who can you spot in the picture???
Marvel Heroes Go to War Against Doom
Jonathan Maberry and Will Conrad discuss DoomWar, the culmination of the feud between Black Panther and Doctor Doom.
by Richard George & Jesse Schedeen
October 12, 2009 - Doctor Doom has been a busy little bee lately. After being eaten by prehistoric sharks and returning to the present to overthrow the self-titled Marquis of Death, Doom has settled himself firmly in the events of Dark Reign. While maintaining an alliance with Norman Osborn, Doom has also taken the entire kingdom of Asgard into his home. Given Loki's involvement and Doom's own nature, you can bet the good doctor's plans are anything but benevolent.
While that conflict will play out in the pages of the recently-announced Siege mini-series, Doom has other battles brewing as well. Doom kicked off the newest volume of Black Panther by seriously injuring T'Challa and forcing T'Challa's sister Shuri to take over the mantle of Black Panther. Now T'Challa and his family are hungry for payback. They're taking the fight to Doom, but they have an army of friends to help them out.
This is the premise of DoomWar, a mini-series set to debut next February. The series will be helmed by the entire Black Panther creative team – writer Jonathan Maberry and artists Will Conrad and Ken Lashley. We talked to both Maberry and Conrad to find out more about this mini-series. What are the stakes in DoomWar? How does it connect to Siege? What will be the fate of the ongoing Black Panther series? What he heck brought Deadpool into this fight? Maberry and Conrad answered these questions and several more.
IGN Comics: Today you are announcing DoomWar, a limited series event that brings together a wide section of the Marvel Universe to combat Doctor Doom. What else can you tell us about the concept of this storyline? And this is a storyline that encompasses the entire Marvel Universe, correct?
Jonathan Maberry: Doctor Doom has plagued most of Marvel's heroes at one time or another. His plots and schemes are wildly inventive and destructive, he has no trace of compassion or pity, and he really does have a megalomaniacal belief that he should rule the world. To accomplish this he's done untold harm, and for some of Marvel's heroes enough is damn well enough.
The X-Men, Fantastic Four, and the ruling house of Wakanda (the current Black Panther, Shuri, and T'Challa, the former Panther) team up to wage total war on Doom. This war will be fought on several fronts, and the stakes are very high. Doom has an agenda that could result in him becoming the most powerful and destructive force on earth. And it's very likely that he'll succeed unless hard choices are made and desperate actions taken.
IGN Comics: Doom has been rather bold in some of his recent efforts, most notably setting his sights on Asgard and Wakanda. Is there a new development here that forces the heroes to react?
Maberry: Doom's move here is separate from the other plots and plans he has cooking. And that's part of the problem with Doom: he never has a single agenda.
In DoomWar we'll get to see something that hasn't previously been shown: Doom's support network. For him to run all of his complex schemes he has to have a lot of people working for him and with him. We'll see some of them, and it's chilling to realize how strong his power base truly is. Our heroes have their work cut out for them.
Will Conrad: From my end, the simple fact that he threatened Wakanda was reason enough for the Black Panther to react. And knowing of the bounding friendship between the heroes, and considering what Doom has done to other places, it just makes sense to me that they would reunite the forces to put an end to his evil acts.
IGN Comics: Given that this spans so many franchises and heroes, we wonder how it affects what's happening in Siege or Second Coming or any other number of titles. Will we see a "cross-pollination" of sorts or does this really stand on its own? Specifically regarding Siege, how will these two stories operate since both seem to deal directly with Doom's actions?
Maberry: This story fits between Siege and Second coming, overlapping them both a bit but running independent of them. But, like both of those stories, there will be repercussions for the whole Marvel U.
IGN: Jonathan, how closely does this story spin out of recent events in Black Panther? If fans are looking for the genesis of the mini-series, is that where they should look? What other stories will this build from?
Maberry: That's a tricky question because this story thread does in fact roll out of the current arc I'm writing, but the overall story isn't a 'Black Panther' story anymore than it's an 'X-Men', 'Fantastic Four' or 'Deadpool' story. It's a Marvel Universe story.
That said, there are threads of this that go back to Civil War, Secret Invasion and Dark Reign, but the foundation of DoomWar plays off of recent events in Black Panther. Does that mean readers have to know about the events in the Panther book? No. Anyone can step into DoomWar, and what they don't know, we'll tell them. It's like World War Hulk in that regard. It's a good stepping-on point, and it'll read like a standalone. However, for anyone who has been following the Black Panther, there will be some familiar themes and set-pieces.
Probably the most important thing to know is that in Black Panther #1, Doom ambushed T'Challa and nearly killed him. Storm risked her life to bring T'Challa back from Limbo. In Black Panther #7 (my first issue as regular writer), I establish that T'Challa has not told anyone who attacked him, and he appears to have withdrawn from his wife, his family and his people. As a result of his injuries he is no longer able to serve as Black Panther or King of Wakanda. Instead he's walking a very dark path into alchemy and other arcane sciences in order to prepare for a personal revenge on Doom. While he's recovering, his sister Shuri has become the new Panther and the Princess Regent of the country.
IGN Comics: What determined the guest stars in this series? Black Panther and the FF are rather obvious, but what do characters like Wolverine and Deadpool have to do with Doom?
Maberry: Wolverine is one of Storm's oldest friends, and as DoomWar opens, Storm is in deadly peril. T'Challa needs help to rescue her and he appeals to the X-Men for some muscle. Wolverine needs very little urging to join a brawl. Other X-Men will play roles as well, and they'll do so for a variety of reasons we'll unfold in the book.
As for Deadpool…he's been offered a lot of money to join a black ops 'wetworks' team that forms one arm of the war on Doom. Deadpool gets to kill a lot of people and make money, and he gets to hang out with a whole squad of insanely beautiful warrior women. Of course he's involved.
IGN Comics: At the end of Mark Millar's recent Fantastic Four run, Dr. Doom emerged more powerful than ever. How much will that development affect our heroes' efforts?
Maberry: That doesn't play into this story. Doom's pretty badass as it is, and he's working on something that will amp up his powers by an order of magnitude.
IGN Comics: With so many events happening in various franchises, can we expect any tie-ins or affiliated one-shots?
Maberry: Anything's possible.
IGN Comics: Will – this event is effectively giving you and Ken the keys to the kingdom. What excites you most? Any particular characters you've been dying to tackle since you started at Marvel?
Conrad: In my case, I was so thrilled to be working on Black Panther, and all the guests we already had on the book were like the icing on the cake. I pretty much like to draw any Marvel character that is thrown at me, considering that each of them has his own details and nuances. I think it's going to be great to draw more of Dr. Doom and explore his visuals a little more, and as for the other guests... Well, it's going to be like having a party with a lot of dear friends
IGN Comics: We can't help but notice the entire creative team behind Black Panther is involved with this mini-series. How will that impact the production of Panther? Is the BP series going on a hiatus during this storyline?
Maberry: The BP series needs to step back while DoomWar runs, and for good reasons that will become apparent during the series. But, believe me, we'll be back with a vengeance when DoomWar is over. The whole Panther world is going to be irrevocably rocked by this event.
IGN Comics: Is there anything else you guys would like to add regarding DoomWar?
Maberry: John Romita, Jr. is doing the covers, and I've already seen the cover of issue #1. It's powerful and chilling.
DoomWar will be a lot of fun, the story is fast-paced and wild, and people will be talking about it-before, during and very definitely after.
http://comics.ign.com/articles/103/1034338p1.html
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