DnA QnA: Movies, Jackets, Gods, Martyrs and Infestations

Cosmic Book News is pleased to present a “QnA with DnA” wherein the cosmic duo answers your questions!

Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning — the masterminds behind Marvel Cosmic and current writers on the recently-released Iron Man/Thor, I Am An Avenger #3 and The Thanos Imperative (both of which hit this week), the upcoming Rocket and Groot mini, Devastation and IDW Infestation — have taken some time out of their busy schedules to answer questions from some of you, our fearless CBN Forum members.

To get involved, just head on over to the CBN Cosmic forums!

In this week’s QnA, DnA discuss: the possibility of Nova and the Guardians of the Galaxy in television and movies; Star-Lord and what type of jacket he wears; the complex character that is the High Evolutionary; the martyrdom of Phya-Vell; and the Transformers infesting G.I.Joe!

Join the galaxy-spanning fun and find out what is on the minds of these weavers of wonderment. And then shoot us your own Qs for DnA! Only on Cosmic Book News!

Timelord: Earlier in the year there were articles and interviews where Nova and GotG were mentioned as possible film, TV, or direct to DVD animated features. The quality of your work on Nova and GotG has obviously gotten the attention of some producers. We haven’t heard anything more since early in the year. With Starz partnering with the BBC to bring us a new Torchwood series, it seems that the US pay cable networks might be developing an interest in capturing the SF genre audience. I’d personally love to see a Nova and GotG ongoing live action series on Starz or Showtime. Has anyone pitched that idea?  

DnA: Not to us they haven’t, but we know that Marvel has a weather eye on all its properties and sub-properties for development potential. So who knows? Of course, if we’d signed an NDA, we would say that, wouldn’t we? But we haven’t. Or have we?

FitzOtter: It was thanks to the writing of DnA, also the art of Brad Walker, in the Guardians of the Galaxy that got me back into reading comics. In fact it was Star-Lord who quickly became my favorite character. How did you approach the character and his evolution from a 70s standalone space opera character to the leader of the GOTG? Also would you happen to know the name of type of jacket he wears? Will any of the characters who donned the ‘Star-Lord’ name ever show up, such as Jason Quill (Peter’s father) or Sinjin Quarrel? Is Quarrel even cannon?  

DnA: StarLord was a particular fave of ours. The Claremont/Byrne one shot adventure is one of our all time favorite stories. We had to find a way to bring him back – and finding him ‘powerless’ and Ship-less, we had to find a way to make that work. Making him a world-weary Han Solo with bags of experience to make up for his lack of powers seemed to fit. A real team leader. Jason? Sinjinn? Ship herself? Who knows? And it’s a Hussar’s style/lancer’s jacket, isn’t it?

Arivelo: The Iron Man/Thor mini features the High Evolutionary. How hard was it to write such a complex character? Which version of the Evolutionary will we see? The guy is either crazy, brilliant, or both but always has some sort of God complex.  

DnA: He’s a favorite of ours, and favorite of our editor, Ralph Macchio. Ralph really wanted us to get under the HE’s  skin and play him the way that Ralph had always seen him – not as a villain, but as a driven genius so far up ‘the spectrum’ he often does things that seem callous or villainous. We all think that’s the way he’s been in the very best of his previous outings. And the series is called God Complex, after all…

CapMar: In regards to Phyla, she has really bounced around of sorts in regards to her identity. She went from Captain Marvel to Quasar to Martyr and has seemingly been killed off. I was wondering what your opinion of the character is and if you had (have?) any future plans with her related to Oblivion and Maelstrom.  

DnA: She was very interesting, if tied up in a lot of complex baggage. We felt it was better to try and do something strong and positive with her than simply lose her in the scenery, so we went with the story we did. Now she’s dead, but as part of a big story, and her death was a dynamic piece of punctuation to thats tory. We really liked the ‘pact with the devil’ thing she underwent to get Moondragon back, and the awful price for that – Thanos! Because she’s dead, of course, that’s it. She’ll either stay dead, which draws a line under everything, or she come back, because this is cosmic AND comics, in which case her death tidies up her baggage and allows a new, ‘clean’ version of her to return.

Kirrmistwelder: Could you tell us some more about Infestation? Will the stories actually connect together, for instance will we be seeing a crossover between Transformers and G.I. Joe – or is it just that they’ll all be facing the same (common) threat? How did this story idea come about?  

DnA: It’s huge, IDW’s first cross-over. They had already worked it all out, we were hired to make it work! Crossing between licenses is INCREDIBLY difficult, so somethings are out of bounds, but we’ve tried to construct and tell the most satisfying story possible. There will be some actual crossover beyond the ‘facing common menace’ deal. We’ll have to see what’s strictly allowed. It will be HUGE fun, however.

Look for a future installment of “DnA QnA” soon and remember to ask your questions in the CBN forums! Special thanks to Darren Blackburn (Nova3333) for the above caricatures!