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Radiation Interrogation: Ed Brubaker
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Location: Blogs Atomic FalloutRadiation Interrogation |
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| Posted by: Jake Bell |
Wednesday, December 27, 2006 12:01 AM |
 The delays in the Civil War books opened a slot for this to be
published. Would it (or a Winter Soldier special of any kind) still
have happened if everything had stayed on schedule? How would it be
different if it came along later?
There definitely would have
been a Winter Soldier Special of some sort soonish, either way. I
really wanted to do one, fans really wanted to see one, it was all a
matter of timing. When the schedule opened up, I honestly didn't have
time to do it, but I said the hell with it, it's December, do a Winter
Soldier Christmas Special. That really appealed to my sense of humor.
I've been refering to the special for months as W3. Winter Soldier,
Winter Special, Winter Kills!
I don't know how it'd be
different, honestly. Most of what's in this is stuff that revolves
around Christmas. And I think that's kind of cool. I've never really
done a Christmas story, and I wanted to.
For decades, the
rule was "nobody stays dead except Bucky." Is it difficult to craft a
character that justifies breaking that rule, proving it's not just a
shock tactic?
Not any more difficult than writing any good
character, really. I was always a big Bucky fan as a kid, and I always
thought he should come back. I'm really surprised to be the only one to
really bring him back. Stan Lee brought him back about 3 times, I
think, but it was always a fake, or a robot. So, for me, this was a
story with an inevitability to it. Not like Uncle Ben or Gwen Stacy
coming back. This was a story that was hinted at so many times by the
guy who retroactively killed Bucky in the first place, that it seemed
like it had to happen someday. He didn't come back as a sidekick, which
is probably part of what makes it work. He came back as a kind of
twisted Marvel feet-of-clay type character.
How
fun is it to bring back an iconic character, but still make him almost
entirely your own? Do you think you have a stronger connection to Bucky
and making sure he's written well than you might to Daredevil or Cap?
No,
I think I have just as strong a connection to Bucky as I do to the
other characters, though, which is why I've been able to make him such
a real and important character in the Marvel Universe, I think. I see
him as a character with so much potential, for any number of stories or
positions within the Marvel world. But yeah, it is really freaking cool
to be the one to bring Bucky back and make him someone readers actually
want to see more of.
Most of the Marvel Universe doesn't even
know Bucky exists, but in this issue he bumps into some of the Young
Avengers. How quickly does gossip like "Bucky's alive" pass around
superhero circles? Is this special going to be a launching point for
the Winter Soldier playing a larger role in the Marvel Universe?
It
might be, but at the same time, underground superheroes are the kind of
people who deal with a lot of secrets. I don't really see any of those
kids as gossipping about people they have an enormous respect for. I
think they see his pain and know there's something they don't know
about, so they may tell Cap, but beyond that, they'll probably just
keep it quiet. He won't be able to stay underground forever, though.
When Bucky meets the Young Avengers, there is a comparison between his
fighting at Cap's side in World War II and their fighting with him
against the registration forces. Why does Bucky reject this comparison?
How does he see what he was doing as different?
He's just being
grumpy, really. He does want to think about that he inspired these kids
on some level, but then during the fight, they remind him of something
else, which leads the story around in a circle, kind of. And he likes
them, even though he's a grumpy guy.
Nick Fury also pops up,
is in direct contact with Bucky, and it's implied they speak pretty
often. How much that's happening in the Marvel Universe has Fury's
fingerprints on it? If Nick wasn't having to work covertly, how do you
think things would be different?
Hey, I can't tell you that,
that'd reveal next years big secrets. But I don't think anything that's
going on with Civil War is any of Nick's doing. I think he's on the
edges, trying to see how it'll fall.
In Cap #23, Bucky made it clear he wasn't taking sides in the Civil War yet because he supported both sides to an extent. After Winter Kills, will he be leaning one way or the other?
Not
really. It's not really about that. It's more a moment in time, in
Bucky's life, sort of taking in the modern Marvel Universe and judging
it against what he knew from the 40s.
You are writing several
different genres of books right now. Which do you find the biggest
challenge? Other than reading a lot of different genres of writing,
what do you do to get yourself in the mindset of writing a sci-fi story
like the recent X-Men tales immediately after putting together a
mystery in Daredevil or a crime story in Criminal?
It's really
hard to say. Deadlines and bills are generally the things that get you
in the right frame of mind, whether we like to admit it or not. Fellini
once said if he didn't have a delivery date from the studio financing
his movies, he'd never have finished any of them, or often known where
to start. I like keeping myself going from one kind of story to another
because it makes me think of each of them differently, and it makes me
try to write differently. Writing the Uncanny X-Men space opera stuff
is so much more over the top and expository than writing DD or Cap, and
writing Criminal is like crawling along a dark hall hoping I find the
right door to open sometimes.
If you have a weakness in your writing or an aspect you're consciously trying to strengthen, what do you think it is?
Maybe
writing team books, and giving each character enough room. It's a hard
balance to find, and I'm learning it's best to not try too hard to
feature every cast member in every issue, but to give spotlights to a
variety throughout a storyline. I also sometimes wish I were better at
fight scenes, like Jeph Loeb or Mark Millar, or Grant Morrison are.
Those guys are probably the best for the big over the top fight scenes
that make your jaw drop. Warren Ellis is actually the best, now that I
think of it, but Warren's good at everything, so fuck him.
In
this and previous Cap issues, you've given a more realistic look at the
Invaders and what it was like on the frontlines for superheroes like
Cap and Namor. Is there any chance of (or interest on your part in) an
Invaders book set in the 1940's?
I have a lot of interest in the
40s era Invaders, but I don't know how I could fit it in. It's on my
list, though, if I can get to it. |
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