Jeff Parker's A-Teams

 

Brian Michael Bendis might be writing the Avengers book that gets all the attention these days with it's controversial line-up consisting of some untraditional big-name heroes like Wolverine and Spider-Man, but his New Avengers line-up lacks the star wattage generated by the one Jeff Parker's writing in Marvel Adventures Avengers: Wolverine, Spider-Man, Captain America, The Hulk, Iron Man, Storm and Giant Girl.

 

The first three issues have proven MAA to be the anti-NA in more ways than one, however: Each single issue has been a reader-friendly, done-in-one story. In addition to the ability to juggle plenty of characters, Parker's demonstrated an inventive wit and light touch (My personal favorite moment came in #3, where Tony Stark took advantage of the unchanging expression of his mask by taking a nap inside his armor).

 

Someone at Marvel seems to be paying attention to how deftly Parker can handle a super-team, as he's been given the task of revitalizing the company's old Atlas characters in this week's Agents of Atlas, and in the coming months he'll handle the original X-Men in X-Men: First Class and the ‘616’ Avengers in the just-announced What If?: Avengers Disassembled. (Editor’s Note: 616 is the ‘normal’ Marvel universe designation)

 

Though Parker's been doing more and more writing for Marvel of late, he's done a little of everything in the comic book field, his biggest solo work is his small press sci-fi espionage story, Interman (which has since been optioned for film adaptation).

 

“I often wonder if I'm giving the artist enough description to go on, or if maybe I'm dictating too much through the scripts and essentially drawing it through the artist, which I don't want anyone to feel like I'm doing," Parker said of the transition from writer/artist to writer working with another artist on his Marvel books.  "I keep getting nice emails from everybody, so I hope I'm worrying needlessly. I always think in terms of things that would be enjoyable to draw, and I think they appreciate that."

 

When those "fun things to draw" include the Hulk fighting a giant jellyfish and a multiple machine gun packing gorilla, fans appreciate it just as much. I spoke with Parker about the debut of Agents of Atlas, and whether Giant-Girl was just the latest and strangest of Hank Pym's superhero codenames.

 

 

Bam!Kapow!: Gorilla Man firing four guns at once in Agents of Atlas was the coolest thing I've seen in a comic book this week. Was a gorilla firing four machine guns something you've always wanted to include in a story, or did the image come to you while working on the story?

 

Jeff Parker: It's a bigger version of something I did years ago in a story called Ape Company, where I had a chimp soldier driving a jeep with his feet on the steering wheel and holding a machine gun. That came back to me when I was thinking, "What would make Gorilla Man such a great SHIELD agent? Four hands!"

 

BK!: How did Agents of Atlas come about? Was this a pitch you made to Marvel, or an idea they had and were looking for someone to write?

 

Parker: Mark Paniccia had a gut feeling about those characters when he was looking over old What If?’s, and asked what kind of story I would write with them. He didn't tell me what he was hoping for. I just got lucky and hit the marks with my initial pitch.

 

Some people think it was about keeping copyrights on old characters, but I can promise you nobody at Marvel was concerned with that!

 

BK!: Looking at the characters, they all seem both products of their time and incredibly dated, from Marvel Boy's costume to Gorilla Man basically just being a talking gorilla. You seem to exploit that dated-ness though, with the Human Robot walking through the brick wall or the old-school flying saucer…is the 1950s-ish of the characters integral to the story? There didn't seem to be any reinterpretation of the characters we've seen so far, like Grant Morrison did with the "Marvel Boy" name a few years back).

 

Parker: We are going straight to the pulps with our inspiration, yes. Some things are so dated they actually become timeless, I think, and [penciller] Leonard [Kirk] and I seem to be very synched up with each other as far as determining those things. Marvel Boy will be wearing a different outfit, but it's not modern looking. It's like a classic sci-fi spacesuit, with the difference being that the bubble helmet isn't actually glass, but a field his suit generates.

 

BK!: And speaking of dated, I was sort of surprised to see the Yellow Claw. His character seems to be a bit, um, offensively stereotyped. Did you have any concerns writing the character?

 

Parker: We present him as they did before, because a lot is going to be revealed about him. If I told you, you would probably be pleasantly relieved, but it would also spoil some story for everybody. So you'll just have to trust me that he's not quite the "yellow peril" he was presented as historically. Actually if you read the original stories, he was a pretty reasonable character. The name Yellow Claw they lifted from a Fu Manchu story, which isn't surprising.

 

BK!: Obviously you can't give the ending away at this point, but is the mini-series going to be open ended, to allow for future mini-series or an ongoing if there's sufficient demand?

 

Parker: It will be open ended, though the way it comes together at the end may be pretty different than what readers are expecting, or used to.  I would love to continue their adventures, so I hope the book has to go back into another printing soon!

 

BK!: We haven't seen much of Marvel Boy at this point, but he's gotta be pushing seventy by now, right? Is he going to go by Marvel Man when we do meet him?

 

Parker: He's only a little older, and that will be covered in issue #3.

 

BK!: Is it immature of me to laugh at Marvel Boy for being from Uranus?

 

Parker: You're no different than Gorilla Man, who snickers every time it comes up! Bob Grayson eventually has to say "the Seventh Planet" just to avoid that.

 

BK!: Will we be seeing Namora or Jann of the Jungle, or any other heroes from the time period as the series progresses? Maybe 3D Man, whom Kurt Busiek had working with the others in Avengers Forever?

 

Parker: Oh, you'll be seeing a lot of Namora, she's the final agent added to the roster. She comes back in quite a big way. 3D Man is not in this series, because we're just dealing with actual Atlas characters, and he was a complete retcon. But I've figured out a way to deal with his character in the future if we proceed.

 

BK!: Switching gears to your other team book at Marvel, did you get to decide on the line-up for the Marvel Adventures Avengers, or was it already in place before you came on? It's really a who's who of Marvel characters.

 

Parker: It was largely in place, and they let me negotiate some. They wanted the characters that people unfamiliar with the comics might still recognize, which immediately meant Wolverine and Storm, Spider-Man and Hulk. Iron Man and Captain America were expected, because they are the big constants of any Avengers team. They thought Giant-Man   would be good for visuals, and that's where I kept begging to use a Giant-Girl instead, because I wanted more women on the team.

 

BK!: Who is Giant-Girl under the mask? We haven't seen her secret identity revealed yet—is it a character original to the book, or does she have a "616" counterpart?

 

Parker: She's actually Janet Van Dyne. I was originally going to have her shrink to Wasp size as well, and they asked me to stick to big for simplicity's sake. Editorial is really big on these stories not being weighed down with continuity, so even though I wanted to show who she is and how her power came about, I'm not sure I'll ever get the space to do so.

 

BK!: As someone familiar with the mainstream Marvel Universe, do Wolverine and Storm seem to fit naturally in that group of heroes to you, or is there ever a little voice in your head saying, "But…they're X-Men! Feared and hated by the people they're sworn to protect!"

 

Parker: I was worried about Wolverine, but he worked fine once I started writing. Just like Beast transcended being an X character, I think those two could too. Storm easily.

 

BK!: So far we've seen Baron Zemo, Ultron, the Abomination and the Leader. What villains will the team be facing in the near future?

 

Parker: In my next arc, issues 9-12, you'll be seeing Morgan Le Fay and the Black Knight, the Sons of the Serpent, and one I think is going to be very popular—a very special MODOC story. I wish I could tell you more about that, but when you see the solicitation before long, you'll see what I mean.

 

BK!: Each issue has been a complete story told in one single issue. That doesn't happen very often in comics anymore these days. In fact, hardly anybody writes such short stories any more. Is it really hard to do?

 

Parker: Well I've got the hang of it now, but you have to keep things moving fast. The Adventures books shouldn't rely on people needing a previous issue to get the one they just discovered.

 

BK!: With the Avengers book and X-Men series, you've gotten to write some of Marvel's top-tier characters, and with Agents of Atlas some of the more obscure characters from forgotten corners of their catalog. Are there any other Marvel characters you'd really like to get your hands on?

 

Parker: I like Dr. Strange a lot, and I'm happy I'm writing him in an upcoming What If.

 

BK!: What's the current status on the Interman movie?

 

Parker: A British duo, The Griffith Brothers, are working on the second script and I hear it's really good. Let's keep fingers crossed!

 

 

For more on Jeff Parker, click to www.parkerspace.com