Marvel's Avengers - Script To Page E-Book

Marvel

• Herausgeber: Titan Books
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 280

Beschreibung

Discover the craft of writing comics the Marvel way, with scripts and commentary from top writers and editors.The Marvel Script To Page series is an official behind-the-scenes look at the craft of writing comic books, featuring exclusive scripts and commentary from top Marvel creators and editors.The Avengers are the Earth's mightiest heroes, and one of the most famous superhero teams in comics history Meet Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow and many, many more iconic characters in selected scripts from a range of contemporary comics creators, with exclusive editorial commentary.

Leseprobe

SCRIPT TO PAGE

MARVEL’S AVENGERS: SCRIPT TO PAGE

Avengers created by Stan Lee andJack Kirby

Interviews by Andrew Sumner

MARVEL PUBLISHING

Jeff Youngquist, VP Production &Special Projects

Brian Overton, Manager, Special Projects

Sarah Singer, Associate Editor,Special Projects

Sven Larsen, Vice President,Licensed Publishing

Jeremy West, Manager, Licensed Publishing

David Gabriel, SVP Print, Sales & Marketing

C.B. Cebulski, Editor in Chief

ISBN (print): 9781789095166

ISBN (ebook): 9781803360829

Published by

Titan BooksA division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd144 Southwark StLondonSE1 0UP

www.titanbooks.com

First edition: December 2022

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

© 2022 MARVEL

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A CIP catalogue record for this title is availablefrom the British Library.

SCRIPT TO PAGE

SCRIPTS BY

Al Ewing

Jonathan Hickman

Mark Millar

Mark Waid

CONTENTS

AL EWING

6

Mighty Avengers (2013) #1

10

Ultimates 2 (2016) #1

28

U.S.Avengers (2017) #1

52

JONATHAN HICKMAN

82

Secret Wars (2015) #1

88

Secret Wars (2015) #8

138

Secret Wars (2015) #9

170

MARK MILLAR

218

Civil War (2006) #1

222

Civil War (2006) #6

256

Civil War (2006) #7

280

MARK WAID

310

All-New, All-Different Avengers(2015) #1

314

All-New, All-Different Avengers(2015) #8

334

Al Ewing

MIGHTY AVENGERS (2013)BY AL EWING

AN INTRODUCTION BY TOM BREVOORT

IN CONVERSATION WITH ANDREW SUMNER

Mighty Avengers was an Avengers book that was designed to be far more diverse in terms of its cast of characters, and more ground-level in terms of its viewpoint. A typical Avengers book by this point was often far more cosmic in tone, more interplanetary looking. Mighty Avengers, as written by Al Ewing (who is actually well- known for being a great cosmic writer), was specifically designed to take place on the ground, in cities and among people, and was therefore more humanistic in its approach, setting it apart from the other Avengers titles that we were publishing at the time. One of the difficulties with Avengers historically as a property—and this is true of many of the Marvel properties because they all stem from the 1960s—is that when you’re talking about the early Avengers lineups, they tend to be very Caucasian; most of the characters that you associate with the early Avengers are white guys. That has everything to do with the fact that the Avengers were created in the early 1960s, when that was the standard approach, and those characters haven’t really gone away: Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, The Hulk, Black Widow, Hank Pym, Hawkeye, they all still exist.

This was very much in my head at this time, and I wanted to put together an Avengers book that would be more balanced. The remit I was giving to the creators was that at least 50% of the Mighty Avengers should be characters of color, so that we have a greater diversity of character. I felt there were enough characters in the mix by this time where you could puta team like that together. I was also trying to find an appropriate writer, but the writers I was actively pursuing at the time were in the middle of other projects. In the meantime, Al Ewing had been doing a lot of great work and earning his chops on other things in and around my editorial sphere at Marvel. My associate editor had met him on a trip to the UK, and he’d written a couple of issues of Avengers Assemble for her. I liked Al’s work, and I felt like he had the right sort of approach for this book.

7

So, I went out with this notion that I wanted to do a more inclusive Avengers book, a more ground-level Avengers book, that we would build around Luke Cage, because Luke had been so central to [long-time Marvel writer] Brian Michael Bendis’ New Avengers. Al went away and thought about it, and came back with a team that was entirely non-white. We ended up steering into that, because there were plenty of characters of diverse ethnicities that Al loved. He liked Monica Rambeau from when he was reading Avengers stories that Roger Stern wrote in the ‘80s (Al read them when they were reprinted in the UK in the ‘90s), he was really interested in Adam Brashear AKA the Blue Marvel, he loved Luke Cage, and so forth. So, we built all of that into Mighty Avengers and it worked out well, it had a nice shelf life. I think issue #14 was the last of this iteration before it was retooled and relaunched as Captain America andthe Mighty Avengers, starring Sam Wilson.

Sam [formerly the Falcon] had become Captain America in the main Cap book—and so, having him here as the leader of this decidedly non-white Avengers team seemed like a good thematic move, so we implemented that change. Our approach on this book, in terms of it being ground level, was to expand on the idea that anybody who exhibited a certain type of heroism and regard for their fellow human beings was worthy of being an Avenger. And the last issues of Captain America and the MightyAvengers were tie-ins to the Secret Wars event that’s also included in this book, where the world is literally ending. Al’s last issue of MightyAvengers was sliced into several different vignettes, focusing on different people having a last moment as the world is about to end, spotlighting

8

different characters from our cast. And Al wrote the last of these tales in the second person, designed to create a universal feel and effect—the character would be saying, "You rescue this person, and you are having an adventure in this last moment,” etc. Al uses these vignettes to explore common ideas (and ideals) of heroism and sacrifice that bind everybody together far more closely than what their background happens to be or where they come from or where they grew up or what their culture is.These ideals are universal. And that central theory defined the attitude of Mighty Avengers, it was the core point of view that defined the book from the beginning.

I think Al Ewing is a very clever writer. He’s a writer who’s steeped in the history of Marvel, steeped in the history of these characters—without his stories being defined by this historical element. His work often turns, quite ingeniously, on a piece of continuity that might have been established by an earlier writer in a story five or ten years ago. But his scripts aren’t defined by that ingenious element—you could strip all that stuff away and you still have a working engine underneath that. Al always crafts a story that’s got a strong beginning, middle, and end, with a clear point of view and something very specific to say. In that regard, he’s the modern-day equivalent of [legendary Marvel writer] Steve Englehart, who would take pieces from Marvel’s past and create something new out of them or expand them into a clever new direction. Al’s a totally different style of writer to Steve Englehart—but he’s got exactly that same sort of Marvel DNA, where he’s stacking the blocks of the Marvel Universe to build interesting structures.

9

MIGHTY AVENGERS

ISSUE #1

2013

“Assemble -- Part One”

By Al Ewing

Art by Greg Land, Jay Leisten,and Frank D'Armata

AL EWING • MIGHTY AVENGERS • ISSUE #1

Some adjustments made to bring it more into line with Infinity #2.Fortunately, this means more action down the line in #2 and #3.

Greg--this is about my third try with the Marvel Method, and I’mtrying to give you space to work in without giving you too little.Any questions or problems, feel free to email me any time and I’llget back to you with anything you need. Hope there’s some fun stuffin there for you!

PAGE ONE:

Open on a HOLOGRAPHIC EARTH, on board THANOS’ ship. At thismagnification, we can see a little hologram of the Avengers’spaceship roaring away from the planet. The Earth is withouther Avengers.

Pan out. THANOS stares at the holographic model,contemplating strategy. Behind him, PROXIMA MIDNIGHT standsready, her gold killing-staff in her hand, reporting fororders.

THANOS:Atlantis will not interfere?

PROXIMA:They understand theirsituation.

THANOS:Then I have another taskfor you. New York City--the nexus of thisworld’s plague of superhumanity.

THANOS conjures a holographic image of BLACK MAW, lookingsuitably evil.

THANOS:Black Maw is already there,whispering his poison. His way is sure...but slow.

THANOS:If that which I seekis in their city of marvels... theirManhattan... I would know now.

THANOS:Join him there. Help him...search.

PROXIMA smiles. A vicious predator.

PROXIMA:As you command, Lord Thanos.But... a boon?

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MARVEL'S AVENGERS—SCRIPT TO PAGE

PROXIMA:May I kill this city?

THANOS reaches out, grinning, dragging his fingertips throughthe eastern seaboard of the holographic United States,dispersing it in a shower of pixels.

12

AL EWING • MIGHTY AVENGERS • ISSUE #1

THANOS:Ah, Proxima. My dearMidnight.

THANOS:You may kill this planet.

PAGE TWO:

Cut to--the PLUNDERER. He’s furiously yelling orders to his goons.

Pan out--it’s early morning, and we’re outside, in or around theAPPLE WAREHOUSE DISTRICT in BROOKLYN, around the docks.

So what we have here is the Plunderer’s GOONS--a motley crew ofabout eight guys--being taken to school by LUKE CAGE, POWER MANand the WHITE TIGER, who are currently operating as the HEROESFOR HIRE. We can see they’re battling over a couple of shippingcontainers, marked HORIZON LABS, that the Plunderer is trying toheist. They’re full of experimental tech that Horizon is shippingout for testing across country, and they’ve hired H4H to guardthem.

The GOONS are armed with ray guns--high-tech-looking things--firinglittle laser-like pulses. (Plunderer’s got something similar, butbigger and badder.) They don’t get through Luke’s skin. We could,if you wanted, get an emphasis close-up of that, with Cage wincinga little--they sting badly, even though they don’t penetrate. Ikind of want to use this fight to establish everyone’s powers.

13

MARVEL'S AVENGERS—SCRIPT TO PAGE

PAGE THREE:

The bad guys react in horror as their weapons prove useless.They only sting Cage, WHITE TIGER can dodge them and POWERMAN’S chi field just absorbs them.

Power Man and White Tiger take out a few more of the goons--Power Man with a chi punch, White Tiger with a kick to theface. Maybe have some kind of power effect when White Tiger’sfighting--like an astral ghost tiger hovering around her? Upto you. The important thing is that they get some nice, bigestablishing action shots to bring new readers up to speed onwhat Their Thing is.

Plunderer levels his own weapon--it’s much bigger and morepowerful than the one he’s given his goons. He snarls,promising it’ll drill through even Cage like a hot knifethrough butter...

...but then he’s distracted by something coming down on himfrom above...

PAGE FOUR:

...which is Spider-Man, swinging down to kick the Plundererright in the face and send him sprawling.

I’d like there to be some reaction from Luke and especiallyVic--neither of them want Spider-Man there, Vic becauseSpidey’s hogging the glory and Luke because Spidey’s turnedinto an obnoxious asshole lately--but whether you want tohave that here or move it to the next page and leave this asa splash is up to you.

PAGE FIVE:

The Heroes for Hire and Spidey finish off the remaininggoons--Spidey webbing most of them up while Luke and histeam punch out the rest. It’s a quick mop-up. Spidey’s makinglots of snide, Octavius-level ‘wisecracks’ about how ‘realheroes’ don’t take money. (Conveniently ignoring, say, firstresponders, which Luke will likely challenge him on.)

Once the fight’s over, everyone’s webbed up--the argument’scontinuing. Spidey’s still launching snide barbs at Luke, PMand WT--he’s saying that Luke and the Heroes For Hire shouldjust close up shop, since as long as the Superior Spider-Man

14

AL EWING • MIGHTY AVENGERS • ISSUE #1

15

MARVEL'S AVENGERS—SCRIPT TO PAGE

is in town, their services are simply not needed--and he’sabsolutely certain that Horizon won’t be wasting their moneyon them again. Luke’s just standing by, rolling his eyes atthis      --his body language from here on in is a littlesubdued, like he’s not really sure if this is what he wantsto be doing with his life and he’s had more than enough ofthis kind of petty      already. Vic, meanwhile, launchesforward angrily, jabbing his finger at Spidey and all butchallenging him to a fight.

In response to this, White Tiger walks away in disgust,saying maybe Spidey’s right and this isn’t what they shouldbe doing with their powers. Vic turns to call after her--“Ava, wait--“--but she’s not turning around.

PAGE SIX:

Vic’s doubly angry now--he really leans into Spidey’s face,powering his chi-glow up. Spidey just says something snippyat him...

...and then swings off, with the Plunderer webbed up underhis arm, saying that Luke and Vic can clear out the rest ofthe trash, that’s about all they’re good for. Vic’s left

16

AL EWING • MIGHTY AVENGERS • ISSUE #1

shouting after him impotently while Luke just stands, armsfolded, shaking his head. This argument’s old news for him.

Close in as Luke lays a hand on Vic’s shoulder. Vic’s stillpissed at Spidey, yelling after him. Luke’s resigned. “Comeon, kid. Let’s head back to midtown and get a coffee.”

PAGES SEVEN-NINE: Going to do these pages as a unit, to letyou decide the pacing.

Cut to: BLUE STREAK.

There’s been more than one of this guy--at least one isdead--but for the purposes of the issue it can just as easilybe a totally new person in the suit. He’s basically barrelingdown Broadway on his jet-powered roller-skates with a sackfull of loot in one hand and a Glock in the other, keepingahead of a phalanx of pursuing cop cars and generally makingthem look sick.

In their cars, the cops are desperately trying to keep upwithout success. They’re using their radios to call for moreunits, and asking where the hell the Avengers are and how ageek on super roller-skates can be making asses out of theentire NYPD...

Blue Streak’s exulting in his heist--he’s in it as much forthe thrill as for whatever meager cash bag he’s managed tograb (probably from an armored truck unloading)--but in thesky above him, a streak of light arcs down...

The light beam draws level with Blue Streak as he runs,weirding him out a little--then it morphs into MONICARAMBEAU in her light form. She’s wearing her new costume. Sheexplains to a dumbfounded Blue Streak that she’s currentlypure light energy, mixed with a little sound so he can hearher. She’s actually breaking a couple of the laws of physicsjust to match his snail’s pace. She can become hard radiationby thinking about it--so she could give him a lethal canceras easily as saying the words...

By now, Blue Streak’s crapping his pants. Wide eyed under themask.

But... she’s trying not to be that person any more. So she’sjust going to do this. We see her reach a hand in frontof his face--both of them still traveling at however manyhundred miles an hour down Broadway--

17

MARVEL'S AVENGERS—SCRIPT TO PAGE

Then she snaps her fingers--and creates a massive explosionright in his face that blows him backwards into the windscreenof the nearest pursuing cop car. We leave Blue Streak stunned,looking half-dead, with the cops reading him his rights andtelling him he’s lucky Monica was in a good mood.

18

AL EWING • MIGHTY AVENGERS • ISSUE #1

Back to Monica--laughing, zipping across New York atlightspeed, on the way to her appointment with an old friend.

PAGE TEN:

Establishing shot of a costume shop--“Luc, Costumier”--in themiddle of Seventh Avenue, close to Times Square. It’s a high-end boutique.

So it’s super hero costuming for the high-end set. Spandex ashigh fashion. Tony Stark does a lot of shopping there withthe Avengers credit card. Monica beams in through the frontwindows as a ray of light.

(LUC himself is an old friend of Monica’s from New Orleanswho makes costumes--I like the idea that they met because sherobbed his costume shop back in ASM Annual #16 to make herfirst costume, which led to him getting national recognitionas a designer, but this is all backstory that can remain inthe background.)

Inside--various supercostumes, arranged like high fashion.The layout here needs to have an open door to a backroom, with plenty of shadows in there. Inside, Monica’sfully materialized in her new costume--she’s happy with asuccessful test drive. It looks great, it feels great, she’lltake it. The store owner, Luc, still thinks he can tinkerwith it a little--he’s still fond of jackets--but Monicawon’t hear of it.

Close on Luc, explaining that this one’s on the house--payback for an earlier good turn in the New Orleans days--andalso mentioning that someone came by looking for her whileshe was out. “Who?” Monica asks.

“Me.” At this point, we switch angles to inside that backroom--looking out at the main store. There’s a silhouette inthe doorway, leaning out--BLADE’s. The reason I want to doit this way is so as not to let the readers know who this isuntil further down the line. So we hide Blade’s identity thisway, and tell it in Monica’s reaction--he’s someone she knowsor has heard of, and she’s a little surprised to see himhere, but she knows what it means if he shows up: vampires.Blade explains that he needs her help.

19

MARVEL'S AVENGERS—SCRIPT TO PAGE

PAGES ELEVEN-THIRTEEN:

Cut to a coffee shop in midtown, not far away from AvengersTower (or Times Square). Close on the TV--a news reportreplaying the Avengers ship leaving the tower for space.

Pan out--Luke’s having a coffee, Vic’s got a soda--still incostume. Vic’s still angry, laying into Spider-Man for beingsuch a jerk--and laying into Luke a little for not arguingback. Luke’s barely listening to him--he’s looking at hisphone.

Close on the phone--a message from Jess. PICK UP DIAPERS ONUR WAY HOME? X.

It’s like an anchor, reminding Luke what’s important. He sipshis coffee, telling Vic to simmer down a little. There’s noanger in Luke--he looks a little tired, though, a mixtureof life with a one-year-old bundle of joy and a growingdisappointment with the work part of his life.

LUKE:Anyway, maybe he was right.

20

AL EWING • MIGHTY AVENGERS • ISSUE #1

VIC:What?

LUKE:He’s reinvented himselfas an obnoxious     , but maybe hewas right. (beat.) I don’t know... Ifeel like--I quit the Avengers to takecare of my daughter. To make her worldsafer. Better. That’s the bottom line ofeverything I do in this world. And now...(beat. Luke looks away.) I’m looking atthe society my baby girl has to grow upin. And it needs to change. And if youlead the Avengers, maybe you can actuallymake that change. (beat) And I don’t dothat anymore.

VIC:So what, we’re not goodenough?

Luke tries to get Vic to settle down, but he storms outangrily, leaving his soda. Luke sighs, finishes his coffee,and taps out a text message on his phone. Last shot is thephone screen, with his message on it: SURE. LOVE YOU. X

PAGE FOURTEEN:

Out in space, low Earth orbit. Thanos’ craft, the new versionof Sanctuary, emerging from its cloak.

A hatch on the underside of the thing opens, and capsulescontaining alien mercenaries--Thanos’ army of bastards--start to disgorge into the atmosphere. Dozens of them, orthe implication of dozens, at any rate. The drop-capsulesare cocooning these space bastards so they survive re-entry,but we can see their grinning faces through a couple of thewindows of the things. These guys are bred for murder, pureand simple. And in the middle of all these capsules--leadingthe charge--we have Proxima Midnight, killing-staff at theready. She doesn’t need a capsule. She’s going right intospace just in her clothes.

Proxima and the capsules begin to tumble into the atmosphere,air friction giving them a red glow. Attitude jets on thesides and bases of the capsules aim them right where theyneed to be.

Close on Proxima, grinning with the bloodlust as the flamesof re-entry flicker around her.

21

MARVEL'S AVENGERS—SCRIPT TO PAGE

PAGE FIFTEEN:

Times Square. People stare up at what looks like meteoritesplunging down from above--

We see they’re looking at the plunging capsules--

And then the drop-capsules and Proxima impact. KABOOM. It’slike a dozen bombs going off--massive collateral damage. Thebig panels for this page.

Cut to, for a panel--Dr Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum inGreenwich Village. He’s pale and sweating, eyes glazed,drooling, while Black Maw whispers seductively in hisear. The Doctor’s hands jerk spasmodically into summoninggestures. Around him, demonic shadows are appearing onthe wall--winged and horned things. Mostly, though, we’refocusing on the Maw’s smirking reaction to his comrade’sarrival.

PAGE SIXTEEN:

In the coffee shop--Luke, looking up from his coffee at thesound of the explosion.

In the costume shop--Monica, turning at the sound. (We’llrepeat the sound effect, to make sure the readers get theidea.) Blade’s still in the shadows, so the readers can’t geta look at him.

On a Manhattan rooftop--Spider-Man, looking towards TimesSquare. Fire and smoke already rising up--a couple moreoutriders streaking down from above.

Close on Proxima Midnight, crouched in the crater she madefrom impact, looking at us through the smoke. Licking herteeth. Ready to kill. Around her, capsules lying in therubble are opening, and things--alien warriors, armed withall manner of vicious weapons--are climbing out.

PAGE SEVENTEEN:

Back to the costume shop--Monica says she has to go.(We still don’t get a clear shot of Blade--he’s kept insilhouette or the shadows.)

BLADE:We’ll talk more later--

22

AL EWING • MIGHTY AVENGERS • ISSUE #1

MONICA:The hell we will. You wantmy help, you’re coming with me now andhelping deal with this.

BLADE:I can’t be seen to bein-country. If they figure out I’m here--

Monica reaches into a bin marked MUST GO--$5 OR LESS anddrags out something in Day-Glo pink and green. “You’re in acostume shop! Put something on!”

Then she blasts out of the front window in light form.

PAGE EIGHTEEN:

Back at Times Square--all around is flames, carnage, thealien horde tearing everything up with Proxima in the centerof them. A big, brutal space bastard menaces a mother andbaby...

...then Luke Cage punches it away, breaking its weird alienjaw, giving the mom and child time to make a run for it.

A second later, Monica shows, beaming through the nearest fewoutriders as hard radiation, taking them out...

...and then Spider-Man swings down and kicks one in the face.

A panel as the three of them acknowledge each other whilepounding on the outriders--“Is this all we’ve got?”

MONICA:I’ve got one more guy onthe way--

PAGE NINETEEN:

Enter Blade, in the SPIDER HERO suit. This is basicallya spandex, old-style Spider-Man costume, in a hideouscombination of neon pink and neon green, with SPIDER HEROwritten across the chest in place of the spider logo. It’sincredibly cheap looking. He’s going to be wearing thisat least until issue #4, when probably he’ll change intothe Ronin outfit. (Is it bad that I’m starting to want tokeep him in this? He could be the character find of 2013.)Needless to say, he carries it like a total badass. He’scarrying a pair of vicious-looking nunchucks and breaking

23

MARVEL'S AVENGERS—SCRIPT TO PAGE

alien heads with them in the Blade manner.

Panel of Spider-Man being horrified. “Take... take that off!Take it off RIGHT NOW! This is an OUTRAGE!”

Luke grabs Spidey by the shoulder, telling him to call theAvengers in right now--Spidey says that’s not possible. TheAvengers are in space.

Close on Proxima, giving one of her evil grins--maybe alittle blood already on her--as she confirms this. “It’strue, little man. Your Earth is without her Avengers.”

PAGE TWENTY:

Close on Luke. Pissed off at that. “Guess again. You wantAvengers, lady?”

“We’re the Avengers.” Zoom out--Cage, Spider-Man, Monica, andSpider Hero, getting ready to fight the army of approachingspace bastards in Times Square. A good dozen of them ormore. Behind the Avengers we see a crowd of civilians, somepanicking, some already running, some filming it on theirphones. The Avengers are standing between the alien mercs andthe people of New York--that’s our final shot.

TO BE CONTINUED!

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ULTIMATES 2 (2016) &U.S.AVENGERS (2017)BY AL EWING

AN INTRODUCTION BY TOM BREVOORT

IN CONVERSATION WITH ANDREW SUMNER

Coming in the aftermath of the Secret Wars event that took the Marvel Universe apart and put it back together in a slightly different fashion, Ultimates (which had started out as the equivalent ofthe Avengers in the now-deconstructed Ultimate Universe and inspired the portrayal of the Avengers in the MCU) and U.S.Avengers represent opposing poles in the pantheon of Avengers titles. Ultimates 2 was the most expansive, mind-boggling, far-reaching, and metaphysical of all the various Avengers iterations up until that point, dealing with classic Al Ewing questions of cosmic significance. Whereas the U.S.Avengers is, as the name suggests, a more grounded, Earth-bound, and Earth-centric— but no less exciting and bombastic—take on an Avengers super hero team from Al.

While I was involved in helping to pull it together, I didn’t edit Al Ewing’s Ultimates; Wil Moss and Alanna Smith were the editors. So, coming back on the other side of the Secret Wars event, I was looking to change up the Avengers books and have a slightly different line of titles coming out of Secret Wars. And one of the ideas we had was to create a book called The Ultimates because the Ultimate Universe was no longer a separate concern. Now we’d be publishing in the Marvel Universe proper.

Al had a notion at one of the editorial retreats we were at, coming out of the conversations about Secret Wars and where everything would be left as it concluded. Al has a real interest in the cosmology and metaphysics of the Marvel Universe, and he envisioned a book that would have a team of characters who investigated and dealt with situations on a large, not quite galactic, but sort of metaphysical scale. And that became the post- Secret Wars Ultimates. Pieces of this series are an outgrowth of stuff he had done during Mighty Avengers—Adam Brashear, the Blue Marvel, goes

25

from one book to the other, and takes on a more central role in Ultimates. It was also a book where characters such as Black Panther and Captain Marvel could be featured in a more prominent way, as opposed to being sometimes lost among the crowd in the regular Avengers books up to that point. So again, the remit there was really to do a cosmic Avengers- style book that wasn’t quite an Avengers book—and that was Ultimates. Ultimates 2 is the beginning of the second iteration of that concept—the first run ran for twelve issues over a year. And then we did this refresh, a second iteration that ran for another ten issues.

U.S.Avengers was another outgrowth of our post-Secret Wars Avengers initiatives. We had launched New Avengers, which again had a slightly different cast to its previous iteration, a slightly different remit, and picked up on things that Jonathan had laid down in Secret Wars. One of the things Jonathan had done in his Avengers run was that he brought Sunspot and Cannonball (created for the New Mutants title in 1982) into the Avengers, because he loves the New Mutants, he loves those characters and was playing around with them. Al picked up on Sunspot as a motivator, and built him into the central character of New Avengers. By the end of Al’s New Avengers run, Sunspot had used his wealth toget out of the situation they were dealing with by essentially buying A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics, a villainous network of technologically advanced scientists and arms dealers) and Al’s New Avengers became a replacement for A.I.M. They became Avengers Idea Mechanics.

That series then ended up getting relaunched as Al’s U.S.Avengers, in which A.I.M. morphed into American Intelligence Mechanics. The gimmick of the first issue of U.S.Avengers, which didn’t necessarily have anything to do so much with the contents of the story, was a labor-intensive initiative where we determined an Avenger for every one of the fifty US states— plus about five others (there was an Avenger for Puerto Rico, Captain Britain was the Avenger for the United Kingdom, etc.). It was a big job, but we found characters who were specifically associated in some way, shape or form (even if, in certain instances, it was extremely tenuous), with every one of those states and locales. And we produced a variant cover for each one. So, there are something like sixty variant covers for U.S.Avengersissue #1, fifty-five or so of which are devoted to portraits of each of those

26

locale-indexed characters in front of the state or the country that they happen to represent. Artist Rod Reis, who was just starting out, did all those pieces for me, and it was a huge endeavor, but he got it all done. It was mostly a case of figuring it all out on a spreadsheet, which hero tied in with each location, and then getting Rod all the appropriate reference so that he could draw a good-looking Marvel Universe-style shot of Ant-Man (Florida), Two-Gun Kid (Montana), She-Hulk (Idaho) or whoever happened to be associated with each of the states in question. Rob produced a lot of nice pieces for this first issue.

I think U.S.Avengers was kind of a spiritual successor to Al’s earlier Mighty Avengers in that, again, it was taking a slightly more ground-level approach. But not always that ground-level because Al has introduced some crazily extreme characters during his Avengers work, like American Kaiju (Corporal Todd Ziller is given a contemporary US government attempt to replicate Captain America’s Super Soldier serum, which turns him into a giant lizard monster).

The A.I.M. association in U.S.Avengers allowed Al to use big science— magic science that might as well be out-and-out magic—to create characters and situations that were a bit more spectacular and perhaps more fanciful than the stuff that we had done in Mighty Avengers. But again, there was a certain similarity between Sunspot as the leader of the U.S.Avengers and Luke Cage as the leader of the Mighty Avengers—they weren’t that different in their outlooks, they both wore a well-tailored suit, and they both presented themselves in a certain light. And so there’s certainly a connectivity between what Al did in his earlier Avengers book and what he does here. I think the difference is that U.S.Avengers was, by design, more out-and-out bombastic and crazy in the sorts of stories Al was presenting than Mighty Avengers was.

Al is a great writer with a real interest in—and aptitude for—the cosmic, post-Jack Kirby widescreen aspects of the Marvel Universe; he’s got a fascination with all of that, and these are themes that he comes back to again and again in the various Marvel books that he works on and that he’s been successfully building on now for a long while. As you can see in Al’s scripts presented here.

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ULTIMATES 2

ISSUE #1

2016

“What Do You Dream?”

By Al Ewing

Art by Travel Foremanand Dan Brown

AL EWING • ULTIMATES 2 • ISSUE #1

PAGE ONE:

(Leave space between the Header Captions here, so they function asbeats.)

PANEL ONE:

HEADER CAPTION:

Everything is screaming.

PANEL TWO:

HEADER CAPTION:

Eternity. The Multiverse. Everything thatis known.

HEADER CAPTION:

Shackled and helpless. Held in chains inthe endless void.

HEADER CAPTION:

Screaming.

PANEL THREE:

HEADER CAPTION:

And behind the personification of allthat is. Just out of sight.

HEADER CAPTION:

Something else takes hideous form. Andlaughs.

HEADER CAPTION:

And reaches.

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MARVEL'S AVENGERS—SCRIPT TO PAGE