Jeka » Вт 15 мар, 2005 20:50
И снова, новое интервью с ММ, на этот раз по поводу Алтим Дефендерс. Всем маст рид!
With the Ultimates universe almost anything can happen, including the introduction of one of the third (or fourth) tier superteams, The Defenders. Writer Mark Millar and artist Bryan Hitch plan to introduce those heroes in issue # 6 of The Ultimates. Hank Pym's joining the team in a tale that furthers his reputation as a "loser," by having him join a group Millar describes as "ANOTHER bunch of losers!"
THE PULSE: Why, out of all the possible super groups that could appear in the Ultimates universe, did Marvel think the Defenders would strike a chord with comic fans?
MARK MILLAR: It's funny, but I never really plan stories this way. If I wanted to go for maximum sales, I'd have gone for an X-Men appearance, but it would have seemed forced at this point in this story. The first arc, among many other things, has detailed Hank Pym's descent from being in charge of the super-soldier program to being a loser who's reputation is such that he can't even get a steady job at the moment. I just wanted him to end up with ANOTHER bunch of losers and the Ultimate Defenders were designed for this precise purpose.
The Defenders always seemed kind of sad to me. Their adventures, especially the [Steve] Gerber issues, are some of the strongest in Marvel's history, but they just always seemed like a B-team and a kind of shite version of The Avengers. That's what they always looked like to me anyway and I wanted to play with that here and have something that's akin from a guy being dumped from the biggest rock band in the world and sinking down to the level where they're rehearsing in their parents' spare bedroom.
I think losers are more interesting than successful people anyway. They have more adversity to overcome. It just makes a better story if we're reading about superheroes who have pedal-bikes, for example, as opposed to Batmobiles.
THE PULSE: Who are these Defenders? Over the years, we've seen several heroes appear in that group.
MILLAR: The nice thing about the Ultimate universe is that Bryan [Hitch] and I can pick and choose who we want. We've got Nighthawk, Son of Satan, Power Man, The Valkyrie, Black Knight (whom everyone assumes is just a role-player), Hellcat and, of course, poor Hank Pym. I don't want to give away all the gags so I'll save the specifics of what they're like for the comic. All you need to know is that they're all shit, but they're hearts are in the right place.
THE PULSE: Why does Hank Pym still feel the need to be a hero? What is it about heroics that is the driving force?
MILLAR: It's the same reason Madonna keeps pumping out records. Nobody's interested anymore, but there's that little piece of her missing that she needs people to fill and Hank is exactly the same. He strikes me as a guy with size issues and Bryan purposely drew him as slightly smaller than average in terms of height. He just wants to be a big man and he's been busted down to nothing. The Defenders just might be his big comeback, as far as he's concerned.
THE PULSE: Who contacts him?
MILLAR: Nighthawk is the team leader and can't believe his luck when Hank returns his call.
THE PULSE: How were these Defenders - out of the myriad of potential heroes - chosen?
MILLAR: I just picked the only ones I could name and fortunately they're all kind of lame. Nighthawk is my favourite, though. There's a scene he stars in that I was so excited about I skipped ahead and wrote two years ago. It might end up meaning nothing to you, but I had a great time doing it.
THE PULSE: Is Marvel looking to do a Defenders miniseries if their appearance is well met or will the Defenders be background players in the Ultimates?
MILLAR: I hope they don't do a mini because it would sell like shit. I purposely picked the worst guys I could think of, but then again I'd get a perverse kick out of seeing something like that too. I also hate the idea of the Ultimate books stretching beyond Ultimates, Spidey, Ultimate FF and Ultimate X-Men. We agreed a little while ago that to maintain these books in the top ten slots they've held so tight for four years we need to make sure there's no distractions like an Ultimate Man-Thing series or something stupid like that.
I also think the quality of the Ultimate books is very, very strong and shouldn't be diluted. Me and [Greg] Land on FF, BKV [Brian K. Vaughan] and [Stuart] Immonen on X-Men, [Brian] Bendis and [Mark] Bagley on Spidey and Hitch and I on The Ultimates are very commercial and pretty nice teams.
I don't want to see the gene-pool get corrupted and only agreed to do Ultimate FF when they assured me this wouldn't happen. Will The Defenders come back in The Ultimates? Almost certainly. I had a great time doing this. Bry and I both agree it's the best issue.
THE PULSE: What other heroes might appear in this volume of the Ultimates?
MILLAR: Sorry, I don't want to give too much away. We've got a lot of surprises in this volume and, as you'll have seen from the first few issues, it's very content heavy and featuring a lot of twists you might not expect. I wanted to create some new guys too, like The Union we see in issue four. I was re-reading Stan and Jack's Fantastic Four run recently and was open-mouthed at how many characters they introduced in a single run and I'd love to leave the Ultimate universe even half as rich by the time we're done.
Политкорректность - элементарная боязнь получить пи*ды,
прикрытая обёрткой всеобщего гуманизма и братства.