Popular crime novelist Gregg Hurwitz is penning another Wolverine story this December.
You might remember his first comic industry project, Wolverine Annual #1,
which explored the fear of a small-time crook turned murderer as he
becomes the main ingredient in one of Wolverine’s servings of “Six
Pig-Sticker Dujour”. This time around, Hurwitz is getting a little more
ambitious—he’s landed everyone’s favorite clawed Canadian in a bar full
of the most ferocious bikers this side of …well, anywhere. Joining
Hurwitz is up-and-coming Fear Agent artist, Jerome Opena— and let’s not forget to mention that this brutal one-shot is wrapped in a Tim Bradstreet cover.
Newsarama contacted Gregg Hurwitz for a quick talk about his upcoming one-shot, Wolverine: Flies to a Spider, which hits shelves in December.
Newsarama: So you're returning to Wolverine again this year with Flies to a Spider--how different is Logan to that of Frank Castle?
Gregg Hurwitz: Logan's different in a lot of regards. There's
more temper and fire there. He's more emotional. Frank is something of
a cipher - he's a like a shark cutting through cold waters. Whatever he
feels is buried so deep you can only suggest it when writing him.
NRAMA: Tell readers about the new one-shot. What is Wolverine up to exactly?
GH: Here's the pitch I gave Axel: Logan goes into a bar.
...and that's it.
He manages to kick plenty of ass and draw who he needs to him. By the
time he's done, you can guess what that bar's gonna look like.
NRAMA: How do you connect with the savagery of Wolverine/Logan?
As a writer, do you have to delve inward to find this sort of violence
or do you understand the character more than you'd like?
GH: More easily than I'd like to imagine, I suppose. It's always
right there for me. In some regards, writing violence is the easiest
part for me - it's when I find the emotional hook (like the motive, in
this story) that I know I have the story.
NRAMA: What other types of situations could you see Wolverine
in? Would he be a good character for a crime novel? What are the
character's strengths? What are his weaknesses from a technical
standpoint?
GH: He'd be great in a crime novel. What I love about Logan is
that, unlike many other superheroes, he can be brought into the real
world in convincing fashion. He's a samurai; the blade(s) just happen
to be factory-packaged. When I've written him, as in my annual and
here, I think of him as a roaming vigilante, from, say, an old samurai
flick or a Western. He is the ultimate killing machine. His weaknesses?
Christ, if I knew any, I certainly wouldn't say 'em out loud.
NRAMA: In your work with last year's Wolverine Annual--you
utilized a really interesting meta-literary connection to T.S. Eliot's
"Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock" as a narrative device for the story.
Do you wish to do more work like that in comics or was that just
something fun you wanted to do the one time?
GH: That was really fun, but more important than the "hi mom"
stuff, it was a good way for me to frame out that story. It was really
integral to the plot. I wouldn't say that's something I'm gonna reach
for every time out (Next: Spidey in The Waste Land), but if tale and
literary reference click again, who knows?
NRAMA: Who are some other Marvel characters you would like to
get your hands on for a one-shot? Or would you like to do something
more ongoing?
GH: I love writing Frank.
I'm interested in either real-world guys who have gone over the top -
Frank and Mike Trace, The Foolkiller - or the tortured classic
characters. I really relate to Bruce Banner, for instance. Everyone's
got a temper and destructive (and self-destructive) capacities, and so
when he explodes, there's a resonance there for me. And his
helplessness in the face of it...
NRAMA: What comics are you reading? Who are some of you compatriots that you enjoy?
GH: Right now I am loving Powell's The Goon. I
can't get enough of it. It is everything I like about genre stuff. I'm
like a rat clicking the pleasure button in a Thorndike box. I've also
dug into some Geoff Johns. Oh - and I really love Loeb and Sale. They
write with such delicious moistness. Something about those two guys
together really explodes off the page. And of course - Ennis.
NRAMA: What else are you working on currently?
GH: I'm in novel-land a bit lately. The Crime Writer,
my latest, just got released in a trade paperback here in the U.S. I
got back from a tour in Russia for my Tim Rackley novels (The Kill Clause, The Program, Troubleshooter, and Last Shot), and I'm getting really psyched for my next, Trust No One, which will launch next summer - and will feature a contest for readers to pick out the Punisher reference.
