WEAPON X-MEN COMIN' ATCHA

Getting so close

Welcome back to the Stack.

(okay, I’m just trying it out, folks. After all, it rhymes…)

It’s time for some more “inside baseball” talk. A few weeks ago, I wrote about how the comicbook industry’s internal mechanisms for promoting itself is sufficiently “broken”. I’d like to think I know what the hell I’m talking about, having lived in the belly of this particular beast for almost thirty years now. That’s a lot of miles traveled… a lot of experience… and a ton of interviews given…

Y’see, I’m of the hapless opinion that the promotional interview is an art form unto itself. It may seem simple on its surface, but if you want to do it right -- if you want to create a desired effect -- it takes entering into a certain state of mind. Because an interview can be an opportunity to define yourself and your work in a manner that can substantially add to whatever it is you’re promoting. You’re selling yourself as much as you’re selling the work. In a way, it doesn’t even matter what you’re being asked, if you’re savvy enough to be able to pivot into the specific ideas that you want to express. In other words, no one really cares that much about the questions… it’s the answers that count.

When I broke into the business of comicbooks as a professional writer, it wasn’t long before I was talking to various websites and print publications like Wizard Magazine and The Comics Journal, pimping my work on a fairly regular basis. In fact, it was the glory years of comicbook press, when the Internet was new but quickly discovering its effectiveness when it came to self-promotion… and the print publications were still quite influential as taste-makers within the industry.

Now, I might’ve had a slight advantage over other rookie creators in the same boat, only because I’d already had some experience talking to the press. I wasn’t completely new to the process. Back in Memphis, in my early 20’s, my band was making its fair share of noise on the local rock circuit. Subsequently, we garnered out fair share of local press. So I’d been interviewed by several print outlets -- city newspapers, music papers, etc. -- and even done a few radio appearances long before I was a professional anything. And, lemme tell ya, folks who write about comicbooks could hardly hold a candle to the music journalists I had spoken to. But I took that experience with me when I started getting interviewed as a professional writer.

Speaking of Wizard Magazine… check out this funky artifact of a bygone age (more specifically, the year 1999). This was my Tiger Beat moment. This was something to privately live down, even as it publicly raised my profile. And that shirt… God help me…

Things have come a long way since then. Like I said before, the avenues in which publishers and comicbook creators can promote their wares are as limited -- and probably as ineffective -- as I’ve ever seen it. There are really no outlets where you can depend on a sizeable number people seeing it, and so the notion that the interviews you do give -- to the scattered outlets that do still exist -- will translate into any appreciable sales is… well, it’s hard to imagine.

But, for whatever reason, we still do them. We still dance the dance… I guess so everyone can feel at least a semblance of normalcy in an industry that’s been on very shaky ground for at least few years now.

So here’s the text of an interview I did just a few short weeks ago, promoting WEAPON X-MEN. It was for the website, Newsarama, which inexplicably still exists but is clearly a pale shadow of its former self, in terms of general awareness. I have no doubt that having done the interview, it will have zero impact on sales. Nevertheless, I couldn’t help but play this club gig like I was playing Madison Square Garden.

So now I present to you a version of me…

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

1. Joe, describe what brought you onto WEAPON X-MEN, and what are your goals for this series?

JOE CASEY: I actually pitched this monster to Marvel last spring. The name, the concept, the initial roster, everything in a tight, little package. The subsequent, editorial transition that occurred in the X-office ended up delaying things for a few months, but we’re here now and the goal is to deliver big concepts, big stakes and hopefully a big impact. Each month, every issue, it’s a pure popcorn thrill ride. To put it in wider perspective, I look at a series like WEAPON X-MEN as part of the new movement that’s been happening over the past year in mainstream superhero comicbooks, and it’s time we finally codified it and identified it with its very own category… Blockbuster Comics. Once again, it’s time to show movies and video games how it’s done.

(A NEWSLETTER ASIDE: The whole “Blockbuster Comics” thing was kind of an inside joke for anyone of my generation, where we went through a brief phase -- around the turn of the millennium -- where comicbook storytelling approaches and formats were being named/labeled/identified as a way to brand them… Grant Morrison coined the term, “Widescreen Comics”. Warren Ellis promoted the idea of“Pop Comics”. I used to get a big kick out of those so I decided to bust out one of my own, twenty plus years later.)

2. The roster of this team is all-killer, no filler. Which characters have surprised you the most as you've been writing?

JOE CASEY: Well, there’s the “big three” to start with. The bona fide movie stars. Two of which -- Wolverine and Cable -- I’ve written before, so there’s already a certain familiarity there. Those two feel a little like coming home. But I’ll tell you, writing Deadpool has been a bit of a revelation. As you might expect, he provides the real “meta” aspect of this series, the one who’s able to comment on events as they’re happening in the same way that a Marvel fan might. That gives the stories a whole new dimension that ends up being really fun. And Chamber is a character I’ve always had a soft spot for, which is why I made him an official X-Man when I wrote UNCANNY X-MEN back in the day and why he’s a part of this team now. Finally, there’s Thunderbird, the “forgotten X-Man” who’s personal circumstances end up being the main driving factor in our first batch of stories.

3. You've got both Cable and Wolverine in the mix, both of whom have been the leaders of squads like this before. How does their dynamic work in WEAPON X-MEN?

JOE CASEY: They’re obviously both alphas, so there’s always going to be a bit of tension there. But they’ve also been through so much, both separately and together, that they’re not going to waste time fighting over who’s going to be the top dog. They know better. Both of them realize that the two of them need to be there in equal measure if this team is going to work. In other words, they’re grown-ass men and -- being a grown-ass man myself -- I try and write them that way.

4. On that note, you've brought in the recently resurrected Thunderbird. How does the fact that he died way back in the '70s and was just recently brought back in the Krakoa era inform how he fits into WEAPON X-MEN?

JOE CASEY: Well, for those who might not already know, Thunderbird has been dead for the entirety of modern X-history. That’s fifty years of published comicbooks. He’s painfully aware that he’s missed out on a helluva lot. And the fact that he’s now compelled -- to be more specific, he’s desperate -- to prove himself to be the hero he feels he was always meant to be is the first main subplot of the series, and it all comes to a dramatic head in issue #5.

5. You're working with ChrisCross on WEAPON X-MEN, one of my favorite underrated artists. What's it been like teaming up with him for this title?

JOE CASEY: Cross and I have worked together before, but never on such a massive scale as this. I mean, we’re painting on the largest possible canvas here. Because where most X-books stay in a certain lane, operating almost exclusively within a more mutant-centric jurisdiction, in WEAPON X-MEN we’re dealing with the entirety of the Marvel Universe. In that respect, we’re presenting certain elements and classic locales -- like Hydra Island in the second issue -- in a way that makes them feel brand new.

6. The solicitation text for WEAPON X-MEN #1 mentions a mysterious enemy. What clues can you give us about what the team is up against?

JOE CASEY: At this point, there’s no need for me to be coy. I can tell you straight up that the first villain -- as revealed in our very first issue -- is the infamous Baron Von Strucker (who MCU fans might remember from the opening action scene in Avengers: Age of Ultron, a movie I will defend against any and all naysayers. Love that flick!). But we’re not stopping there. We’re going to introduce the WMD’s -- Wolverines of Mass Destruction -- in issue #2. And by the end of the first arc, we’re also going to upgrade Strucker in a major way, transforming him into an even more significant -- and terrifying -- villain for the Marvel Universe.

(ANOTHER NEWSLETTER ASIDE: I should write about the virtues of Avengers: Age of Ultron sometime. I was completely serious about my love for that movie. That and Iron Man 2 have really gotten the short end of the stick…)

7. What else do you want fans to know going into WEAPON X-MEN #1?

JOE CASEY: We’re really swinging for the fences with this series, and we’re just hoping that there are plenty of readers -- lapsed or otherwise -- that are willing to check out what we’re up to. It’s the kind of superhero comicbook reading experience they just might be missing right now. Where things are at in the industry right now, it’s very disorienting. Whatever “new normal” we’re in… is decidedly abnormal. There aren’t as many sure things anymore. So, we’re putting everything we have into making WEAPON X-MEN as kick ass as it can possibly be. We’re having a blast and everyone’s invited to the party.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

So, yeah… I can still put my foot on the gas when the situation calls for it.

Since this newsletter is all about promoting WEAPON X-MEN, set to debut on February 19, why not show some more issue #1 goodness, right…?

Joe Casey

USA