Q: Why does John Walker think, that given his understanding that the directive came from the Red Skull, he has any right to the name Captain America?
A: This is a truly excellent question. I'm going to answer this in two ways. The first answer is the "real world" answer.
John Walker thinks he has a right to the name Captain America because Marvel wanted Walker in the Cap suit. They hired Chuck Austen to chronicle that first glimpse of the "New Cap" in the "Once An Invader" storyline that Chuck wrote for THE AVENGERS. As far as I have been able to ascertain, Marvel remains happy with the explanations revealed in that storyline. Basically it's like this: 9/11 happened, and the world was in a "Go get 'em Joe" furor, and Marvel wanted a Captain America who reflected that attitude.
I've tried at various points during the series, to explain the whys of Walker's claim to the Captain America mantle, but each time my explanation was edited from the script. Usually, it was an editorial decision to focus more directly on a particular issue's plot. In the end it came down to the fact that I seemed to be the only one who felt the situation still needed to be explained.
The situation will be discussed briefly in Issue #9. Captain America and Walker have a chat that at least partially addresses the legal-issue of Walker-As-Cap, and some of Walker's motivations for wearing the suit.
This is the "world of the story" answer.
After the Issue is published, I'd be happy to discuss this subject at length!
Q: The original Invaders were brought together by Churchill to fight the Axis powers - a very clear mandate, and a relatively black-and-white issue. The New Invaders' mandate is a little less clear, as is the authority from which it derives; who sanctions the New Invaders, and what is their mandate?
A: Actually, the New Invaders' mission is pretty simple. It might be so simple you might've simply overlooked it.
"Beyond Borders, behind enemy lines they hunt the hidden terrors that threaten civilization." That's really it. That's the whole enchilada.
The first arc is what it's all about. The New Invaders are just a bunch of guys with an extremely powerful weapon. They're like privateers---they ally themselves with certain governments, and receive government assistance - but this is really just the story a band of pirates who go around making trouble because they've got a big stick and they aren't afraid to use it.
I've seen speculation that this series is a metaphor for the "Bushian" world we now inhabit. Mmm. Sometimes, but it's more just a story about the complications that arise when good people with seemingly noble intentions are forced to confront their own moral limitations.
We've been told by the Thin Man that the Invaders' actions in Mazikhandar were sanctioned by the United States, Great Britain, and the Atlantean throne. The first arc of the NEW INVADERS series reveals that Thin Man was hired by United States Secretary off Defense Dell Rusk to create a task force designed to combat a Terrorist group composed of old Invaders' villains.
Dell Rusk was the Red Skull in disguise. Thin Man was being duped into developing a weapon for his enemies. Dell Rusk was exposed, and Thin Man continued the operation. Thin Man has created a powerful Battleship called Infiltrator---but he's still the only one capable of using the ship's fantastic technology.
He has formed uneasy alliances with several world powers by offering to use his ship to fight for them. Like I mentioned earlier---the New Invaders is really just a modern take on Privateering.
Q: How public in the MU is the USA backing of the New Invaders task force, and who else is known to be supportive (aside from the obvious - because of Namor and Union Jack - support from the UK and Atlantis) of them?
Well---this is strictly non-canonical, right? I mean, if it isn't in a printed book, what I say doesn't really count, does it?
During my run, STARS was intended to be directly involved with the Invaders. If you reread Issue 6, USAgent was very publicly involved. He even gets credited as "U.S. Spokesman", if I recall...
Issue 8 reveals a bit more about who actually works with the Invaders and who doesn't. I'd rather not answer prematurely.
Q: Any plans for Latveria? The Atlantique terrorist group? AIM? Secret Empire?
Yes.
Don't know what that is.
Yes.
No.
In that order.
Q: How tightly do you follow the continuity of the rest of the titles which might affect yours (like the two Captain America titles, the New Avengers, etc)? Does it significantly affect what you do?
A: I have absolutely NO knowledge of what is being done elsewhere unless I go buy me some Marvel Comics. Editorial is not exactly forthcoming with their plans. Maybe that's just with me. I have no idea what it's like for anybody else.
For example: John Walker as Neo-Captain America came as part and parcel of the assignment. I wanted to make him "Patriot" so he would be distinct. Marvel didn't like that. Then, I was horrified to find out that there was ANOTHER Neo-Captain America appearing in Captain America and the Falcon. And now I see "Patriot" is being used in Young Avengers. ANOTHER Neo-Cap!
I conceived the series around a struggle with the Red Skull---since Chuck Austen had already established the Red Skull connection in his "Once An Invader" storyline. I plotted a twelve-issue arc around the Red Skull's machinations, and then, months later when I turned in my script for the first issue I was told I couldn't use the Red Skull. He was a "Captain America villain, not an Invaders villain", and that it "didn't seem fair" to tell the writer of Captain America not to use the character.
Mind you, that was the same conversation where I was told that I wouldn't be allowed to use the Red Skull as my central villain. There was a lot of on-again off-again about me using Sub-Mariner, so I kept downplaying him because I thought he was going to get taken away.
Q: Much has been written in myriad places about John Walker acting out of character; how do you respond (I know you've answered that - at least to my satisfaction - but most of the people who visit the SSS don't necessarily do the boards)?
A: Here's something I've said before:
"John Walker has been portrayed in many different ways since his inception as the Super-Patriot, but I think he DOES have a consistent role in the Marvel Universe. What he doesn't have is a consistent personality."
I think it happens quite often with "second-string" characters. Especially semi-popular ones like Walker. Almost everyone knows who he is on the surface. He's actually quite recognizable as "that over-zealous guy who tried to replace Cap". He's been handled by a variety of different writers often for very short periods of time. He's very much like the Sub-Mariner in that way.
Walker is a bad guy, at least in terms of how he's most often cast. He's the antithesis. The antagonist. The contrarian. The foil. I think his portray is often crafted in order to better represent the forces he is opposing. Walker may be a hero, but his primary role in most stories is to rub people the wrong way.
I love writing Walker, and I've tried to be true to the character to the best of my understanding. To be honest, I would still prefer we could have just used him as USAgent instead of dressing him in Captain America's clothes. If we were supposed to have Captain America, then I think we should have just been able to use Captain America.
I still write Walker as USAgent. I'm also trying to do service to Marvel's desire to have Walker insist that he's Captain America.
Within the confines of what my employer has asked me to write - and that's the publisher's prerogative - I've always done my best to keep Walker "in character".
Chuck Austen and I are actually close friends, and he's very publicly and very frequently stressed his interest in story over continuity. This extends to characterization as well. Chuck uses his characters very deftly as symbols, to serve particular story function, but he has never been interested in slavish attention to past-continuity.
It's easy for me, as a reader, to see where Chuck's characterization of Walker was somewhat of a departure for Walker's character - but story-wise it served a function, and assumed character growth that had occurred "between stories". As a writer, I enjoyed working with Chuck's version of Walker, and doing my part to understand that character's behavior.
I've always thought of my story as being just another link in the chain. I'd be interested to see specific occurrence where I was off-character with Walker - not so much to argue my point of view, but because I'm genuinely curious to see where my interpretation of the character failed to jibe with what's been done before.
Q: Are you a big Golden Age fan?
A: Hell yes!
My first primal exposure to comics came through s hardcover book written by Jules Feiffer. I think that's the correct spelling. The book was called "The Big Book Of Super-Heroes".
It had reprints of Plastic Man, Human Torch, Captain America, Sub-Mariner, Hawkman, Wonder Woman, Will Eisner's "The Spirit", Green Lantern. It was my first exposure to the world of super-heroes, and I think it still largely defines my impression of good super-hero stories.
I prefer short stories. The Golden Age is defined by short stories. Comics have evolved and improved in many ways over the years. Depth and breadth of both content and character have continued to mature over the decades since the "Golden Age" years, but the loss of shorter stories in lieu of multi-part film-style epics is a shame.
So yeah, you could definitely say I'm a Golden Age fan. Probably my single favorite character is DC's Golden Age Sandman. He frightened me as a kid. Still does in a weird sort of way. I also loved the Golden Age Green Lantern. Something about that goofy costume---I even tried making a big cape out of one of my Mom's bedsheets, but I could never get the collar to stand up right.
I had a plastic lantern with a green light-bulb in it, and a big ugly emerald ring that I kept sneaking from my Mom's jewelry drawer. I said my Green Lantern oath every morning.
Unfortunately, I lost the ring in the backyard of Billy Boorman's house when I was six or seven. That sort of put the kibosh on my mystical crime-fighting career.
From Marvel I absolutely adored both the Jim Hammond Human Torch and "Toro the Flaming kid!" My original idea for Tara in New Invaders was that she'd be forced to wear a bright red, featureless containment suit so that I could evoke the look of Toro. The artist chose to go a different way. This was the first time I can recall being irritated by the creative process in comics.
In hindsight, I think CP (the artist) was right to design a costume that allowed Tara's face to be seen. I stand corrected!
Q: The New Invaders seem to have a very global, geopolitical angle which is rarely found in other comics; is it more liberating, or more limiting, to write a comic which is, essentially, always in a "state of war" with someone/something?
A: Not limiting so much as specific. I'm writing the book the way I understand Marvel wants the book: very modern and paramilitary. The only thing limiting is that we're not guranteed a lengthy run, so our pacing needs to be quick and clipped.
Q: The Axis Mundi has several members whose existance appears to contradict established continuity; without giving away any plot twists you might have, is it part of a plan?
A: I hope so!
Honestly, as far as contradicting continuity, I'm not certain I know what you're referring to.
Do you mean that Herr Nacht and Warrior Woman seemingly perished in the pages of Sub-Mariner? If that's all, well, I can tell you how I've worked out their survival of that incident, but it is probably more appropriate to wait until that story is published for me to define something as canonical.
Let's just say that their survival is tied to Meranno, and the roots of the Axis Mundi organization.
Who else contradicts established continuity? Perhaps you're aware of something that I'm not aware of...
I've always tried to do research on the material I've worked with, but I'm sure I haven't read all relevant material.
Baroness Blood ties in with the Union Jack miniseries that Ben Raab and John Cassaday did. Most of the explanation for Agent Axis' involvement with the Axis Mundi (in his new guise as the Pterorist) is given in Issues 6&7, and it squares with what I know of Agent Axis' history.
Q: Baron Blood seems to be back from his decapitation, which would seem to have implications for Baroness Blood and her plans...
Ah, yes!
I would have been delighted to have been provided with this lovely detail BEFORE writing Baroness Blood into the series.
Sometimes I think Marvel is playing a game with me.
Or maybe I'm the subject of some twisted psychology experiment, y'know, just to see how one man can connect the dots on an ever-changing picture without being given any information about the picture he's supposed to be creating.
It will be exciting to learn how the Baroness feels about John Falsworth's return, won't it?
There's a story in there...
Q: There seems to be a lot more use of lethal force and/or explicit violence in the New Invaders than is usual for a superhero comic - assuming you're not just going for the "splatter factor" appeal, what purpose does it serve?
A: CP has a very graphic style, so the violence is very palpable, but I disagree completely about the level of violence. Most of the lethal force was limited to the "Once An Invader" storyline. In "To End All Wars" the villains are synthetic organisms. In "Blood" there are Vampires. The only Issue where the loss of human life is somewhat high in Issue 6 - which was deliberately "real" in the sense that it is -
Forgive me for interpreting the question, as being high-handed, but it's hard for me to understand where this perception of splatter-violence comes from at all.
If anything, the high level of violence comes from my deeply held belief that violent action is part of human nature. It's something we struggle with. It isn't amusing or fun. Violence is painful for the person acting as well as the person being acted upon.
I'm a big horror fan---psychological horror mostly, as opposed to gore-horror. It's just how I think. I enjoy stories where the threat is truly monumental and dangerous---I like the part where I feel concerned that the "hero" might not actually make it through to the end. I've tried to raise the stakes in the New Invaders, so the reader would never be certain how the battles will turn out.
Maybe I've pushed it too far. I never intended the book to be more severe than PG-13.
Q: How much research did you have to do to write something as inherently continuity-heavy as New Invaders?
A: Lots.
Q: There seems to be a lot of connection between New Invaders and the recent work of Fabian Nicieza; the V-Battalion involvement, HYDRA and Baron Strucker, etc. Done on purpose, or fortuitous accident?
A: Necessity. It's a tapestry I'm adding to. Fabian Nicieza is the most recent. Love or hate what I've done, some of it is going to influence the next.
Q: I hear Captain America (the real one) is coming to New Invaders. Tell me what you can about that?
A: Cap is coming. He and Walker will share words. Some of the words they will share are "childish nonsense", "leader", and "he lied to you".
We will learn that Blazing Skull is a licensed Attorney in Guam.
Joe Chapman will lead an art class aboard the Battleship Infiltrator.
Captain America will fight, get very cold, very hot, and very wet during the course of the storyline. He's going to have the opportunity to use a catchphrase I haven't heard used for many years.
At the end of it all, Cap will have some very nice words to say about one of his friends, and some unpleasant things to say about one of his enemies.
It all works very nicely.
Q: As of this writing, its been revealed that New Invaders #9 will be the last issue, but you have things planned to issue #12 - any chance of you telling us what issues 10-12 would have been, and perhaps some of the longer-range plans if you'd been able to proceed?
Well, I've said that Issue 7-9 are roughly what I had planned for Issues 10-12 anyway. Marvel has thrown me one significant curve ball, and I can't mention it until Issue 9 is published. I CAN say that it looks like they're having me lay the groundwork for what could be a NEW INVADERS revival in the near future. That's what I hope anyway, although it's doubtful that I'll be involved in the project.
Something happens in Issue 9 that goes completely counter to my plans for "New Invaders Year Two", but I have to admit, it's made for one of my favorite issues of the series. So,e folks are going to adore me for what I do in Issue #9---and it wasn't even my idea! Some people are going to loathe me---and it wasn't even my idea!
My long range plans involved branching out from our Axis Mundi struggle.
Future adventures were to include the introduction of a Middle Eastern Super Team that I'm still very excited about using somewhere, some time.
There was going to be a series of adventures revolving around Red Raven's intro to the main cast. Also, I was hoping to introduce a new, female character that was a "legacy-heroine" connected to the Whizzer and Miss America.
I really wanted to use Aarkus, the Vision as well. There was an arc intended to explore Blazing Skull's origin that would've necessitated the use of Aarkus.
I don't like to talk too much about "what-if" storylines, but I DID have a lot planned for the team. The first year's arc was really all about setting up a status quo fro the team. Defining relationships, exploring motivations---year two was intended to be about a more unified and functional Invaders team---
Q: One of the interesting things (at least, to me) about the New Invaders is the mirroring of 1940s Marvel to the modern era - for example, since we can't have the original Captain America, we have John Walker. Instead of Toro, we have Tara. Instead of Namor, we have... oh wait. We have Namor. On the evil side we have Baroness Blood filling in for Baron Blood. While some of the other Invaders characters have been accounted for one way or the other (the Destroyer and Silver Scarab, for example), do you have any plans to either revive or revise others, (for example, members of the Crusaders, Battle-Axis, the Golem, the Blue Bullet, et cetera)?
Battle-Axis and Super-Axis I always get wrong. I THINK you're referring to the team of super-heroes that were actually working for the Nazis? If so, then yes, that would have come up. The INVADERS mini-series from the 1990's ties in to where the Axis Mundi obtained the plans for Synthetic humans (which they used to develop the Pterorists).
There was also technology onboard Infiltrator that was developed from Enoch Mason's Dimension-Smasher. Does anyone even know what that is? I think that reference actually made it into one of my NEW INVADERS issues, but I'd have to check.
Volton. Adam II. The Dimension-Smasher. All that would have come up eventually.
What else? Scarlet Scarab, you mentioned earlier. A new Scarlet Scarab was created to be a member of the Middle-Eastern Super Team I mentioned above.
I loved the Golem, and was tempted to include him in the book right from the start. Inevitably, he would have turned up.
Blue Bullet---no plans. Crusaders---no plans beyond using Roger Aubrey. I DID have a soft spot for most of those characters. Ghost Girl---Spirit of '76---Cap'n Wings---Tommy Sparkzalot or somethin' like that---
Q: Where does Allen Jacobsen go next in the MU?
Four Freedom's Plaza.
I've got a terribly unsightly tear in my tights, and I'm thinking about adding a pair of modesty briefs because the other super-heroes keep looking down when we talk. I'm still not sure if that's good or bad.
I've pitched a couple of horror series in the past, and I'm still waiting on word on a couple of superhero projects I've floated past Marvel. The truth is that I'd love to take a crack at writing one of those "Marvel Age" younger audience books. I loved comics the most when I was between the ages of 10 and 11. I'd like to write for that audience---strictly as an experiment, mind you, but that's where my heart lies.
I did a treatment for Daredevil, but when you do Daredevil for kids you very quickly arrive at something like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Remember, the Turtles began as a riff on DD anyway, and as they (the Turtles) have evolved, they've become increasingly child-friendly.
The truth is, I like a challenge. Anything anyone wants me to write, I'd write. I get a sort of runner's high when I write, so I'm probably more properly of an addict than a writer.
Anyone who reads this can feel free to try me out. I'm a junkie. Name a character. Any character, and I'll find some ridiculous excuse to get excited about it!