Talking About Exiles #1 With Jeff Parker
Welcome to Blinking Through The Multiverse, the new creator commentary with Jeff Parker all about Exiles here on Comicrelated.com. With the new #1 issue, we find ourselves introduced to a brand new team with a very familiar face as one of it's members, a new timebroker who turns out to be a very old friend and a new mission plan set up. So let's jump right into things with Jeff!
Eric: So to start off Jeff, have you been a longtime fan of the Exiles?
Jeff: Not really! In fact, I never read it until my editor Mark Paniccia brought up the subject. And then I went back and read all of them. Of course, I'd read plenty of X-stories though.
Eric: How did the relaunch of the book land on your lap? Did you pitch for it?
Jeff: You'd have to ask Mark why he thought I would work with it. I suspect it goes all the way back to this Starbrand one shot I did a few years ago, he always liked the way I presented the idea of multiple realities. And I guess he knew I'd really get into the science fiction aspect of it. Or as the channel calls itself now for some reason, 'scy fy.'
Eric: So we viewed a lot of universes that went into the 1000's in your first issue, just how big do you feel the Marvel Multiverse is?
Jeff: It's really, really, really big- and yet not so big, as we'll eventually start to learn! But that's a ways off.
Eric: Is that our Morph? the one longterm fans have known and loved for some time?
Jeff: Oh come on, doesn't he seem like himself? It's totally Morph!
Eric: So does that mean that the crystal palace is very much still in play or is there a new mystery brewing here?
Jeff: You will have to wait and see.
Eric: What about Blink? When Morph is revealed she looks more annoyed then anything but then plays things off like she doesn't know what's going on. Is this the Blink that longterm fans know well?
Jeff: It's Blink. Watching her closely, especially when she chooses to talk, will give insight into her agenda.
Eric: So you have two fan favorites involved from the earliest days in the book and it's returned very much to it's original concept. Who's run did you end up liking/inspired by the most? Winnick/Bedard/Austen or Claremont?
Jeff: It's hard to say now, I cherry-picked so much.
Eric: Talking about your team choices a little, would it be safe to say that the 616 versions of these characters are personal favorites of yours?
Jeff: Not necessarily. See now I'm running into difficulty, because I don't want to say things that might tip off future developments. I will say that I always found Polaris to be hot, because most artists seem to do their best when drawing her. But whether I like a character or not doesn't really affect what I might do with them- I'm always going to go the way that works best for the story, I will not protect a character just because I have a fondness for them.
Eric: So this is the first time I've ever heard of a Wolverine guest spot where he's already dead... that puts a snag in our team's plans a little doesn't it?
Jeff: It does. It also shows right off how quickly the landscape can change from when the Exiles are given their initial directions.
Eric: So our team has their mission and it seems very obvious that three of our team members may come face to face with their counterparts. Is this something you wanted to do when you started working on the series? As we never really saw the old teams coming face to face with their alternate selves.
Jeff: Yes, I think there's interesting possibilities to be had with people meeting their doppelgangers. And it seems strange that every reality you went to, the version of you there happens to have died already!
Eric: Another interesting element I found is that each character was taken from the moment before their death. What was your thought process behind this?
Jeff: Again, in the story that's part of revelations you'll get later on, but in a creative sense, it's a nod to one of the great time-travel stories, Ray Bradbury's A Sound of Thunder. You probably remember, they would hunt dinosaurs right before the moment of their death so to not affect history.
Eric: Finally Jeff, what can we expect to see coming up next issue? Tease away sir!
Jeff: You'll get to see the Exiles hopelessly outnumbered and therefore forced to be stealthy. Which is really tricky with a couple of mindreaders hanging around all the time. And you get to know Panther a little better!
I want to thank Jeff for taking the time to talk with us and if you ever have a question for the new exiles writer, launch them our way and you could see it in the next edition of the column. See you here next month!
Eric Ratcliffe is a young writer/pop culture journalist/interviewer currently working on pitching a project named the Hunter chronicles. When not reading his weekly stack Eric can be found watching dvd's, playing on his 360 (gamertag: Zack Hunter) or just surfing online trying to find a scoop or two. Brand new to the Comic Related family, Eric is a fun new voice. Eric shops at TJ's Collectibles. Visit them on the web at www.tjcollect.com!
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