FCONVERSATION RACTION know what I mean. And as time goes on when people talk about how do you do these single characters in long runs, you guys are going to be spoken of. So those are definitely models. Brian: I’m excited for you and I feel the nervous energy even when we’re having dinner. I feel the nervous energy as you begin to cook what hopefully will be a long run on Thor as well. I also know what it feels like: oh you did it on Iron Man and now can you do it on Thor? Can you do it again? And I’ve been there because when I went from Daredevil to Avengers I was like can I do it again? Now people have gone from expecting almost nothing from you to everything. So that’s an eye opener that never goes away. Matt: I’m trying to outrace myself, that’s what I feel like. I feel creatively, whatever I was able to do on Iron Man, whatever I take away from that experience, that is where the bar is on Thor now. So in this one Thor loses the hammer and gets stupid. I’m just going to start redoing all the Iron Man stories in Thor and see if anybody notices. Brian: It’s like a different genre completely, writing Thor and Iron Man. Are you coming at the work in a different way? Matt: Between X-Men and Iron Man, and now Thor, each one is such a wildly different animal. It’s a lot like cross training. Running a mile isn’t the same as swimming a lap. So each one is just kind of a unique experience on its own. And when I get sort of stuck or just kind of unsatisfied with the way one is going, there’s plenty of stuff to do on the other. Brian: Right, exactly. Matt: It keeps things hopping. And especially too when you’re dealing with big ensemble books versus single character books, it’s completely different. You might as well be wearing different clothes when you write them, they’re such different jobs. Now going
forward, especially where Avengers is at as we’re speaking, balance that with something more mono-focused like Ultimate Spider-Man. Tell me what the shape and size of your Avengers hat is compared to the shape and size of your Spidey hat. Brian: Well, I hire neighborhood kids to write The Avengers for me so I haven’t really looked at that book in a couple years. Matt: Lots of typos, lots of typos . . . Brian: The point I was making is it’s funny to me when people look at comics as a genre and superheroes as a genre unto itself. Here you are writing Thor and Iron Man and even though they’re related in a way, those two books couldn’t be more different in type and tone and yet they’re considered the same. It’s a little maddening actually. I felt the same when I was writing Ultimate Spider-Man and The Avengers at the same time, which I’ve been doing for a while. Yeah it doesn’t even feel like it’s the same medium to me. I mean a whole different part of my brain’s being used. And they both have Spider-Man in them. But they’re just completely—to me—different and it’s odd to me. It’s also the relationship those books have to most of their audience is completely different too. And I’m excited for you to feel that as well. You’re going back to Casanova. I think you getting back to creator-owned work while you’re doing work for hire is going to be a fantastic explosion in your brain, much like teaching has been for me. I think you’re going to find them rubbing up against each other as often as they do and servicing different parts of your brain as often as they do to be a very great writing experience for you. So people who ask
how do you write so much or why do you write so much, [my response is] I kind of have to and only when you’re doing both do you realize yeah, I have to. I have to have a book where I’m not allowed to swear and have to come up with creative ways not to do that and at the same time it’s great that I have a book where I can swear and that’s unfettered by any rule. Matt: Yeah, you don’t have to call anybody, you don’t have to vet anything, you can just do whatever crazy thought comes into your mind; you can blow the entire cast up and start over. Having that freedom is invigorating. Winter 2010 • Comic-Con Magazine 25