Broken Frontier

With the first installment of Marvel Comics’ Fallen Son: Death of Captain America series of one-shots released last week, it was high time we asked Jeph Loeb to sched some light on the project and the fallout resulting from Captain America’s assassination in last month’s Captain America #25.

BROKEN FRONTIER: Fallen Son is five issues, featuring different characters each time. Can you walk us through each installment in terms of content and cast?

JEPH LOEB: Sure.  It began with DENIAL… And the choice was to have Wolverine lead us on a journey to find out IF Cap is really dead.  Wolverine is one of the few characters who can ask the hard questions we all want to know. 

The challenge of this series of one-shots is to have a slight thread of continuity between the stories.  So, in ANGER, it begins with the end of the Wolverine story for one of the characters (no spoilers here!)  You can read each book, or you can follow the tissue of one story into another.  THAT is something I’m not sure any of us made clear when we first started talking about this series.

ANGER then takes us to the Avengers.  Out of Civil War, the Avengers have split into the Mighty and New teams — and each has their issues and ANGER over what has happened.  So the two stories are told side by side, each with a different plot and equally important, color scheme.  Mighty deals with a big whammo fight with monsters and New has the hidden Avengers playing poker. The end result, oddly enough, brings the teams to deal with the same issues.

BARGAINING will easily be the most controversial of the stories.  It focuses on WHO should be the next Cap — and equally importantly — IF there should be a “new” Cap.  And asking those questions will be someone who will surprise you.  He or She certainly surprises the crap out of Iron Man!

DEPRESSION spins the next tale, this one focusing on Spider-Man.  So much of Spidey’s life has been defined by death — beginning with his origin (poor Uncle Ben!) to Gwen Stacy… it’s all so tragic. Now, Peter has to confront the reality that IF someone who is as heroic as Cap can die… where does that leave Peter Parker, average guy?

Finally, it all concludes (for the time being) in ACCEPTANCE.  And while this story focuses on Iron Man, the acceptance is on the part of the entire Marvel Universe.  There are a few twists along the way and hopefully you won’t see the ending coming. Or at least accept it! [Laughs]

BF: Not only do the characters change from issue to issue, so do the artists. How did the selection process go?

JL: These were my first and only choices.  Leinil Yu on DENIAL.  That’s a no-brainer.  ANGER needed someone who could draw not one huge cast, but two.  Ed McGuinness and I had faced similar challenges in SUPERMAN/BATMAN so he more than fit the bill.  I had always thought a straight-ahead Cap story would shine with John Romita, Jr. — and given that nothing is straight ahead in BARGAINING — it just sparkles.  Dave Finch’s brooding dark storytelling was all I needed to make DEPRESSION work.  And finally, I couldn’t do the last Cap story without Cap’s biggest fan, John Cassaday.  He rocks.

BF: When I spoke to you about your Wolverine arc,  you mentioned that the best Wolverine illustrator before Bianchi was Leinil Yu, and now you’re working together. A match made in heaven, then?

JL: Oh, Hell yeah!  Leinil and I had a ball. I think it shows in the pencils and the storytelling.  He’s just so damn good. 

BF: Does the fact that we’ll see a different combo of characters and artists being featured imply that the tone will change from story to story?

JL: Very much so. A Spidey story isn’t an Iron Man story by any stretch.  And given the decision to have a thread bare continuity between issues, it’s essential.

BF: Many articles in the mainstream media over the past couple of weeks have referred to the possibility of Cap’s death not being permanent. Does that possibility factor into any of the Fallen Son issues as well—aside from Wolverine: Denial ?

JL: Well, while Wolverine says that he doesn’t even believe that Cap is dead, at this moment in the Marvel Universe, he IS and I can’t shy away from how that affects every character.

BF: Captain America creator Joe Simon expressed his regret over Marvel’s decision to kill him off, because Simon felt this is a time the hero’s really needed. How did Cap’s death make you feel when you first heard about it?

JL: That I knew it was going to be a big deal.  And I agree with Joe Simon — we DO need a hero, now and forever.  That’s one of the big reasons for writing Fallen Son . 

BF: This story seems to be more suited for the kind of ‘real life-like’ writing Ed Brubaker has established on Captain America proper than the swashbuckling, blockbuster tales you’ve made your trademark of in recent years. As such, are you relishing the chance tell a different type of story for a change?

JL: I think an argument can be made for both — and I’ve never abandoned character even during the big action blockbusters I’ve been enjoying.  If you don’t care about the folks in the story on a human level, all the explosions in the world ain’t gonna help you. 

BF: Why did Marvel seek you out to handle this story in the first place?

JL: They didn’t.  I went after it, fairly aggressively too.  I knew something had to be done to commemorate Cap’s death.  JMS came up with the idea that the 5 stages of grief would be a good structure and then after that I just saw all five issues, with the characters and with the art teams.  Like… all at once.  And as much as I’d rather NOT have intimate knowledge of grief, I do, and so hopefully, my voice will ring true.

Anger, the next Fallen Son: Death of Captain America one-shot, hits stores April 18th through Marvel Comics.