Broken Frontier

Two Bronze Age Marvelites are joining forces after 25 years as Denise Wohl and Jim Shooter create Seven, the next level of superheroes. The book, which was announced at last month's New York Comic Con, features seven interconnected characters who experience first-hand that everyone has the ability to become a superhero, and overcome evil and darkness.

Conceived by Wohl and further developed and written by Shooter, Seven will be available in July and is published privately by Larry Wohl.

BROKEN FRONTIER: Seven is your baby, Denise. What inspired you to create this project?

DENISE WOHL: There was a void in the market for a truth-be-told message for the technologically oriented youth of this era... comics have become so dark and the stories seem to get lost in translation even if they don't. I just wanted to reach out and touch many young people that I do not know that comic books reach and spread more Light!

BF: Jim, once Denise presented her ideas to you, where did you take them? At what point did you find your voice, so to speak?

JIM SHOOTER: Once the deal for me to help create Seven was finalized between Denise and the company I work for, Illustrated Media, the first thing I did was research—lots of it.  The underlying theosophy is vast and deep.  The Kabbalah is a description of the nature of the universe and how it came to be that tracks amazingly well, allegorically, with cutting edge science.  It's much more besides—profound philosophy, sweeping insight and real-world, practical, useful knowledge. 

It took me a long time to begin to understand even a little, the breadth and depth of the subject matter.  I "found my voice," which is to say, I started to have a clue how to approach the project after a two-hour session Denise arranged with one of her teachers, Meir Yeshurun. Meir is one of the smartest, wisest, most reasonable people I've ever encountered.  He explained a lot to me with wonderful simplicity and crystal clarity. 

Suddenly, everything made sense and fell into place—which is not to say I begin to understand or know it all, but rather I feel that I understand now how to begin to understand and know.  I wish that all the people who have questions about or misunderstandings of Kabbalah could have a meeting with Meir like I did.  So much of it is that most uncommon thing, common sense. Per Meir, much of it is about "tools," brilliantly simple concepts that help you deal with the good and the bad you encounter in life; concepts that are about as controversial and hard to argue with as the Golden Rule. 

After that meeting, I was able to begin to flesh out the characters Denise created.  As I got to know the characters, their stories and the overarching story began to gel. I wanted it to be great entertainment, the best superhero story anyone’s ever read, while still being faithful to the common sense philosophy Meir explained.    

Denise's involvement didn't end with the initial idea.  All along the way, she contributed a great deal and helped to shape the characters and the story.

BF: Seven appears to be a superhero story with a highly moralistic undertone. What is the core message you want to put across through this book?

JIM: There is nothing "moralistic" about it.  It's a great, entertaining superhero story, I hope.  It reflects some of the universe description inherent in   the theosophy.  It also dramatizes some of the common sense "tools" Meir spoke of.

DENISE: We all have the Power to become our own Superheroes and the Seven lie within all of us.

BF: What kind of an impact do you hope it will have on the (younger) audience it is aimed at?

DENISE: I would like the readers to be able to trust themselves for making decisions in their lives, and to stop and say “Hey, what would Cosmicwave do, what would Haywire do in this situation...and so on. Then they will have tapped into the Light inside themselves and make positive choices without looking for an outside superhero to rescue them...

JIM: It's really for all audiences, like Star Wars, for example.  Everybody went to see Star Wars.  Literature always has a point, an insight into the human condition.  Take Huckleberry Finn, for instance.  Ask the casual reader what it's about and they'll tell you it's about two guys floating down the Mississippi on a raft.  Yes, but, what it's really about is the equality of all mankind. 

Similarly, Seven is about a team of superheroes, but I hope that some readers will find in it a little bit of insight into common sense concepts for living as hard to argue with, as previously stated, as the Golden Rule.  And, if you think that's ambitious for a mere comic book, think again.   

BF: What can you tell us about the seven characters in particular? Who are they?

JIM: People. They're people, ordinary in many ways.  They have gifts—as do we all.  

DENISE: Each character is named and empowered by one of the lower 7 branches of the "Tree a Life", a Universal Truth. They average 19 years old and are masters of Quantum Physics, and Quantum mechanics; they are able to tap in so to speak. Their attributes and backgrounds vary, however they shared the same, strong magnetic pull to come to NYC.

BF: These people are 'interconnected'. What does that mean?

JIM: Everybody is "interconnected."  We all live here.  They are different only in that they feel the interconnection more than most.  They come together and find purpose in their union.  They do what I hope anyone would do under the circumstances they face—they rise to the challenge.  

DENISE: They are interconnected because they were placed on earth by the Highest Power and they were given the knowledge on how to use it. No one can touch them especially when they are all together. They each were born on a different continent and are from various backgrounds; they relocate to NYC and eventually meet downtown one by one.

Their missions are done through real life situations that everyone can relate to—doubt, fear, anger, are real obstacles that block us from our dreams, goals, and attempts. Without us gripping onto them we can unleash our positive inner strength.

BF: Overall, how does it feel to be putting out some comics work again?

JIM: It is inconceivable effort, pain and grief.  The only thing that would be worse would be not doing it.

DENISE: I must say that I feel privileged to be given the opportunity to work with a true Mastermind. Jim poured his heart and soul into breathing life into the Seven... from my brief outline, a great many books that I gave him,  and some meetings with an expert on this subject, Jim captured the total essence of Seven.

His depth of research as well as his time spent on this is astounding. His dossiers on each made me teary the first time I read them and I have not asked for a change on their histories. And that’s remarkable, because, as Jim would tell you, I am not one to just hand over the reins either…

BF: For younger readers who weren't into comics while the two of you were at Marvel, can you describe your working relationship at the time, and what the atmosphere was back then?

JIM: I was in editorial and Denise was in production.  After hours, freelance, I wrote stories and Denise lettered them—by hand, which was how it was done in those days. She lettered in the style of John Costanza, considered by most to be the dean of calligraphers in those days.

For some of the more long-winded writers, her graceful, elegant lettering was "too big."  They preferred letterers who specialized in cramming as many words onto a page as possible.  My relatively terse style made Denise and me a perfect match.  Denise ended up lettering almost all the stories I wrote.

BF: In related, what are some of the key changes in the eyes of the both of you when you compare the industry in the early to mid-80s to today's marketplace?

DENISE: As Jim said, I was a letterer at Marvel and most of my work was done on Jim's writings... I also worked on staff as a principal production person which entailed correcting and completing the books in its original format before they were shot down in size to be printed. At that time, I was 19, I never realized that I was working on art done by some of the most famous people in the industry, like Gene Colan and Frank Miller, as well as lettering from the genius scripts by my co-creator Jim as well as other great writers...

It's amazing to me now and searching through the convention vendors inventories I found a great deal of my work including my first splash page from 1973. It was a Western Comic and was pretty bad. As was Jim's modus operandi, he gave me a chance to improve and I feel that by lettering so many Avengers stories, I did. He still says that I lettered too large, though! I also worked on characters like Spider-Man, Daredevil, X-Men and Ghost Rider... what fun!

It was a thrill finding Jim, especially because it was through People Search where there were so many people going by the name of Jim Shooter. I only chose one Jim Shooter to contact; it happened to be the right one thus confirming my initial belief that he was the man who could pull this together. After my sincerest pitch he agreed to work on Seven.

Marvel had a laid back family atmosphere, and an overabundance of creative minds fluttering 24/7. Unlike the more sterile atmosphere at DC where I was in production briefly, Marvel made you feel much more free, which I feel, shows up clearly in the comics from the 70s.

JIM: In the early '80s the industry was recovering from a near-death experience in the late '70s.  Nowadays, it's recovering from a near-death experience in the late '90s.  This time, I think the industry has finally broken through into the mainstream of American culture—witness the number of comics-based major movies.  This is the American art form, after all. We invented it.