John Romita, Jr is taking on the Man of Steel. The Marvel mainstay joins Geoff Johns as the new creative team on Superman #32.
What is like for the award winning artist to draw DC comics most powerful hero?
“The size [and scope] of the character—to be able to have him doing amazing things, gigantic things, lifting certain things, beating up certain things. There’s that larger-than-life image. There’s a strength and weight that Continue reading JOHN ROMITA, JR On Drawing SUPERMAN & DC HEROES
Captain America #1 is out this week with a brand new creative team and new adventure for the Star-Spangled Avenger. Marvel’s ultimate boy scout in the hands of the writer known for chronicling the bad boys and gals of Marvel. Rick Remender (Punisher, Venom, Uncanny X-Force, Secret Avengers) is launching a brand new Captain America #1 with legendary John Romita Jr.
The writer told Marvel.com his own history with the Sentinel of Liberty.
“SECRET WARS is what brought me into comic books. That was my first contact with Cap. That led me into his ongoing series, around #294-295 when The Red Skull and his daughters were hatching their big plot against Steve. That was great stuff; a lot of interesting stuff to get pulled into. There was plenty of history there and how they were handling the Red Skull and Captain America relationship—I remember being very grabbed by that. A few issues later Captain Britain showed up and that’s when I started falling in love with that character, too.”
What does Cap stand for?
“Tenacity. The character, in my head, was always about [that at] his core. He never gives up, he never quits. He’s a role model. That’s a term that comes a little bit clichéd and trite I suppose, but that’s sort of the beauty of who he is. He’s a patriotic soldier directed by a personal ethical compass, belief in the American dream and faith in his fellow man. At the same time we’ve seen that he’s very clever and roguish, quick with the drill comment on occasion, but he’s also a leader at the core of it. That was something that I definitely wanted to dig into when I took on the new series and we will be quite a bit.”
Expect a change in tone with Remender. While Ed Brubaker focused on SHIELD and spies, Remender will turn up the sci-fi factor.
“It’s almost like “Kirby Sci-Fi Indiana Jones.” High adventure dipped in sci-fi spy fantasy with heavy focus on the man under the suit. Steve’s fabric and his relationships drive our story and the action is the byproduct. Tonally it’s very serious. You want to make sure the characters go up against things that feel like real threats and [put] them into interesting situations. It’s a lot less of the connection with S.H.I.E.L.D. and the spy work and more big high adventure super hero stuff with sci-fi that I tend to lean into. It’s obviously a big challenge following a beloved run like Ed’s. I guess that’s what was also appealing because it was a challenge; it wasn’t safe. You’re working with new people.”
Remender is writing Cap in the premiere Marvel NOW! relaunch book Uncanny Avengers and says expect a crossover.
“There will be a lot of new characters cross pollinating [between the two books]. The first 10 issues of each are going to be their own thing—you want to get that train out of the station and really solidify what the books are about and what’s going on in them. Then we’ll start to see characters from one pop up in the other and a little more cross pollination. I spent some time on the phone with Jason Aaron about how to incorporate some of his new THOR: GOD OF THUNDER ideas in UNCANNY AVENGERS as well, and I want to do the same with Jonathan Hickman and I know Kieron Gillen and I will talk, too. We’ll try and do our very best to make it cohesive and not like it’s a bold new direction where everyone is doing their own thing. We want it to feel like a bold new direction where everyone is doing their own thing and swapping toys out, trying to build something that feels cohesive because that’s such an important part of the shared universe experience.”
Remender told IFanboy that part of the sci-fi focus will be bringing back Arnim Zola and sending Cap to Dimension Z?
“One of the mandates I have to myself is, I don’t want to touch the World War II stuff. I think that that has been done, now, and it’s been done perfectly. To go back and to keep focusing on Cap in World War II at this point, again, would be following too closely to what Ed has already done. What I’m doing is spending a lot of time in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 20s and 30s, showing Steve grow up. The first arc is 10 issues, and it’s called “Dimension Z.”
I don’t want to give away too much, but a big portion of it is Cap dealing with Arnim Zola in Dimension Z. I’m trying to take Zola and do with him, what we did with Apocalypse over in Uncanny X-Force. Where we take what’s there, re-imagine it, build a new mythology and really expand Zola, and try and build Zola into a very, very big and important character.
The other half of it is going to be a lot of flashbacks to a young Steve Rogers growing up in Depression-era Lower East Side, and getting to know his family and his friends, and how this 98-pound weakling became such a tenacious, strong person; focus on the fiber and the integrity of who he is, and really develop that for the first time.”
For the entire interview here’s the Marvel.com link.
Captain America #1 arrives this Wednesday.
By Editor
The Star-Spangled Avenger embarks on a brand new chapter with a new creative team in the Marvel Now. Writer Rick Remender and Artist John Romita Jr. hurl Steve Rogers into Dimension Z in Captain America #1 on November 21.
“At the core of this book is Steve Rogers. Even though tonally you can expect a bit of a shift, the character still shines true. We’re taking a drift into science fiction. Visually it will be pretty crazy. John is plugging away on issue #3 and it looks gorgeous,” Remender said on Marvel.com.
Ed Brubaker’s final Cap issue came this week after an eight year run and a focus on the spy game. Remender is shifting Steve in the new series.
“It’s a large step away from the espionage spy stuff Ed Brubaker has been doing, but it’s the same core character dropped in a new situation,” he explained.
The Red Skull, HYDRA and AIM were big elements of the Brubaker era. Remender is making the bizarre scientist Arnim Zola (played in human form by Toby Jones in Captain America: The First Avenger) into a more formidable enemy.
“Rick asked for a scene with a human Arnim Zola walking into his lab and then it’s 1960’s horror movie gore. I had a moment of thinking I was drawing Kick-Ass and had gotten my books confused,” Romita revealed, “There are human heads on other things and so on. It gave me the willies. That doesn’t happen a lot.” –
“We’re establishing Zola and who he was in his early days in one page. You can do it visually with the right artist. John does it,” Remender said,””Arnim Zola is established as terrible in one scene.”
“Mainstream books can be the best ones to take a turn into horror or science fiction because it’s unexpected. It meets its rating, but it’s very inspired by EC Comics from the 50’s or Bernie Wrightson on Frankenstein,” added Remender
“It’s an action book. It’s high adventure. Cap throws some fists. The villain is villainous. A hero is only as good as his villain, and wait until you see what John and Dean (White) have done with Zola,” adds Remender.
“Arnim Zola is one of those characters who because he was such a bizarre design and because people who weren’t Jack Kirby drew him, he became almost a comical figure. That’s all going to go away,” said Editor Tom Brevoort.
“Zola doesn’t come out of this with anybody ever thinking he’s a joke again. He’s a high level madman, the top boss and the focus. But as always, there are henchmen. We’ve got Dough Boy, who is Jabba the Hutt as designed by Jack Kirby. When you see what John does with Zola’s mutates and their weapons, it’s wonderful, incredible big and exciting,” said Remender, “Zola is the villain for the long haul. We will get to know his plight.”
Brevoort revealed how the upcoming change to the Sentinel of Liberty was inspired by The Man Without Fear.
“When Rick and I first started talking about doing Cap stuff, for all the high adventure and sci fi, there was an element of what Frank Miller did to Daredevil in Born Again, tearing him down and taking everything away to build him back up. We’re throwing Cap down into a place where he’s completely out of his element, where the idea of America has no relevance. We’re stranding him on a metaphoric desert island and getting to the core of what drives this character. We’ll learn one new thing about him that really drives the first year.”
The new book will take Steve into Dimension Z but also dives into his past.
“Running parallel will be the story of Steve Rogers’ early days. We’ve always said he was Captain America without the physique before the super soldier serum, now we’ll see that. We’ll see the things that made him the guy he is today,” Brevoort continued.
“It was important to show Steve earning the tenacity and heart, because you’re not born with that. What you learn from your parents and the people around you informs your decisions and choices that define who you become,” Remender said.
“Back then, you had to be a lot tougher than the average human being. I think Steve Rogers would have become a cop, gone into the military–somehow been more than the guy on the street even without the super soldier serum. He would never have been just the average joe,” said Romita.
“The scene in ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ where he jumps on the grenade nails it,” added Remender.
A fan asked about Cap’s popular cast of supporting characters.
“I don’t want to give away too much of our hand, but Sharon Carter is involved. Hank Pym will give Steve his gadgets. I do think the important thing here is for the new characters to define this era of Cap. When we get into the second year…nothing you see is as it seems,” Remender answered, “When I pick up a book, I always try to take the relationships and move them to the next stage. There will be a big Steve-Sharon progression in issue #1.”
One of the fan favorite elements of the Brubaker run was the return and redemption of Bucky Barnes.
“Bucky is a conversation for the third or fourth arc. Once we get a better idea of the landscape of Marvel NOW! and Winter Soldier’s role in it, I’m excited to have these two in each others’ lives,” said Remender.
Remender said not to expect Falcon in the series because Sam Wilson is a “full-fledged in Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers.”
Here’s the Marvel.com link for the entire liveblog.
Captain America #1 arrives November 21st.
By Editor