THE JIM SHOOTER AVENGERS INTERVIEW (Page 3 of 4)
--A WONDER MAN: COOLER THAN SUPERMAN EXCLUSIVE--
INTERVIEWER: MITCHEL
20-Why so many trashed costumes one after the other? Wonder Man was starting to look like some kind of modern Tarzan or Doc. Savage which I thought made sense for this character, he doesn’t have a hammer, shield or armor. This guy is going into the field of battle naked so to speak. It was natural for his clothes to suffer like that but why three changes of costumes (original Kirby, Pérez design and safari jacket) in such a short time?
Most comic book artists are irrepressible, even those far less talented than George Pérez. Accent on the first “e.”
21-The new Pérez design was very good, who decided on giving him the safari jacket? Personally, I hated it. I remember writing to Marvel asking to get
him back into something more superhero. I thought he looked the best in the Nefaria trilogy, the shirtless new costume alteration for that story by Byrne gave him a savage look very much like a tough warrior like Conan or a wrestler. I thought that was one of his best looks ever.
I don’t remember who imposed the safari jacket on WM. I’m with you. Byrne did a terrific job.
22-In the years that followed Wonder Man has been written mostly as an ionic strongman but a CELLULAR being like Thor and Hercules as you established.
In his failed first regular series his writer, Gerard Jones, attempted to make of him a true being of pure energy. Ignoring previous continuity, he would leak energy instead of blood, and his true shape would be a collection of energy in the style of Wildfire from DC’s Legion of Superheroes only he could
make himself look 100% human. In the words of that series writer, he looked human because he preferred
to look as human as possible. Nowadays Kurt Busiek has gone back to your original concept only he has added a powered up look. Did you followed Wonder Man’s regular series? What are your thoughts of the changes
Gerard Jones wanted to introduce?
I haven’t kept up. Sounds like Gerard Jones went a wrong direction, by my reckoning
23-What do you think of the current powered ionic look that Kurt Busiek and George Pérez introduced?
I haven’t seen it, but if George designed it, it’s probably very good.
24-Back in the 90’s, before his regular
series, when John Byrne started writing the Avengers he connected his jetpacks to his ionic energy. He could tap into his CELLULAR ionic energy and somehow redirect it thru his jetpacks. This would explain how he could lift an entire island using his jetpacks. I thought that concept was really cool and it seemed to tie nicely with your original explanation of his powers. I just have a problem when perfectly working characters are suddenly changed drastically like Gerard Jones attempted to do in his regular series. I also prefer the original Wonder Man with the shades that didn't have any powered up ionic look. Any thoughts?
I’m with you.
25-Going back to your Nefaria story, did you enjoy working with John Byrne? Was Nefaria a fun villain to write? What motivated you to write this story? Have you read what we could call a sequel to your story by Busiek & Perez in volume 3?
John was, believe it or not, still learning the craft in those days. His draftsmanship was great, but his storytelling wasn’t top notch. Soon afterward, he immersed himself in Kirby stuff, got the essence of communicating
in comics format and made the leap to hyperspace. To answer your question directly, yes I loved working with John. Like Miller, he was a guy you could watch developing page by page. His stuff was exciting even before he’d learned all the basics. He’s an amazing talent. Nefaria was a hoot to write-such a baaaad bad guy. I haven’t read the Busiek and Pérez sequel.
26-In your Nefaria story Captain America entrusts Wonder Man with his shield and Simon humbly says it is an honor that he doesn’t deserves. How would you describe the relationship between these two? Were you thinking Wonder Man could eventually grow up to be the Avengers chairman, a leader like Cap?
I was trying to develop WM logically. Cap would have been a legend to him. WM, developed well, could have grown to be an equally legendary figure. And the readers would have gotten to see it step by step.
27- It is significant that Cap is the
American version of the super soldier and Wonder Man would be the German version since Zemo, his creator, was a German. How do you explain German technology could augment the strength of a man so much better than American technology in the Marvel Universe?
Zemo had the advantages of decades more research at his disposal. You might say he stood on the shoulders of taller giants. He also proceeded with reckless disregard and got lucky.
28-From Stan Lee’s original story and your explanations of Wonder Man strength at cellular levels I’ve been thinking a good explanation for my previous question could be that Zemo had the Enchantress and the Executioner working with him at the time he created Wonder Man and for a scientific genius like him it would have been easy to get a strand of hair from the Enchantress, study her DNA and try to find out how to mutate normal human DNA into Asgardian DNA, or something really close in
strength thru ionic radiation. What do you think of this explanation? As a Marvel editor would you go with it?
Not bad. I’d have to think about it. Such a thing could have been a factor.
29-The epilogue to the Nefaria trilogy shows a mysterious old man that is seemingly connected with the Scarlet Witch & Quicksilver. He is actually revealed to be their adoptive father and in a story after your tenure as writer, that crosses over to the X-Men book, Magneto and a woman named Magda are revealed as their true parents instead of the Whizzler and Miss America as Roy Thomas had written previously. What is the story behind this rewrite that is regarded today as a classic. How much creative input you had since this story seemed to germinate with you as the Avengers writer before moving on to Editor in Chief?
I think that Chris Claremont had an idea and ran with it. I seldom went wrong letting Chris bring his ideas to fruition. If he contradicted (or retooled) something Roy did, I either thought it was a better idea or completely missed it.
30-Henry Peter Gyrich & Ms. Marvel. Two characters you introduced to the book. How do you think they worked out as supporting cast? How do you like Michelinie’s take on them?
Henry Peter Gyrich is actually the real name of my real cousin. I was lucky that he is an infinitely charitable guy who didn’t sue me, or Marvel, while I was there, and Marvel is lucky that he can’t be bothered to sue them since I’ve been gone. I intended Gyrich to be a one shot character who seemed nasty at first, but actually turned out to be a godsend to the Avengers. After I was gone, I think certain writers, who knew the story behind the unusual name, abused the character-probably in an attempt to piss me off. How pathetic. As I said, Marvel is lucky that the real HPG doesn’t give a shit about petty people doing puerile crap. Ms. Marvel was a bullshit character created to pander to trendiness. Chris Claremont made her into a real character and, therefore, I used her. I hope I did the character justice.
31-Ms. Marvel started to become close with Wonder Man in your run, there was a clear attraction between those two. What made you pair them up?
I thought that WM should be an amazingly attractive, intelligent, sophisticated, up-to-date guy. Someone like Ms. Marvel (per Claremont), I thought, wouldn’t be attracted to anyone less. And what attractive, intelligent, sophisticated, up-to-date guy wouldn’t be attracted to Ms. Marvel as drawn and presented?
32-Thor and Wonder Man. In your run it seemed like Wonder Man went to Thor for advise on his self doubt problems during the beginning of the Korvac Saga. Also it often seemed like these two were matched in power but there is a scene in the Korvac Saga, (this one plotted by you and written by Michelinie) were Wonder Man tries to impress Ms. Marvel by lifting weights set up for Thor and he seemed to run short on the power department. One thing Englehart did good for Wonder Man in WCA was to have his overconfident stage made him appear to be his equal in strength, the hammer being the one giving Thor the edge in a battle between them both in an annual. Who was really the stronger one to you: Thor or Wonder Man? It would appear to me his self doubts were always pushing him down
and making him not able to realize his full potential in this subplot of yours. Was the episode with Ms. Marvel part of that?
My theory has always been that human potential is unlimited. In my mind, WM is as strong as you can get. Stronger than Thor, even-but subject to the development I mentioned earlier. Thor has been passing tests of will and strength for millennia. WM is a newby. Thor never has crises of confidence. WM still can’t believe he can do the things he does. Anyone who has played competitive sports knows what I mean. The better athlete often falls to one who has the utter confidence that only experience brings. P.S., certain writers and editors are rather protective of Thor’s status
as Marvel’s Superman…it’s a thing left over from their childhood comics-reading days.
33-The culmination of your first Avengers run was the multi-part Korvac Saga were you had the Guardians of the Galaxy come from the future, used almost every Avenger, and had almost everybody die and resurrected by the end of the story. How do you feel about this story? The all powerful menace in the form of one being against multiple superheroes seemed to be a recurring team in your work since you followed up with Secrets Wars I & II both big marketing success at the time.
George walked into my office and asked for a story that guest starred virtually everybody. George is insane. He likes drawing zillions of characters. It’s best to humor insane people who are extremely talented. So I wrote the Korvac saga.
Before that, I think, Bill Mantlo suggested a “Super Hero Olympics” to tie in with some Olympic Games. Bill wrote, and we published, a pretty lame mini-series featuring a lot of super heroes.
Soon thereafter, Kenner licensed DC’s super heroes for an action figure line.
Mattel, not wanting to be without super hero toys, if that should prove to be a winner, asked Marvel for a toy concept.
Every day, the fan mail (which I read) had about a dozen letters requesting “one big story with all the heroes and all the villains in it.”
I suggested to the licensing people and Mattel that we do what the fans were demanding. We did. Secret Wars.
I wrote the series because none of the regular writers could. Being Editor in Chief was a full time gig. I only wrote when there was no other capable writer available.
Secret Wars had to be severely compromised to suit Mattel. The fan press “critics” hated it. Nonetheless, it sold enormous numbers. To this day, despite the negative, vicious reviews by the comic book “press,” every time I go to a convention, I’m swamped by people asking me to sign Secret Wars books-especially the Spider-Man black costume issue.
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