Word Balloon: Jeff Parker - Exiles, Agents of Atlas and More

On this edition of the Word Balloon Podcast, writer Jeff Parker is back to discuss his books from Marvel and Wildstorm.

We talk about the good guys playing bad team, Agents of Atlas drawn by Carlo Pagulayan and Gabriel Hardman; the Dark Reign mini series featuring The Hood, with pencils from the character's co-creator Kyle Hotz; and you'll also hear Jeff give details about the re-launch of Exiles with Salvador Espin, and his Wildstorm mini series Mysterious The Unfathomable, drawn by Tom Fowler.

Some quotes from the conversation.

On Agents Of Atlas' random element, M11, the Human Robot who attacked Wolverine in issue #5 , just as the Agents were diffusing a confrontation with the New Avengers...

"He's just always there he's always thinking ...everyone forgets about him until he throws everything into chaos."

On The Hood mini-series...

"The story takes place before the New Avengers arc, once they approved the series there was no time to do it any faster...we'll back it up, and it will add to the experience of reading the new avengers story...and it will fill out Parker Robbins back-story of what's been going on since (his first mini series)."

Answering the question of who on his Exiles roster may die first?

"I'm trying to get away from deaths...I'm not saying characters won't die, but in the last few years at both of the big companies too much has been placed on whether a character dies or not, then it becomes a horse race...it limits your imagination, because you can't think of a big storyline or event without someone dying or be reborn? ...a lot more can happen to characters in a story...so I want to lead people away from who may die in the book, except for Wolverine who will always die when he appears (laughs).”

On Mysterious The Unfathomable's delicate combination of magic, satire and action/adventure ...

"I try to figure out strict rules on how magic works in that world and stick to them so it's not an arbitrary plot device...Mysterious and (his assistant) Delphi shouldn't be able to kick anyone's ass...They can only get out of trouble by being clever, and not just dumb luck their way out of jams. ..Mysterious is a horrible person. He's secretly stealing years off of people's lives to stay young...but he doesn't have to be a good person, he just needs to be interesting...he doesn't need a good conscience that's what Delphi is there for...his assistant steers him so that he's not just a menace to the world, he performs a service in the end."

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