Ask Kurt Busiek

[Kurt Busiek]

Thanks. They had some some graphic novels back then. (death of groo was fun!) I wasn't requesting you to read the stories however i just asked if you have read any and if you liked them so sorry if i came off wrong. Didn't mean to.

No worries. I've read a lot of them, and liked a bunch -- FUTURIANS and STAR SLAMMERS, to pick two more. I just don't want to give specific opinions on each...

kdb

[Johnny Thunders!]

Wait nevermind!

[Rzerox21xx]

Mr. Busiek, I noticed on the August Solicits, your "The Marvels" series you doing with Yildiray Cinar is not present, what are the plans for that? I was really looking forward to this I hope it will be in the September Solicts.

[Kurt Busiek]

Mr. Busiek, I noticed on the August Solicits, your "The Marvels" series you doing with Yildiray Cinar is not present, what are the plans for that? I was really looking forward to this I hope it will be in the September Solicts.

When Marvel put various books on hiatus due to the coronavirus, THE MARVELS was one of them. As they restart books now, they haven't restarted us yet.

More than that, I don't know. Presumably, they'll get to everything, but will rebuild the production schedule slowly rather than all at once.

kdb

[Alpha]

How do you feel about the future of X-men comics in general? I think mutants as a metaphor for ethnic, religious, sexual, or even political minorities has long stopped being apropriate, but I think it might be really interesting to write them as a representation of various disabilities. Focus on the idea of mutation and evolution. How different bodies bring with them a difficulty in adjusting to the life dictated by most of society, with some barely suffering while others need constanr help from another human being. It could even argue that while there is a legitimate problem with people that are bound to a wheelchair technology is reaching new levels that make it so some disabilities might one day not even be noticable. And even then how much do you change what a person is if you "fix" a disability she has had since birth. This is both a social question and a science fiction quandry that reminds me of how you describe your first experience with the x-men, with the mutant master story. I don't know much you know about incel culture (I hope nothing at all) but it says something interesting about how people cope in unhealthy ways with their physical restrictions.

[Kurt Busiek]

How do you feel about the future of X-men comics in general?

I think that as long as there are people treated as "the other" by general society, the basic idea will work just fine.

I think mutants as a metaphor for ethnic, religious, sexual, or even political minorities has long stopped being apropriate, but I think it might be really interesting to write them as a representation of various disabilities.

I don't agree with the first half of that, but yeah, the second could be very interesting.

kdb

[EmeraldGladiator]

Mr Busiek, where do you stand on the subject of continuity? I grew up in the bronze age and knew that a lot of characters had a lot of history that I didn't know but doing the work to find it out deepened my love of the product (all praise to the Answer man). I often hear mention of writers not wanting to be hamstrung by continuity, and publishers thinking a long back story is too intimidating for new readers. I always felt that learning the history deepened the love and that you only get superficial connections to characters that are "new" every four years or so. You are ideal for this question because of your work on Avengers Forever that made me and some of my compatriots actually believe that somewhere at Marvel there was an Avengers Bible and everything even the stuff that didn't make sense at first glance was all a part of a master plan. I know that wasn't easy and required a lot of research on your part but it was some of the best writing ever. Some writers come onto titles and you get the impression that they haven't read anything that came before them. I understand you get more readers with issue #1 but lets say with the Legion of Super Heroes, the original set I grew up with saw Lightning Lad get married and have two kids. Now he has been rebooted maybe 5 times and I don't feel there is any way these multiple reboots can generate the long term devoted following because by the time you get to know them, they are gone, rebooted into someone new. I know you don't make the rules, I just was curious about your opinion on the subject.

[DKIdea]

Hello Mr. Busiek, I have a very simple question. Regarding the encounter between Iron Man/ Hawkeye and Captain Atom/ Green Arrow in JLA/Avengers #2, the visuals and dialogue led me to think that Hawkeye first wrapped Captain Atom with arrows that either dampened or disrupted his power, then went to go find the artifact. While he was gone, Iron Man rendered Captain Atom unconscious (easily done if his powers were interrupted) then took out Green Arrow just as Clint returned. This scenario seems to fit the visuals and the dialogue that Clint “shut him up” but Tony “shut him down.”

Do I have this page interpreted correctly?

[Kurt Busiek]

Hello Mr. Busiek, I have a very simple question. Regarding the encounter between Iron Man/ Hawkeye and Captain Atom/ Green Arrow in JLA/Avengers #2, the visuals and dialogue led me to think that Hawkeye first wrapped Captain Atom with arrows that either dampened or disrupted his power, then went to go find the artifact. While he was gone, Iron Man rendered Captain Atom unconscious (easily done if his powers were interrupted) then took out Green Arrow just as Clint returned. This scenario seems to fit the visuals and the dialogue that Clint “shut him up” but Tony “shut him down.”

Do I have this page interpreted correctly?

If the story doesn't specify, you're free to interpret it however it makes sense to you -- I don't remember the details at this stage.

kdb

[DKIdea]

Just to refresh...

223.jpg

[Kurt Busiek]

Mr Busiek, where do you stand on the subject of continuity?

I think my work shows that pretty well. I like the rich history of these characters and like using it.

I understand you get more readers with issue #1 but lets say with the Legion of Super Heroes, the original set I grew up with saw Lightning Lad get married and have two kids. Now he has been rebooted maybe 5 times and I don't feel there is any way these multiple reboots can generate the long term devoted following because by the time you get to know them, they are gone, rebooted into someone new. I know you don't make the rules, I just was curious about your opinion on the subject.

I don't think a new #1 means you have to wipe out the character's past history.

That said, I think that when we retell old stories, we update them -- if someone tells Spider-Man's origin today, they treat it as if it happened, I dunno, 13-14 years ago. So the fashions and the cars and the hairstyles and such get updated, while the basic facts and spirit of the story stay the same.

As we get farther and farther away from the early 1960s, I think it's reasonable to change more than just hairstyles and cars, maybe. Back in the early Silver Age, virtually everyone was white because the US was more overtly racist than it is now, and publishers didn't want to have distribution problems, so they avoided showing black characters. These days, it's more of a problem if we don't show a more modern-looking multi-ethnic society.

So just as it's fine not to put young Peter Parker in that blue sport coat and sweater vest in flashbacks, I think it'd also be fine, if we're adjusting the portrayal of the past to bring it more into line with modern culture, to not have Midtown High be quite so white.

So, to jump to your Legion example, had I relaunched the Legion, I'd have been likely to suggest making them look much more multicultural, as befits how we treat the idea of a human diaspora to outer space today, rather than being virtually all white except for the blue and green people.

But that doesn't mean they couldn't have had pretty much the same history, so Garth and Inza could still have two kids.*

We can fix the bits that showed spaceships with steering wheels and gas pedals -- we should be able to fix the reflexive racism of the late 50s, too.

But we can still preserve the basic facts and spirit of those early adventures.

Anyway, that's how I tend to think of continuity these days. I like to think the histories of the characters, the spirit of the characters, can be preserved, while updating antiquated cultural choices, whether they're about hairstyles or ethnicity.

kdb

*although with the Legion, they've been rebooted so often that reestablishing the kids would _also_ be a reboot, at this point. When you're dealing with a character who's been through multiple reboots, I like the BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES approach: Just take all the good stuff from the past, saying it all happened, and weave it into a good portrayal that preserves the spirit of the characters and why they're appealing.

[Kubert]

Do artists in the field have interesting conversations; about other forms of pop art? Example. The NFL recently voiced support for the long requested name change for Washington. Are there artists in comics who talk about pop art such as this?

https://mobile.twitter.com/schrayguy...469312/photo/1

[Kurt Busiek]

Do artists in the field have interesting conversations; about other forms of pop art?

Sure.

Example. The NFL recently voiced support for the long requested name change for Washington. Are there artists in comics who talk about pop art such as this?

I don't know if there are artists who've talked about that design specifically, but there might be.

kdb

[newparisian]

Hey Mr. Busiek,

Given the sheer amount of material that's been put out, is there any chance of collecting Astro City in on omnibus or fat tpb format?

Thank you sir

[Kurt Busiek]

Given the sheer amount of material that's been put out, is there any chance of collecting Astro City in on omnibus or fat tpb format?

We hope to be making some interesting announcements soon.

kdb