Today for WonderCon Aftermath I present an interview with Christos Gage, the writer of such books as Marvel’s Avengers Academy, the upcoming Video Game Captain America from Sega, and the upcoming book Faith and Angel from Dark Horse Comics. Check the interview after the cut!
Starting with Captain America: Super Soldier, how did the project come along, and what did you do?
Marvel Studios called me and said “would you be interested in writing the story for the Captain America video game?” and I said “sure!” I had never actually written a video game before and it was a great experience. I got to go to Marvel Studios, read the movie script and looked at the concept art. Then we were told, “You know, it’s set in the same universe as the movie, but go ahead and do your own story, which was great because we didn’t have to worry about production changes or whatever, and we didn’t want people to play the game and play the same story that they had just seen in the theaters. So, you know, we had come up with our own story set in World War II first of all, and there’s a medieval castle in the mountains that Hydra has turned into a factory for weapons of mass destruction and nefarious experiments. So before these weapons hit the front lines and are used against our troops, Cap has to go in and take it out. Of course, when he gets in there, it’s a lot worse than he realized. There are all these villains: Baron Strucker, Madame Hydra, Arnim Zola, Iron Cross, Red Skull, all kinds of fun.
Is it his entire rogue’s gallery?
Not entire, but there are a lot of WWII-era villains. Matter of fact, Madame Hydra wasn’t really a WWII-era villain, but I took the position that there’s always been A Madame Hydra; it’s a title.
Are there any other nods to the mainstream Marvel Universe in there? Any other characters that just kind of pop up. For instance, is Howard Stark in it?
You know, I think he is. I think he’s in the demo. Dum Dum Dugan is in there. Bucky’s in there…who else? I think that’s it, but there are a lot of–you know, we didn’t want anybody who played the game if they’re just casual gamers, and not comic book fans to get lost. It’s not very continuity heavy in the story, but there’s a lot of Easter Eggs and as you uncover information about Hydra and the castle, there’s a lot of stuff that’s for longtime fans like us.
How does writing the game compare to writing a comic book?
It’s different. It’s an interesting middle ground between like movies and TV. You’ve got actors but they’re voice actors, and in terms of budget, you have a lot of the freedom of comics but not as much because there are still budget issues. You can only animate so many characters and stuff. But you can blow up a lot of stuff so… [Laughs]
Moving onto Avengers Academy that came out of the Heroic Age; it featured the characters’ darker side, I guess you could say…
Yeah! It was at-risk superhero kids. They could become villains as easily as heroes, and the Avengers are trying to make sure they go down the heroic path.
It even seems the people who are teaching them seem like they have their own demons they’re trying to get rid of. Was that on purpose?
That was definitely intentional. It seems like they’re more interesting characters to me. They’ve…been there. So they know what these kids are going through, and hopefully will know how to steer them in the right direction. Or, there’s always the possibility that they might struggle with their own demons and steer them in the wrong direction.
With what Finesse and Quicksilver are doing, it seems like a real possibility.
Yeah.
To get a little more specific, what was the decision to turn Hank Pym back into Giant Man?
Well, there are a couple of reasons. The in-story reason is that we feel we’ve dealt with the whole “he hit his wife when he had a nervous breakdown” thing, but he’s not like a serial wife beater. We didn’t want that to be what defines the character. And as long as he was “The Wasp” he was sort of related to Jan and so we wanted to move him back into his own identity.
As far as his past identities, Giant Man seems to, for me anyway, the most iconic one. And I had realized whenever you see him in like an alternate universe or the future, he’s always Giant Man. He’s never Yellowjacket; he’s never “Dr. Pym” from West Coast Avengers. He’s always Giant Man. I think that’s because it’s very visual. I mean, the guy grows giant. Some people speculated: Oh, Marvel made them do it because he’s Giant Man in the cartoon but that wasn’t it at all. It was just coincidence.
I would imagine he doesn’t stay Yellowjacket very long because those wings that come up would block his vision.
[Both laugh]
Probably, yeah.
Are there any tidbits you can give me that tell us where the story’s going? Like with the Korvac Saga, or the New Korvac Saga, does that tie-into the mini-series that at all?
No, that was sort of like an all-ages book. So it doesn’t really tie in, but in issue 12 which comes out very soon, we see the kids in their adult bodies but with their present day minds and have to fight Korvac. Then in issue 13 we have “The Super Hero Prom” including members of Young Allies and the Initiative. In issue 14 the take of the Sinister Six. And in Issue 15–well, in 14.1, which is a new-reader friendly issue, in which the kids meet some of the kids that Norman Osborn had recruited who didn’t end up in Avengers Academy; and they see what happened to them. And in 15 begins our Fear Itself tie-ins, which is really interesting for me because I’ve taken the approach that this is the kids going to war for the first time. It’s their first big crisis, to the point where they HAVE to be involved. All the Avengers are spread really thin. So they actually have to go to the front lines. They’re supposed to just do civilian rescue, but of course, just like women aren’t “supposed” to be in combat in combat in Afghanistan, but effectively, they are. It’s interesting to me because, you know, we’ve been sending 18-year-olds to from the dawn of our country, and that’s what these kids are experiencing. That’s the approach I’m taking.
You said they’re going to meet the Young Allies at the Superhero Prom, are there ever going to be crossovers with Heinberg’s Young Avengers or are we ever going to see the Runaways show up? I feel like there are a lot of younger teams that could interact.
Yeah. A lot of people want to see The Runaways and it’s just a matter of finding the right moment and the right story. I would love to do that as well. As far as the Young Avengers, that seems natural. The thing about it is that the currently running Children’s Crusade storyline has to finish first; that actually takes place in the near future of the Marvel Universe.
Oh really, so it takes place after The Heroic Age?
Yeah, it takes place after the Heroic Age and we can’t really mess with that story until it’s finished. When it does, it makes a lot of sense for the Young Avengers and the Avengers Academy kids to meet, and I’m hoping that will happen.
I hadn’t heard anything about it taking place after the Heroic Age is done so…
Well maybe I spoiled it…oops. [Laughs] I don’t think the Heroic Age is really “done” though, it was more of like this is a feel, and then Fear Itself starts its own thing.
More of a question on a personal note: one of my favorite moments in the Mighty Avengers with Dan Slott was the whole Scientist Supreme thing. Are there plans for you to mess with that a little bit or was that just kind of a hoax?
Continued belowWell, Dan intentionally left it open. Was it a hoax by Loki? Was it true? I’m taking the position that Hank thinks he’s the Scientist Supreme, so there you go. But he still is, but right now it’s not something that we’re going to build a storyline around, but it’s there.
Moving to Faith & Angel from Dark Horse; that’s a new title that’s in the Buffy/Angel Universe, and it’s supposed to coincide with Season 9 I hear.
Yes.
Could you tell us about that story?
Again, there’s only so much I can reveal, but basically, it takes place after season 8. And again, spoiler alert if you haven’t read Season 8, but in Buffy Season 8: Angel, when he was possessed by Twilight, killed Giles. And Faith inherited Giles’ estate which is in London. So she’s dealing with the aftermath of it, because he was there for her in her darkest moment and now she’s going to be there for him. It’s going to have a feel of a noirish supernatural feel; and we’re going to be exploring the ideas of redemption that always defined Angel and Faith. That’s about all I can say right now, except Rebecca Isaacs is drawing it and it looks fantastic.
Are there any other characters that are going to pop up from the Buffy Universe, or can you tell us that?
Yes, there will be. Basically between my book and Joss’ book, Buffy, most of the characters that people are wondering about will show up. There will be characters crossing over with Angel and Faith…just down the road.
What’s it like working with Joss Whedon?
It’s great! He’s very hands on, these are his babies. We had a storywriter’s summit at his house and planned out a lot of stuff. He’s terrific. He’s the guy who created the characters; he knows them better than anybody. He has a lot of wonderful suggestions about it. Even though he’s directing Avengers, which has got to be incredibly time consuming, I don’t know where he finds the time, but he’s always involved, answering questions and suggesting things. It’s great.
What can you say are the differences between working at Marvel and working at Dark Horse?
You know, I don’t even think I’ve worked at Dark Horse enough to know. I mean, generally the differences between working at the companies are pretty procedural. You know, how they process their vouchers [Laughs]. You know, boring stuff like that. It’s not like “these guys make you write your scripts one way” and “these guys make you write your scripts that way.” It’s not that different for me.
On a final note, are there any other things you’re going to be working on in the future that you can tell us about?
Yeah! I’ve got two issues of Amazing Spider-Man, 661 and 662 coming up. I’ve got an arc on Astonishing X-Men starting with issue #38, and…let’s see, Oh! Home Front: Fear Itself starring Speedball that runs concurrently with Fear Itself. I think that’s it.
You sound like a busy man.
I am pretty busy, yeah.
You should probably get home and get some sleep. Thanks for your time!
No, thank you!
