Scans_Daily

"One thing that does change the nature of the book is that my six issues are all self-contained single issues. So they're all about working through each book's mission, which doesn't leave much space for the characters to do anything other than be who they are." - Warren Ellis

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"The man is demented in more interesting ways than I think Batman ever was. [His] cape is actually a crescent moon and he goes out only at night and dresses in reflective white so you can see him coming. Now that’s nuts…. I like that." - Warren Ellis

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"Well, Ed told me that one of the big influences behind the book's conception was my Global Frequency. Which was a series of self-contained single issues (that predates Fell). So, I thought, I sort of remember how to write those, so let's take Secret Avengers all the way back there. I dunno if it's the right approach, but it's the one I'm using. It should contrast the book nicely with the other Avengers books. Since I started responding to this interview, Marvel's commissioned Naked Avengers from Bendis, but that opens with a six-issue arc entitled "Avengers Disrobed," so we're still good." - Warren Ellis

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"AXM:SS, like Joss & John’s AXM, runs parallel to mainline continuity, sort of looping in and out of the timeline like a drunk driver cutting you up on the open road. (Shush. This sort of thing is important to some people.) This means that, like Joss, I can do four stories without having to refer to, react to or otherwise deal with monthly shifts in continuity. It’s as close to complete creative freedom as you can get on a major franchise book. It means that I can ring changes without having to worry about anyone else. I already told the main X-writers that I am their blood enemy now. I don’t think they quite understood. This is why I don’t have any friends." - Warren Ellis

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"Oh, the usual, you know. Raping your childhoods, using my position to destroy everything you love, displaying opinions you may not agree with and writing with my own voice and personality. All the things people hate in commercial comics these days. And yet, all the things I am specifically hired for. It's a funny old world." - Warren Ellis

"I try to make my art a little more mature. Not sexual but definitely more adult. I think of Spider-Man as more about innocence. There's a naivete, even if it's 'Spider-Man: Reign' where even if he's an old man, there's an innocence to him and a simplicity. With X-Men, it's just adult. It's all these adult feelings and issue like racism and fascism." - Kaare Andrews

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"198 was the number of surviving mutants post-House of M, but, really, who did that count? I'm not saying that new mutants will be popping out of the woodwork, but there's some serious geopolitical blinkers happening, still. Do you really think Nigeria or Zimbabwe are capable or willing to count mutant heads? Take Nigeria, a place we all think we know well because of their generous email invitations to enter into banking relationships. The life expectancy in Nigeria is 47 years. 3% of the population is living with HIV. Their water's nine parts poison and their soil is riddled with H5N1 and Lassa Fever. The place is rife with ethnic and religious unrest, they threw a CNN team out a few years ago for daring to report the news, and they only stopped blatantly working with narco-traffickers about a year ago. (Also, when did people start treating Africa as a single country?) You can guarantee that some things that happened in places like Nigeria never made it to the outside world. I'm not saying I want to do a run that's all about looking back, but I think it's worth making sure we can see the entire playing field." - Warren Ellis

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"I worked in the X-Office back in the 90s, but they never let me near their big toys in case I broke them or put them in my mouth or something. So when this came up, and when the degree of creative freedom that comes with it became clear, I thought, why the hell not? I mean, you never get to make your 'stamp' on these things, because the franchise needs to keep running and everything gets dug over and re-invented in the end. But I like the technical challenge in these commercial gigs: to bring the property into the era of its production, as it were, and to write stories I'd like to read." - Warren Ellis

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"I told [editors] Axel and Nick that the title had to change. It had to be called Astonishing X-Men: Second Stage. And so it will. For several reasons. First off, I want Joss and John's run to stand contained and inviolate. If all you ever really wanted was Whedon/Cassaday X-Men, then there'll be those four trades or whatever and that's it, it's as closed as an X-Men story gets. Which, commercially, is suicide, I'm sure. But I can do that much for my friends. Second Stage, therefore, picks up none of the themes or story points in their run. It's a clean break. It also gives me a clear field of fire, which was important to me. I didn't want to spend time sweeping up after Joss." - Warren Ellis

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