This edition of On the Spot brings to Fantasybookspot.com the writer of Devil’s Due comic book series, G.I.Joe: America’s Elite. Some may have noticed I have been reviewing the recent issues both here (see below) and at Pop Matters. I had read the title when it first came out and it just wasn’t grabbing me and picked it back up perhaps a dozen issues later with issue#19. Make no mistake, I’m a product of a childhood when Joe was more than a toy, a comic, or a cartoon - it was Americana, it is in that sentence when reflecting on good times and I would not accept or expected to accept a product that didn’t live up to the gloss of nostalgia.

I was given no choice.

The team of Powers and Bear have provided a title that makes matter the experiences of JOE fans of all the mediums noted above yet provide a platform in the present for new readers. I chuckle and beam at the nods given to me as a veteran fan, but also find myself riveted in finding out more about my childhood friends. When I was young, weekends were defined by friends coming over and war games being played in the lawn; Christmas was when new recruits and equipment joined your arsenal and the comics were my introduction to sequential drama. G.I.Joe is what spawned friends and I to dress up in cammies, face paint, pellet guns, and Recondo hats and run around European orchards dodging farmer’s salt rounds - we were 8 and 9 years old.

Today Mark Powers joins me at Fantasybookspot.com. He is the writer of this generation of G.I.Joe, a worthy successor, and I think will be what future incarnations will look for proper inspiration. He also is writing his own Science fiction comic Drafted and I’d like to welcome him to Fantasybookspot.com as he chats with us about both and more - including causing a sigh of relief across the world as he answers the final question.

Jay Tomio- Let’s start with why funny books? Just another medium of expression or storytelling or a life long affair?

Mark Powers- I’ve always loved comic books, and always had the desire to work in the industry. My two dreams were to play for the Dallas Cowboys or work in comics. Unfortunately, the 6-2, 225 pound body I had on order didn’t come through, so here I am. I’ve been extremely fortunate to have been around the business for so long, and even luckier to work with so many talented, great people.

Jay Tomio- Everyone is familiar with G.I.Joe in some form or the other. Tell me about and sell me Drafted.

Mark Powers- Drafted is a science fiction story with a very straightforward premise: what if the entire human race was drafted to serve in an interstellar conflict? In one fell swoop, mankind’s entire social structure–one which has, in one form or another, existed since the dawn of civilization–is wiped away. Now, men who yesterday were world leaders serve alongside grocery store clerks, EMS workers, and housewives. People who were embroiled in ethnic, religious, and/or political conflicts must now work together, or the human race will be exterminated. And on a more personal level, our protagonists must still deal with their own major emotional issues, which no external force can erase.

Of course, these issues will be explored in the context of a sweeping, large-scale sci-fi story–with plenty of action, romance, and tragedy.

Jay Tomio- You are a science fiction fan in particular or did in this case (Drafted) did the SF just allow for the proper platform for this particular story to be told?

Mark Powers- A little of both. I am a sci-fi fan–one of my favorite novels of all time is Dune–and SF definitely allows for us to tell an exciting story while providing us with a platform to explore certain issues.

Jay Tomio- I was wondering you had a chance to read the post-Frank Herbert books and what are your thoughts on them?

Mark Powers- I have read a bunch of them. I think, with those types of projects, you need to evaluate them as much as possible on their own merits as opposed to how closely they align or compare with Herbert’s originals. Whereas the original novels–especially the first three–rise above simply being great stories, I think the newer novels function mostly as just good, fun reads. The original novels had important things to say about politics, religion, the environment, human nature, and how all of those things intersect. I think Kevin Anderson and Brian Herbert are focusing solely on telling good stories and adding texture to the Dune universe. I haven’t read the most recent release, but I’ve heard it’s good.

Jay Tomio- I’m always intrigued by what runs creators put on a personal pedestal. What run/series of comics do you hold as an example of the medium at its highest form and why?

Mark Powers- In no particular order I’d say V for Vendetta, Daredevil: Born Again, the Dark Phoenix Saga, the Age of Apocalypse saga, the Stern/Byrne Captain America, the DeMatteis/Zeck Captain America, Watchmen, and Brought to Light. There are plenty of others, but those are the ones that either made a lasting impact on me as a kid and/or which I can still pick up and enjoy.

Jay Tomio- Let’s talk G.I.Joe: America’s Elite. One of the great aspects I feel you bring to the table is that not only does G.I.Joe still ‘fight for freedom’ in a manner we are all used to, but in the quiet moments of each issue you gives us that personal thread to the roster that highlights the people in the soldiers we already know. Why is this important?

Mark Powers- I’m glad that people have responded to the quiet moments. Having been brought up at Marvel, where (at least theoretically) our stories were defined by characters with very human frailties and issues, I feel strongly that it’s important to give a sense of who each G.I.Joe is, what matters to them, and why they do what they do–especially as we move through such a larger than life story. This isn’t saying anything new, but without giving readers some reason to empathize with the protagonists, all the action and physical conflict just becomes so much noise. And from a writer’s standpoint, I’m trying to feel closer to the characters myself. In a way, I’m answering questions I always had about them.

Jay Tomio- Have you been surprised by any of the answers?

Mark Powers- At times, definitely. A good example of that is the recent Duke story that ran in issues # 27 and 28. I’d always wondered how he came to be who he is, why he is the sort of ultimate idealist and the “face” of G.I. Joe. I felt like he would have had to have come from a background that involved constantly being taught and shown the importance of never standing by and accepting injustice, and that he would have experienced death at an early age, so that he learned early on to accept that there are certain aspects of life that can’t be controlled, and needn’t be feared.

I’ve said before and I still feel this way, the villains have been fleshed out far more than the Joes over the course of the book’s history. I enjoyed writing the Baroness story immensely, but I wouldn’t say she surprised me. I always saw her that way.

Jay Tomio- When reading your run of America’s Elite and examining it for my own reviews of several issues there seems to be a distinct and purposeful decisions to have what or more or less easter eggs for the long time G.I.Joe fan base. It’s not a reproduction but it resonates - did you read/research the older incarnations of G.I.Joe in comic book and other forms, or is there an editor in place that serves as like a Joe version of Brevoort who just has the line down?

Mark Powers- I have done a lot of research. That being said, there is indeed a Tom B-type editor here at DD, and that’s Mike O’Sullivan. The elements you’re referring to, Mike is in large part the guy who has made a lot of that happen. He knows EVERYTHING about Joe–and more importantly, like Tom, he is an excellent story editor.

Jay Tomio- When you first approached America’s Elite, was there and what element clearly didn’t work for you and either needed to be rethought from previous versions or done away with completely?

Mark Powers- I’m not sure I felt anything needed to be done away with. Like any other writer, there are going to be certain elements that appeal to me more than others. For me, what I felt needed to be played up more were the characters themselves. I wanted to know more about them, to see them occasionally in more everyday settings, and I wanted there to be moments when we see them interacting as people and friends rather than as action heroes. I think the more of that you can inject into these types of stories, the greater the chance readers will bond emotionally with characters.

Jay Tomio- One of the elements I love the most about your work is what you have made Cobra in general, but specifically Cobra Commander truly dangerous and unpredictable. There was always some level of comedy associated with him that at times was dangerously close to buffoonery. Tell me about how you approach or view Cobra Commander.

Mark Powers- All comic book readers–heck, all readers, all fans of fictional storytelling will agree with the axiom that a hero is only as interesting as his or her villain. The way I look at Cobra Commander is the way I always looked at the Red Skull, being a huge Cap fan. I always hated when he was portrayed as a fist-shaking buffoon, and when I began immersing myself in the G.I. Joe world as editor of the book, I hated when Cobra Commander was portrayed in that way. It just undercuts any sense of tension. My favorite portrayal of Cobra Commander was in Paul Jenkins’ Cobra Reborn–he came across as genuinely cunning and scary, and I wanted to pull him much more in that direction. I want readers to be asking, “does he believe his own rhetoric? Is he a true believer, or a charlatan? How far is he willing to go to seize power?” In fact, part of the impetus for this storyline was asking the simple question, “what does Cobra Commander WANT?” It sounds crazy, but that never came across as particularly clear to me, as someone who didn’t have 20 years of experience reading and loving G.I. Joe. Once we had an answer, we could then ask, “what if he achieved that?”

I’m trying to take the same tack with Cobra Commander’s forces as a whole. They need to come across as genuinely dangerous. On an individual level, they’ve got to come across as having some sense of motivation. Some of them can have purely selfish motivations, but others should be motivated by some twisted sense of justice.

Jay Tomio- Regarding his Marvel run on G.I.Joe, Larry Hama had at times commented about the direction sometimes he was ushered into or forced to navigate. While the brand itself is not part of pop-conscious in several ultra-popular forms as it was during his run both on television and on the shelves as it used to be, has there been any creative pitfalls in working on a licensed title?

Mark Powers- We definitely work hard trying to create something Hasbro is happy with. It’s their baby, and it’s our privilege to carry it for a while. There are times when they put their collective foot down and tell us we can’t do something, as is their right. For the most part, despite the occasional stress, it’s been pretty good. My attitude is simply to always keep in mind that I’m caring for someone else’s baby. I may not agree with certain decisions, but I understand the thinking behind them.

Jay Tomio- Not speaking on who the best artist is right now, as that’s rather arbitrary, my feeling is that regarding regular artist on titles, along with Aja on Iron Fist, Bear has both captured and owned his book perhaps better than anyone currently on a title, and I recently called it Guarnidoesque in terms of background. What does he bring to the table?

Mark Powers- Mike brings a TON to the table. We actually just exchanged emails yesterday about our mutual admiration for Frank Quitely’s work, and Mike’s work reminds me a lot of Frank’s: his sense of body language, his ability to make the characters “act,” is similar to the sorts of things Frank can do. He has a gift in the way he’s able to portray emotion; he really adds a level of drama to every scene. I feel incredibly fortunate to be working with him: he makes me look good.

Jay Tomio- Let’s take it back for a moment. When and where did you break into the industry?

Mark Powers- I started as a college intern at Marvel, and was hired onto the editorial staff shortly after I graduated. I spent eleven years (yikes!) at Marvel, working my way up to a senior editor position.

Jay Tomio- You mentioned O’Sullivan. I don’t have access to actual figures and I obviously have no sense of the buzz the creator or publisher feels, but it seemed to me that when he took issue #19 and #20, this series started really getting legs and you ran with it and has been picking up wider attention while various larger ’sources of opinion’ catch up. Does this observation have any merit - and if so what do you think occurred to make it so?

Mark Powers- I think Mike did a great job with those issues, and has always done a fantastic job in his capacity as editor. He’s got a clear vision of what G.I. Joe should be which is born of his passion for, and knowledge of the franchise.
Jay Tomio- If I was to pick up this series and I somehow don’t know what G.I. JOE is, can I pick up on this title and how you describe it to?

Mark Powers- I think so. The concept is very straightforward, and as I mentioned earlier, I think it’s a concept that’s relevant: A military unit comprised of America’s most elite operatives, drawn from all four branches of the military, brought together to combat any and all terrorist threats–the greatest of which is Cobra. And of course, within that framework, we explore the many personalities, motivations, trials and tribulations of both the individual heroes and villains.

Jay Tomio- How long can we plan to have you on G.I.Joe and Drafted and are there future projects in the works?

Mark Powers- - We have “World War III” mapped out through the end of the story, which is #36. We’ll see how the readers and Hasbro react to it, and take things from there. Drafted I have mapped out in a fair amount of detail through issue #10 or so, and in broader strokes thereafter. I know how it ultimately ends, but there’s a huge amount of story possibilities to cover before then. As for future projects: yes, but nothing I can mention just yet.

Jay Tomio- What work of yours, whether written or overseen are you must proud of in your career and what makes it stand out to you?

Mark Powers- That’s tough. I’ve always found it hard to look back at most projects without having their flaws jump out at me. I tend to remember certain projects as much because of the interactions I’ve had with colleagues as the stories themselves. Certain books I recall because of both aspects–The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix, which I thought was a good, even thought-provoking story, and I had a ball working with Peter Milligan and John Paul Leon. I have a lot of fondness for Joe Casey’s and Jose Ladronn’s Cable run, and those guys are both phenomenal. I enjoyed John Moore’s and Adam Pollina’s X-Force, and again, thoroughly enjoyed working with them. At Devil’s Due, my two favorites of the books I had a hand in editing were Master & Apprentice and Snake-Eyes. I thought Brandon Jerwa did a great job with both titles, and in fact M & A was the Joe-related series I read that truly helped me connect with the characters.

Jay Tomio- G.I. Joe has an established fan base. Do anything that yet that you have caught some particular backlash for yet or have you been able to play the give-take, wait and see game thus far? For instance you killed off Wraith which is enough to give you a lifetime pass, but others may feel differently.

Mark Powers- Not that I’ve noticed. G.I. Joe fans remind me a lot of X-Men fans–totally dedicated in their love for the characters and the franchise, and completely willing to hold you up to the highest standard possible. They will definitely let you know when they read something they don’t like. My approach to feedback from readers has always been to not get too high or low based upon what they say; the most important thing is to see what you can make constructive use of.

Jay Tomio- I read that Storm Shadow was your favorite character. How did you not get that book - and is there a dialogue between you and Hama about your titles?

Mark Powers- I’m not sure he’s my favorite… though he’s definitely up there. It’s hard not to sympathize with the guy. I had no idea they were even doing a Storm Shadow book until the first issue was done. And to be honest, there’s no way I could have done that nearly as well as Larry. Of course, the same is true of G.I. Joe…

Jay Tomio- The Dark Knight, eh? During the course of the interview I definitely got the Marvel Zombie vibe from you - what draws you to Batman?

Mark Powers- As a kid, I was always more of a Marvel fan than a DC fan. However, Batman was the first fictional character of any kind that I remember feeling an emotional connection to. My dad passed away when I was very young, and I have a very distinct memory of being about seven years old, laying on the floor reading this big Secret Origins of the Super Heroes book my aunt got me. It included the famous Batman origin story from the 30s, and I can still remember having this powerful “that’s me” type moment (not, of course, that my dad was killed in a hold up, or that I saw myself as a super-hero) during the part of the story that featured Bruce Wayne as a boy. I think this is what makes the character so appealing–we all deal with loss at some point, we all have to wrestle with the unfairness of it, and that’s what fuels him on a very basic emotional level.

Jay Tomio- Have you kept up with, and what do you feel about the recent run/events in Cap?

Mark Powers- Oh, absolutely. I love that they made him a focal point of Civil War,, and what Brubaker’s done on the book from day one is incredible. I mean, think about this: they’ve published, what? Six issues of the book since the title character died–and it’s as compelling as ever. And as an old-time Cap fan, I love that Brubaker’s utilized characters like Dr. Faustus, Crossbones, Sin, not to mention the Red Skull. And the way in which they’ve been utilized has been great. If you’d told me before the whole storyline that there was going to be a “Death of Cap-and-he’ll-be replaced with a new Cap” storyline, I’d have been skeptical. Stuff like that almost always fails to work. But so far, it’s been a great, great read.

Jay Tomio- The way you describe Duke makes him sound like Cap. Any similarities?

Mark Powers- You could say that. Obviously, both are soldiers (or in Cap’s case, “was”. Dig a little deeper, and we see both became accustomed to the more painful aspects of life early on, especially in terms of their parents’ mortality. Both were greatly impacted by their mothers (Steve Rogers, if memory serves, watched his mother more or less work herself to death to keep food on the table during the Depression). Likewise, both were able to make peace with these tragedies, as much as their world views were informed by them. Both are/were motivated by the need to serve others and serve a cause greater than themselves.

Jay Tomio- If my abacus is right here, you came up in comics during an interesting, some would say tumultuous time. What in the industry has changed the most in your mind and how do you think - if any - has the industry adapted?

Mark Powers- It’s changed quite a bit, obviously, in a number of ways. There’s no understating the impact Image had on the industry; they really opened the floodgates and established that something other than a Marvel/DC book could be successful. And in recent years, there have been a number of creators who found great success through Image before deciding to work with the big two–remember, it used to be the opposite. The sheer number of voices and concepts you can find on the stands any given week has just grown exponentially.

Hopefully, the industry has learned from some of the mistakes that occurred in the early to mid 90s; I think it has. Right now, there seems to be a good balance between the need to constantly one-up the previous big event and making sure it remains under control of creative staff, as opposed to sales/marketing or VPs. You wonder how long that sort of energy for the big event can be maintained, but what might keep that from burning itself out this time is the increased–and constantly re-supplied–number of voices involved.

Another big change is who the target audience is these days. When I came up, we very much wanted to grab kids’ attention. And we’d get tons and tons of fan letters from kids (and by “kids,” I mean anywhere between 8 and 17 years of age, or thereabouts) every month. Now, there seems to be an acceptance that the fan base is much older, and books are being written accordingly. That offers creators more freedom in terms of the kind of material they can generate, but the one worry about this is that if we’re not grabbing younger readers, where’s the next generation of comic book fans going to come from? Maybe we’re in the process of re-thinking what a “comic book fan” is.

Jay Tomio- I agree with you about the aging of the target audience across the board (if for a moment excluding the huge numbers manga generates), are you concerned however that it may not be a self-perpetuating base? Are the percentages of the offspring of adults who will get into comics enough hot sustain the medium I the future, and if is the medium hitching itself too much to film franchises?

Mark Powers- I think it’s a concern, but it’s also what I was getting about when I mentioned re-thinking what the term “comic book fan” means. To people like me or you, who grew up on comics, that might mean someone who follows particular books and characters, especially quote-unquote mainstream books. But the material that’s out there nowadays is so diverse, that hopefully we are in the process of redefining the idea of who our target audience is. I mean, there’s more than one audience for novels, and films, and video games. With the growth of the bookstore market, I think there’s now a lot more chance that someone may pick up the latest Ex Machina, for example, but who has no interest in following Batman or X-Men or Spider-Man. But that person is a comic book fan; he or she simply belongs to a wholly different audience than the one that reads all the big two titles.
Jay Tomio- I read you were originally trying to break in as an artist. What book would you most like to draw, who is writing that book, and who were your artistic your influences?

Mark Powers- I don’t really ever think about what book I’d like to draw; I’m way too slow to even dream about doing a monthly, and truth be told, my stuff isn’t consistent enough. That being said, someday I’d like to draw a Batman story, and I would have said I’d like to draw a Cap story. (Which isn’t to say I’m not excited about the forthcoming “new” Cap). When it comes to drawing, what I’d most like to do is draw my own stories.

Jay Tomio- Last, and most important. Can you promise me that I will never have to see anything remotely resembling Cobra La? Believe me when I say I love Lovecraft but if we can keep him out of my G.I.Joe I’m buying drinks at the next conventions.

Mark Powers- Ha ha… yeah, I don’t see that happening. The guys at DD would always joke around about that when I was an editor there. Not having ever seen that movie, it was kind of lost on me. Though I can say I don’t think snake-people should ever show up in the regular G.I. Joe book.

Jay Tomio- I’d like to thank Mr. Powers for taking the time to do this interview with Fantasybookspot.com, Mr. Christy for facilitating it, and HASBRO for confirming that I’m corporate friendly.

Now you know…

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Topics: Comic Books, Mark Powers