Interviews

3…2…1…Marvel, We Have Lift-off!!!

By Matt Adler
February 26, 2006 - 18:21

Easy Cats :)

Who’d of thought that way back when Stan & Jack created the Fantastic Four, that it would have spawned such a plethora of cosmic goodness.

In a Universe with over 5,000 characters though, it’s easy for some to slip out of readers mindsets from time to time. So sometimes you have to re-shine that light. Well in March, that light is being turned to the skies and beyond, in a BIG way!!!

Extinction Event!

Matt Adler: Hi Andy

I really want to thank you for taking the time to do this interview, and also Kevin for giving me the opportunity, as he knows I'm a big fan of what you've been doing at Marvel.

Andy Schmidt: No problem. Thanks for the opportunity.

M.A: I'd like to set the table a bit before we get to the main course, so tell me... how did you first become interested in Marvel's cosmic side? Did you read any cosmic stories as you were growing up, or did you stumble upon them later on?

A.S: Sure, I read a bunch of stuff when I was growing up. Mainly SILVER SURFER and INFINITY GAUNTLET. But I was a FANTASTIC FOUR fan as well. I always liked science fiction. And that's what interests me about these characters now. Not so much that they're super heroes but that they're science fiction heroes that aren't always--though sometimes they are--bound by the super hero codes.

M.A: Now, to the meat and potatoes; what is Annihilation?

AS: It's a 6 issue limited series. ANNIHILATION #1 starts in August and if you want, you can just start there. HOWEVER, there's so much more! In March, ANNIHILATION: PROLOGUE hits the stands and that kicks off a bunch of great Marvel space stories. From the PROLOGUE issue, we set up four limited series that run from April to July (see that, they just lead right up to ANNIHILATION--isn't it beautiful!)

***image22***The four limited series are SILVER SURFER, SUPER-SKRULL, NOVA, and RONAN (the Accuser, to some). They are all stories that can be read and enjoyed on their own or read together to paint a really big picture for you.

M.A: How did you decide on the characters headlining this event?

AS: That was pretty simple. Once we knew the primary motivations surrounding the catalyst for all this, the characters fell into place. I originally wanted to do one Kree book, one Skrull book and one Shi'ar book. But, that just didn't work for the story. Nova became central and Ronan took on a life of his own. Super-Skrull is just such a great character, that he had to stay. Silver Surfer was actually the last piece to fall into place. But, man, I'm glad he did--not only is he the most popular of the individual characters, he's extremely important to what's going on.

Super-Skrull's roll is also very important. One of the writers on Lost for ABC is writing SUPER-SKRULL and he's just fantastic. Javier Grillo-Marxuach is his name (check out Middle Man by him if you haven't read it already). Simon Furman is doing some fantastic stuff with RONAN that's not only making Ronan a great character, but also setting up events that are going to get played out over a year down the line!

M.A: One thing I've always wondered about... all three of those species, the major alien species of the Marvel Universe, are essentially humanoid. Two arms, two legs, etc. It's a big universe out there, so why don't we see more biodiversity? Will Annihilation address this?

AS: You know what, I'm glad you asked! If you want to see some non-humanoid bad ass aliens, please check out MS. MARVEL #1-3! That's right, Ms. Marvel is back in an all new ongoing series and she's up against some really bad non-humanoid alien nastiness! On sale this March!

Okay, enough of that. The answer is, not directly, but other alien types will be seen. But no, I didn't make a point of trying to change what's already been established or try to link all these races together. That's a little too confining for my tastes.

M.A: On the subject of Skrulls... we saw Paibok in the Drax mini, now Super-Skrull is getting his time in the sun... what's going on with Lyja these days? You remember... Johnny Storm's ex.


AS: Yeah, well, funny thing there. Skrull law dictates that there's no such thing as a divorce, but, you know, they were married on Earth. So, she's still tied up in inter-planetary legal disputes and will be for the foreseeable future.

M.A: In earlier interview here at the Bin, you mentioned that the inception of this was really about 2 years back, when you pitched an epic that would have taken place over two years and three ongoing titles. Back in 2004, three Marvel cosmic series (Thanos, Captain Marvel, and Silver Surfer) all ended within a few months of each other. So, what was the evolution from there to here? Was there something about those series that The Powers That Be felt wasn't working, and that you were able to address with this new format?

AS: That's a tough thing to answer for a couple of reasons. First of all, a lot of those things weren't related to each other and some of them were. The other problem is that I'm not sure what went on in other people's minds. My take on it is this: I was editing CAPTAIN MARVEL and I was assisting on both THANOS and SILVER SURFER. What wasn't really working was that each of those three series were completely different in style and tone from each other. They didn't feel cohesive.



So my original idea was pitched to bring about a consistent vision on the space characters. If you remember, at the same time, another editor was getting a different, entirely unrelated and different WARLOCK book up and running as well. And there was a STARJAMMERS series too. So, I think the whole "space-line" just didn't have a real centre to it.

So, yeah, my original idea was to let the books that existed go and start fresh on some new ones. Keith Giffen and I came up with most of the ideas for the core concepts and I had the books I wanted to do and he had one he wanted to do too. That project would have been cool and I still hope to do parts of it if I can.

As for the format, it grew naturally out of what I wanted to do. There was a lot of, "Who's Ronan?" and "Isn't Nova the guy with a bucket on his head?" I don't think anyone really saw what I saw in the characters. It wasn't until I pitched DRAX THE DESTROYER that I think people at Marvel began to take me kind of seriously. When Keith Giffen and I approached the character, we did some totally new stuff with him, and Joe Q liked it. Tom Brevoort was a huge help--he's my boss and the finest editor out there today. Hi, Tom.

Once Joe and others started to see what I was doing with DRAX, they let me pitch the cosmic stuff again. Only this time, enough of the characters had shifted that my original idea wouldn't really work anymore. Parts of what I pitched can be seen in other books now. They were good ideas and so they got used elsewhere, which is very flattering.

Anyway, that all caused me to approach Keith Giffen again about a new story to revitalize and galvanize the space-heroes. It's also worth noting that Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning independently had pitched a NOVA series to me. I really liked some of the central stuff they had going and so they were in the loop very early on as well. So, I pitched a new thing. And part of it was that we needed to reintroduce a lot of these characters to the readers. And that's why we came up with the four limited series that give really good character driven stories. When it all comes together in ANNIHILATION, you're already primed to care about these characters and what they're doing.

M.A: In what way, if any, does Annihilation follow on from Keith Giffen's Drax miniseries? I've heard Cammi may show up? I quite like her, and I think patterning her after "Mandy" (from "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy") was really brilliant.

AS: DRAX was a self contained limited series. If you read it, you get the whole story. Both Drax and Cammi are alive at the end of it (sorry if I just spoiled that for anyone--now go buy the series!) and they do appear in ANNIHILATION PROLOGUE. But no, DRAX THE DESTROYER doesn't set up ANNIHILATION at all.

Glad you liked Cammi. She was all Keith and Mitch Breitweiser (Damn, he's a great artist. Check DRAX out. His work is stunning!).

M.A: The selection of creators on the various miniseries is eclectic, including some names people may not have heard of before. Was that a conscious effort to "think outside the box" and maybe show people something they hadn't seen before?

AS: Yes and no. Obviously, if Mark Millar had the time, I think he'd write a great Silver Surfer story. For that matter, Warren Ellis and Alan Moore would really rock out on something like this. But, I didn't ask them as I felt like they're work was getting a lot of exposure and I wanted this to feel unique from top to bottom. I needed a group of great writers, with different styles, who would really feed off of each other. Don't get me wrong, I'm working with Mark and Warren on other projects (you'd better be looking forward to CIVIL WAR and you better be reading IRON MAN and NEXT WAVE) and I love their work and they're great working with others, but they're also swamped with work.

So I approached Keith, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning first. I'd been working with Keith already and Dan and Andy had pitched me on a NOVA series, like I said. I went to Simon Furman because I really liked his off-beat science fiction tales from the original DEATH'S HEAD, which he created with Bryan Hitch. Lost is about the best drama on TV, so I asked Javier to come on board after watching a few of his episodes and feeling the tension in them. He's been great!

Part of this whole thing is to build books that mesh with each other but also have their own voices. If they all read exactly the same, then they're not unique, and than brings them all down. I expect you'll see a lot of people love one or two books, but be lukewarm on the others. But not everyone will agree on which two or three are the best. It'll be cool. You'll see.

M.A: Keith Giffen's been doing a lot of great work for Marvel... you're going to lock him up before the Distinguished Competition does, right?

AS: Before the who?

M.A: You know, the... oh, never mind. Anyway, how did you approach the creators? Did they have to show you an idea you liked before you handed them their assignment, or were these people you just trusted enough to say "I know you'll do good, just do what you do"?

AS: There was a bit of try-out. I let everyone in on the overall plan and said something to the effect of, "Okay, so you know where the character starts where the overall story is headed. The only rule I have is that you don't give me a story I've read before. Now go!" I'm not interested in re-telling anyone's origin or rehashing old storylines. I want fresh approaches to these characters and new stories that we can build on for years to come.

Not surprisingly, all the writers turned in some really stellar stuff. I was happy that I didn't have to go to anyone outside of my first choices. A lot of the outlines changed drastically from what they pitched, but my confidence in these guys was sealed from that point on.

M.A: For the overarching story, did you draw on any inspiration from other media, like classic movies, TV shows, or perhaps novels?

AS: Inspiration, yes. Story elements, no. That is to say, great drama is great drama. Be it on TV, film, radio, or in novels or comics. So, yes, of course I drew inspiration--as did all the writers and artists--but we didn't "borrow" story ideas from anything. This project can't be summed up with a tag line like, "It's Die Hard in space." We aspire to be better than that.

M.A: This series revolves around a war, as have many of Marvel's classic cosmic epics, such as the Kree/Skrull War and Operation Galactic Storm. Does this draw inspiration from any of those stories, or do you figure readers just like reading about big galactic conflicts? And what is it about Annihilation that will shake up what readers have come to expect from such stories?



AS: My inspiration comes more from Star Wars and World War II. But that's just me. I'm working with five other writers and 5 artists on all these things and their inspirations may be very different. War is a part of these things because historically (in reality and in comics) wars are big and important. They're interesting. At the heart of every drama is conflict and that's what war is.

That being said, I don't think I ever said that this whole thing was about a war. I'd be lying if I said these are all war stories. I'd be lying if I said war wasn't a component of it too. The thing is, we've got 5 limited series here. And they'd all be boring if they were the same thing. If they were all, Nova gets swept up in a war--can he survive? Ronan gets swept up in a war--can he survive? Super-Skrull, Silver Surfer, etc. Right?

So, while war is a component, the stories are about the characters more than the war. I think that's important. That's whey we care about Star Wars and why we care about The Iliad. It's not the war, it's the people in them. We want to know if Darth Vader is Luke's father more than we want to know if the Empire will fall. We want to know if Achilles will kill Hector--but we don't want Hector to die because he's a great man. Achilles and Hector are far more interesting than the city of Troy.

M.A: What kind of research did you and the writers have to do for the event?

AS: A lot. And when we were done with that, we did a lot more. Wherever possible, we're drawing on established characters and alien races. But we're doing so just so that if you know who the Aakons are, you'll get the nod. You don't have to know any of this stuff going in--Lord knows I didn't know it all.

And truth be told, we're all still learning it. Marvel has a very rich history in the cosmic and space stuff. There's volumes to take in. But at least we're having fun with it!

M.A: How nitty-gritty have you gotten in trying to get the science right in these stories? Or are you more aiming for pure fantasy, with the details not being too important?

AS: Dude, the Infinity Gems and Galactus blew up any sense of real science that existed in the Marvel Universe a long time ago. That being said, our vision will be consistent within itself. The effort has been placed on making sure that we play fair with the readers. There is no quick appearance from the Lords of Order and Chaos that rescues someone in a battle. Nope, if they're in a battle, they've got to get themselves out of it!

M.A: You've been very secretive about who exactly is behind the Annihilation Wave... might it be someone or something readers would recognize?

AS: It might be.

M.A: The promotion indicates there will be deaths of some recognizable characters... obviously this can work from a dramatic standpoint, but with so many deaths in recent years, do you worry the dramatic effect of death could wear thin? And isn't there a drawback to taking characters off the table for future story development?

AS: So many deaths recently? All I've seen lately are resurrections. The only dead people left at Marvel are Gwen Stacy and Uncle Ben. Heck, even Bucky's back from the grave! I'm not looking to kill characters for shock value. If someone dies, it'll mean something.

Do character deaths mean that there won't be stories to build on? Heck no. Look at reality. Everyone dies, but the world keeps on going and keeps on being interesting. New characters come along and new situations arise. It's all part of an ongoing mythology. It's really very inspiring to me.

***image24***M.A: I'm a huge Quasar fan... will I be heartbroken by this event?

AS: I get asked that more than anything else. He doesn't have a limited series in this. Nether does Captain Marvel, Moondragon, Drax, Thanos, Adam Warlock, Beta Ray Bill, or Starlord. This doesn't mean I'm killing them all. Have some faith, folks!

M.A: How does this tie-in with Joe Straczynski's forthcoming Silver Surfer series? Has JMS consulted on this event?

AS: JMS has been in the loop on everything that we're doing. This all takes place before Joe's story. He's been great about all of this and has been extremely helpful. It's probably worth mentioning that Brian Michael Bendis, Allan Heinberg, Ed Brubaker, and Mark Millar have all been extremely supportive and helpful in their own ways. Thank you very much, guys. You've all been terrific.

M.A: Will Stan and Jack's original cosmic foursome play any role in Annihilation?

AS: Yep.

M.A: Obviously you can't give too much away, but do you have plans for how the events of Annihilation could come home to Earth? We know the biggest event upcoming is Marvel's Civil War, so will this tie-in in any way? And there've been various rumblings about other cosmic goings-on around the Marvel Universe, including a new Captain Marvel, a Kree/Skrull War 2, and the X-Men possibly having a confrontation with the Shi'ar... does Annihilation lead into any of that?

***image21***AS: Glad you asked this too. I want ANNIHILATION to be the biggest thing ever. And tying into any and/or all of these events would only boost the sales of ANNIHILATION. BUT. But...that would also be extremely unfair to the readers. Was I given the opportunity to tie-in? Absolutely. Did I take them? Not a one.

The Marvel Universe is a big place. A lot is going on. It all relates to each other in some form or another. Kree Skrull War 2 takes place in YOUNG AVENGERS. It's awesome. Do I pick up on anything from it? Yep. But we don't tie-in. This is true of everything above that you mentioned that's real.

It just didn't seem right to do that to any of the readers. If you're coming on board for ANNIHILATION, god bless you and your family and thank you. I won't ask you to buy 20 other books because you showed interest in our story.



M.A: My understanding is that Genis-Vell will likely not be involved in this event. You edited his book for a time, and were instrumental in getting him placed in New Thunderbolts. Any particular reason why he didn't fit here?

AS: Actually, yeah. He's in NEW THUNDERBOLTS. Can't be in two places at once, now can he? Nope, not even Genis.

Seriously, how uncool of me would it have been to hand him over to Fabian for T-BOLTS only to yank him away later on? Very uncool. I love Genis, but I just love Fab too and that would be, well, rude.

M.A: Ron Lim too is quite associated with Marvel's cosmic stories, and I think he did an excellent job on Keith Giffen's Thanos run. Might we see him dip his toe back in as well?

AS: I loved working with Ron on THANOS. But, unfortunately, as with Jim (Starlin), it's important that we strive to do something that's new both in story and visual style. Ron and Jim are both great creators in their own right. But this just isn't their story. They've both been very gracious and I hope to work with them on future projects outside of the cosmic stuff.

I'd love to see Jim do a Wolverine story, for example. Or Ron do a comedy book. They're both too good to not be doing anything at Marvel.

M.A: Lastly, Keith's partner Marc DeMatteis is one of my favourite writers... anything more planned with him?

AS: There's a possibility for more DEFENDERS. Anyone want to see that?

M.A: Anything else you'd like to add?

AS: Wow, 24 questions and you didn't ask anything about the artists. I would like to note that we've got some of the best artists working in comics on these books. If you haven't seen Gabriele (SECRET WAR) Dell'Otto's amazing painted covers, you've got to be blind. They're absolutely stunning!

Scott Kolins and Ariel Olivetti are doing their finest work to date on ANNIHILATION: PROLOGUE. You've not seen anything like this before.

***image23***Kev Walker is blowing me away on NOVA. And I've never seen anyone portray a more sinister and action-packed Super-Skrull than Greg Titus--totally kinetic! Renato Arlem is churning out something totally new to the cosmic scene on SILVER SURFER and Jorge Lucas has really invoked Moebius' spirit (yeah, I know he's not dead) for RONAN. It's Jorge's best work to date--hands down. I'm not allowed to say yet, but the artist doing ANNIHILATION #1-6 is no stranger to big casts or cataclysmic cosmic battles.

Lastly, thanks, Matt, for giving me the opportunity to promote our little projects going on here. I hope you get a million hits off posting this interview. Thanks also go out to everyone reading this. I hope you like what you read and give our little books a try. We aim to please!

Seriously, thanks very much to every single fan. I love my job and you guys and gals have made my dream come true.

M.A: Well, I figured the art spoke volumes for itself, but you're right, these guys are great and do deserve recognition!

I'm really looking forward to Annihilation, and I'm sure I'm not alone.

Thanks Andy!



Cosmic Links

Power Extreme (Profile on Quasar)

DRAX: THE DESTROYER #1- 4 (Mini series review)

DECONSTRUCTING MARVEL
(Drax interview and info on Annihilation)

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12