with Joe Casey
Interview
with: Troy
Brownfield
Our guest
this time in The Big Question has previously distinguished
himself with his work on Incredible Hulk and Cable. He is
currently co-writing (with Brian Houghlin) Mr. Majestic for
Wildstorm and has been working on the X-Men revamp, Children
of the Atom. He's yet another one of the creators we recruited
for the column from the Wizard World Con in Chicago, and he's
a nice guy in his own right. Ladies and gentlemen, Joe
Casey!
THE BIG Q&A
Q1. This is the semi-obligatory revamp question. If there
were one character that you would really like to overhaul
and run with, who would it be?
A1.
Well, I doubt I could pick only one... when I've gotten
the opportunity so far, I've enjoyed the challenge of taking
on the icons and doing "my" take on them. The three books
that spring to mind -- although there's probably no chance
in the world I'll get my shot -- are THE AVENGERS (my favorite
book from when I was a kid), CAPTAIN AMERICA (I'd actually
make the book and the character >gasp< about America. Of course,
Waid found out that a book about a guy who wears the flag
as his costume isn't supposed to have any real social relevance...
at least as far as Marvel's concerned), and SPIDER-MAN. I
never really thought about Spider-Man much before, but I think
there's a connection between the character and the readership
that's not being made lately, and probably hasn't been made
for a while. So, it'd be fun to try to take the character
-- which has evolved quite a bit from what originally made
him so unique in comics -- and try to reconnect with the readers
on that primal level, the same level that made him so popular
to begin with. Of course, I say all this with the knowledge
that, after CHILDREN OF THE ATOM, Marvel probably won't let
me near any more of their icons with a ten-foot pole. Ah well...
Besides,
at the moment, I'm a bit more interested in characters with
little or no history, where the territory's a little newer,
a little fresher. So, that's why I get into characters like
MR. MAJESTIC, as well as my own creater-owned stuff I'll be
doing next year.
Q2.
Majestic has been written in the Wildcats home title by the
likes of Chris Claremont, Alan Moore and James Robinson. How
does it feel to be included in that group, and what can we
expect from you?
A2.
Well, two of those writers you mentioned are two of my
very favorite comic book writers, so I wouldn't presume to
ever put myself in their league. Our goal with MR. MAJESTIC
is to tell the wildest, most imaginative stories we can pull
out of our twisted brains. After having our hero rearrange
the nine planets in the first issue, we really raised the
bar for ourselves on how big we can make this series. Topping
ourselves each issue is the main goal. The first six issues
are six stand-alone stories, each one big in its own way.
Then, starting with issue #7, we embark on an epic, 6-part
story called "Universal Law" which will take readers to places
they've never been before. We're really going all-out with
this tale, it's going to have it all.
We would like to thank Joe Casey for taking time out of his
busy schedule to answer our questions. Don't forget to look
out for his upcoming creator-owned projects, and continue
to enjoy the extremely entertaining Mr. Majestic in the meantime.
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