THE ROGER STERN AVENGERS INTERVIEW (Page 1 of 3)
--A WONDER MAN: COOLER THAN SUPERMAN EXCLUSIVE--
INTERVIEWER: MIKE McDERMOTT
Roger Stern one of Marvel's more active and successful writers and editors and a name well known to all Avengers fans. Mr. Stern has been there with the book serving as editor with Jim Shooter, David Michelinie, John Byrne, then writing the book itself and launching the enormously popular West Coast Avengers limited series that branched into its own title. Recently co-writing with current Avengers writer Kurt Busiek a number of projects including Thunderbolts, Iron Man and writing the Avengers Infinity limited series and in the year 2000 the latest Wonder Man mini series: Avengers Two. Roger Stern has worked on everything and with everybody and has left its mark at the Avengers and Marvel Universe. We were lucky to be able to take him away from his busy schedule and have a little conversation about his thoughts on Wonder Man and his work on the Avengers and Marvel in general. Without more introductions I'll leave you to our interviewer Mike McDermott and Roger Stern.
1) In 1984 you wrote the 4 issue WEST COAST AVENGERS
limited series that spun out of the regular AVENGERS title. How was this project conceived?
It all started at a convention in Georgia in 1983. I was there with
Mark Gruenwald, who was then the editor of the AVENGERS, and we were tossing ideas around. At the time, we'd been having problems with other editors and writers glomming on to Avengers who weren't currently on our active roster. It seemed that every time I turned around, there'd be one or more limited series in the works, taking characters off in some weird direction, and we had no say in the matter because, we "weren't using them." The Beast, for example, was pulled off into the DEFENDERS.
Anyway, we hatched the idea for the WCA limited series, which grew out of the "Ultimate Vision" storyline I was developing. That plan was for Hawkeye to move out to the West Coast and establish a second Avengers base there -- as part of the Isaac-augmented Vision's master scheme -- but that the base would continue to show up in the regular AVENGERS title. This way, we would effectively have had about a dozen Avengers on hand, but usually no more than five or six in any given issue. And if other people wanted to use them, they'd have to come to us for approval first. At least, that's the way it was supposed to work.
2) Why didn't you stay on as writer of the regular WEST COAST AVENGERS series?
I was never given a
choice in the matter. The problem was that the WCA mini-series was wildly successful, so Marvel decided to continue it as a regular series ... without me. To this day, I've never gotten a straight answer as to why. But what was the most frustrating was that I had long-term plans for all of those characters. I had a number of rough story outlines that were suddenly worthless. As a result, I had to come up with new plots for a whole year's worth of stories. It took me
months to get back on schedule.
3) When Steve Englehart became WCA writer, did you have any input in what direction he took with those characters?
No, none.
4) Some fans feel that Englehart portrayed Wonder Man in a very negative light, making him arrogant and self-absorbed, and that it contradicted how Shooter
and Michelinie had previously established his character. How
do you feel about Englehart's portrayal of Wonder Man? Would you have handled him differently?
It's been years since I've seen any of those
stories, and it really wouldn't be fair for me to
comment on them. I can only vaguely recall what Steve did in his stories, and I didn't read many of the ones that were published after I was fired from the AVENGERS.
5) When you set up the WEST COAST AVENGERS, what ideas did you have for Wonder Man? What aspects of the character interested you the most?
You do realize that we're talking about work I did over fifteen years ago, right? I haven't yet found any notes that survived from that period, so I'll have to rely on memory here. (My memory is pretty good, but I can't remember everything.)
I do know that I'd planned to have Simon continue to grow, both as an Avenger and as the "World's Greatest Stuntman!" ("Drop him from an airplane! Blow him up! Dump him in the ocean! Watch him come back for more! And never worry about that pesky Workman's Compensation!")
I seem to recall that I was going to reveal that his brother was actually responsible for the embezzlement from his company. But just the opposite was done, wasn't it?
6) All writers have their own "must have" characters when they work on a book, particularly when it comes to the AVENGERS. Who are your "must have" characters, and where does Wondy fit on that list?
I wasn't allowed any "must have" characters during my tenure. Of the so-called "Big Three," Iron Man and Thor had major storylines going on in their own books that resulted in their being unavailable to me for long stretches of time. I was able to hang onto Cap for most of my run, fortunately, though even that was tricky at times. Thankfully, I had the Wasp and Captain Marvel. In many ways, they became the heart and
soul of the team. I probably would have done more with Wonder Man, but he was supposed to get a solo limited series, so I held off on using him in the AVENGERS for some time. When the limited series fell through, I immediately scooped Simon up for the WCA. But once the West Coast team was taken away from me, I didn't have any more say as far as he was concerned.
7) When you were writing the WCA, it seemed as though you were setting up a romantic link between Wondy and Tigra. Were you intending to make them a couple, or was this just a passing fling?
Ah, you caught that, did you? Yes, making them a couple was part of my long-range plans for the Avengers. That was another part of the plans that were wrecked when the WCA went to series.
8) One of the coolest moments in your WCA issues is the scene where Wondy is preparing to move in with the Avengers, and he lifts the side of his house, and is pounding nails into a crate with his bare hands. Did you have fun designing this sequence in your mind? What did you think of Bob Hall's graphics?
Great fun. I had no way of knowing it at the
time, but coming up with super-strong things for Simon to do turned out to be a good rehearsal for my work on SUPERMAN in the years that followed. And I thought Bob did an especially good job on that sequence. Working with him on that limited series was a lot of fun. Bob's great guy, as well as a good artist. We still cross paths every now and then. He's mainly working in theater these days.
9) In 2000, you wrote the AVENGERS TWO mini, which
opened with a romantic kiss
between Wonder Man and Scarlet Witch. When you were writing this
series, were you aware that Kurt Busiek would break them up towards the end of his AVENGERS run?
I wasn't sure exactly where Kurt was going, but I was happy to set things up that he asked for.
10) Some readers complained that AVENGERS TWO had too many flashback sequences, especially for the Beast, whose origins were not really relevant to the story. How do you respond to this?
Well, the story -was- about Wonder Man and the Beast -- who they were and how they'd come to be there. And I've often found that those who complain so adamantly about flashbacks are the ones
who most need to read them.
Me, I love 'em!
11) Why did you choose to use so many villains from Wonder Man's old series instead of more established and popular villains? I have often wondered why Wonder Man writers don't pit him against some of Thor's villains; it seems like a perfect match.
There were still a few loose ends from the old series that needed to be tied up before we could move forward, and we had just the three issues. We did revive It the Living Colossus, though. That, at least, brought up the quotient of Kirby characters. Good point about the Thor villains, though the old series made quite a bit of use of the Enchantress and Executioner in the early days. I assume, though, that you'd be more interested in the more physical threats? Like Mr. Hyde or the Wrecker? Hey, how about the Destroyer? That could be wild.
12) Whose decision was it to have Simon's old love interest, Alex Flores, married? If Busiek was always planning to break Simon and Wanda up, having Alex married closes off the possibility of her and Simon getting back together.
Kurt and I were tossing ideas back and forth so much around that period that I really don't remember. I think it was Kurt's idea that Alex had gotten married during the time when Wonder Man was apparently dead ... and my idea that she'd married Felix Simon.
13) Thankfully, most of the continuity mistakes from
the WONDER MAN series are explained away in AVENGERS TWO.
However, it is never explained why Mephisto planted those illusions, and why he revealed Lotus to Wonder Man. Did you leave that a mystery on purpose? Did you have an idea for another story to deal with that?
Yes. And yes. (Mephisto works in mysterious ways, after all.)
14) AVENGERS TWO reveals that Lotus has hypnotic powers, which had never been displayed before. Why did you decide to give her super powers? We only see her hypnotize men; is she unable to hypnotize women as well?
There's a lot more to Lotus that you realize. If I ever wind up working
at Marvel again, I may do something about that.
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