marvelguy
01-26-2008, 03:09 AM
Millar and McNiven starts on Wolverine #66 with a planned 8 issue run. I find it odd that the arc takes place in the future and it's in Wolvie's own book. Hulk and Logan in the future? I'll read that!
Click on images to see it in better detail.
MILLAR ON "OLD MAN LOGAN"
http://www.newsarama.com/marvelnew/Wolverine/66/t_Wolverine66Preview1.jpg
(http://www.newsarama.com/marvelnew/Wolverine/66/Wolverine66Preview1.jpg)If you’re Mark Millar and Steve McNiven and you want to work on another project together after Civil War, one of the bestselling comics of 2007 that hot the major media sold gobs and gobs of issues, and redefined the entire Marvel Universe, just what do you do?
(a) Another in-continuity project steeped in heroes, looking to top yourself?
(b) Just grab Wolverine, head off into the future and have some fun?
Option B.
Starting in June with Wolverine #66, Millar and McNiven will join forces for “Old Man Logan,” an eight part story starring Wolverine…well, a Wolverine…some fifty-plus years in the future, after some really bad stuff has gone down, and it just may be time for Logan to set things right.
Newsarama Note: Millar and McNiven’s arc will follow Jason Aaron’s upcoming arc (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=134916) on the series, which begins next month.
We sat down with Millar for an in-depth look at the story and how things got rolling.
Newsarama: Mark, to start with, what brought you back to Wolverine? Was this something that you wanted to do directly after “Enemy of the State” but were interrupted, or was this something that started up afterwards?
Mark Millar: Wolverine is a character I find very easy to write and it broke my heart leaving last time after just 13 issues. This story has been floating around my head for two years now and I just wanted to get it down on paper. I feel it's better than “Enemy of the State” and that's why I wanted to do it. This is the Wolverine story that I want to be remembered for.
NRAMA: “This is the Wolverine story that I want to be remembered for." Why's that? It would seem that “Enemy of the State” helped focus and redefine Logan's place in the Marvel U - playing "Civil War" in a microcosm for him, individually, that is, with a similar end result - no one really trusts him, and people - even his friends - are scared of him...what makes this story different that you want to be remembered for it instead of “EoS?”
MM: I love “Enemy of the State.” I feel it's one of the best things I've done. But I really think we've stumbled onto something very iconic here. In Frank Miller terms, it's our “Born Again”... an eight issue follow up to our popular run. I hesitate to say it's Wolverine's Dark Knight Returns, but that's the kind of energy we're shooting for here. We've just overloaded this thing with testosterone. It's a great big hairy chest and moustache of a comic.
NRAMA: Ah…right. So what is it for you and Wolverine? What about the character appeals to you? What is it about him that you see him in these types of stories?
MM: Sometimes it's not a coincidence when a character gets this famous. I think it's the best comic book creation of the last forty years. In fact, he's the only truly great one from Marvel or DC since 1965 or so.
NRAMA: As with Fantastic Four (in a way) you're returning to a character you've written previously, which always sets up the comparisons between your earlier work and your new work. Any worries about that with Wolverine, given that “EoS” was, in many ways, an "ultimate" Wolverine story?
http://www.newsarama.com/marvelnew/Wolverine/66/t_Wolverine66Preview2.jpg
(http://www.newsarama.com/marvelnew/Wolverine/66/Wolverine66Preview2.jpg)MM: Not really. The two projects just feel really distinct to me. I might have felt differently if I'd been following on directly from the events of Enemy of the State, but an enormous amount of time (fifty years) exists between these two stories and they just smell so different. Logan himself is in a very different place by this point. He won't even acknowledge that he was in the X-Men. He'll only even answer to Logan. All he wants to do now is tend his far, play with his kids and eat supper with his wife. But his life never stays simple for too long. There's always some sod comes along and spoils everything and in this case it's The Hulk Gang.
NRAMA: We’ll get to them in a minute, but that said, did “EoS’” scope and setting influence this story's scope and setting, that is, did you want to move it out of the present day and present Marvel Universe continuity?
MM: Not entirely. I love the idea of Wolverine's solo book being stories from his present and past, but nobody's done the future yet so that seemed exciting. And I wanted it to be canon so I tied the story into Fantastic Four. Both are being published at the same time and since the FF have time-traveling capabilities anything is possible. The second FF storyline—“The Death of the Invisible Woman”-- is where this really kicks in.
NRAMA: And what came first - the desire to come back to Wolverine, or re-teaming with Steve? That is, did you always have another project with Steve lined up, or did you pitch doing Wolverine with Steve?
MM: Steve and I obviously wanted to work together again. Creatively we gelled well and even though he is Canadian we seem to click on a personal level. Also our last collaboration (Civil War) was the biggest selling book from either company in over a decade so it made sense to get together again. We talked about X-Men but the more I started to think about “Old Man Logan,” the more I couldn't see anyone else drawing this.
NRAMA: Let’s get into the story - what was the seed for this? What was responsible for the spark that resulted in this?
MM: Fantastic Four has a storyline which brings the characters into the future and so it seemed like the perfect time to cross over and finally do this Wolverine story that I'd been thinking about. I'm a great fan of Unforgiven and the notion of the killer who has turned his back on violence and this seemed like the perfect fit for Wolverine too.
NRAMA: When, specifically is the story set?
MM: The story is set more than fifty years in the future and it has been five decades since Wolverine last unleashed his claws. Something awful has happened when the Villains rose up and killed the Heroes. Something broke Wolverine and this is the mystery at the heart of our story.
NRAMA: What's the appeal of this setting for you, particularly this setting in the Marvel Universe?
http://www.newsarama.com/marvelnew/Wolverine/66/t_Wolverine66Preview3.jpg
(http://www.newsarama.com/marvelnew/Wolverine/66/Wolverine66Preview3.jpg)MM: I'm a huge Marvel fan, a huge Unforgiven fan and a huge Mad Max fan. So I threw them all together and this thing wrote itself. I love the idea of the cobbled remains of the Marvel Universe... the flooded Baxter Building, the ruins of Xavier's mansion and so on. Visually, it could be something quite new and lots of fun to draw. We're so familiar with those iconic images like The Fantasti-Car so seeing a gang of radiation sick muties riding around in it and breast-feeding at 200 mph seems interesting to me. There's so many vile villains in this book. I feel we've outdone ourselves in terms of the bad guys. So, of course, it's going to be very satisfying when Logan gets pushed too far and pops those claws again.
NRAMA: So there’s no law in this future? No government, no SHIELD?
MM: SHIELD exists, but only on the East Coast in a city called New Babylon. This is the remains of New York and Washington and they're a masked secret police for the awful President we don't see until the second half of the story. The rest of the US is carved up between seven gangs of villains and their children and grandchildren. But it was mostly destroyed in the war between the heroes and villains. Each area is actually radically different. The new Kingpin, for example, runs a very different sector from Electro's family.
NRAMA: You mention that the villains rose up and killed the heroes? Are there any good guys left at all?
MM: Just a few scattered heroes dotted around, all old men and women with nothing left to offer. New heroes emerge, but they don't last long. Everyone's learned to keep their head down. But people are more focused on eating and staying alive by this point. Ecologically, the world is just absolutely broken and this also folds back into me and Hitchy's Fantastic Four.
NRAMA: Okay, so sketch out Wolverine when we first see him in #66 - who is he? You say he's broken...how? Body? Spirit? Is he still a scrapper?
MM: He's not a scrapper anymore. He's a guy who will see a fight, look sad and walk away. If someone spits in his face, he'll wipe it away and walk off, even if his kids are walking. But we know what he's capable. His teenage son thinks he's a failure, but his wife knows what he can do when the right buttons are pushed and is proud of the fact that he's turned his back on everything. She also knows exactly what happened to him on the night the heroes fell to the villains. So she's entirely sympathetic.
NRAMA: Who else will we be seeing in this story?
MM: Only a few Marvel Heroes are still alive and the story mainly focuses on their descendants. There's a new Kingpin for example and Spiderman's granddaughter, Spider-bitch, is a favorite but the characters I'm most excited about are the radiation sick sons and grandsons of the Hulk - and inbred, ugly, incestuous team of supervillains with a nod to The Hills Have Eyes.
NRAMA: Eu. Speaking of the Hulk's kids and descendants...what role do they serve in this new world? Besides the creepy factor…
MM: They're the ganglords for California. Banner is a bald old man living in the remains of the Playboy mansion and he's there with his sons and daughters and inbred gandchildren. Beau and Luke Hulk are the two terrifying enforcers giving Logan a huge amount of shit in the first issue. Steve has just knocked these villains out of the park.
NRAMA: Okay - we've got the setting, how Wolverine is in the future...will readers learn what happened to him in the past that "broke" him?
MM: Oh, yes. That's a huge deal in the story. It's the mystery that runs through the whole series and when we finally do reveal what happened...it doesn't disappoint.
NRAMA: And what gets the ball rolling in your first issue?
MM: The first issue of “Old Man Logan” kicks off with Logan at a nice place in his life. Despite everything that's happened and the horrors around him, he's carved out a quiet life as a farmer and is raising a family with a woman he loves. He's finally found the peace he's wanted his whole life. But of course that only lasts about 12 pages before trouble shows up and he's plunged into his most insane adventure ever. Do you really want to read eight issues of him farming?
Click on images to see it in better detail.
MILLAR ON "OLD MAN LOGAN"
http://www.newsarama.com/marvelnew/Wolverine/66/t_Wolverine66Preview1.jpg
(http://www.newsarama.com/marvelnew/Wolverine/66/Wolverine66Preview1.jpg)If you’re Mark Millar and Steve McNiven and you want to work on another project together after Civil War, one of the bestselling comics of 2007 that hot the major media sold gobs and gobs of issues, and redefined the entire Marvel Universe, just what do you do?
(a) Another in-continuity project steeped in heroes, looking to top yourself?
(b) Just grab Wolverine, head off into the future and have some fun?
Option B.
Starting in June with Wolverine #66, Millar and McNiven will join forces for “Old Man Logan,” an eight part story starring Wolverine…well, a Wolverine…some fifty-plus years in the future, after some really bad stuff has gone down, and it just may be time for Logan to set things right.
Newsarama Note: Millar and McNiven’s arc will follow Jason Aaron’s upcoming arc (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=134916) on the series, which begins next month.
We sat down with Millar for an in-depth look at the story and how things got rolling.
Newsarama: Mark, to start with, what brought you back to Wolverine? Was this something that you wanted to do directly after “Enemy of the State” but were interrupted, or was this something that started up afterwards?
Mark Millar: Wolverine is a character I find very easy to write and it broke my heart leaving last time after just 13 issues. This story has been floating around my head for two years now and I just wanted to get it down on paper. I feel it's better than “Enemy of the State” and that's why I wanted to do it. This is the Wolverine story that I want to be remembered for.
NRAMA: “This is the Wolverine story that I want to be remembered for." Why's that? It would seem that “Enemy of the State” helped focus and redefine Logan's place in the Marvel U - playing "Civil War" in a microcosm for him, individually, that is, with a similar end result - no one really trusts him, and people - even his friends - are scared of him...what makes this story different that you want to be remembered for it instead of “EoS?”
MM: I love “Enemy of the State.” I feel it's one of the best things I've done. But I really think we've stumbled onto something very iconic here. In Frank Miller terms, it's our “Born Again”... an eight issue follow up to our popular run. I hesitate to say it's Wolverine's Dark Knight Returns, but that's the kind of energy we're shooting for here. We've just overloaded this thing with testosterone. It's a great big hairy chest and moustache of a comic.
NRAMA: Ah…right. So what is it for you and Wolverine? What about the character appeals to you? What is it about him that you see him in these types of stories?
MM: Sometimes it's not a coincidence when a character gets this famous. I think it's the best comic book creation of the last forty years. In fact, he's the only truly great one from Marvel or DC since 1965 or so.
NRAMA: As with Fantastic Four (in a way) you're returning to a character you've written previously, which always sets up the comparisons between your earlier work and your new work. Any worries about that with Wolverine, given that “EoS” was, in many ways, an "ultimate" Wolverine story?
http://www.newsarama.com/marvelnew/Wolverine/66/t_Wolverine66Preview2.jpg
(http://www.newsarama.com/marvelnew/Wolverine/66/Wolverine66Preview2.jpg)MM: Not really. The two projects just feel really distinct to me. I might have felt differently if I'd been following on directly from the events of Enemy of the State, but an enormous amount of time (fifty years) exists between these two stories and they just smell so different. Logan himself is in a very different place by this point. He won't even acknowledge that he was in the X-Men. He'll only even answer to Logan. All he wants to do now is tend his far, play with his kids and eat supper with his wife. But his life never stays simple for too long. There's always some sod comes along and spoils everything and in this case it's The Hulk Gang.
NRAMA: We’ll get to them in a minute, but that said, did “EoS’” scope and setting influence this story's scope and setting, that is, did you want to move it out of the present day and present Marvel Universe continuity?
MM: Not entirely. I love the idea of Wolverine's solo book being stories from his present and past, but nobody's done the future yet so that seemed exciting. And I wanted it to be canon so I tied the story into Fantastic Four. Both are being published at the same time and since the FF have time-traveling capabilities anything is possible. The second FF storyline—“The Death of the Invisible Woman”-- is where this really kicks in.
NRAMA: And what came first - the desire to come back to Wolverine, or re-teaming with Steve? That is, did you always have another project with Steve lined up, or did you pitch doing Wolverine with Steve?
MM: Steve and I obviously wanted to work together again. Creatively we gelled well and even though he is Canadian we seem to click on a personal level. Also our last collaboration (Civil War) was the biggest selling book from either company in over a decade so it made sense to get together again. We talked about X-Men but the more I started to think about “Old Man Logan,” the more I couldn't see anyone else drawing this.
NRAMA: Let’s get into the story - what was the seed for this? What was responsible for the spark that resulted in this?
MM: Fantastic Four has a storyline which brings the characters into the future and so it seemed like the perfect time to cross over and finally do this Wolverine story that I'd been thinking about. I'm a great fan of Unforgiven and the notion of the killer who has turned his back on violence and this seemed like the perfect fit for Wolverine too.
NRAMA: When, specifically is the story set?
MM: The story is set more than fifty years in the future and it has been five decades since Wolverine last unleashed his claws. Something awful has happened when the Villains rose up and killed the Heroes. Something broke Wolverine and this is the mystery at the heart of our story.
NRAMA: What's the appeal of this setting for you, particularly this setting in the Marvel Universe?
http://www.newsarama.com/marvelnew/Wolverine/66/t_Wolverine66Preview3.jpg
(http://www.newsarama.com/marvelnew/Wolverine/66/Wolverine66Preview3.jpg)MM: I'm a huge Marvel fan, a huge Unforgiven fan and a huge Mad Max fan. So I threw them all together and this thing wrote itself. I love the idea of the cobbled remains of the Marvel Universe... the flooded Baxter Building, the ruins of Xavier's mansion and so on. Visually, it could be something quite new and lots of fun to draw. We're so familiar with those iconic images like The Fantasti-Car so seeing a gang of radiation sick muties riding around in it and breast-feeding at 200 mph seems interesting to me. There's so many vile villains in this book. I feel we've outdone ourselves in terms of the bad guys. So, of course, it's going to be very satisfying when Logan gets pushed too far and pops those claws again.
NRAMA: So there’s no law in this future? No government, no SHIELD?
MM: SHIELD exists, but only on the East Coast in a city called New Babylon. This is the remains of New York and Washington and they're a masked secret police for the awful President we don't see until the second half of the story. The rest of the US is carved up between seven gangs of villains and their children and grandchildren. But it was mostly destroyed in the war between the heroes and villains. Each area is actually radically different. The new Kingpin, for example, runs a very different sector from Electro's family.
NRAMA: You mention that the villains rose up and killed the heroes? Are there any good guys left at all?
MM: Just a few scattered heroes dotted around, all old men and women with nothing left to offer. New heroes emerge, but they don't last long. Everyone's learned to keep their head down. But people are more focused on eating and staying alive by this point. Ecologically, the world is just absolutely broken and this also folds back into me and Hitchy's Fantastic Four.
NRAMA: Okay, so sketch out Wolverine when we first see him in #66 - who is he? You say he's broken...how? Body? Spirit? Is he still a scrapper?
MM: He's not a scrapper anymore. He's a guy who will see a fight, look sad and walk away. If someone spits in his face, he'll wipe it away and walk off, even if his kids are walking. But we know what he's capable. His teenage son thinks he's a failure, but his wife knows what he can do when the right buttons are pushed and is proud of the fact that he's turned his back on everything. She also knows exactly what happened to him on the night the heroes fell to the villains. So she's entirely sympathetic.
NRAMA: Who else will we be seeing in this story?
MM: Only a few Marvel Heroes are still alive and the story mainly focuses on their descendants. There's a new Kingpin for example and Spiderman's granddaughter, Spider-bitch, is a favorite but the characters I'm most excited about are the radiation sick sons and grandsons of the Hulk - and inbred, ugly, incestuous team of supervillains with a nod to The Hills Have Eyes.
NRAMA: Eu. Speaking of the Hulk's kids and descendants...what role do they serve in this new world? Besides the creepy factor…
MM: They're the ganglords for California. Banner is a bald old man living in the remains of the Playboy mansion and he's there with his sons and daughters and inbred gandchildren. Beau and Luke Hulk are the two terrifying enforcers giving Logan a huge amount of shit in the first issue. Steve has just knocked these villains out of the park.
NRAMA: Okay - we've got the setting, how Wolverine is in the future...will readers learn what happened to him in the past that "broke" him?
MM: Oh, yes. That's a huge deal in the story. It's the mystery that runs through the whole series and when we finally do reveal what happened...it doesn't disappoint.
NRAMA: And what gets the ball rolling in your first issue?
MM: The first issue of “Old Man Logan” kicks off with Logan at a nice place in his life. Despite everything that's happened and the horrors around him, he's carved out a quiet life as a farmer and is raising a family with a woman he loves. He's finally found the peace he's wanted his whole life. But of course that only lasts about 12 pages before trouble shows up and he's plunged into his most insane adventure ever. Do you really want to read eight issues of him farming?