Meet the man who made Captain America hail Hydra
If you’ve been following the recent Captain America titles (both Sam Wilson and Steve Rogers), you’d probably have heard that Captain America is apaprently a Hydra agent right now.
Sure, it’s a condition brought about by the Red Skull manipulating Kobik (a sentient fragment of the Cosmic Cube brought to life as a four-year-old girl) into altering Steve Rogers’ reality, but it’s still a pretty Earth-shattering piece of comic retconning.
The man responsible for the most American of heroes going over to Hydra is none other than writer Nick Spencer, who is currently penning both titles – Captain America: Sam Wilson, and Captain America: Steve Rogers.
In an e-mail interview, Spencer, who will be one of the special guest attendees of this weekend’s Singapore Toy, Game & Comic Convention (STGCC), said that while he expected SOME sort of reaction to that whole “Steve Rogers is a Hydra agent” idea, he didn’t expect how big it would become.
“We expected some response, but what we got was huge. But that’s good: you want your stories to have an impact and for people to get invested in them,” he said, adding that the Marvel bosses had no problems with the idea whatsoever.
“They were actually pretty supportive from day one. But they had the luxury the reader didn’t, of being able to see the whole story and where it’s headed. That gave us all some confidence that we were telling a story that would honour Captain America and what he means to the Marvel Universe, albeit in a very different way than we’ve seen before,” he said.
Although books like Captain America: Sam Wilson deal in some serious topics, Spencer tries to ‘throw some jokes in’.
Before his stint at Marvel, Spencer was perhaps best known for his creator-owned Image Comics series Morning Glories, together with artist Joe Eisma, which started in 2010 and is still ongoing. The series has been nominated for multiple Eisner Awards, including four in 2011.
According to him, the inspiration for Morning Glories was the desire to write a “dense, long-form mystery in comics, something in the vein of Lost or Battlestar Galactica”.
“We have a really dedicated, passionate audience on that book, people who really dig deep in the mysteries and try to pull things together, it’s very rewarding for me to see as a writer,” he said.
Morning Glories was Spencer’s breakout title.
Looks like Pleasant Hill is about to get very unpleasant indeed.
Spencer actually got his first break with Image, with the 2009 miniseries Existence 2.0, followed by Existence 3.0 later that same year. He also has another newly-launched Image title called The Fix, together with artist Steve Lieber, and has also written for the Robert Kirkman-created Thief Of Thieves.
Besides Image, Spencer has also written for DC Comics (Action Comics, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents), and for his current work at Marvel, most notably with Secret Avengers, Superior Foes Of Spider-Man, Avengers World and Ant-Man.
Superior Foes Of Spider-Man, in particular, garnered him and Lieber another Eisner nomination for Best Humor Publication in 2015. With that book, Secret Avengers, and his stints with Ant-Man and the current ongoing Astonishing Ant-Man, Spencer garnered a reputation for stories that had some degree of fun and humour. However, as with the current two Captain America titles, he has also shown that he can do serious equally well.
“I enjoy writing comedy and making people laugh, so even in my more ‘serious’ book I try to throw some jokes in. The key is always making sure the story has stakes and that there’s still drama involved, not just pure silliness,” he said.
However, Spencer said that has not been a problem, and that he has had quite a lot of creative freedom at Marvel as well.
“Generally speaking, I’ve been very lucky at Marvel. They’ve put a lot of trust in me and given me some amazing opportunities. That said, of course the creative freedom and ownership that comes with doing creator-owned work at Image will always be the foundation of my career,” he said.
Spencer, along with fellow comic scribe Tom Taylor (All-New Wolverine, Batman/Superman, Green Lantern Corps, Superior Iron Man), will be making their first appearance in Singapore on Sept 10 and 11, at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre, Level B2, Halls E and F.
Other guests include comic artists Phil Noto (Black Widow and Star Wars: Poe Dameron, The Infinite Horizon) and Brooke Allen (co-creator of Lumberjanes), toy designer Jon-Paul Kaiser, legendary anime artist Haruhiko Mikimoto, graphic novelist Emma Rios, Marvel Tsum Tsum writer Jacob Chabot, digital artist Sakimichan, and celebrity cosplayers like Ukraine’s Pugoffka, China’s Haoge, Hong Kong’s Hisui, and King, Yao & Alma, and Momo from Taiwan.
For more information, including ticket prices, visit http://ift.tt/1fDz8gL.
Source : Star2.com
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