JMS: BRINGING THE AMAZING AND THE FANTASTIC TO A CIVIL WAR

[Tom 2TUM Toner]

By Remy Minnick, Comixfan Staff Writer

Amazing. Fantastic. Supreme. Not only are all three adjectives found in the titles he writes but they can also be used to describe the writer himself. The prolific writer can trace his credits back to animated adventures of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe but is best known for creating, and writing the hit sci-fi series Babylon 5. Now back from Marvel's recent three-day Summit, we had the opportunity to speak with the writer of almost as many titles as Bendis, J. Michael Straczynski.

Comixfan: When you wrote Babylon 5 you sat down and planned out the whole 5 year story and all the thematics points in between. Your time on Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man is obviously not finite as Babylon 5 was but when taking on a title do you have a plan on where you want to take the characters and what moments you want to see happen? With Marvel's recent summit, how far do you have planned out for the books you are working on?

J. Michael Straczynski: I've been slowly working my way to longer planning. As I've said before, though I'd been writing TV and the like for decades, when I came to comics I was pretty much a neophyte, and had to re-learn a lot of things. It took me a long time before I felt comfortable witth the form. Now I've reached a point where I can look down the pike a lot longer and plan things out a bit more, with the confidence that I can actually *get* there. At the moment, I have the basic arcs planned out through January 07.

Comixfan: Speaking of which, you recently took part in a 3 day Marvel summit. Take us behind the scenes, what's it like to be part of the group planning out the Marvel Universe for the next year or two?

Straczynski: It's really a lot of fun, and best of all, a chance to kick the crap out of Mark Millar, which is honestly the main reason for going. We all take turns because...well, he has it coming, doesn't he? But to be fair, I do think that Bendis went a bit beyond the pale when he forced Millar to wear the pink Hello Kitty jumper and speak in a really high-pitched voice all day. I think it was unfair because being in New York, I think that Mark was really looking forward to dressing in some way differently than he does at home.

Seriously, though -- not that that wasn't serious, I just needed a transition -- the best thing about the group is that they're all really fast thinkers, and very strongly opinionated. You've got me, Bendis, Loeb, Brubaker, Joss (for a bit), and Mark "Squeaky" Millar all shoved into one room, plus Axel and Joe Q. and Tom Brevort and all the other Marvel luminaries, it's a pretty fast-moving conversation and you really have to be on your game to keep up with it all, and to defend your point of view. Everyone is there for the story logic, not ego, which seems hard to believe, especially with me and Bendis in the room, but it's true. Everyone's working toward making the story as strong as possible, and if that means Loeb making a suggestion to my story that I can use, or the rest of us helping poor Mark out of yet another plot hole, then by god we're all happy to do it.

It's funny though to consider that, given all those people in the same room, one well-aimed LAWS rocket punched into that room would take out, what, thirty percent of the comics business in one shot? Well, whatver the number, it would be a darn good start.

Comixfan: Joe Quesada has been talking about putting the "genie back in the bottle" on two things he feels need to change within the Marvel Universe. The first has been reducing the number of mutants in the Marvel Universe, which was recently done with the House Of M and the other has yet to be named. Some have speculated that he is talking about Peter Parker being married. Now we aren't going to ask you let another Joe's proverbial cat out of the bag but I am curious, as one of the chroniclers of Peter Parker, how do you view Peter Parker's marriage to Mary Jane. Do you see it as something that needs to be "fixed"? Bane or boon?

Straczynski: I have a policy of not touching Joe's cats, in or out of bags. As for his marriage to MJ, it's a relationship that I've enjoyed writing. I think the reason other writers don't enjoy writing their relationship is that they may be uncomfortble writing two people who are actually in love with each other and romantic...so they go for conflict and argument and "why can't you be more supportive of me, boo-hoo" writing, and I've never really cared for that kind of characterization. MJ and Peter have come through the fires together, and they're more confident with one another as a result. I find that enjoyable to write, and very appealing.

Having said all of that, I am not the final arbiter of all things Marvel...that comes from editorial, and they set the parameters within which I can then write. If I came onto the book and they said, "Listen, at this point in the story, Peter is in a romantic relationship with a zebra," my job would be to find a way to make that work. ("Look, any chance we could make it an emu instead?")

Comixfan: Both Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man each feature stories that are leading up to this summers mega-event, the Marvel Civil War. Why did you decide to get so involved with this crossover, how did it come about and, as the promotions for the event say, which side are you on?

Straczynski: For me, writing is about process, about how a character getrs from A to B to Z. And the thing about the Civil War storyline is that it has juat an *awful* lot of action and story developments crammed into 7 issues...it goes from 0 to 60 in two seconds, and pretty much stays there, with the precipitationg action happening fast, and everyone taking sides almost immediately. When you've got twenty to thirty major characters in one issue, as most of the MCW miniseries contain, there isn't time for much else.

In the two books I'm doing, there *is* that time, both during and maybe more importantly, before the MCW books kick in. So I decided to use them to start laying the foundation for what's coming before it happens. This is especially important with the Civil War story because something that we all discussed was that there's right and wrong on both sides of this issue. The pro-registration characters feel their position is right and logical and inarguable; they have to for the conflict to work, otherwise you're just setting up straw men to knock over. Woody Allen once pointed out that justifications are more important than sex, because you can actually go an hour without sex. We all think we're right in what we do.

So I wanted to take ASM and bring Peter right into the very heart of the coming storm. He's there, beside Tony, in a senate hearing on this issue...and we get to hear firsthand what some of the thinking is on the issue of superhero registration...and there's at least a superficial logic that even Peter has to acknowledge. The reason you have groups like the AMA and the FDA is to create accountability when something goes wrong. If a doctor messes up during a kidney transplant, why should he be held accountable when a hero who messes up in a battle and wipes out a city block is not held accountable? And if he's not accountable for such things...is he really a hero?

Peter is our Everyman character in the Marvel universe, and he needs to be the voice of our conscience in the Marvel Civil War. He can see both sides of the argument, and his heart may be on the anti-registration side, but Tony is his friend, Tony has almost become something of a father figure, he's been great with May and MJ, and Peter is a very loyal friend, loyal almost to a fault. He's torn by what's going on, and he should be. The moment something like this becomes black-and-white we are in serious trouble.

In terms of the FF, Reed is also smack in the middle of the story by virtue of his involvement with the Illuminati, so again it makes sense to examine that dynamic in a book where there's the time to really get into both the issues and his feelings...as well as the feelings of the rest of the FF, who don't necessariliy agree with him.

Because again that's the timely thing about it; the last six years, there have been more break-ups, divorces, separations and domestic difficulties over politics and Iraq and the like than in the previous twenty years. Somebody pointed out that if the country were divided geographically as it is politically, the next sound you'd be hearing would be gunfire in the distance. So it's only right to reflect that in the lives of the FF.

As for which side I'm on...I'm on the side of the Martians.

Why?

You'll find out. Just keep watching the skies.

Comixfan: Recently, the Spider-Man crossover The Other wrapped up. As the mastermind behind the tale, tell us where the genesis of the story came from, what moments were you hoping would resonate with fans and did it go the way you planned?

Straczynski: Joe Q. really wanted a Spidey event for this summer, and since at that time all the Spidey writers were here on the Left Coast, convened a summit out here to go over it. They'd put forth some ideas, but nothing was really gelling, and I have to admit that I was no better. The night before the summit, having chewed on this for several weeks, the Other storyline came to mind, and I broke it out into acts, three acts, three issues each (the idea of each of us writing all the titles was Joe's idea, which was very smart), and came in the next day with a written proposal on how it would all lay out. Everyone read it, liked it, and that was that.

All things considered, I think it worked out well. Any time you have three writers involved, you're going to get six takes on any given story, so there were some places where things skittered a bit one way or another, with Axel in the position of trying to herd kittens given how the three of us were scampering all over the storyline (and if you've never seen Peter David scamper, you haven't lived).

Comixfan: There's the eternal question of which came first the chicken or the egg but which came first for Spider-Man: the new costume or the storyline that brought it to the page? Was this something Marvel wanted to see or did you push for the new costume and how much of the design was based on your input?

Straczynski: I think they really kind of came together (which is as it should be, isn't it?). The discussion came out of the retreat before this last one, when we were going over who sided with whom, and I felt that Peter would reluctantly side with Tony, and right then and there the idea of a new costume came up to reflect Tony's contribution, and to cap off the events from The Other. We subsequently threw around a bunch of emails between me, Joe Q and Axel, and narrowed down what he would get from the costume that he wouldn't have gotten from his somewhat enhanced powers, and then Joe Q did the final pass on the design.

Comixfan: With the solicitations for Fantastic Four #537 have been released and the issue centers around "a heavenly artifact becomes the touch-point of a conflict between the Fantastic Four and a reborn Doctor Doom!" The rumors have swirled about that this might be the beginning of the Return of Thor, so we have to ask, will we see a JMS penned Thor in the pages of Fantastic Four?

Straczynski: Who can say?

Comixfan: The words "reborn Dr. Doom" may cause some to cringe, is there a revamp to Dr. Doom coming and if so, why does such a classic character need to be revamped?

Straczynski: He's not being revamped. I don't think he was vamped to begin with.

Comixfan: After you conclude the "Mr. Parker Goes To Washington" storyline, what do you have planned for the webhead?

Straczynski: Again, he gets pulled into the events of MCW, and this will affect his relationship with Tony in a big way. There's also something that's going to happen, something that fans have been wondering about and asking about, for years on end...and I'm going to deal with it in this coming cycle of ASM. The most monumental decision Peter has ever had to make is going to hit him squarely between the eyes. Now, I know people have seen hype like that before, and it's always set up to be some monumental decision and it ends up with somebody deciding if they want to do Taco Bell or Del Taco, but I'm telling you, no jive, this is going to be a HUGE watershed in Peter's life.

Comixfan: With the events leading up the Civil War playing a big roll in Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man, will the Civil War mini-series be required reading for fans of either book?

Straczynski: I'm sure it'll be a treat for the senses, so why deny oneself such splendiferousness?

Comixfan: The return of the Supreme Power series, freshly renamed Squadron Supreme and now no longer a MAX book, hits the stands in February. Have you changed your focus for the new series or will we be seeing more of the same style of super hero drama we have been seeing in your previous run?

Stylistically and thematically, it's the same book. The difference is that it's now expanded out to include a wider range of continuing characters, half of whom are nominally dysfunctional. There's also less profanity and full-frontal-nudity. Well, at least here around the house....

Comixfan: A lot of new characters such as Shape and Nuke, were quickly introduced during the Hyperion mini-series. Were there any characters that you wish you would have gotten to spend more time introducing them into the world of the Squadron Supreme?

Straczynski: We're going to retroactively get into a lot of the new characters as we go. We've seen Edith Freiberg, for instance, in several issues to this point, but not really delved into her personality. That will change several issues in, where we will feature her, and then others, to show how they got to where they are.

Comixfan: Last time we talked you mentioned a Silver Surfer mini-series that you were working on. What's the status of the book? Are we close enough to release to give us a bit of a tease as to what Norrin Radd will be in for?

Straczynski: I don't want to say much about it for the moment. Esad is chugging along well on the art, and the painted pages are just stunning. We won't schedule the book until he's done enough so everyone's comfortable with the prospect because the level of detail is just insane, it's gorgeous.

Comixfan: With your work writing Fantastic Four, Amazing Spider-Man, Squadron Supreme and The Book Of Lost Souls, is there room for more work for your fans to look forward to in 2006?

Straczynski: I'm afraid there's no escape. Sometime this year the five-part Bullet Points series appears, which is a re-imagining of some aspects of Marvel history. It looks at the effect of one bullet over the course of 20 years and how that one bullet, which went one way in Marvel canon and takes a slight change in course in this story, effectively rewrites the history of the Marvel universe the way one changed domino can affect how everything else falls.

I'm also writing another mini-series that revives some Marvel characters not seen in decades, which should be really cool, and I'm doing a little something with Spider-Ham just for fun. Which, to be honest, is the only reason one should do anything.

Comixfan: Well that's it for me, is there anything else you wanted to mention before we go?

Straczynski: One final thing... whenever I've done one of these online interviews, and made funny little asides along the way, there's always a bunch of guys out there who go around saying, "Joe doesn't give a crap about his fans, he just blew off the interview with jokes." Look, pals, it's not easy writing funny or flip. You try it sometime. I do it because I don't think I'm terribly intereresting on my own terms, so I spice it up with the occasional little flashes of humor.

And now I will sit down, shut up, and finish my brussel sprouts.

Comixfan: Well, if it's any consolation, we find you interesting. Thanks for chatting with us and we look forward to see what you have in store for some of Marvel's most popular heroes!


All of JMS's Babylon 5 scripts are now being published in book form, visit http://www.babylon5scripts.com

[heffy]

I think I am excited about these new storylines. Some of my very favorite episodes of THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS were written by JMS as well as Masters of the Universe!


One of my professors in college worked on babylon doing costiming.

[Radiate]

See this sounds mighty interesting now.To me i don't think the new costume dictated the story.I truly believe the Civil War storyline,however contrived,is a good one,because it presents a different angle to what we've already seen in the Marvel Universe.

It'll be very interesting.

Query,now that Spidey is with the Avengers etc. has Peter Parker been outted?Or is he still working as a College Professor?

RADIATE!

[Paul Shinn]

Re: the comment about Peter's marriage to MJ being the next "genie put back in to the bottle"... hasn't that already been done? At the start of JMS's run on Spiderman they were "split up", and then eventually reunited. What's the point of then going and splitting them up again? I don't think this is it...

[sniktitysnikt]

Originally Posted by Tom 2TUM Toner

J. Michael Straczynski: So I wanted to take ASM and bring Peter right into the very heart of the coming storm. He's there, beside Tony, in a senate hearing on this issue...and we get to hear firsthand what some of the thinking is on the issue of superhero registration...and there's at least a superficial logic that even Peter has to acknowledge. The reason you have groups like the AMA and the FDA is to create accountability when something goes wrong. If a doctor messes up during a kidney transplant, why should he be held accountable when a hero who messes up in a battle and wipes out a city block is not held accountable? And if he's not accountable for such things...is he really a hero?

The accountability of a super hero for damage is an interesting theme (and I believe recently mentioned in the Bendis Daredevil). I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

There actually was a humorous take on this sort of thing a while back (if I remember correctly) in Marvel's series, "Damage Control" where I think they explained how, for example, New York City got fixed after a big super hero fight by having a company come in and fix everything up.

I just wanted to point out one thing JMS said that's a little off. The AMA is not a governmental agency and doesn't really regulate doctors that way. It's a professional organization and membership is voluntary. Also, the FDA doesn't regulate doctors as much as pharmeceutical companies. You do, however, need a license to practice medicine, so that's perhaps more akin to super hero registration.

[sinestro]

yeah they kind of explored that theme in THE INCREDIBLES. i always wondered if the large comic book companies would pick up on that theme presented in that movie. im glad marvel is going to do it. i hope it works out.

[Jos1988]

JMS seems like a cool guy - ive enjoyed his work on ASM and he has kept me reading it (since i almost dropped it with the previous creative team)

Also, the Civil War setup now appeals to me - i thought it was going to be one of those ridiculous loads of marvel "big shots fighting each other" fights but now that i know that it relates to the theme of superhero registration it makes more sense and seems more appealing (ive been wondering about this thing for a long time - especially when i was reading x-men and also in the recent daredevil run).

Plus - now im not so shocked by the costume change since it seems to make more sense for the stories i.e. the whole friendship with Stark which has come up recently.

Btw: is it me or did Peter Parker sound like a sidekick to Tony Stark/Iron Man? The costume change pushes in that direction.

[Radiate]

I think that's the point.I reckon Peter Parker WILL see himself as Iron Man's sidekick.A type of Marvel's version of the Batman/Robin (Dick Grayson) relationship.

RADIATE!

[Andrew Stoneham]

Nice interview...was hoping to get more info on the Squadron Supreme series, im really looking forward to that one. Also im very interested in the Silver Surfer mini...the art pages look great.

[Jesse Baer]

Fantastic interview. I really love JMS's work, I'll definitely continue picking up his Spider-Man and Fantastic Four work, and Civil War is sounding very interesting. It sounds like I'm going to have a lot to enjoy from one of my favorite writers!

[atc]

I'm a big fan of JMS' ASM run but if Quesada's second genie happens to be dissolving the marriage of Peter and MJ then nothing can keep me reading Spider-Man or any Marvel comics. I'm gone.

[Valis]

i heard rumors that perhaps the genie in the bottle is the secret identities that have been revealed over the past few years in the marvel universe. That the aftermath of Civil War might have alot of the heros like daredevil captain america (not sure if he is still outed?), and others getting secret identities back. not sure if this is right, just heard some talk on the net about it.

[hondo]

That makes the most sense to me : the return of secret identities to the Marvel U, esp in light of the nature of MCW.

This is sounding pretty good to me. I'll probably pick up MCW. JMS is Marvel's best writer, with Bru a very tight second, and Millar in third.

Great interview.