Marvel’s Next Big Thing: SHATTERED HEROES with Matt Fraction & Ed Brubaker

Shattered Heroes Promo

Today we’re taking part in a special conference call with Marvel SVP / executive editor Tom Brevoort and writers Matt Fraction and Ed Brubaker. The topic? Fallout from this summer’s company-wide Fear Itself event. The new status quo promises Shattered Heroes.

Even Mjolnir is feeling the hurt!

“Shattered Heroes” and “Battle Scars” have been flipped in terms of their usage since SDCC 2011. The line-wide branding is now officially “Shattered Heroes.”

In November we can look forward to Fear Itself issues 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3. Fraction considers these “point” issues as space for character moments the main event did not permit.

Brubaker will use 7.1 to focus on Captain America and the loss of Bucky. Fraction takes on 7.2 and 7.3 which focus on Thor and Iron Man respectively. How do the Asgardians react to the revelations left in the Serpent’s wake? In Iron Man’s story, Fraction continues his science vs. faith motif with more debate between Tony and Odin.

Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, Avengers, Avengers Academy, Jason Aaron’s Incredible Hulk and The Defenders will all fall under the Shattered Heroes banner. And don’t forget Fear Itself: The Fearless. Battle Scars is just Battle Scars.

“We couldn’t make this more confusing if we tried,” Brevoort concedes of the branding.

Asked about the ensemble of Battle Scars, Fraction refers to the book as a travelogue with murder mystery elements. Brevoort promises mercenary and S.H.I.E.L.D. characters like Daisy Johnson, Taskmaster and more. No real clues to the identity of the shadowy character from the promos.

We asked about the fact that Thor is noticeably absent from the Romita Jr. promo for Shattered Heroes and what we might take from that choice. Fraction points to Tanarus the new god of thunder. Thor’s demotion is very much the story of Shattered Heroes.

In regard to making a more contemplative, post-war fallout style status quo palatable, Brubaker cites the emotional logistics of a war and its weight. Fraction notes that the original outline for Fear Itself included a funeral for Bucky, but the scene was pushed back because the chaos of the event meant such moments of mourning would naturally be put off. He feels that readers should hopefully be hungry for these dramatic resolutions to the main story’s violent action.

Brevoort believes the Marvel difference is that in each of their events, there’s a time of calibration in the aftermath. Events lead to major change and character moments. “That’s what cuts to the core of the readership. This is the stuff. This is what Marvel comics does best.”

The aftermath of Schism and Regenesis in the X-books coincides with Shattered Heroes.

Stuart Immonen will be taking a short break after Fear Itself but he’ll return for Warren Ellis’ Secret Avengers #21.

We asked about The Defenders and their involvement with Shattered Heroes. Defenders actually leads out of Hulk vs. Dracula. “The Hulk needs a favor,” says Fraction. And not many people can fulfill that. This leads to the mission statement for the team and serves as the thing they’re actually defending against.

Characters to watch out for in the next six month: Valkyrie, Daisy Johnson and Hickman’s S.H.I.E.L.D. ensemble, the Forgiven, and mystery shadow guy (who we’ll remind you is an all new character).

Asked about Cap and his broken shield, Brevoort promises the sentinel of liberty will be using a very different kind of weapon. In fact everyone will have some armory upgrades very soon.

Stay tuned for updates as they happen!

 

Comments

  1. Fear Itself 7.1 to 7.3….Come on Marvel…..Stop it, just….Stop it.

    Also, how sad is it that the only good quote they could get for this thing is their Senior V.P. of Sales? lol

  2. Seriously. No mas.

  3. “In November we can look forward to Fear Itself issues 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3. Fraction considers these “point” issues as space for character moments the main event did not permit.”

    YOU WERE THE ONE WHO WROTE THE EVENT, YOU COULD’VE DONE THAT!!!!!

  4. Point-one’s in reaction to readers screaming about Fear Itself being the comic book equivalent of the Transformers movies, with little to no character moments. The way this whole thing has been handled has been such a mess.

  5. Ugh, why? Can’t we move on and just let the books do their own thing for five minutes!?

  6. I means seriously, did Fraction not think that out before saying it? He’s the one writing the event and he could’ve done character moments. He’s the one criticizing his own work, which 99.9% time is good for a creator, but he’s acting like he didn’t write the thing in that quote.

    The stupidity of that quote is just astounding.

    • Have you ever actually tried writing a comic script? There are only 22 pages to work with. In a big, action type event, you need that room to move the plot forward and give people the big fight scenes and major events they are expecting from this. Fraction most likely didn’t have room for small moments in the midst of resolving the big moments.

      And do you know what happens if you DO try to do smaller, character driven scenes in a huge, company wide event mini-series? You get fans on the internet complaining about it. “Nothing is happening! They are STILL in the Savage Land!”

      When you write an event comic, you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t.

      The vocal minority is NEVER going to be happy. Fraction needs to just try to write something he will be happy with, and his editors will like, so he can keep getting more assigments, and hope that the sales figures drown out the nay sayers.

    • Okay I’m pretty sure they were in the Savage Land because Bendis kept the fight there for 5 issues. I don’t remember any slow, character moments during that event too.

      Plus I’m not saying that it isn’t hard to write a comic. But to complain that there are no moments of character in a book YOU are personally writing just seems silly.

    • @JohnVFerrigno: It’s very easy to pin negativity on nay sayers, lord knows there are a lot of them on the internet, but that does not exempt creators from actually executing a story successfully. They still have to write GOOD character moments in a way that makes sense to the story.

    • There was that whole business with the Skrull Queen trying to convince Tony Stark that he was Skrull in the Savage Land. That was a really cool small character scene in Secret Invasion.

    • In the main book the Savage Land is pretty much a huge fight. Bendis had the luxury of writing both Avengers books at the same time as Secret Invasion so pretty much all the key character moments were moved over to them.

    • @TheNextChampion

      I’m not saying Fraction did or did not execute Fear Itself well. I wasn’t interested in it and din’t read it. I just think it’s unfair for him to be trashed for what he said. If he wants to write character moments that weren’t in a story that he wrote, I would assume that since he is a professional comic book writer, those moments weren’t in there for a reason, not just because he forgot or something.

      It’s certainly possible to put good character moments in a big event book. No Man’s Land is one of my favorite big “event” stories ever and it’s loaded with huge action spots. But my favorite moment in the entire story is Batman and Gordon having their heart to heart in the garden, where Jim finally tells Bruce off for treating him the way he does and not respecting him. It was a quiet, character driven moment, but it also moved the plot forward with reconciling the two.

      If Fraction left out stuff like that in fear itself, I would like to believe he did so because he didn’t want to slow the story down not because he isn’t a good enough writer to think it up when he first wrote it. For you to have criticism of the story and how it was executed is perfectly valid. But to say Fraction is stupid for wanting to add something to a story he wrote is a kind of unfair.

    • I’m not saying it’s stupid to add anything to a story. Lord knows Fear Itself needs it. But the fact the the writer of the said event is saying he’s doing these character moments because he couldn’t fit it in his own story makes no sense to me. He could easily have had a portion of the event deal with Cap on Bucky or Iron Man dealing with alcohol again. But he did (and he also seems to be failing to do it in another book of his with Iron Man).

    • @Conor

      No doubt the writer’s still need to execute and people who trash everything are no excuse for lazy writing. I just feel it’s unfair to attack Fraction for his perfectly harmless comment. There are far better ways to criticize somebody than say “You just said the stupidest thing ever.”

      @TNC

      If you wanted him to add those parts into the story, do you feel they could have just been fit n without taking anything out or making the series last another issue? That’s one of the biggest problems with comics. They HAVE to be a set amount of pages. It’s one of the biggest struggles in writing them. If you need to add a few moments to a movie, you can just make the movie 5 minutes longer. With a comic book, you need to either take something out, or add another issue. It’s a difficult balancing act.

    • @JohnVFerrigno: I agree with you in this instance.

    • While I’m beginning to mentally turn the corner on Fear Itself (from positive optimism to annoyed negativity), and I’m disappointed that some of the story’s key beats are not going to be wrapped up in the 7 issues I signed on for, I’m still gonna defend Fraction’s statement despite my growing displeasure with the series.

      I think we need to keep in mind that in story time…Fear Itself has been going on for a day or two (maybe three). I understand that character moments can come at any time (and can be happening all the time with a good writer), but this story has been heavily plot driven so far, arguably to the detriment of the characters.

      I’m still hoping to be wowed by more than the artwork in Fear Itself 6 and 7, but I’m not so sure.

  7. Wow… this is going to bring in the new readers for sure.

  8. I’m not buying it, unless it proves to be a lot better than Fear Itself…

  9. Seriously? This is like tires spinning now. Oh well, I’m out.

  10. Can we get a Marvel Universe reboot? Crisis on Infinite “Point” Issues. It’ll be a 5 issue mini-series. Or 50 issues if you count the point issues.

    • They get a lot of flak for it, but I like the idea of the “point” issues. At least the concept behind them, self contained issues that are good introduction points for new readers. The actual execution has been hit or miss, but at least they making an attempt to have a place for interested readers to sample an issue.

    • I agree with John in concept, but how are these pieces that are probably directly linked to a giant universe spanning event going to be new reader accessible, as such why are they number with the (silly in practice) “point” system

    • @gobo

      The “point” issues that I have seen personally have had little or nothing to do with the big event books or universe wide stories. They have been smaller, character driven, “done in one” stories that introduce you to the characters, who they are, what they are all about, etc. They let you get a feel for the book and if it’s for you. At least, that’s what they TRY to do. Some of them have been pretty good, some have been not so good. But the idea is to be a bit of a primer for a book. Of course, if you like the “point” issue, chances are within 3 months you’re going to be in the middle of a big event and totally lost again so it kind of defeats the purpose. But I still like the IDEA of them, if not the actual execution.

    • I was talking about Fear Itself 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3 stories that don’t seem to fit under the current “point” umbrella

    • Whoops, my mistake! Yeah, that does seem a very odd way to add to a series. Not the best marketing strategy.

  11. Putting a quote from the SVP of Sales on a promo is pretty bizarre. Who’s attention are they trying to grab with this marketing?

  12. I think 1 issue for Cap and Bucky is not enough. We need 7.1.a for Cap and 7.1.b for Bucky. Come on Marvel, you have also letters at your disposal!

  13. I understand people being over it. I’m over all the Dark Avengers/Hammer/Osborne nonsense, so I get it.

    I’ve been pretty sucked into Fear Itself though so I’ll be getting some of these books. For us that have been enjoying the goings on, some of these will be fun. I’m sure the books that blow will be crucified because of their attachment to Fear Itself as well as their lack of quality, but hey, that’s comics.

  14. Many are the sassypants today.

    I feel a little pummeled into submission by all of this, and I’m not setting up a Shattered Heroes Countdown Calendar or anything, but I have all the faith in the world that the talents I trust to make stories I enjoy will continue making stories I enjoy.

  15. There! Some good news out of this boring conference:

    Stuart Immonen is drawing Secret Avengers #21. Hell to the yes!

  16. Since its related to Fear itself, i will pass, but will prob wind up reading some of it as my regular books will get hijacked by the banner and side stories.

  17. I was really excited when i heard the Defenders were getting a book again. but I have no interest in this Shattered Heroes thing. I most likely won’t be reading Hulk vs Dracula. I wonder if Defenders will still appeal to me? Will I even be able to follow the story? or will it be too dependent on these other event books?

  18. I find using the “point” numbering to be odd as they’ve been marketed as jump-on books for readers and yet are being used here as issues to portray the aftermath of the series. Though actually the true aftermath will occur in Shattered Heroes (with its horrid Onslaught styling of the title).

    Then again I don’t think announcing that Fear Itself will now be numbered to 10 would engender much celebration.

    I think it’s a shame that Fear Itself has been as badly written (in the main book that is) as it has so far. There’s nothing wrong with having an epic battle across the planet play out, as long as it is well written and puts the characters through their paces in a way that makes sense.

    Also isn’t it a bit too soon to be sending Thor back into the realm of the non-living and expect a powerful emotional response from the reader?

    • Yea, does feel a bit too early for ol’ Thor to be eating it again, but I feel a “Return of Bruce Wayne” failsafe being put into place in the other Thor books. His return will have already been set into motion before you’ll have time to miss him.

    • Yes and I think that’s part of the problem. It’s been so soon since we’ve seen that he will certainly come back that doing it again just doesn’t seem worthwhile.

  19. curious to see how they will bring everything full circle if possible

  20. I find it interesting that they said that Thor was demoted. Does that mean that Thor doesn’t die but is actually just punished for his actions during Fear Itself? Or was it just a way of not specifying and spoiling later things in Fear Itself. Or both?

    I’m not entirely sold on everything Fear Itself, but I think I might go pick up some of these series, specifically Hulk and Defenders. Maybe also the stuff about the Forgiven.

  21. Whose to say that this one in done post Fear Iself issues won’t be good?
    Solid writers doing one and done issues with some of my favorite characters. I’ll defintiely be checking em out.

  22. What the hell is with this point system why can’t they just say that “this issue is a perfect jumping on point,” like they did for comics like Invincible Iron Man 25 or something. @TNC you hit the nail on the head, but I would also not send all of the blame on Fraction alone, because two different writers wrote two completely different events in Marvel in the past two years & they were both awful. That can not be the writer’s fault alone, Diggle (from last year’s Shadowland) and Fraction have proven themselves time & time again to be great storytellers so I believe that someone in the so called “House of Ideas” is really screwing the pooch on Marvel events. Thank god none of that type of failure is not touch X-Men Schism, which is fantastic by the way, or even Ultimate Fallout which is filled with so much emotion almost each issue.

  23. Man, these post-FI plans sound laughably bad. As a life-long Marvel guy, I hope DC sales kick the crap out of them post-launch.

  24. I plan on commenting with my money by not buying this event.

  25. After a summer totally bogged down with FI and its crossovers, I don’t think it’s going to help them to keep adding more and more parts. Oh well, more DC books for me 🙂

  26. Gawd can’t they do like the ultimates flood and say “that happened” and move on ?? FEAR ITSELF was bloody awful and the worst part was it stalled some of my fav marvel comics. I have no interest in any of this. At least I get to save $$ to sample some more new DC titles.

  27. I haven’t read one of Marvels mega-events since Secret Invasion. I have not regretted this decision for a second. The reviews I hear about them have convinced me that I am saving my precious money.

  28. Is it just me or is that the same (or similar) font used for Onslaught back in the day?

    http://www.itusozluk.com/img.php/37446ac85ad864541f388b47888b9a0e31640/onslaught

  29. I’m officially invoking a new Marvel policy:

    Numbers are only allowed to go up.
    Numbers must be integers.

  30. The Parade of Reused Typefaces continues at Marvel! Good eye.

  31. Seriously just fucking stop. I was fear itself’s biggest cheerleader the whole time until that joke of an issue that #5 was came out. I am all for the .1 issues as long as it is part of a regular series and is used to bring in new readers. To use it to extend an event that turns out to be an event that just spawns more events (fearless, battle scars, shattered heroes)
    it just feels a little tedious.

    Mind you I would probably be singing a different tune if all this was announced after issue #4 of fear itself, and I was still filled with hope and enthusiasim

  32. I agree, too much Avengers grounding for these major events, a few of the big characters can be in there but Marvel needs to mix it up a bit, these stories aren’t coinciding with the Avengers movie anyway if thats why they’re doing it.

  33. I wanted Bucky to remain the Winter Soldier after Cap returned not die!!! Plenty of lame characters and a few that have seen they’re day with no potential that could’ve went before him.

  34. Duuuuuude this one looks MAJORLY serious. THIS IS THE TOUGHEST EVENT BATTLE I’VE EVER READ. THERE IS NO WAY WE SHALL BE VICTORIOUS! I literally CAN NOT believe how serious this battle is. I mean Galactus tried to eat us and everything but THIS. DUDE. THIS THIS THIS is the BIG ONE.

    Who are we fighting?

    A BASS PLAYER FROM A METAL BAND!

    • that. just. put. everything. in. perspective. thank you. this false god guy is definately more daunting than dealing with Galactus, or Thanos and his infinity gems, or . . . sigh.

  35. New tag line for Marvel’s point issues should be “What’s the Point?”

  36. Not sure how I feel about “The Incredible Hulk” tying in with Shattered Heroes. Jason Aaron is just getting started on his run. I was think he would be given more breathing room to get his story established. But Hulk is a major player in Fear Itself, so maybe he’s needed in the story. I’ve been a bit disappointed in how Hulk as been used in Fear Itself so far. One of the teaser images alluded to Hulk’s fear of losing control. But I haven’t seen any of that in the story so far. Hulk basically got a hammer, got possessed, destroyed shit, fought Thor and got swatted into space. I know there’s more with the Dracula thing, so I’ll wait to see how that turns out.

    • Since Aaron’s one of Marvel’s Architects, he’s been privy to the whole Marvel Universe plan for a while now, so I would suspect his entire angle on The Hulk springs forth from whatever the Shattered Heroes status quo is going to be.

      That may not be the case, but I wouldn’t automatically assume he’s being hamstrung by a martketing banner.

    • Yeah, that’s a great point. I’m just really rooting for Aaron’s Incredible Hulk and would feel a bit more confident if it wasn’t tied to an event out of the gate. But if it proceeds organically from Shattered Heroes, I’m all for that. They’re all pros so I’m sure it will be great. I guess I’m just a little paranoid.

  37. Avatar photo captamerica101 (@Autobot_Hunter) says:

    All the stuff they’re saying about Thor reminds me of the talk about what would happen to captain america post civil war. It’s all vague and they mention replacements. Plus the fact that he’s not in any promo art. Weird.

  38. Fraction needs a time out.

  39. Thank god i dont seem intrested at all in alot of this crap, i couldnt afford buying any more unecessary titles

    The only thing im not liking hearing is how this is going to tie into some of the titles im reading right now which i wish they didnt do

  40. the one good thing to come out of all this? Journey into Mystery — that was another first rate issue this week. Fracture, i don’t think has anywhere near as good a handle on Thor and company, which has been one of my main problems with Fear Itself since issue one. maybe he should stick to Iron Man.

    anyone else wondering if Brubaker got a vote on killing Bucky, or if he was simply told it was a done deal . . ?

    • He was probably given input on the matter. I mean, if he didn’t want him dead, Brubaker probably could have came up with a good alternative for Fraction to write

    • yeah, that’s kinda what i assumed, only it seemed that the end of Gulag was setting up a new direction for Bucky post-Captain America. oh well. i’ll read Brubaker’s point issue addressing Bucky’s death, but i have no plans to read any of the other post-Itself stuff, unless i can borrow it off a friend . . .

      meanwhile, i’m wishing for an edit button so that i can erase my fractured spelling above . . .

  41. I can’t believe Marvel is sticking with this storyline after the dreck Fraction has delivered. I figured they would want to distance themselves from it.

    • It’s all about the sales, and I guess they are happy with the numbers.

    • The problem with the argument that it’s “all about the sales” is that there really aren’t that many comic book readers and no one company can afford to alienate too many of them. Also, I don’t think Fraction or Marvel thinks “Fear Itself” is bad and even it is, the groundwork has been laid, the books have been written, drawn, and pressed. I’m just glad there are some books that haven’t been affected (including “Daredevil,” which is a real gem).

    • @icn1983: How do you measure “alienation” though? If people complain and yet keep buying the product then Marvel has no incentive to change.

  42. So is Shattered Heroes an event, or just a branding. Like Secret Invasion (event)->Dark Reign (branding)->Siege (event)->Heroic Age (branding)->Fear Itself (event)->Shattered Heroes (branding)?

    • Looks like it’s a branding.

    • I’d say its more of a campaign than branding. This isn’t a “Got Milk” or “Just Do it” thing that they’re going to stick with for the long term and make it into a household identifier for the company or product. It’s something that will be discarded in a few months when they move on to the next thing. If they were creating a new universe or a line of characters and products around this or something like that, then you could call it a brand.

      The term “Branding” is really misused comics biz.

  43. I think they should just quit naming their in-between event periods. They seem like just more events, but if they didn’t name it , it would seem like we are getting a few months off from events and people would relax and catch their breath.

    • To borrow Josh’s frequent phrase… you’re not wrong, but I suspect that “relax and catch their breath” translates as “buy fewer books” for many fans. Not exactly a concept Marvel wants to encourage, you know?

  44. Fear Itself is the worst event in years from Marvel…and this looks like a crappy continuation….here’s to hoping the new 52 has some gems

    • I’m kinda feeling the same thing. When the DC relaunch was announced, I added 11 books to my Pull List (plus retaining Batman and Robin, my sole DC book after Doom Patrol was cancelled and Flash went away.) I had no idea how I was going to afford all these new titles, and then I saw the direction Marvel was going and was able to drop a bunch of Marvel titles. I am just not enjoying what they are doing with a lot of these books. I am not one of those people who thinks “dark = good.” Sure, I love a dark story if it’s told well, but all this doom and gloom just for the sake of it is not for me.

  45. The Fraction hate is just astonishing to me. I’ve been having a great time with Fear Itself, I doubt I’ll be picking up some of these aftermath titles, but these point issues look interesting.

    TNC really loves to beat a dead horse, doesn’t he?