In one of today’s features for our Guardians of the Galaxy Month here at Multiversity to benefit to Bill Mantlo (which you can read more about here and here), we continue our chats with various people behind the current iteration of “Guardians of the Galaxy.” And, as part of a continued look back at the run that inspired the upcoming film, today we’ll be chatting with one of the writers behind the run, Dan Abnett.
Part of the duo that helmed the cosmic books in the wake of “Annihilation,” Abnett co-wrote every cosmic book post-“Conquest” alongside fellow collaborator Andy Lanning. Together they spun the characters and interpretations that would influence and inform the film, all the while revitalizing a forgotten section of Marvel’s line with new life and importance that continues to thrive today. Abnett will also be returning to Marvel Cosmic for the upcoming book “Guardians 3000,” which will focus on the original Guardians of the Galaxy that were created in the 60’s and made all the more popular in the early 90’s.
Read on as we talk about all things “Guardians”,
So, looking way back down the line, what was your experience with Cosmic Marvel, with the Guardians, with Nova, with all of these characters before you came in and started writing them around the “Annihilation” event and it all started coming back?
Dan Abnett: I think I’ve always had a penchant for cosmic superheroes anyway. I did quite a long run on “Legion of Super Heroes” at DC, and just growing up as a kid, I loved Jim Starlin, I loved Captain Marvel and Warlock. Those were some of my favorite characters. And, indeed, I remember reading, in the UK we didn’t get access to the American editions of stuff when I was a kid, but we had Marvel UK, who re-printed a lot of the material in black and white weekly installment comics. I read a lot of those, and I remember reading that very, very first Gene Colan and Arnold Drake Guardians of the Galaxy story, that 1968 origin of the original team, and I remember liking that very much. I can remember thinking that the concept of a space superhero time in the future but also in the present day would be a really interesting thing to play with one day.
So, yes, it was very much part of my favorite area of comic reading over the years. I had talked on many occasions to Marvel about developing something. We had come close to “Nova” once, and then at the time it didn’t end up being right. But it was Andy Schmidt who invited the original “Nova” pitch as a four-part story for “Annihilation,” very much part of the greater story that Keith Giffen was in control of, and the “Nova” story ended up being very well received. That led to the ongoing book, which was very exciting, and then came through to “Conquest,” when the Guardians sort of coalesced in their present day — all different characters, but using that name. And that obviously led to the “Guardians” ongoing itself, which was one of my favorite things to write, I have to say. I just loved doing that. It had all the ingredients that I wanted to play with, and it was very, very good fun thing to do.
And, really, I was really delighted that the essence of it, the atmosphere and the range of characters has proven to be the inspiration for the movie. I’m incredibly flattered by that.
With those characters, especially with the Guardians, you have Star-Lord by Englehart and Gan, you’ve got Rocket Raccoon by Giffen and Mantlo, did you find that you had particular fondness for these characters before you even came to the book? Because the Guardians themselves was, well, a whole different team originally.
DA: Absolutely, absolutely. Obviously we wanted to nod to that continuity by including Vance Astro and acknowledging him, because they did crop up in the run. But yes, with the characters you mentioned I always loved them, particularly Star-Lord. I have to say, I really, really used to enjoy the early Star-Lord stories, particular the Claremont/Byrne epic story from “Marvel Preview,” which I just thought was fantastic.
Continued belowWith “Guardians,” they were always these interesting characters that had sort of been… not necessarily forgotten, but sidelined. They weren’t A-List Marvel characters. Indeed, the whole Cosmic side of the Marvel Universe was sort of, from time to time, neglected over the years. It wasn’t given a high focus. By collecting together these interesting characters, putting them into a team, badging that team with a name that had a nice nostalgic feel to it (which was a fun thing to play with), then getting the opportunity to — you can’t do it now, but at the time I could basically do anything I wanted because those characters weren’t core Marvel characters that you needed to make sure you dealt with respectfully, that you’d put back in the box so the next person could play with them. So the story freedom was quite extraordinary, and I think that led to some strong storylines and surprise twists and big things that, I guess technically speaking, you can’t do now that they’re very cemented into the Marvel Universe because of the movie. I think maybe the freedom has slightly gone to be able to do completely wild and crazy things, but it’s really nice to see them elevated to the status of main players with the movie and Bendis’ run on the new version of the comic, which I think is showing that this is an important part of the Marvel Universe.
The same is true of “Nova,” incidentally, because one of the angles that I took to writing him was to have him sort of acknowledge that he wasn’t as famous as he was. He knew he was a C-List characters, and by empowering him and putting him in the front ranks and actually having characters like Iron Man early on encounter him and saying “We’ve seriously underestimated who you are and what you represent,” that was a really good way into his character, acknowledging his own publishing status. “Guardians” too, of course, with the whole riff on them being not identified by the public. Who calls them the Guardians? Well, they do! That slight sense of underdog, that maverick and renegade aspect which is always a very interesting place to start with with a character.
It’s also interesting about the Guardians that, when you compare it to “Nova,” “Nova” had some sense of grounding to it. People were more aware of him, he was a part of the New Warriors, and that first arc of his solo book he headed back to Earth to talk to Iron Man about “Civil War.” But the Guardians were so far out there in space, doing their own thing, hanging out in a severed Celestial head. For that book, was it important to make sure the Guardians were kept in their own corner? Because Cosmic Marvel has always had that vibe to it, where it has its own expansive continuity but it’s also very firmly entrenched in its own area that’s separate from the rest of Marvel — until, well, Cap and the Avengers have to come out and fight Thanos or something.
DA: Yes. Yes, there is a distinction, and I think it’s a worthwhile one. The most important thing I felt with the Guardians book was to establish a sense of place for them; not just Knowhere but the major capital worlds of the cosmos. I’m gesturing, which is foolish because you can’t see me. [Laughs] But, it’s that idea that you can ground a comic if it’s based on Earth, and we understand Earth and you can ground it in that reality. There’s a sense of context there. In space, the danger of a cosmic story is that it’s all just stars and blackness; there is no sense of society, of civilization, of interaction with characters. I think I wanted early on to bring in as many things as I could, the Kree, the Shi’ar, things like that, all to give a sort of cosmic context to them. So they weren’t just adrift in metaphorical nowhere, but there would be an urgency that there were things that needed to happen, that there would be consequences if they didn’t stand up for what they were doing, and that kind of thing.
Continued belowI think if we’d run the book for longer, we might’ve tried to introduce more stories that related them to Earth, I suppose in the way Brian is doing now which is to show a) that Earth recognizes them and b) Earth realizes their importance and takes them seriously when they show up. If the Guardians show up it’s probably because Thanos is on the loose or something like that. They’ve elevated themselves to key players within the Marvel Universe and in relation to Marvel Earth.
Having seeded things like Knowhere in “Nova,” these were good locations to place them, to give them a sense that they weren’t just sort of adrift. I think that’s, well, essentially, if you’re not setting your story on Earth, you need to bring it an Earth equivalent — be it different planets or what have you to give them a sense of Earth, that context or importance, that significance that what they’re doing is important.
So in terms of developing the Guardians, you said that you were a particular fan of Star-Lord, and Rocket and Groot are certainly characters that took off with the fans and will probably take off even more when people see them on film with a talking raccoon and tree, but in terms of taking these characters, re-developing them or updating them to who they are today and then mixing in the Guardians concept in there, what did you find were the challenges in accessing your favorite stories of the past and taking them to where they are today?
DA: I think the challenge really was to give them distinctive voices — which they had already, of course. I’m not suggesting that they were invented out of cold cloth, but it was really a matter of looking at their continuity and, without weighing the book down with loads of exposition and catch-up and that, it was about having characters like Star-Lord reflect the things that he had been through. He’s a very changed character from that original, very glossy superhero idea. He was a bit of a non-superhero, and then an embittered supehero and all sorts of things, and by the time I got my hands on him he was very much this veteran soldier who was rediscovering his heroism. So just having a voice for the character that reflected that.
Gamora was another absolute favorite of mine. I loved her as a character in Jim Starlin’s “Warlock” stories. To try and find her, and I guess the same is true with Drax, but to try and find these characters who are not actually villains but so close to being villains because they’re so dangerous, yet you still had sympathy for them or at least some understanding of why they were what they were. Also, just seeing that slight redemption where they can be, for want of a better word, harnessed into good in the universe where they are otherwise quite nihilistic or destructive characters. To get that dynamic, that group bouncing off each other, the character interactions of course are brilliant because they’re not just heroes sitting around tables saying “What are we going to do next?” There is conflict, there is humor, there is sarcasm and in-fighting, all sorts of things which I think makes the team dynamic much more appealing.
As far as Rocket and Groot are concerned, I think they’re great characters. It was almost a case of, well, can we get away with making team members out of a talking raccoon and a walking space tree? [Laughs] It’s so unlikely. I think that the fact that they operate as a pair worked very, very well. It’s this unlikely buddy/buddy relationship; otherwise they’d have been two oddball characters in the midst of other things. The fact that they are a solid core, and in some respects oddly the moral center — Groot, to me, was always the moral center among the group even though he doesn’t express anything other than “I AM GROOT!” all the time, it’s quite clear to me that he’s a noble individual.
So, sometimes as I say, it was a matter of finding their voice or their voice equivalent in order to give them character, and to mesh with the others. Sometimes it was just the challenge of, how can I make these unlikely characters really work? And if it worked, then that’s great.
Continued belowThere’s more I want to ask about the Guardians, but before I do, you’re working on a novel version of Groot and Rocket hanging out. How did that come about, and how different is it from writing a comic? Part of what works is seeing this talking raccoon, seeing a talking tree, so how different do you find the experience of working with these characters in prose form?
DA: Well, I’ve finished it now, and I think it’s being printed as we speak. It was an incredibly enjoyable thing to do. I presume you know that apart from writing comics I do write novels on a regular basis anyway, so Marvel approached me and said, “We know when you wear your other hat it’s as a novelist, would you be interested in writing a Guardians or a Rocket and Groot novel that can be aimed at the launch of the movie?” Because Marvel publishes what they call prose novels to distinguish them from their graphic novels, but what they’ve always done is novel adaptations of existing comic stories. Marvel’s original approach was to ask me to take one of my Rocket and Groot stories and turn it into a novel, and I thought, yes, I can do that, but when you adapt something written for one form into something else, some things will be successful and some things won’t. When a comic becomes a movie, there are things that need to be changed because the mediums work in completely different ways. I felt that we would be missing a chance to engage with the potential problem that you mentioned, that Rocket is much more interesting if you can see him; they’re very visual characters, so how do you make that work successfully in a novel?
So I asked Marvel if they would consider allowing me to create an original story, rather than adapting one, so that I could actually tailor it to fit a novel. I wanted to exploit all the things that a novel can do that a comic can’t, rather than trying to re-form something that was originally visual and put it into novel form. They liked that idea very much; in fact, I think they’ve made quite a lot of fuss at the fact that it’s their first original prose novel? And it meant that I could play around point of view, and essentially replace the missing visual with the observations of the characters in the book. One of the primary characters in the book is a Rigellian recorder who is literally recording and documenting everything in immense detail, and he’s telling you things often to the point of ridiculous over-statement about what he’s seeing, what the characters are like, all this kind of stuff.
The visual detail was replaced by a narrative detail, which allowed for quite — I hope — a funny book. The elevator pitch was “John Woo’s Hitcher’s Guide to the Galaxy,” so very high levels of action all over the place, but also that kind of digressive, humorous, tangential going on at the same time. I think, for instance, if you’re not a Marvel reader or not a Marvel Cosmic reader, you can still pick the book up because you’ve seen the film and think it looks interesting, and then access it and enjoy it and understand and think it’s fun. If you are a Marvel reader, there are I suppose what you might regard as Easter Eggs in there, jokes and references that are amusing in and of themselves, but if you know the Marvel Universe, they are magnified for you.
And, with the novel, as I was saying earlier about the approach to writing the Guardians comic and giving it a context, it’s chock full of references to the Marvel Cosmology — the different races, the different places they travel from world to world. They engage with the Kree and other major races, doing different things. That gives it, again, a context, and it gives it (I hope, I’m digging myself up here) a texture of detail, that this is the Marvel Universe and that it is interesting and complicated, with politics and dynasties and rival empires and all sorts of things always going on… through which Rocket and Groot run through, gun in hand, causing absolute mayhem wherever they go. And hilarity ensues. [Laughs]Continued below
It was a very, very enjoyable thing to work on. And, as I said, very early on I realized that I should be playing up and exploiting what the novel can do rather than replicate in novel form what a comic does, so you get a better view of these characters.
One thing that you sort of touched on earlier is, where the Guardians and these characters are today, there are obviously certain limitations because of the film. The last run of “Guardians” had a certain freedom that I think the current “Guardians” don’t necessarily have due to the higher profile. But with a novel, since it’s removed from that continuity, from that world, is it the same kind of freedom? If you feel like including Adam Warlock, then you include Adam Warlock! Or is there a different set of limitations?
DA: There are sort of different limitations. First of all, the novel, if you’re coming into it having seen the film and knowing nothing about the comics, then it obviously resembles the film. But Marvel also wanted it to be comic continuity rather than movie continuity, so it has to do nothing to contradict either. I do include some guest stars, and I won’t spoil the surprises but there are some nice referential guest stars who appear along the way.
So, yes, there was a freedom to do something really big. I guess the limitations were in that I didn’t want to do anything contradict the existing continuity of the film, the comics and the place where those two things met. I crafted a pretty big story, the core of it which kind of flows out of the 2008 “Guardians” comic, and therefore allows them to have this adventure does nothing to deny anything else. That’s really what it is, while carving out a decent, proper story that wasn’t just a side-note or something forgettable. I didn’t want to throw a big rock in there that sends ripples in all directions, but yet still delivers a story that is worthy of a novel.
Moving back in the direction of the comic series, with the Guardians and all their various adventures over 25+ issues with minis and events, one of the things that I think is interesting the place of the Guardians. This is a run that very much defines who these characters are now, how we view them, and this is the run that informs a feature film. How do you feel about your place in Cosmic continuity from where your Guardians fits in versus the original Guardians runs or when the characters debuted in their own books?
DA: I set out to define those characters to the comic would work. I didn’t realize that I was working on something that would define characters in a rather more dramatic way in the Marvel Universe, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The fact that James Gunn has made it on numerous occasions quite clear that it’s this run that inspires the spirit and content of the movie is immensely flattering. He’s been extremely positive about it. I got to visit the set on two occasions when they were filming in the UK which was a marvelous experience, and as I said, he’s been very open about the fact that the movie is inspired by the flavor and the line-up and the interaction of those characters from that run.
I guess, with anything, you really just set out to write the best comic that you can. If it has a lasting effect, if it cements a character in a way that that character then operates in the Marvel Universe or whatever, that’s just an added bonus. I guess it shows that you did the job well, that people want to perpetuate that take on a character or characters. As I said earlier, it was a bit like rummaging around and picking up old favorite toys that had been forgotten and putting them together and saying, “Oh, that’s an interesting thing that works,” and then seeing how far you can run with that. I’d like to think that none of them were removed from their previous continuity and backgrounds, that they were still recognizably the same people, but that their lives had just progressed in a way to where they were now standing up to save the universe, whether the universe wanted saving or not. They gave themselves new purpose.
Continued belowIt grew very organically out of “Annihilation: Conquest,” by the way. That big event and such a huge threat, so having them band together to say that someone really has to be ready for this sort of thing next time it happens gave them a wonderful modus operandi right from the start. As with anything right from the start, particularly since this is a team book, it was that organic growth of what’s happened now, what would the consequences be and how will these characters respond? What will they do? I’m not suggesting for a moment that the book writes itself like that, but you see where you need to go with these things to reflect that direction and make the most of the opportunity that something like the Cosmic toy box offers you, really.
And there’s that freedom that you had mentioned, where if you wanted certain characters then it was probably just grabbing whoever you wanted out of the toybox. The Inhumans played a large part in all of it, for example, whereas now they’re pretty firmly entrenched in what’s going on at Marvel.
DA: Yes, yes, it is. They are. And I think that’s a really great thing. I love seeing the fact that the Guardians are now firmly part of that firmament of characters, that they can get Iron Man on the phone. [Laughs] That early freedom which allowed me to explore who they could be and how they could interact was probably a crucial part of making them into an interesting team, because I could — well, with the permission of editorial of course, but I could ask if I could use the Inhumans, could I go the Negative Zone, could I put these things in there to offer up proper genuine threats rather than try and reinvent stuff or to pull things out of thin air. Those narrative tendrils is what helps them now maneuver in the Marvel Universe as a recognizable force that has had interactions with fairly important players along the way.
Looking at the core team, there are certainly a few members that were a big part of your run on “Guardians” that are not really Guardians anymore — Adam Warlock, Moondragon — but looking at the team that you formed and how they came together, is there anybody on this team that you miss writing or anyone that you miss working with, I suppose?
DA: [Laughs] Yes, I suppose. I was extremely fond of them as a group of characters, but I also like that core that I think represents the team today in the way Brian’s writing it. It is the sort of core of Guardians 2.0, for lack of a better term. And some of the characters like Adam and Phyla Vell and Moondragon, to a certain extent, and even Bug as well, they almost were interesting to have in the mix along the way because they didn’t quite fit. They were worthy allies and members of the team, but… Well, I guess a really good example, one of my favorite characters to write, was Mantis, who was really just a support character. She was almost there as a councilor, more than anything else. [Laughs] But I liked using a character like that in a slightly unexpected way. You think if Mantis is in the book then Mantis has to be an active part of the team, but it took quite a while for her to participate actively in the adventures, and even then it was basically out of necessity.
It was always the interaction between them that was the compelling thing to write and to draw in mysteriously, like the appearance of Vance Astro and the appearance of Starhawk, to link that continuity to classic continuity and immediately answer all the questions of how that works. To set up strong storylines and mysteries that the reader was confident would be answered when the main characters found out what the source of the mystery was.
But, yes, I do. I say I miss writing Rocket and Groot, but having just written a novel I feel they’re very current. They were very, very enjoyable characters to write, and as I said, it was an extremely pleasant experience to do.
Continued below
And in terms of just Cosmic as a whole, it was nice because this book brought back a lot of Cosmic elements that hadn’t been in play for so long. I can remember at the end of “Thanos Imperative” the Spaceknight showing up, which was a big triumphant moment for me as a fan because I’m a huge ROM fan, a Bill Mantlo fan. With things like that, was there anything that you wanted to play with more that you didn’t necessarily get to use?
DA: I think… Yes, I think I probably would’ve done more with the Spaceknights, and — spoiler warning — there’s a Spaceknight in the novel. But I think, when we decided to finish the “Guardians” run, the idea at the time had been to stop it and allow it to recharge, to relaunch it. I think the big story that I would’ve done there very much would’ve been something that connected them to Earth in exactly the same way that they are now being portrayed, to show how Earth recognizes them and how the storyline involves the Earth heroes so that the Guardians would’ve had a profile on Earth — which, again, Brian has now done very successfully.
We didn’t recharge it because the film was on the way, and suddenly it was a much more high profile project. Marvel wanted to make sure exactly how they wanted to relaunch it. So I think that would probably have been the main thing left undone, which was to tap into the non-cosmic and to have them engage them with the Avengers or the FF, somebody like that. To establish that line of continuity with the one planet that we hadn’t had them visit properly.
But, yes, the more you look around — the Spaceknights lead to the Dire Wraiths — you see these things that haven’t been used in ages that would be great to big in. There was a shortlist; I say shortlist, but it was a list that grew on a regular basis when somebody remembered a piece of Cosmic continuity that hadn’t been visited that could be fun to reference or build a storyline around. Certainly working towards Thanos was a very big deal, and I wanted to somehow pay homage to the great Jim Starlin stories where the ultimate arise of Thanos was always an enormously big deal.
Somehow it was those sly references to things like the Spaceknights that made it fun, and added to that context I guess. I’m a big Mantlo fan, I have to say.
I grew up reading things like “ROM,” and I’m a big fan of robots in general but ROM hits that sweet spot for me.
DA: I think ROM came along just about the point in which it started to be possible to buy imported American comics in the UK, or at least the part of the UK that I lived in, so rather than just reading them in segmented black and white large format reprints, which was great, but to seem them in color and in their original editions was fantastic. I think the first issue of “ROM” was one of the first American comics that I actually bought rather than found in a yard sale or something. I have it to this day.
One thing I’m pretty curious about is, certainly you’ve been on set of Guardians and seen things happening, but what was your first impression when you found out that there would be a Guardians film, and what was your first reaction when you saw something — whether it was the on-set visit, the first full trailer with all the graphics in place and everything?
DA: When they first announced it, I remember being delighted and astonished, simply because the Guardians are not the Fantastic Four or Iron Man or whomever like that. Every film that Marvel has made so far has been an obvious franchise winner, so to take such a bold leap… If they had said, for instance, that it was a Silver Surfer movie to open up the Cosmic side of the Marvel Universe, I’d think, OK, I get that. People certainly know who the Silver Surfer is. Members of the public who don’t read comic have probably seen or would recognize who the Silver Surfer is. But for them to go for Guardians sort of astonished me, and I thought that that was an extraordinary creative and courageous thing to do; I wonder how they’re going to do that? And as time passed and more information became available and it became clear that it was this particular era of the Guardians that was forming the bedrock for the film but that the film would retain that sense of humor and all the other things we did, and the fact that it’s James Gunn, who is an extremely talented director who makes very, very interesting and often quite unusual movies — his take on things is interesting.
Continued belowSo, the first set visit I got was during pre-production, where I actually got to read the script, which I can tell you nothing about! But I got to read the script and I realized that he and the writers who had worked on it absolutely were in step with the Guardians as I had pictured them. I was expecting all sorts of major changes in tone and that kind of stuff, but the real major changes I suppose was to slightly simplify things so it becomes more understandable in the context of a two-hour film without weighing it down with too much continuity. Even so, it’s an enormous challenge because the movie has to introduce to a movie going audience a team of characters rather than just one character that they’ve not met before, and then put them in context and show all the other forces around them. I think he’s done that brilliantly, to be honest.
I also, on the first visit, got to see costume design and the look of the film, and now with the trailers out there there’s a lot of material online. James himself posts an awful lot of material about the way things have been designed, and just the visual flair of it; he didn’t want it to be just a science-fiction movie that sort of looked like other science-fiction movies because that’s what science-fiction movies should look like, you know? He really wanted to make it bold and powerful and with its own flavor, and I think it sort of has that colorful stamp of great, early 70’s sci-fi cover illustrations for paperbacks. It doesn’t, in the best possible way, look like the sort of films that you might otherwise compare it to.
My second set visit was during filming, and I got to watch scenes being shot. I went aboard two of the space ships. [Laughs] Which was amazing! One of which is Star-Lord’s own ship, which I explored. He’s built it in its entirety; it was the complete unit. And I got to see Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana and Dave Bautista filming a scene and I got to talk to them, and they were all in costume and they were all extraordinary. So to realize, after that initial shock, that I had spent five minutes surrounded by people I had only known as characters I’d written! They were so well brought to life. It was a very surreal experience. Just watching James’ approach in what was quite a dramatic scene that he was shooting was fascinating to see how certain effects were achieved, the sort of fine-tuning that he was doing.
To watch him work over the course of an afternoon, where he encouraged the cast to improvise every now and then just to see what different versions of the scene would be like, and I’ll be very interested to see what the final version of the scene was that is used — but he got to the point where he was rebuilding the scene as he went along because Chris Pratt had said something really funny. It was really a very impressive creative experience because he was really open to what they were bringing to make the scene better, and I think the final take we saw had the entire crew — which was hundreds of people! — just in absolute hysterics, because it was a really exciting scene but it was also just so funny. And he got that out of them and their performances. He’d given them a roadmap and then encouraged them to build on that, all in character.
I think that was the moment where I went, “This is going to be great.” [Laughs] And I think everyone has responded extremely well to the trailers, that shows the combination of great action, amazing design, strong performances from actors you might not necessarily expect to see all together in the same film, which I think is part of the lovely, organic mix and charm of the film. And, well, it’s very funny. So, yes, I have very, very high hopes for it indeed.
And I take it that, obviously you’ve spent so much time with the duo of Rocket and Groot that you’re probably fairly fond of Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper as the voice cast?
Continued belowDA: Yes, yes. In fact, on my set visit, if they’d been cast at that point it hadn’t been announced. Rocket wasn’t actually in the scene, but they had this very nice guy in a full motion capture bodysuit, and he was either a dancer or a mime, just sitting in at the back as Groot and just moving around because Groot was present. I thought that that was very interesting to realize that one of the characters was also there, I just couldn’t see him yet or hear him.
But, yes, I think they’re great choices for the voices.
Finally, it was announced recently that you would be helming a new Cosmic title, “Guardians 3000,” starring the original team from the 70’s. Given that you spent so much time plotting the direction for a different team with the same name that had interactions and influence from these characters, how does it feel to now finally write the continued adventures of the classic Guardians?
DA:: It feels great. The 2008 run established a new cosmic team in the present day MU, and it would have been crazy not to use the name Guardians, even if I was populating the team with an entirely different cast. It was an effort to refresh the brand, to rediscover some great but neglected characters, and to add to the color or Marvel Cosmic.
Obviously, the “Guardians of the Galaxy” brand has gone from strength to strength, with the ‘new’ contemporary team featuring in the movie and having great success in their own title. I’d never forgotten the original iteration, however, and I tried to link that lore in. Now I get to explore it more fully.
What is it about the classic Guardians that you think still calls to readers? Obviously they had a passionate following originally, but with a new team in place using their name, what do you find is appealing about the characters for new readers?
DA:: They are classic characters. They have a unique appeal. I love the fact that the team exists in two eras, a thousand years apart, and that “G3K” offers a chance to build and develop the future of the Marvel Universe. The original Guardians were always at a slight disconnect because they existed in the future. They had to time travel in order to interact with the Marvel heroes we all know.
And, yes, they’ll be doing that again because it’s cool and too good a thing NOT to do, but I’m also going to try and build an interesting, compelling context for them in the future – a future MU with new ideas and concepts, and also some extrapolations of classic MU ideas. Basically, what the MU is like in a thousand years time.
Obviously you were always a big fan of these characters and their origins, and you certainly utilized some of them during your time working on Cosmic Marvel. Now that you’re allowed full access to this iteration, what are some of things you’re hoping to accomplish with the team? Any particular toys you’re excited to play with?
DA:: I want to show how cool these characters are. I want to develop their interaction and rapport. They’re quite a powerful team, and I aim to grow that team, but they exist in a very dark and scary future.
I imagine you’ve probably done quite a bit of work on the series so far, so how have you found the differences between working on these established characters versus what it was like to work on that brand new team back in 2008?
DA: In both instances, it’s a matter of feeling your way into the characters as personalities. I want to make sure the reader likes them and cares about them. In the 2008 run, the characters all previously existed, but had never been a team before. The work there was to build those relationships. With “G3K” it’s a matter of taking the team, people who already know one another, and working out how that dynamic ticks.
You spent a good deal of time aligning the mythology of the original Guardians with the new ones introduced during your time in Cosmic Marvel, so how are you finding the alignment of classic Guardians here with the other Cosmic Marvel titles? How closely do you and the other writers and editors and artists work together?
Continued belowDA: We’re going to be working very closely, I think. Oddly, there is that great paradox. “G3K” is the mythology and the origin of the brand…. but it hasn’t happened yet. It’s the future of everything that’s happening in Marvel Cosmic now. For example, if the Guardians inspired the Guardians, which way around was it?
It seems like this book probably affords a lot of new experiences, even if these are older characters that you have an affinity for, so how does it feel to return to Cosmic Marvel after some time away, given all the changes that have happened since your last adventure?
DA: I’m loving it, and I was delighted when Marvel offered me the chance to do it. I’m deliberately trying not to disturb or contradict any continuity (except for certain time-travel related story ways), but I also want to make the this new ‘old’ team accessible to people who’ve never met them before. IT’s going to be fun and very exciting: strong new storylines, great new characters, classic old ones, new threats and old, established menaces, strong supporting characters… and some real twists and surprises about the way the MU has changed in 1000 years that I hope will please the readership.
To wrap up, just looking at Cosmic comics again as a whole, the way we appreciate or look at Cosmic Marvel has certainly changed so much in the past decade. It really ramps up as we lead up to the movie, but is there anything that you’re particularly excited about people maybe uncovering for the first time? With all the new opportunities that the higher profile that cosmic now has, if you know what I mean.
DA: I think so, yeah, and I am excited. For a start, Marvel has in its back catalogue — most of which is either in print or will be re-printed soon — 3+ decades of incredibly good Cosmic stories. I’ve got a feeling that Cosmic superhero stories from Marvel are one of those things that people either loved or didn’t get to read. I’ve heard that people some people didn’t understand Cosmic, or… Well, the very fact that we used Jack Flag, an Earther who had no experience in Cosmic, and he kept saying “I hate cosmic stuff, I don’t understand it!” [Laughs] He was the token non-Cosmic reader. He was a deliberate reference to the people who never really read Cosmic comics because they didn’t understand the context of it. The fact that it now has a context, well, I hope people will go back and read not just the stuff that I’ve written but also Starlin’s and Valentino’s and Mantlo’s and all these great stories that are the legacy that have led to this point. They always had a context, but I think people just thought “Cosmic? Don’t get Cosmic.” That division has broken down, and now Cosmic is very, very much part of the Marvel Universe as a whole, and the transmission of characters from both Cosmic to Earth to Cosmic is now something that everyone accepts and gets. I think that’s a brilliant thing. I think that’s really terrific.
I think there are people who have hundreds of great stories waiting, that they didn’t realize were there, waiting for them to be enjoyed. And I hope that it develops now in all sorts of ways, that Cosmic can continue to expand and to make the Marvel Universe a bigger universe. There are opportunities in the comics that are yet to be exploited properly.
