Launching last year, Kurtis Wiebe and Tyler Jenkins’ “Peter Panzerfaust” hit stands from Image and Shadowline, re-imagining the classic Barrie story of a boy who refused to grow up as a young man immersed in World War II. Having just recently completed its second arc, “Panzerfaust” showed us the World War II version of Hook, Tiger Lilly and more, and challenged readers with a nail-biting conclusion of peril, loss and a slim ray of sunshine.
With the third arc’s first issue recently for June, we sat down with series writer Kurtis Wiebe to discuss Haken, narrator motivations, finales and the future.
In the second arc, the book got considerably darker as Haken (our Hook) reared his ugly head to torment Peter on a psychological level – a sharp difference from the more popular manifestation of Hook. Even aside from the war aspect of the book, how did you decide to have a more manipulative villain here?
KW: I wanted to create our version of Hook as a more cunning, dangerous threat, as he was in the J.M. Barrie novel. I think there’s an interesting scope we can play with in regards to the psychological similarities between Hook and Peter, despite their intrinsic differences. Both are the sons of war heroes and both have a need to overcome the burden of living in their fathers’ shadows. While Hook has already come to understand that he is defining his own legacy, he sees a similar drive in Peter and feels an affinity toward it. Their struggle needed to be more than just an occasional crossing of swords, it had to be a mind game that will span the course of the series.
Haken is descended from a Prussian Hussar, and takes his birthright very seriously. Why did you choose this particular ancestry for him?
KW: I’d originally come up with the idea in the early stages of developing the characters and wanting to make Hook’s sword part of his legacy. It was always going to be a symbol of his heritage and how it defined him. I also think there’s an interesting story about how he’s inherited a piece of own history, both in a physical and emotional sense. The very fact that the Prussian empire was occupied by the French and rose up with other European nations to end Napoleon’s conquest, contrasted against the German invasions of World War II, makes for an interesting dichotomy. Hook sees this war as just, that he’s part of taking back what the French had stolen from his forefathers (pride), makes him a dangerous villain.
In the opening sequence, Haken calls war a “sculptor’s tool” that defines or destroys. If Haken is a sculptor, what is he sculpting and why?
KW: Hook is speaking to the fact that some men are called to greater things. They aren’t simply participants in major events, they are the ones who define and shape history. He’s also hinting at something greater, a theme we will be touching on throughout the series, and it relates to the line about the Immortal Warriors defying death because they are instruments in its service. As though death cannot touch them because they are fated for greatness. This ties into Peter’s story as well, and will become clear in the future of the series.
Speaking of the dark nature of the finale, Julien is reduced to a pawn in the game between Peter and Haken, and clearly resents his role quite a bit. But he’s not a bystander to us — he’s the narrator. Is he taking any particular advantage of this opportunity to retell the story?
KW: I think that’s one of the strengths of our series, in that each narrator brings his or her own memories to the story. Memories are malleable, we each see events through our own lens. So, that said, it’s important to remember that each arc will be a very unique experience depending on who’s telling the story. While I wouldn’t say that Julien resents his role, I would say that he often felt helpless to change the course of events in a significant way, and that he knew he was only playing a small part in the greater story.
Continued belowThe (revised) answer that Peter gives when Haken asks him why he’s in France (“To chase shadows”) seems to put him in line with Haken’s rhetoric, and gesture at a fundamental similarity between these two characters. Obviously Haken kind of forced him to say it, but is there anything to it — particularly since Haken claims to see himself as a protector of the French people? And why does Haken keep leading the conversation back to this idea of some commonality between him and Peter?
KW: Hook believes that he and Peter are the same, from their motivations to their similar familial history. He’s a complicated character who on one hand wants to defeat Peter but also sees in the boy a chance for true challenge, a real nemesis that will define his career. That’s why he pushes Peter to admit their goals are the same, that they have the same drive for success and that is comes from living in the shadows of the great men who came before them.
The Peter Pan mythos concerns itself with innocence, and what it means to grow up. With the finale moving towards a dark place and the general nature of war, do you think any of the characters still retain a sense of innocence?
KW: The second arc is about putting aside a lot of naivety and understanding that the war has become a personal one for them. They learned this through the death of Alain and the events on the roof where a nameless boy died at the hands of Hook. In the next arc we start to see the beginnings of them embracing their responsibility in the war as men and women, not boys and girls. There is still an aspect of innocence that is wrapped up in the hope that their actions will have a direct effect on the war, which seems idealistic, but that is also part of who Peter is.
The finale isn’t all doom and gloom, however, as the one bright spot comes in the wedding between Curly and Lily, offering a nice final moment of optimism in an otherwise dark second arc. Were you at all afraid that ending on an otherwise Empire Strikes Back-esque moment could be too grim for the series?
KW: Partially. I knew that Julien and Lily would be married from the moment I sat down and wrote Issue #1. That was always part of the plan and since Julien was going to be the narrator of the second arc, I also knew it’d fit into that part of the story. I actually juggled the reveal of when quite a lot in my head. I thought about showing Lily and Julien as an older couple in Issue #8 but I felt the impact of the reveal would be lessened if the reader knew they both survived, especially given the dark nature of Issue #9. That’s why I went with the reveal of them getting married first, followed by the reveal of Lily as an older woman in Issue #10. Emotionally, it felt more satisfying.
Honestly, I hadn’t expected this series to go down as dark a road as it has, but it’s all felt natural to me. After the finale to Issue #9, I worried that people might think we’d derailed our original vision, but hoped that our readers would trust me to bring the optimism back. I really wanted to show that Peter was a special man, but he also was human and was put into impossible situations. So, with the final issue of our second arc, I wanted to bring it back around to the optimistic side, where Peter embraces his fate as a great man and his experience with Hook motivates him to put an end to the villain’s plans.
Looking forward into the third arc, what can people expect to see from the storyline? Does it connect closely into recognizable elements of the original version of Pan, or are you elaborating more on their involvement in the real war?
KW: At this point, most of the connections we’re drawing from the source material are thematic. Just like our version of Peter Pan’s shadow was a psychological one, the other bits and pieces from the novel will also be. Of course, we haven’t seen a few of the more important characters from the novel, and by the end of the third arc, every single character will have been revealed. I think there are some pretty excellent surprises coming up.
Continued belowHow conscious of a decision was it to find the book’s origin in Barrie’s story but move away from it to only a thematic connection? I know you’ve stated you didn’t want this to just be a war-based remake, but with so many active connections between this and the original material do you find the disconnect hard to achieve at all?
KW: What’s important to me as a storyteller is that the audience can come into the series not being familiar with either Peter Pan or World War II and still get an interesting, character driven story. Really, I want all the little pieces of Peter Pan that we infuse into the story to connect with true fans of the original novel in a clever way without ever feeling forced. And for those who aren’t familiar with the Peter Pan story, there’s still something unique and original about what we’re doing with Barrie’s characters.
In terms of the “missing” characters and considering the different narrators of the tale, to what extent do you find you lean towards giving an unreliable narrator, if at all? Is everyone who Parsons talks as forthcoming as they seem, or are you purposefully leaving certain chunks out of the story for now?
KW: The narrators are more straightforward than people might think, it’s really the lens through which the story is told and an interesting framework to the overall narrative. I touched on it briefly in the first arc when Gilbert deliberately does not reveal a part of the story because it’s Julien’s to tell. So, there’s an understanding about what part of their history is best told by whom, but it’s also a way to break the story up into separate chapters.
Felix is the narrator of the third arc. What particular insights do you feel he will add over Tootles or Curly?
KW: The narrator for the third arc will be Felix, who’s spent most of his time captured for the first and second arc. This will also be a tonal shift in the narrative as, until now, Mr. Parsons has had no trouble getting the other Lost Boys to share their memories with him. Felix, however, really doesn’t want to revisit that life and it will make things pretty interesting both in the modern time and in flashback.
When looking at Peter Panzerfaust as a larger entity, now that we’re two arcs in, what would you say you feel is generally the more important aspect: the influence of history, or the re-interpretation of the classic Barrie story? Or neither, even?
KW: I think the most important aspect is the relationships we’re building in the series and how the war would affect people so young who find themselves inexplicably drawn into it. How the war challenges them personally and even changes them, that’s what the heart of the story is. I think the Peter Pan novel also still plays a heavy role, as I mentioned earlier, in a thematic sense. That will always be guiding the overarching narrative, but at the end of the series, I want people to really love all these characters and feel for them when they struggle or triumph.
To what extent would you say is the dynamic of the story changed by having a hesitant narrator? The last two were rather forthcoming, but I’d imagine that Felix’s issues would in essence change how the story could be told.
KW: I’ve come up with a pretty interesting way the story will unfold with Felix, which I’m looking forward to showing the readers. It’s going to change this arc in a more subtle way, since Felix is a strong silent type, his arc will be much more rooted in the past with less time spent talking with him. It’ll be a nice change of pace, I think.
