Monday, November 28, 2005
MID-OHIO-CON: PETER DAVID PANEL
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The new team includes some of the same members, but writer Peter David said his new X-Factor series will have "a different sensibility" than the previous incarnation.
"The old series made fun of the other X-books; it was the humor book of the line," David said during his panel at Mid-Ohio-Con on Saturday. "There still will be humor in this series, but it will have a street-level sensibility."
The new series -- drawn by Ryan Sook -- features Jamie Madrox, Siryn, Wolfsbane, Strong Guy, Richtor, M and Layla Miller as a mutant investigation team in the post-House of M world where most mutants have lost their powers.
David performed a reading of his script for X-Factor #1, including an ending that no one in the audience saw coming. He then fielded questions.
Highlights included:
* David said the bad guys in the series will be Singularity Investigations and their lead, Mr. Tryp. "Mr. Tryp has a signifant connection to Jamie Madrox that will not be made evident until #7," David said.
* Will there be Sentinels? "No," David said. "I want this group to have its own sense of identity. The last thing I want to do is bring in X-Men villains."
* David said he is trying to work well ahead on the book.
"With a new series, we want to work hard to establish its identity," he said. "We want as much time as possible to circulate it to the other X-editors, so there will be no conflicts and they will have the chance to play into it."
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* David has high hopes for the Layla Miller character.
"By issue four, she's going to be like the Wednesday Addams of the group," he said.
David said she will have a codename by the end of #6.
* David said that spinning X-Factor out of the Madrox mini-series was a smart maneuver. "If we would have introduced Mardrox as an ongoing series, it would have tanked," he said. "By making it a limited series, it piqued interest in it."
* According to David, setting X-Factor after House of M gave the series more focus. "There are people out there saying, 'If we want to get ready of mutants, now's the time when they're vulnerable,'" David said. "Mutant Town has become a refuge to those who feel vulnerable to the world around them."
* David said he wanted Nightcrawler or his daughter to be part of X-Factor, but was turned down on both counts. "But really, if I get Madrox, Strong Guy and Rahne, I'm good to go," David said. "Everyone else was a bonus."
* David said returning to Spider-Man in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man was like "putting on old gloves that fit perfectly."
"He's still Spidey. Take away all the crap that's going around him, and he's still Spidey," he said.
* Asked what character he hasn't written that he would like to, David said it would be Doc Savage. "Failing that, my dream project would be The Phantom meets Tarzan," he said. "How could would that be, the two greatest jungle characters?"
* Asked what artists that he's never worked with that he would like to, David said Paul Smith, Arthur Adams and John Romita Jr.
* David has written a dramatic play, and one of the actresses who gave an early read on it was Allison Mack, who plays Chloe on Smallville.
Copyright © 2005, The Comics Continuum