Hickman interview on the Cerebro pod

[NewMutant]

it's interesting that the current editor was against Hickman's pitch as well as Quesada.

what's even more interesting is that Hickman wasn't interested in coming back to Marvel after Secret Wars until Marvel asked him to come back.

I love his ethics about how he would never pitch a book while a current writer is on a book and that he never asks for books, Marvel asks him to work on books.

It makes me think of other writer's who undercut his ideas (looking at you Slott)

Could this be elaborated more please? I didn't listen and am curious. Thanks!

[JB]

Could this be elaborated more please? I didn't listen and am curious. Thanks!

He said that JDW didn't like the Krakoa pitch, he and others in the room. There were a lot of strong opinions which Hickman expected. It didn't sound like JDW pushed against it but he didn't like it.

[Mungho]

it's interesting that the current editor was against Hickman's pitch as well as Quesada.

Wait, Quesada is STILL at Marvel?! That man shouldn't be anywhere near comics!

[Omega Alpha]

He said that JDW didn't like the Krakoa pitch, he and others in the room. There were a lot of strong opinions which Hickman expected. It didn't sound like JDW pushed against it but he didn't like it.

Considering what we saw during the brief time he hang out in these boards, it would be surprising if JDW liked it. Like most people working at Marvel, something more like Guggenheim's X-men would be more to their taste, or anything that indulged in nostalgia fan-wank.

[Sutekh]

Problem is most of the characters wouldn't have gone along with it, like in New Mutants where they were literally cheering their friends on in murdering each other.

That's been retconned at least twice as having something to do with either Onslaught or Shadow King mind-screwing everyone into killing themselves so that it could get a firmer grip on their psyches or something. I'm sure it's going to be retconned at least once more. (Just like the three or four separate times Wanda has been 'redeemed' or had her freakout explained away as something/something Life Force or Chthon or whatever so far, it's just gonna keep happening until people accept it or the heat-death of the universe.)

[CGAR]

Well Hickman specifically states not everyone was on board but they were trying something new and it tracks with Apocalypse.

Also he showed that some of the New Mutants and GenX werent down with what was happening but others were holding them back from interfering.

He cant put all the characters on thoughts in one issue.

[Bruce Wayne]

Wait, Quesada is STILL at Marvel?! That man shouldn't be anywhere near comics!

He's gone now, but he helped out Cebulski-Yoshida when he was just getting started on the EiC. More specificially HoX/PoX and the Spencer ASM (which both seem to be fan favorites) had involvement by him. For example in PoX, the whole doom-gloom of the post-human machine dominated future was done because of him and the original idea was likely what we initially suspected when the first issue dropped that the post-humans were indeed mutants and that people were kept as zoo animals instead of what turned out in that issue

From the podcast, Hickman specifically mentioned Powers of X was something he had drawn up when he was doing Ultimates before his run on Avengers/New Avengers and also from the initial promotion from HoX/PoX that it was inspired by the Powers of Ten shortfilm (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0). Likely the original idea was just a series of time jump into the future showing the impact of the X-Men and how mutants eventually dominate much like that issue of Fantastic Four with the timejumps showing how Ben Grimm survived the rest of the FF (aside from Franklin)into the far future and how the idea of the FF was kept alive thousands of years later.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I listened to the whole thing and it's a good listen especially if you are interested in being a writer for Marvel or DC in the future.

[JB]

I listened to the whole thing and it's a good listen especially if you are interested in being a writer for Marvel or DC in the future.

Agreed, it's a great conversation. It's the most comfortable I've ever heard him be actually.

[Vordan]

I wonder if Hickman planned to go more in-depth with the dubious ethics behind stuff like the Crucible, the Resurrections, and the Council before he left.

He outright says that part of the story engine with Krakoa was “when you get everything you want, is that a good thing?” Given he had Cyclops tell the Council to kick rocks and Scott reformed the X-Men, at some point I’m sure the X-Men were going to fight the Quiet Council over the bad **** Krakoa was letting happen because they needed guys like Sinister and Apocalypse on board.

[Jackraow21]

That would’ve been interesting. I wonder if there’s anything that was left on the table which he’ll take into the new Ultimate Universe he’s rebuilding/revisiting with Ultimate Invasion?

[gurkle]

Canon is not what’s on page, it’s what sticks in memory

Can anyone point to the time in the podcast where he talks about this? The closest I could find was around 3:28:30 when he talks about adding to the mythology instead of destroying, but I can't find his discussion of which stories stick in the mind.

Update: Found it, around 1:33:24.