27 thoughts on “Open thread! Got questions? I’ll try to answer!”

  1. For Planet Hulk, was that brought to you by Marvel, since they had to have some reason for Hulk to not be around for Civil War, or did you pitch the idea and they said, “Yeah that fits perfectly?” I know this is old news but I’m still kind of obssessed with Sakaar and Caiera et al. Thanks

    1. The-EIC Joe Quesada invited me into his office and said a few words, of which I remember “Hulk,” “gladiator,” “alien planet,” and “battleaxe.” And I said sign me up!

      So yes, the germ of the idea came from Joe and the other editors at Marvel. They tossed a couple of other plot points at me and then cut me loose to work with brilliant editor Mark Paniccia to create the world and supporting cast and figure out what the heck this story was really all about, anyway.

      The fact that it all dovetailed so well with “Civil War” was something that came about a bit later down the line. We always knew the Hulk was going to come back to Earth and a big event would ensue. At a certain point that event was going to happen earlier. But during one of the summits, the idea for “Civil War” came up, and the Hulk’s arrival got pushed a year to make room. But his absence from Earth turned out to be perfect for “Civil War,” the balance of which could have been seriously skewed if the Hulk had been there to pick sides.

      And thanks for the kind words about Sakaar and Caiera. You know, there’s some Caiera-related stuff in the “Skaar” book…

  2. Career Redux: You’re breaking in in late 2013/Early 2014 — What is the biggest fear you face in the current industry? What is the biggest appeal of the current industry?

    1. Interesting! Biggest fear… I don’t know that as someone breaking in right now I’d have a biggest fear. There’s just a tremendous amount of new opportunity right now. A kind of resurgence in indie publishing is going on, which is pretty exciting. And creators are coming up with new ways of getting books made out and into the world every day. I wouldn’t view that with fear — I’d see it all as opportunity.

      Biggest appeal of the current industry? Well, if you’re looking at the Big Two, as a creator, I’m pretty thrilled with both New 52 and Marvel Now. Fresh starts provide an opportunity for fresh storytelling. I think it’s also very exciting to see companies like Valiant getting out there and making a big splash.

  3. Do you have any planned foreign appearances? I for one would like you to visit the Philippines.
    I hope you won’t mind signing all my books, I’ve accumulated a lot of them through the years.

    1. Thanks for the kind words! Alas, no foreign appearances planned for the moment. But you’re the second fan to ask me recently if I plan to make it to the Philippines. I’ve worked with a bunch of amazing artists from the Philippines and would love to come some day. Fingers crossed!

      I don’t mind singing tons of books for people — my general policy is to sign as much as folks want as long as we’re not keeping other people from getting their stuff signed. So sometimes folks with a lot of books have to go through the line a couple of times. But I’m grateful to y’all for buying ’em, so I try to sign ’em if I can!

  4. Had X-Treme X-Men continued, would Howlecules have been the new Cyclops/FemaleTelepath? Did you have other alt X-Men in mind to introduce to the team? And on a scale of 10 to 10, 10 being “lots,” how much do you miss Dazzler?

    1. I’d have loved to have written more Howlett and Herc. If we’d had another year of stories, I would have loved to have had them go back to their home world and have an adventure in that myth-infused culture.

      And yes, I did have some other alt X-Men in mind. I reeeeally wanted to do a Wizard of Oz homage with a Xavier-Wiz and Dazzler as Dorothy. Maybe work in a Colossus as the Tin-Man. Or maybe that could be a Tin-Woman and we use Armor. Beast would make a pretty good Lion. Not sure who’d be the Scarecrow, thought…

      Dazzler was SO much fun to write. But once I’m done with a book, I try to pine too much over it. So maybe a 7 or 8. 😉

      1. I would have slayed a plethora of mythical beasts from all time and space to have been able to read the Wizard of Oz homage. There was more sheer, joyful awesome in X-Treme than than pretty much anything I have ever read.

        1. ♥ ♥ ♥
          I give tons of credit to my editors Jeanine Schaeffer and Jennifer Smith. They just *got* that book and supported the heck out of everything I suggested.

  5. What villains/heroes do we expect to see in Batman/Superman in future story arcs?

    1. We’ve revealed the cover to #5, so I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say Metallo will play a role there. Other big villains are coming, too — can’t reveal ’em just yet, though!

  6. Greg, I was wondering if you could talk a bit about the origin of Planet Hulk, both creatively and commercially? Seems like an unusual thing, to be able to take a major character off the board for so long and build an entire new world around them.

    And on a non-question note: that arc came out right when I started reading comics, and was one of the books (along with Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men) that kind of cause me to realize the extraordinary storytelling power of comics, and made me want to be a comics writer. So hey, thanks for that!

      1. Heh! But thanks for the kind words. Whedon’s “Astonishing” made a huge impression on me, too. So clean, so smart, so much heart.

  7. Despite your start of Action Comics being set in the past, will issues after that be featured in the current time in the New 52 or will be set in the past like the start of your Batman/Superman run?

    Also, who is your favorite Superman villain and your favorite Batman villain?

    1. Yep, we’ll get up into the present time after the Zero Year tie in.

      Hmm. Favorite villains! Big question…

      Favorite Superman villain is probably Zod. Doing some really fun stuff with him in the Zod villain book that Ken Lashley drew (beautifully).

      Favorite Batman villain? When I was younger, it was definitely Joker. But I always had a soft spot in my heart for Man-Bat.

  8. Hello !! I’m really enjoying Batman/Superman, if you could direct the movie, What would be your aproach to the movie? The same you do in the comic?

    1. Wow. Great question! I think there’s a real virtue with starting small and letting Bruce and Clark meet first to build all that delicious character interaction. And I think there’s a lot of juice to be gotten out of putting them in an adversarial relationship to start. So those are a couple things I’d probably try bring to a movie version, were I ever to be in that position.

  9. Hi Greg,
    Does the music or other media playing while you write depend on what book you’re writing or do you just have a general “writing playlist”? What would be a good soundtrack for Batman/Superman?

    1. My buddy Fred Van Lente laughed at me when he came over one day while I was writing “Batman/Superman” #1 and saw I was listening to the “Batman Begins” soundtrack. I think I listened to the “Princess Mononoke” and “Akira” soundtracks a lot as well while writing those first two issues.

      So yeah, sometimes I pick specific things like that. Usually instrumental stuff or soundtracks. Other times I just put iTunes on shuffle and listen to whatever.

      Oh, and when I’m writing “Code Monkey Save World,” I usually am playing Jonathan Coulton songs. Pretty much a no-brainer there. 😉

  10. This was a blast, y’all! Thanks so much!

    I’m gonna get back to writing, but you guys were awesome and I’ll definitely do this again.

    All the best!

Comments are closed.