also try and imagine what kind of person the character is and what they do: Serafina is a techy so I gave her kind of an underground, independent, insular, dark, spendsloadsoftimeinfrontofacomputerscreen gothic look. Aguja, the "A" type, is an intolerant blonde in green armor, a mini and fires sheer light daggers.
3. What can you tell us about Super Novas?
That a supernova is a stellar explosion that produces an extremely bright object made of plasma that declines to invisibility over weeks or months. There are several different types of supernovae and two possible routes to their formation. A massive star may cease to generate fusion energy from fusing the nuclei of atoms in its core and collapses inward under the force of its own gravity , or a white drawf star may accumulate material from a companion star until it reaches its Chandrasekhar limit and undergoes a thermonuclear explosion. In either case, the resulting supernova explosion expels much or all of the stellar material with great force.
That's my smart ass answer. Though it was better than what I do know which is virtually nothing. You'd have to ask the Mike's about that. I have a rough outline for about 12 issues, but i think its been modified a few times. What I do know is that the first six issue arc talks about the Children, who they are and how they were made. By whom I don't know. There are various subplots being sprinkled throughtout the arc so pay attention. It's good stuff.
4. I know Rogue is an all time favorite of yours. Are there any other characters you’re enjoying drawing for this run? Any that you wish Mike had left out?
I begged, well almost begged, the Mikes to make Rogue a more interesting character and they've made her A+. She's tough and decisive and the best part is that MC has given her a sense of humor. She cracks me up and she's really pissed at her mother. Mystique is going to be fun. She's kinda dark and unpredictable. In the beginning, the Mikes were debating on whether or not to bring Cable on board. I sort of cringed at the idea of having him in the book as I don't think he's very interesting and I don't have a good take on him. I'm still waiting to see how that works out as he joins the title in issue 190. Jury is out on Iceman. Cannonball is fun. Nice costume (Hah!), but he's still a work in progress for me. Same with Lady Mastermind and Karima Shapandor. MM liked the way I handled Karima in Uncanny and wanted to see more. She's the one character I've been chatting with MC about as she is very new and undefined. What's been a nice surprise is that Emma, Scott and Hank have been regulars in the book thus far. Emmas always fun. Last but not least, is ST. I'm having the most fun with him. He has a lot on his plate at the beginning of our arc and I'm having fun beating him up.
5. You’ve worked on several different versions of the X-Men. What is it about the characters that keeps you coming back?
I like that the X-Men exist more in a sci-fi world like Bladerunner, Mad Max and Star Wars than in a super hero world. I've never been a Superman super hero kind of guy. I collected Ghost Rider, Werewolf by Night and Deathlok as a kid. Mutants are a nice fit.
6. Aside from your regular penciling duties you also had a hand in designing the much talked about Iron Spider-Man costume. Can you talk about that process a bit?
Axel called me one day, shared with me what they were doing and asked if I wanted to take a crack at the redesign. As is my nature, I went in little darker direction than what the final JQ version looks like. I had Matt Wagners Grendel in mind: Sleek, dark, dangerous with very little color, big white eyes , Black Widow venom blasters and Doc Oc extra arms.
7. Do you enjoy taking a crack at re-designing other characters?
Not a whole lot. Its the very hard part of the job for me. Same with designing covers or designing anything for that matter. Its the part of the job where I earn my money. If designing was a road trip the first one hundred feet would start with the steepest hill imaginable, more like a cliff, with the rest of the journey being a gentle down grade for about twenty miles. Its that cliff where I blow my brains out and sometimes when I get to the top and the results aren't there and its back down the hill. Fuck! I go through this on every cover. Certain characters are easier than others. Rogue was easy enough as was Mystique but Cable is proving to be a dog. I'm kind of all over the map with Karima as well. If you look closely you can see her details changing from scene to scene and from cover to cover. I can't make up my mind with her. Notice, I've yet to show a head to toe shot of her. And its the details I'm talking about. The big pieces are fine, its the little ones that define the character and make him or her interesting that I'm stuck on. Thats why I keep dogging MC, because I'm looking for that detail to hang my hat on.
8. Continuing from your recent Uncanny run, the covers on X-Men are fantastic. How do you go about deciding what the cover image will actually be? Do you try to incorporate a story element or just work on an image that will stand out on the racks?
A little of everything. When designing the covers the idea is to sell what the book is about and attract as much attention as possible so those goals are always in the corner of my mind when putting together ideas. First thing is to get my hands on the script or plot. Hopefully, I have this a few days with it before getting started so that I can start thinking about what to do. If this goes well, I may have 2-5 ideas that I can put on paper, so when times up and I have to go up that cliff, I can find a quiet spot in my day and I put them down fairly quickly. Some are white bread ideas like the group shot on issue 191, others may be an idea pulled from the story like the covers to issues 190 and 192 and others may be character shots like Uncanny 466 with Rachel staring coldly in front of the hot and cracked earth X-Logo or Sabretooth in chains on the 189 cover. If the idea is good, it should be fairy simple and colored with a low range of colors. Issue 190 is a good example. Its simple, with minimal characters and a very low range of color. The subject matter is engaging and it'll stand out like a beacon on the shelves. Cover of the Month in Wizard 179!! I'll tell you, I thought it was the worst cover I'd ever drawn when I sent the pencils off to Tim. I was depressed for two days. Fortunately, it shined with inks and colors.
9. You will be working primarily with Tim Townsend and Jamie Mendoza on X-Men. Does having two inkers change the way you go about penciling the issue?
There may be a few adjustments I make but I more or less I pencil the work and let them apply their excellence. I do try and break up the pages in scenes so that they can have a good idea of what is going on.
10. Outside of penciling comics you’ve mentioned that you’ve done some design work for some big name companies like Oakley. What kind of work do you do outside of comics?
That varies from job to job. With Oakley, I did concept work for just about no reason. They asked me to draw girls in various costumes. I asked what they were going to be used for and they didn't know. I designed a small logo for the Around the World in Eighty days movie. I didn't have time for all the material they wanted me to do. I met the director Frank Coraci which was pretty neat. His new movie is Click with Adam Sandler The new X-men Gameboy just arrived in May. I did heads for that. I've been pretty much sticking to comics of late.
11. Is there anything else in the pipeline coming from you Chris?
I always have a few covers in the loop: More Withblade covers coming up this fall and an Iron and Maiden cover which is a new book from the creator of Crash Bandicoot. I just finished a Meltdown cover. I think I may be working on a Treasurey book with a group of ten artists lead by Erik Larsen. The deal is everyone gets eight pages to write and draw anything they want. I'm not sure what kind of fiction you'll get from ten artists but it should look good. The sexy is that it will be published treasurey size. That'll be a first for me. I say "I think" because I've yet to start and its due in August. I 've an idea and I just need to put it on paper. I have to finish my Hipflask book first. It's been five years on that one. Looks good, though Richard Starkings hair has slid from the top of his head to his chin during that time. I'm sure their is a big pic of me on a big dart board in his office....
Thanks for taking the time to talk to us again Chris!
Yep. Godspeed!
Posted by YourMomsBasement at 08:00 AM
by Mike Collins
YMB: How are you feeling now, having just published the third book of your trilogy?
Nick Sagan: Thanks for asking. Now on the other side of this trilogy, I've got such a sense of accomplishment. For years I played in other people's settings (Star Trek, Zork, etc.), which was great fun, but not the same as building a mythology of your own. Here I got to take on challenges I'd never tackled before, and somehow it all came together. Now I see my books on peoples' lists of favorites and it's such a rewarding feeling, I don't know if I can even describe it. A long way from when I first started writing Idlewild, amusing the heck out of me, but wondering if it was something others could tap into and enjoy.
Let's start with Idlewild. It's hard to describe it. Part virtual reality thriller, part end of the world, part teenage angst…where did the idea come from?
Well, going through my teenage years felt like the end of the world. In a way it is; the kid in you is dying and the adult is taking his place. Death as transformation, like the tarot card description of death. That's a big part of where the idea came from. I also remember moments in my childhood that felt surreal enough for me to question whether they were actually happening. Could there be another layer of reality that I'd yet to discover? The virtual reality aspect stems from that. Finally, I remember thinking about the overlap between the various cliques in high school and the areas of influence for a pantheon of gods. Where is the intersection between a jock and a god of war? A "brain" and a goddess of wisdom? The class clown and a god of mischief? The intersection between a goth and the god of death led to my main character, Halloween, and when I tapped into his point of view, suddenly I was off and writing.
It's a pretty hair raising idea. A bunch of genetically built teens, taught in a virtual environment who are going to try and beat a plague that wiped out humanity and then bring civilization back. Why not aim a little bigger?
Heh! Yeah, I should have destroyed the universe or something. Maybe in my next series. I guess I don't like to make it easy on myself. Writing is about challenges. And ending the world is a subject that's dear to my heart. Well, make that preventing the end of the world. We live in dangerous times, and science fiction lets us raise a red flag at all the potential disasters we see around the corner. Hopefully, someone listens.
There is quite a bit of carnage in Idlewild. Not only does humanity go extinct, but several of our unknowing saviors also meet their end. Did you know from the beginning who was going to survive?
Not really. I knew Halloween would survive, and I knew some of the people he cared about wouldn't. Beyond that, it was all up for grabs. Very easily I could have, let's say, killed Isaac back in Idlewild. I had a sense of who he was back then, but it wasn't anything like what he would become. I'm glad I didn't kill him. He has a critical role to play in Edenborn (his ethos leads to Haji, who might be my favorite character after Halloween), and he gets his own voice in Everfree. I often think that the unconscious is several steps ahead of the conscious mind. Maybe I knew where I was going with all my characters from the get go, and it just took my consciousness a little longer to recognize it (and claim credit for it.)
Where did Halloween come from? I really like the character arc he goes through across the trilogy. Hal seems to come so far from waking up with amnesia to searching for kangaroos down under.
Paralyzed in a pumpkin patch to chasing kangaroos. From rebel to authority figure, loner to family man, amnesiac to someone who knows himself, lost soul to more or less at peace with all he's been through. It's been a long, strange trip for Hal, and I'm happy you like his arc. Like most main characters, he's a distorted version of the author. When I create I tend to take aspects of myself that I like and aspects I don't like, then fuse them together and distort the mix into a new point of view. Hal's got my anger and my sense of humor. Also my cynicism, that first sense of betrayal you feel as a teenager when you discover the world isn't the idyllic place you'd been led to believe. As a kid, you get lied to a lot, and here Hal's been lied to about the world. There's a sense of existential horror that fits nicely with the depopulated earth. And upon surviving all the deception and artifice, you want to stay true to yourself and to what's real. That's a big part of who he is.
Idlewild ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. Did you know that you would be writing a trilogy?
Actually, I wrote Idlewild as a standalone, and while I wanted the option to continue it, I didn't know for certain that I would. My agent said, "So you have ideas where the story might go from here? Why don't you write up a proposal for it?" I did, and the next thing I knew: "We're selling it as a trilogy."
Moving on to Edenborn, the kids have grown up a bit. The idea of our world largely intact, though uninhabited is fascinating. Is this why you spread the cast out a bit?
It's a lonely world for lonely characters. I spread them out to show the ideological conflicts between them. Distances for the differences, so to speak. One group goes to Germany's technological center to look forward, while another goes to Egypt to tap into humanity's past. Meanwhile, Halloween stays in Michigan, isolated and embittered, until someone can bring him back.
The focus shifts a bit in your second novel as Pandora and Malachi take center stage. Did you plan to have Halloween remain in the background for most of the first half of the novel?
Yes, I wanted to open the story up and put us in the heads of the other characters. It started with Pandora; Halloween has been in love with Simone throughout the first book, and here's Pandora who's in love with Halloween. Let's make him (apparently) unattainable, just as Simone was. So the first part of the story becomes, "What will it take to get Hal back?" From a writer's standpoint, I was torn. I'm a fan of Hal's point of view, and always get something out of spending time with him. On the other hand, I have to keep challenging myself, and wanted to find brand new perspectives. That's what led to Haji, Penny, Deuce, Pandora and Malachi.
Edenborn deals with some equally difficult issues. Had you figured that your trilogy was going to have more tough moments?
I like tragedies. I like consequences. I like watching characters go through crucibles, so they can evolve from innocence to experience, caterpillar to moth, child to adult. A few months ago, I discovered a message board where readers were talking about their favorite authors. Someone recommended me, and another said I was a great writer but something of a sadistic bastard to my characters. To me, that's a huge compliment. There are so many books and movies where you just know that everything is going to work out by the end, and so you never really worry about the characters. It only has the power to touch you so far. The stories I like are the ones where I really don't know how things will resolve, so I wind up truly caring about the characters. Now happy endings can be great, and I think there's something beautiful about bringing characters up to heaven after putting them through hell. But it's not the only way to go. I'm thrilled that people can read my books and not know what they're getting at the end: it could be dark, happy or bittersweet.
In Everfree humanity has slowly started to come back thanks to the efforts of Halloween and company. But things don't stay great for long. Do you think humanity perpetually looks to shoot itself in the foot?
We've elevated foot shooting to an art form. The foot, the kneecap, the groin. Maybe shooting is too strong; let's just say that humanity is destined to continually kick itself in the nuts. That's just the nature of who we are, short sighted thinking, unintended consequences, millions of years of fight-or-flight evolutionary instinct up against just thousands of years of culture. We are very likely effed. But it doesn't have to be that way. We're also a resourceful, compassionate, forward-thinking species with a powerful drive for survival, and the ability to make this world a wonderland. Which will triumph over the other? We seem driven to form groups (social, racial, cultural, national, etc.) with which to persecute those not in the group that we happen to be in. Factor in technological advances in weaponry that makes it easier and easier to kill large numbers of people, and it appears that we're in for a very bumpy ride.
Are there any plans to visit with these characters somewhere down the road?
Halloween will always have a special place in my heart. I'm sure I'll write another entry in this series eventually. But I have other stories I want to tell, and I have so many characters clamoring for attention in my head, that the trilogy characters are going to have to wait their turn.
You've also worked as a screenplay writer. What are the big differences with that and writing a novel?
I enjoy both formats and I don't think one's better than the other. For differences, mostly it's a conflict between freedom and reach.
Freedom: There's much more freedom in novels. You don't have three act structure to worry about, and you don't have to worry about how expensive what you're writing will be to film. Movies take millions of dollars to produce, and because they're so expensive, producers and studio execs often tend to be conservative, unlikely to devote vast sums of money to a project unless it feels like other projects. That's why so many movies look the same, and why it's so great to see one that breaks out of the mold in a fun and interesting way. By contrast, books can take more chances. All you have to do is tell a good story.
Reach: Hollywood has better reach. If a million people buy your book, that's a huge best seller, but if a million people watch a TV show, those are disappointing numbers and the show might get cancelled. So you can reach more people in Hollywood, but it may be harder to tell the story you want to tell with the kind of depth you want to give it. On the other hand, that massive Hollywood reach depends on whether or not your work gets produced. You can spend years in that town making a very nice living on projects that get stuck in development hell, never seeing the light of day.
I think I'm happiest splitting my time between the two. It's fun to come up with ideas and then try to figure out whether they're better suited for books, movies, TV shows, videogames, etc.
What can fans expect to see next from you, Nick?
Many projects in the works: I have an idea for a fairly twisted novel that I'm piecing together; I'm working on a new script that's lighter in tone than anything I've written before; I'm also working up a graphic novel pitch; a videogame development company is looking for financing for a story of mine; I'm contributing to a non-fiction book about future technologies. Oh, and my first published short story is now available from Subterranean Press. It's their issue #4 about tweaking science fiction clichés. Had a lot of fun with it, and I hope you check it out.
Thanks for taking some time to talk to us!
It's been a pleasure. And if your readers have questions of their own, they can reach me through my contact page, my MySpace page or my blog. Love to hear from everyone.
Discuss this article in our forum.
Posted by YourMomsBasement at 08:00 AM
HeroesCon edition. The shocking secrets I found out at HeroesCon might be impossible for human minds to comprehend.
TRUTHINESS METER
Definitely true. 
Maybe not so true. 
Mostly lies. 
DEAL REPORT:
Exciting news of pros signing big exclusive contracts is trickling out of this past weekend's HeroesCon!
In a shocking move, Internet poster "BENDIS!" has been stolen away from his own messageboard and will be calling Millarworld home once his contract kicks in later this year.
ManofTheAtom has signed an three year exclusive contract with silverbulletcomicbooks.com.
Mike O'Brien has signed a big money deal with CBR which will see him leaving byrnerobotics.com for comicbookresources.com when his Byrne contract expires at the end of 2006.
And, in a deal reportedly worth millions, D.C. Comics have convinced T.M. Maple to come out of retirement and begin posting at the DC Universe message boards.
ARTISTS SWIPING I?
The artists get more brazen, thinking we won't notice their obvious swipes. This one was sent to us by Margaret Z. from Armour, South Dakota.
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BABBLE ON!
JMS noted in his panel at HeroesCon that he will be re-establishing a major Marvel character in November. He also slyly hinted that character had a connection to an 80s music act.
The act?
None other than Wang Chung.
The character?
You guessed it, Captain Marvel.
(If the connection's not readily apparent, just think about it a little bit. You'll get it.)
WHO MONITORS THE MONITORS?
The surprise appearance of not one, but five Monitors in last week's publication of DC Comic's Brave New World has sent comic fandom into a tizzy. These new "watchers" of the DC Universe will play a pivotal role in an upcoming DC mega-cross-over-collector's-classic-event.
DC will introduce a new character called Cosmosus. Cosmosus is an "ingestor of planets. A giant, helmeted, cosmic threat, the likes of which comic-dom has never seen before."
The coming of Cosmosus will be preceded by the arrival of his harbinger, a newly redesigned Waverider who will ride a kind of "space boogie board" according to an insider at DC Comics.
Will the Monitors warn the DCU in time?
And what is the Maximum Negator?
Stay tuned comic fans!
SUPES
After his run on the new Atom book finishes, DC is looking for John Byrne to re-tell the story of Superman's first year in Metropolis from a "hip, urban" perspective.
Tentatively titled "Supes", the book will deal with a more hip-hop Clark Kent who wears a visor and sunglasses to disguise his secret identity.
ARTISTS SWIPING II?
This swipe was sent to us by Smurfbamfer492 from Utica, New York.
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QUESADADILLAS
Marvel announced at HeroesCon their plans to make a big return to the world of licensed comics in 2007.
Their first acquisition? None other than cult-hit "Napoleon Dynamite". Look for the character to move to the Big Apple for an internship at the Marvel Universe's comics publisher, Marvels Comics. In the first arc Napoleon will meet Dr. Strange ("You know, like necromancer skills, dimensional portal skills, time travel skills... Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills."), Spider-Man ("Your new costume... it looks pretty sweet. It looks awesome. That suit, with the three spider-legs, it's... it's incredible."), and rooster-inspired Marvel villain Gamecock ("Does Gamecock have large talons?")
BATBOY
And lastly, as part of the ongoing campaign to get Batman away from the "Bat-jerk" persona he'd developed over the last few years before Infinite Crisis, DC will launch a more kid-friendly Batman title.
In a "Year One like" tale, we will find out that Bruce Wayne actually first donned the cape and cowl while a young boy attending Gotham Prep School. Fighting bullies and unfair teachers, this six year old "Batboy" will also tussle with the crayon-eating Harvey Dent and the resident class clown, lil' Jackie Napier.
Read the previous Comics Outsider.
Discuss this article in our forum.
Posted by YourMomsBasement at 12:00 PM
by Ed Conley
At last weekend's HeroesCon in Charlotte, North Carolina, fans got a much closer experience with their favorite creators than they might get at other cons. J. Michael Straczynski's marathon panel was no different. Answering questions over two hours, fans got an intimate look at his writing process, his battles, and his career.
Attendance was pretty much split evenly between Babylon 5 fans and Spider-Man fans. The B5 fans got to find out that Warner Bros. has approached Straczynski about doing more live-action B5. It will be something smaller than a film and may start up in August. It will not deal with B5's Telepath War. He also just sold a movie to Ron Howard that could be in production by January. Sam Raimi is interested in a Rising Stars TV series. And he has another deal that he cannot discuss until the San Diego Comic-Con.
Mr. Straczynski had just returned from a Marvel retreat where they planned out the next year. Ominously, he told the crowd that "terrible things" are coming for poor, put-upon, Peter Parker. He also has a new book from Marvel in November. Which re-establishes a major "mis-handled" character.
He also jokingly mentioned how he wanted to "kick the crap" out of fellow comic scribe and Marvel Civil War architect Mark Millar for not knowing who won the American Civil War.
After it was decided to do the Spider-Man unmasking in Civil War #2 and not the main Spider-Man book, he focused on just telling the story so that the unmasking would happen in the best way possible. The winning argument that decided where the unmasking would take place, the infamous "Super Girl and Flash didn't die in their own titles, they died in Crisis on Infinite Earths", turned out to be specious, as Straczynski realized later that neither character actually had their own title at the time. He decided to write everything that led up to the moment, let them have that one page, then continue right after that. As he views Civil War as all action, in Amazing Spider-Man he wanted to cover the personal and political consequences of Peter's decision. For example, The Daily Bugle can now sue Peter for fraud over the photos he sold them.
As a comic writer, Straczynski tries to find the edges. He believes that if you don't fail sometimes, you're not doing it right. Taking a character to the point of no return and either pulling them back or pushing them over is one of his jobs as a writer. In line with that writing on the edge, he addressed the controversial Sins Remembered storyline, where we found out Gwen Stacy once had children by way of Norman Osborn. The point of Sins Remembered, Straczynski said, was to give Gwen Stacy a spine. She made a mistake, had to confront the mistake, and tell Norman she was going to marry Peter and raise the kids.
He doesn't mind that fans get upset. Joe Quesada once told him people always hate the current Spider-writer. The reason being people identify so strongly with Peter, that they take it personally. And if the writer doesn't "get" Peter in their mind, then the writer doesn't "get" the reader. He said another controversial storyline, The Other, suffered from too many editorial fingerprints. That and each author went off and wrote what they wanted and not what necessarily needed to be written to keep the overall story coherent. The upcoming Ultimate universe/Supreme Power crossover he is involved in is much more tightly plotted.
Straczynski likes writing Peter and MJ as a married couple and feels May, Peter, and MJ form a strong pyramid. But, if told to turn MJ into a cockroach for a year, he'd find a way to write it. He said Joe Quesada has proposed something cool to handle the Spider-Marriage. He also wants to address Spider-Man's supporting cast more now. Particularly in reference to the unmasking. And he intends to use more of the "classic" rogues gallery.
By end of year, Straczynski says they hope to bring Spider-Man "back" to more what Lee, Kirby, and Ditko intended.
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