At Mid-Ohio Con this past weekend, Newsarama caught legendary writer
Len Wein and Chris Claremont chatting about their upcoming work and
posing for photos with some of the X-Men characters they created and
defined.
Wein told Newsarama that he's writing next year's Superman/Batman Annual for DC Comics.
"It was something I pitched," Wein explained. "I was asked by Dan DiDio
to pitch a storyline. Originally, it was going to be five issues, but
it's now the annual for next summer instead. It will be out next March
or April. Chris Batista is doing the pencils, and I've seen the first
third of the book. It's looking great."
The writer said the Annual tells the story of an "old character who was called Composite Superman."
"Now he's just the 'Composite,'" Wein said. "I always hated the fact
that Batman didn't get the same billing. And it's a brand new take on
the character."
Wein also wrote the Watchmen video game that will be
released in March, timed to coincide with the release of the Zack
Snyder film, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. Having edited the Watchmen
comics when they were first released, Wein said it was difficult to
find a way to translate the story to a game, so the makers opted for a
prequel.
"The fortunate aspect of the Watchmen is that there's a
lot of past," Wein said. "And the video game is set 10 years before the
movie. It involves things that were just discussed or mentioned in the
book. But now you get to see that story."
The game, which is being developed by the Danish development team
Deadline Games, takes place in the '70s and focuses on Nite Owl and
Rorschach.
"It was challenging. There are a lot of things you can and cannot do,
with the medium you're working in," Wein said. "But it was a lot of
fun."
Wein said that although he hasn't seen the entire Watchmen film, he's seen "pieces" of it. "It looks spectacular," he said. "I'm really looking forward to it."
Wein said he also just wrote another issue of The Simpsons,
as well as a Western story for a new anthology coming out from Image
Comics next summer. And the writer has an episode he wrote of the
Cartoon Network animated series Ben10 coming out soon.
"I also have a new mystery project from DC that I can't talk about yet," he teased.
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Meanwhile, Claremont was talking to fans about his Marvel series Big Hero Six,
the mini-series about the Japanese superhero team that started in
September, and New Exiles, the universe-hopping team of Marvel heroes.
"We're probably going to wrap up the whole evil Sue Storm situation,"
Claremont said of upcoming storylines in New Exiles. "We'll introduce
some new characters, ex-troduce some old characters, and throw in some
surprises. People who have been relishing the idea of Exiles as a place
where people can die should be careful what they wish for, because I
can guarantee you a Christmas body count of sorts. And with the New
Year comes rebirth."
Claremont said the upcoming New Exiles Annual will pick up the pieces of something that happened to fan-favorite character Morph before the writer took over the series.
"It's essentially going to conclude the long, ongoing question of
Proteus and Morph," Claremont said of the issue, which will be released
at the end of December and will address the fact that Morph's body is
possessed by the evil (but up-until-now brainwashed) Proteus. "The
pencils [by Tom Grummett] so far look great. Hopefully the story will
read as wonderfully."
Claremont said he also has a new project "which I'm not at liberty to
talk about," and a graphic novel that's being released only in France
for now.
"If anybody's in France, they can pick up a copy of Wanderers,
which is from Fusion, an imprint of Soleil and Panini, which is a
graphic novel that Phil Briones and I have been working on for awhile.
And it's the first of a three-volume epic that's set in Medieval
Europe. It's sort of a sequel to The Once and Future King."
Claremont's also working on the second volume of GeNext,
the series he launched this year that got an enthusiastic from fans who
want to see new X-Men characters. Based on the idea of the second
generation of X-Men that would have appeared had the first team aged in
real time, GeNext was picked by fans a few years ago as the
project they most wanted to see Claremont do next. The first five-issue
volume is being collected by Marvel for release in December before the
promised second volume starts next year.
"This second iteration of GeNext essentially picks up
about 40 minutes after the first arc left off," Claremont said. "The
last issue ends when they're on Genosha, and Olivier has been in
telepathic communication with Megan. Help is on the way, but they're
not going to get there to rescue them in time, so they were on their
own. Colossus and Megan Summers show up to pick them up, and we see
where we go from there."
