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MARK WAID SPOTLIGHT PANEL
by Newsarama
There wasn’t much in the way of new news to be found at the Mark Waid “Spotlight” panel Saturday at WonderCon moderated by DC’s Stephen Wacker, but there certainly was lively spirit and an interesting Q&A. The panel was scheduled for 5pm, and hindered a bit by the sounds of Superman through one wall, and Ultimate Avengers through another. Turnout picked up as the Superman let out and the panel ended up being well attended.
On Brave and the Bold, Waid stated that 52 is taking “so much more energy than anyone anticipated” and he does not know when that DC team-up book will be getting off the ground.
When asked about Empire, Waid says that he has more stories to tell there and has been told by DC that the door is open for he and Barry Kitson to do them. This came as a surprise to [Legion editor] Wacker, to which Waid commented, “Well, they were drinking”.
Waid said Empire’s future is probably a matter of whether he and Kitson could get far enough ahead on Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes to work on it.
Waid said initially the writers on 5 thought that each would do certain issues and it’d be easier to get to other projects, but everyone likes working together so much, they now work on the story beats of every issue together and allot pages.
Waid is the writer concentrating on Elongated Man right now, but he foresees characters shifting around as the series goes on. Booster Gold seems to be the character moving around the most between writer, and Waid has written some of his scenes.
Wacker commented the writers have really run with the idea that it is a year without the “Big Three” or the JLA, but not a year without heroes. He compared the writing process like “freestyling, comparing it to the rap battles in the Eminem movie 8 Mile, where they would all keep trying to top one another.
Waid replied in deadpan, “Yeah, it was just like that”.
Wacker joked 52 will “open with the funeral of Dick Grayson”.
Fans expressed delight with the Legion letter columns from recent issues of that series, and one fan even expressed a desire for an all-letter column issue. Waid said he’d be up for it if the fan could get it approved. He urged fans to keep sending letters, because they’ll keep printing them.
To write LOSH, Waid explained he has character depictions drawn by Kitson he moves around “like chess pieces”, in order to write each issue.
Describing the process, Waid might realize, “Oh, we haven’t seen Star Boy use his powers in awhile”, and then Star Boy will use his powers.
The idea of Waid returning to The Flash was toyed with, but he simply could not come up with a fresh take on the character. He also mentioned he was thrilled with Geoff Johns’ treatment of Wally West, and that he didn’t pressure him in any way to be true to Waid’s vision. Waid commented he may have hung onto the book a bit too long for because he “knew Linda Park was toast”. He’s thankful that didn’t happen.
Wacker also jokingly mentioned “All Star Flash”. The writer said Flash was the easiest series he’d written because he’d grafted his own personality onto the character. He also mentioned he tends to gravitate towards characters from his childhood and to characters with a sense of humor. He’s enjoying writing Chameleon Boy in Legion in part for this reason, and he will be featured more prominently soon.
On that front, many questions were asked about characters who will appear in Legion. Wildfire will be appearing in issue #15, as well as the three characters on the cover, and a new character will appear in issue #18. There has been much talk of Shikari from the last incarnation of the Legion appearing. Kitson seems to be against Bouncing Boy at this time, although Waid loves him and Matter-Eater Lad.
In coming issues we’ll be getting into why Braniac 5 seems to have so much anger. The rest of the Legion doesn’t know he has the body of Dream Girl, but he has an amazing plan and the plotline will get to the core of his rage. This will be a big part of year two in the book, in issues #16-18 readers will be getting a sense of this.
Waid is less comfortable with the magic side of the Legion, even though Mordru is one of his two favorite villains (along with Composite Superman). When asked if he’ll be touching on some of those elements, he said he would have to speak to Kitson. Waid made it sound as though his avoidance of it has been almost subconscious, but Wacker pointed out the set-up of Princess Projectra as being an exception.
Waid commented his first time writing Legion did not go so well because they were too beholden to the old stories. One post-reboot thing he particularly disliked was that they used a silly villain with a retarded name (Starfinger) just because they felt like they had to because the old Legion fought him around then.
Wacker said he loves that just because Waid loves and know all the old stories, he does not hold them precious. He doesn’t worry about change as some older creators do.
Wrapping up, asked what outside of comics has been influencing Waid as a writer, he mentioned both the new Dr. Who (which apparently taught him in thirteen episodes more about writing and story than the past twenty years) and Alex Robinson’s Tricked. On the latter, the alternation of long and short character arcs, and it’s approach to storytelling have helpfully influenced his approach to 52 in particular.
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