DAYS OF X PAST & MORE – CATCHING UP WITH ROBERT KIRKMAN – NEWSARAMA

January 23, 2008 by Chris Mosby · 1 Comment
Filed under: Comic Creator Interviews

DAYS OF X PAST & MORE – CATCHING UP WITH ROBERT KIRKMAN

by Vaneta Rogers

After just over two years with the title, writer Robert Kirman announced in late December that he would be leaving the series with issue #93. As he said in his blog, after being hired for a nine issue fill-in arc, sticking around for over two dozen ain’t half dad.

We spoke with the writer about his time on the series.

Newsarama: For those who might not have seen your blog post, why are you leaving Ultimate X-Men now?

Robert Kirkman: Well, I was sitting down with [Marvel editor] Ralph Macchio. Well, he was sitting down in New York and I was sitting down in Kentucky. And he was asking me what I was going to do after the Apocalypse storyline. And everything I’ve been doing in Ultimate X-Men since my run started — and you know, there are a lot of subplots and a lot of things going on and different layers to the storyline — it’s all been leading up to the Apocalypse storyline. So I didn’t really see the point of overstaying my welcome and trying to hang onto the book after that point, and force myself to come up with more storylines that may or may not live up to what I’m doing in the Apocalypse storyline. So I figured it was as good a time as any to do my swan song storyline and tie everything up and then walk out the door.

NRAMA: You know there are a lot of rumors about changes coming for the Ultimate Universe.

RK: I cannot speak about any of them!

NRAMA: [laughs] That’s not surprising, but…

RK: I mean, I’m aware of what’s going on. But I can’t really comment because I don’t know what they’re steering people to believe. There are definitely a lot of changes in store and some cool things happening.

NRAMA: But it leads next to the question: Are you leaving the series, or is the series leaving you? I’m just wondering if the title is even going to still be around? Or is there something coming that drove you out? Or is the title perhaps becoming something completely different?

RK: Well, my last issue is #93, and I can guarantee you that there is going to be an issue #94. I’m pretty sure I can guarantee that there are going to be a #100. I will say that after Ultimatum, all bets are off–there might not even be an Ultimate universe! Won’t Bendis be pissed?

NRAMA: OK. Well, let’s talk about all the things that you’ve been building during your run as you head toward the introduction of Ultimate Apocalypse. As you said, there are a lot of threads running through this storyline since you started, aren’t there?

RK: Yeah, and then there are ties to Mark Millar’s run on the book, and there are ties to Brian K. Vaughan’s run on the book. And I’m bringing back a lot of things that were set up in the original Mr. Sinister storyline.

NRAMA: In that storyline, Sinister seemed like he made up Apocalypse. Now that you’re basing a whole storyline on him, is it safe to assume that’s not true? He’s a real person?

RK: Who knows? I certainly couldn’t say. [laughs]

NRAMA: But he’s not a — what was that? A scarecrow kind of voodoo doll that Sinister had and was calling Apocalypse?

RK: I believe that’s a mannequin. [laughs] But there was some kind of stitching, so I guess that could be a scarecrow type thing. I wasn’t on the book then, so who knows?

But yeah, I will say there are some answers given to that mystery in Ultimate X-Men #90. I mean, when he was originally introduced, it was left kind of ambiguous as to whether or not Apocalypse really existed or it was just a crazy invention from a psychotic Mr. Sinister. And that’s definitely not forgotten. It’s something I’m toying around with in issue #90, and there will be some solid answers given to that in the issue.

And there’s a giant statue of Apocalypse shown in the future in issue #88, so obviously there’s some kind of physical manifestation of Apocalypse.

NRAMA: Well, yeah, and Cable is super scared of him. So there must be something there, right?

RK: He is definitely super scared. Those are the exact words I would have used. [laughs]

NRAMA: Thank you. Sometimes other writers come up with expressive words, you know.

RK: You’re doing a fantastic job. Super scared. Hold on! I think I’m going to stay on the book. That’s the title of my next arc on the book.

NRAMA: Super Scared! But seriously, you’ve confirmed you’re addressing the Sinister storyline. Can you speak to some of the other threads that you’re going to tie up in this storyline? You imply that everything leads to this story, so are we going to see the resolution of everything you’ve been hinting?

RK: Yeah, definitely. I mean, you know how every two issues, I’d bring up the Phoenix stuff that’s going on with Jean, but never actually do anything with it?

NRAMA: Yeah. So we’ll finally understand all those hints about what’s going on with Jean?

RK: Exactly. That’s coming to a head in the Apocalypse storyline as well. And then everything with Cable in the future, and why Bishop is on the team. And what’s going on with Xavier. Everything like that is going to be wrapped up in a hopefully satisfactory fashion by the end of Issue #93. We’ll know all the answers.

Nightcrawler leading the Morlocks is brought back into play, and so we see a little more of him there. And Scott and Jean, who are running Xavier’s school as a just an honest-to-god school now in Ultimate X-Men, that’s touched on and that’s brought into play in this arc. Everything kind of intersects and is woven together into what hopefully will be a cool story and will say everything I want to say about Ultimate X-Men.

NRAMA: So at the end of issue #93, are you getting it back to a nice, neat Ultimate X-Men story that somebody else can pick up on? Or are there major changes coming in your story arc that will lead to something a little different for the next guy?

RK: It will be as messed up as it’s been the whole time I’ve been writing it. [laughs] No, you never want to wrap everything up and bring it all back to status quo, and go, "Hey, there you go. Everything I did doesn’t matter!" So I’m not planning on doing that.

NRAMA: So does that mean there are big changes down the line for the Ultimate X-Men?

RK: Yeah, yeah, yeah. There will definitely be some problems left to solve when Issue #93 is over.

NRAMA: Let’s look back, then — what’s probably your favorite thing or favorite few things that you brought to the Ultimate Universe during your run on the X-Men?

RK: Well, I’m pretty proud of what I did with Cable. I thought that was a pretty cool storyline, and I had a lot of fun doing that. And with Ultimate Cable being Wolverine, and his whole story arc. Of course, his story isn’t done yet, but I think when it’s all said and done, that will probably be my legacy in the Ultimate Universe: Ultimate Cable, for better or for worse.

NRAMA: Looking back, what in your run was the biggest challenge?

RK: When I took over Ultimate X-Men, I think there were 75 people in the main cast — in the team. OK, I’m exaggerating a little bit. But the team was basically 14 members, and for awhile there were six kids that wouldn’t actually do anything, but were stuck in the school trying to learn. And then there were eight kids who were the actual X-Men team who would go out and do stuff. And then over the course of Brian K. Vaughan’s run, he had them doing so much cool stuff that they kind of became like a cohesive team. He just really had a big X-Men team and I think Brian did a really good job of juggling everything.

But I wasn’t interested in writing that many characters regularly. So when I came on, I made the decision that I’d eventually get around to thinning out the team as much as I could and get to a core cast, while keeping everyone in the book and doing subplots and stuff. I do a lot of subplots in Invincible, and people don’t seem to mind. So I thought that I would make Ultimate X-Men a little bit more like Invincible. I would keep characters on the back burner for a long time, but just because Cyclops and Jean weren’t in the story every issue, it doesn’t mean that they weren’t a member of the book’s cast and wouldn’t be popping in from time to time. I kind of liked that there were so many characters, but there were probably characters who I should have shown more and characters I shouldn’t have shown quite as much as I did. It was a tough thing.

I was very excited to be on Ultimate X-Men, because it was like I was writing every X-Men book in a certain universe. There’s only one X-Men book for the Ultimate line, and you have the entire cast of the X-Men Universe to play around with. So that aspect of it was really fun. But at the same time, it can all get a little unwieldy. So if I were to criticize my whole run, I’d say maybe — like once or twice, for like maybe a page — things got a little unwieldy. But for the most part, I enjoyed juggling the entire cast.

NRAMA: OK, let’s switch from Ultimate X-Men and talk about Marvel Zombies. You have good zombies and bad zombies now?

RK: Yes! And they’re fighting each other!

NRAMA: Crazy! You’ve taken every zombie rule and thrown it away! Your zombies don’t die when you cut off the top of their heads… they talk… they turn good… what’s up with that? [laughs]

RK: See, if you want standard, straight-up, dramatic zombies, then you need to be reading The Walking Dead.

NRAMA: Good point.

RK: And because I do The Walking Dead and I do Marvel Zombies, I definitely set out to do a book that was very different. They’re written by the same guy, so I guess there are certain things that appear in both books as far as my writing style and the way I do things. But I didn’t want anybody to ever pick up Marvel Zombies and say, "Oh, well this is just like Walking Dead, but with superheroes."

NRAMA: Well, it’s not just the zombies that are different. It’s a completely different tone. It seems like you’re just having fun with this story.

RK: Exactly. You can’t really take it too seriously, to a certain extent, when you have characters who are who they are, doing what they’re doing. Spider-Man running around with a missing leg is not going to be the most dramatic, serious thing in the world. So you do have to kind of have fun with it. There is a definite black comedy angle to it all.

NRAMA: Do you want to tell people anything about the next couple issues?

RK: I’m pretty excited about how the whole thing is going to end. So that’s pretty cool. I definitely don’t want to give anything away, but I’m hoping it’s on par with the ending of the first mini-series, which was my favorite ending of any ending that I’ve ever written.

NRAMA: It was pretty mind-boggling.

RK: Yeah! Galactus zombies. Wooo! Hopefully this ending will be as much of a shocker and as much out of left field as the ending to the first mini-series was. And I’m going to kind of thin the herd as we go through this second series, ’cause there’s just too many characters. [laughs] I didn’t kill enough in the first mini-series. And it’s a zombie book, so a good number of people have to die by the end of it.

NRAMA: Are there more Marvel Zombies series coming someday soon?

RK: The future is wide open. I think that Marvel Zombies 2 has been a huge success, and all of the zombie-related things that have happened in 2006 and 2007. And I think — rightly so — after Marvel Zombies 2, Marvel has decided to give them a bit of a rest as to not play out the trend too much. And hopefully things will be as fresh and exciting as Marvel Zombies 2 has been when and if they ever return.

Assuming I don’t kill everyone at the end of Marvel Zombies 2.

NRAMA: Now that Marvel Zombies 2 is winding down and Ultimate X-Men is heading toward your last storyline, do you have more projects coming up at Marvel?

RK: I guess it certainly could appear that I don’t. Well, there’s a Killraven series that I’m doing with Rob Liefeld that’s still in the works.

NRAMA: That’s right. Where is that?

RK: Where is that? In Rob’s hands. But no, Rob has been feverishly finishing up Onslaught Reborn and working on Killraven at the same time, so there’s a great deal of work already done on Killraven #1 and #2. So we’re ready to go. I’m hoping that we’ll have enough to launch in the middle of — what year is it? 2008?

NRAMA: It is 2008.

RK: Hey… it’s still early. But yeah, I’m hoping that maybe we’ll be able to launch Killraven this summer. But there’s no release date set. Rob won’t be waiting for script on this one, at any point, and so it should ship fairly regularly once it comes out.

NRAMA: Anything else you have coming up for Marvel?

RK: I have a few things that I can’t really discuss, which is always a lot of fun. A couple minis here and there. And some different thing that I’m currently discussing.

NRAMA: But they are Marvel?

RK: Oh, yeah. Definitely.

NRAMA: And for your Invincible fans, can you tell us anything about the next couple issues as you gear up for issue #50?

RK: Big action and crazy surprises with all kinds of different status quo-changing events that are going to happen in issue #48, #49 and #50. But yeah, #48 is going to be a fun issue because almost the entire Invincible universe is featured. So we get to see the Astounding Wolf-Man make an appearance. And the characters from Brit also come in. It features a villain in the book called Doc Seismic who has appeared a few times, and he’s going to make his final move starting in issue #48, and there is going to be some earth-shattering, world-conquering kind of supervillainry. So it’s going to bring all the superheroes out of the woodwork to take him on.

And then that leads to all kinds of chaos between Invincible and his current employer, Cecil Steadman, who runs the Global Defense Agency.

NRAMA: … who is not exactly who Mark thinks he is.

RK: Yes. Mark is a young character in the book, and he has taken everything at face value thus far. He’s just kind of gone along for the ride and done whatever he’s asked. So he sees how naive he’s been in Issue #50. It’s going to be a good moment of growth for the character, so we’ll kind of get to see him grow up, which is always fun in a creator-owned book because you get to see the characters grow and evolve and see their personalities mature and change with time, so I’m very excited about that.

NRAMA: And another one of your Image books, The Walking Dead, has a lot of solicitations for the future that are very cryptic. I know the comic is in the middle of a war right now, so obviously, we’ll have to talk again after the war is over.

RK: Yeah, it will be easier to do because then I can talk about how I’ve wrecked my book. [laughs]

NRAMA: [laughs] Oh no!

RK: No, if you really liked some character and would quit the book if he or she were to die, don’t worry. That one is not going to die.

NRAMA: That’s not going to be the one to die, right?

RK: No! No! It’s not your favorite character. Don’t worry. They’re fine.

But it’s been 50 issues, so it’s time to kind of inject new blood into the book and shake things up and make things a little more dangerous and more edgy. And I’m not going to say that they’re leaving the prison, but they’ve been safe behind fences and…

NRAMA: I think you already did. In our last interview, didn’t you just come out and say they’re leaving the prison? [laughs]

RK: Oh, fine. I can do that again, I guess. [laughs] But I’m not going to come out and say it! But they’ve been behind fences and dealing with relationship-related things, so once they get outside those fences, we’ll see how dangerous their world really is. And whoever survives will have a very interesting time in the issues to come.

NRAMA: It’s interesting that you’re at a turning point with both Invincible and Walking Dead where they’ve reached 50 issues, but you have a brand new series starting up with Astounding Wolf-Man. How’s that going?

RK: Things are going fine. Wolf-Man is selling on par with Invincible, and I’m excited about that. It’s an odd thing to have a book start out as a success, because with both The Walking Dead and Invincible, we kind of struggled along for the first year, and then people started reading it. So it’s cool to work on the first few issues and know that people are actually seeing it right now. But it’s fun to start a new thing. I don’t want to be a two-hit wonder. It’s fun to kind of insure that it’s just as cool as the other two books. And it’s fun to see them compared to each other in the press or online. I think that when it’s all said and done, it will be able to stand on its own and be a new kind of horror/superhero book.

NRAMA: And getting back to your upcoming work with Marvel: You said you had a couple mini-series, right?

RK: Yes. But maybe I’ve said too much already… be vague–I’ve got to be vague!

NRAMA: Is this something that you pitched or something that Marvel wants you to do?

RK: Something I was asked to pitch and came up with the idea for it.

NRAMA: And can you tell us about when it would be released?

RK: I don’t know. Hopefully it will be announced before the summer.