Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Uncanny News News News News.
Hold on to your tails, Mutant enthusiasts. The Uncanny Experience is set
to become even more spectacular with the upcoming appearance of Aligned Eas the cosplay Maestro
prepared to be dazzled as the Embodies Nightcrawler, complete with azure fur and mischievous
allure. Join us as we dive into the world of X Men and all
things extraordinary at the Uncanny Experience and also mutant and fans alike. Man we
rocked it at this holiday season at Gambit Brewery. We partnered with Minnesota Comic
Book Exchange to put on the Uncanny Mixer, and the evening was full of
excitement and we got to bring so many presents in gifts that we wrapped up
for everyone, and then we did a door prize kind of random raffle prize
exchange, so we drew out names people got to unwrap on gifts like Funko
Pops, comics, X Men, X figures, and so many more cool
things. And if you happen to miss us and you live in the Twin
Cities, make sure you follow us on social media so that you can see
when we have events, so follow us on Facebook, on Instagram, on
Twitter slash x We are at the Uncanny exp The Uncanny exp That's right,
and don't forget to get your tickets with our early bird special going on right
now at the Uncanny Experience dot com. It is your ultimate immersive X Men
fandom convention, happening in September of twenty twenty four. You can learn all
about it on our social media and our websites. Like I said, we
have amazing cosplay guests like Aligned Diaz as Nightcrawler, but also celebrity guests like
Chris Claremont returning and more. So go to our website learn some more information
and join our community of X Men enthusiasts. Hey Chris, you went to
La Comic Con, didn't you? I did. I got wonderful weekend at
La Comic Con, and now what happened well. Jordan Blasa, also known
as the Girl with the Great Smile, knocked it out of the park for
another year doing the hell Fire Gala walk. This is a tribute an homage
to the halfire Gala in the X Men comics, where the cosplayers portray the
X Men characters in their gorgeous, phenomenal met gala style lukes as they walked
down the runway in South Hall Lobby. Julian Jetson was the presenter and he
did an amazing job and everybody that it participated in the walk looked stunning.
It was definitely a highlight of the weekend and everybody. You need to follow
Hellfire Gala Walk on Instagram to see more photos and videos, and be sure
to follow the Girl with the Great Smile as well as all the other cosplayers
that are tagged in their post. They are magnificent, they are excellent,
and they were stunning, m beautiful. And you also got to see some
of our friends from X Men the animated series, right, Yes, Eric
and Julia Leewald were there as well as Larry Houston and Leonora Zan, the
voice of Rogue from X Men the Animated series, and it was just a
big family reunion all over again. We loved having them at the Uncanny Experience
this past year, and you know, they had so many good things to
say about the event and we're just glowing. We look forward to seeing them
at everywhere we go. Yes, absolutely, And how was the X Men
costplay scene? The X Men cosplay scene was amazing. It was so cool
to see so many X Men cosplayers. I thought that I was just gonna
see, you know, a handful, maybe, but no, it was
non stop. I kept bumping into people left and right, and everybody that
I talked to I got to geek out about their love of X Men and
my love of X Men, and it was just an amazing weekend. I
love it and was the pinnacle of meeting the Pink Power Ranger. Yes,
I had a wonderful life moment for me. I am a huge fan of
the Pink Power Ranger and she was there to promote The Pink Power Ranger The
Return, which is her new comic book that she's writing with Boom Studios.
They launched a Kickstarter campaign and raised about half a million dollars so far.
It's doing very well. It's very successful. I got to watch her panel
on the main stage and do a photo op, and in the photo she
actually held my original Pink Power Ranger action figure from the nineties that I waited
outside of Target for in the middle of the night with a big line of
families wrapped around the block because that action figure was so hot. It's been
with me all of my life and I love it. And it was so
cool to see, you know, to have a photo of with her holding
it at Yeah, it's just so transcendent of an experience. So had a
great time at La Comic Con, and we're going to be having more convention
adventures, which we will update you about in our Uncanny News segment at the
beginning of our episodes. Now onto the show. Everybody, Hi, everybody,
This is Chandler, and this is Chris, and this is Erica and
you're listening to podcast. Yes, everyone, we are back. We are
here with episode one thirteen, and we are here graced by the amazing Erica
Schaltz. Erica, thank you so much for being here. We so appreciate
it. Thank you for having me. I don't know how amazing I am,
but I appreciate you having me. Well, I will say that when
you're here to talk about of course X twenty three Deadly Genesis. And when
I was this mini series, I was my emotions were perked. I was
very invested in the series and I had to look you up because I was
like, I don't know this Rika Schultz. And so one thing, of
course that really stood out to me, which we can kind of get into
it more. But it takes place in Minneapolis, and that's where I was,
that's where I'm from, and that's where I'm currently living right now.
Actually, so it was just like, ooh, Twin Cities. This is
fun. Never are there Marvel stories in the Twin Cities. So all of
this led to this moment. I have never been to Minneapolis. I tend
to write things about places I have never been, and people are like,
oh, are you from, so you know wherever? I'm like, no,
Google is amazing. Mm hmm. Well, I would be curious if
the artist on this series actually knows the Twin Cities or just kind of generic
building research, because there's definitely no landmarks. But that's okay. Those of
you that maybe Minnesotan's or you know, native expats from the Twin Cities,
I still recommend you read this mini series if you haven't already, because it
is very fun. Even though it has very little to do with the Twin
Cities. It's just fun that it takes place there. I just thought I
thought the bridge was a the page one panel one. That bridge, that's
right, Yeah, the stone arch bridge. That's a stone arch. Thank
you. That's that's a that's a landmark. It is a land It is
a landmark. Yeah. So, anyways, we have Erica Schultz on the
show, and Chris, why don't you give us a little bit of like
four to one one on Erica. You are a comic book writer who has
worked on so many amazing projects that I want to highlight that are not X
Men related that I geeked out over. And now I need to go to
the com book store and buy these single issues because you wrote some charmed comic
books as well as na Warrior Princess, and I'm a huge fan of Bolls
and I need to hear a little bit about that before we even get to
anything else, because I am a major fan. So what do you want
to hear about that. I want to hear a little bit about the story
that you wrote for Xena. Give me a little quick synopsis of it,
a little tease for me before I head to the comic book store. So
there is a young woman who has the powers of the Oracle at Delphi,
and the oracle does not like this because everyone brings tribute to the oracle.
So the avatars of Apollo and Artemis are sent after her. Ooh, I
love it. And this is just another this is a quick question I want
to know, and you were in your head, who do you think would
win in a fight between Xena Warrior Princess and X twenty three. The only
reason why I would say X twenty three is simply because she has the healing
factor and Zena. She's very durable. She is very durable, and she's
very good, but she can't heal from a near fatal wound, you know,
without the God, without God's interfering, or without God's intervening rather,
So that's why I would say Laura would probably win out simply because she doesn't
need she doesn't need deities to intervene in order for her to come back.
Ah, okay, all right, so X twenty three wins. Yeah,
that's I mean, I could be wrong. Like Xena, I don't believe
is a demi goddess. She's not like Hercules where she's where she's part God.
And even though she's very strong and she's very durable, but I can't.
I mean, Laura can like practically get her head chopped off and still
come back. So mm hmmm. That healing factor is pretty amazing. I
want to hear about the crime series that you co created for Vices Press called
M three. Give me a little synopsis on that. So. M three
was the first com that I'd ever written, and I was working at a
studio in New York at the time and I was doing background art. But
I had reached out to one of the other figure artists who was there.
I had written some stories and I figured, well, maybe comics is a
good medium for these stories to really be told. So I wrote it as
a comic script and I gave it to Vicente Alcazar and he said, sure,
let's do this. And so we put out twelve issues in about three
and a half four years, and they were all self published Vices Press.
Vice viic Is stands for Vicente es is Eric Schultz. That's what Vices Press
is about. And it's also a double entendre get it. Vices press things
together and also they you know, if you have a vice that you know
presses on your soul. But that's just because Vicente is a big smoker.
And we put these out and that really became my portfolio because as a writer,
you really need to make a comic in order to to have a portfolio
and to to to put it out. Nobody's going to read your scripts and
and that's something that I think a lot of writers don't really understand. And
so that became my portfolio piece, and I would then send it to editors.
And when we had the first trade paperback out, which was issues one
through six, the first story arc, I then gave that to editors to
uh as my you know, here I've written a whole story arc and Vicenti
did the art and you know, here you go, I can actually finish
something. Because that's that's a big thing, is being able to finish something.
It's all about deadlines. It is about deadlines. I know all about
it. People need to trust that you can, you know, be hired
to do something and then get it turned in on time. Yeah, and
that's and that's basically what it is, because especially with comics being I mean
and you're in the entertainment industry, so you know, it's a collaborative process.
Like you have to shoot something, the actor has to be there on
time to shoot, to get the footage out to the editor to color correct,
you know, to the offline editor and to online editor. Same thing
with comics. There's a specific typeline, you know, like the writer has
to write it and the editor has to get notes in, and the writer's
got to do the revisions before it can go to the artist to pencil and
if you have a separate inchor to go to the to the inker and everything,
and it's there's a there's a specific order in which things need to be
done. And especially when it comes to monthly comics, you've got to get
stuff done on time because you don't ever want to be the bottleneck. You
don't ever want to be the reason that you know your artist can't get something
done, or that your artist is working, you know, forty eight hours
straight. Nobody deserves that. I was kind of curious because you were Ely
an instructor at the Qubird School. You know, what kind of advice do
you have for or students of yours that are looking to get into the conflict
industry as a writer. Well, that's the That's the funny thing is when
I was at the Kubert School, I was sort of the red headed stepchild
because I'm the writing instructor at an art school, So a lot of what
I was trying to teach the students I don't know if I if I actually
succeeded. But even if you are an artist drawing your own story, you
should write a script simply because it's a lot easier to to make revisions on
a script than it is to make revisions on a board that you've already drawn,
on a page that you've already drawn. Whether even if it's you know,
digital, it's still a lot easier to you know, change some words
on a script than it is to you know, change drawing. So one
of the things that I always tell people is to start small. If you
want to be a writer, what you can do is you can look into
anthologies. There are a lot of smaller companies that do anthologies sometimes two to
three times a year, and you can just pitch them. They usually just
have like a central theme and then you can pitch the anthology. And the
easy part about that is that you will get the experience of working with an
editor. You will get the experience of working with an artist and going through
the pipeline. The other thing is that you don't have to you will not
be financing the book because a lot of times, as a writer, you
will sometimes be the one to sort of give the upfront to the artists to
get the to get start getting started on the art. A lot of times
if you're doing a Kickstarter or another crowdfunding platform, you can you know,
you still have to pay the artists for a couple of pages upfront so you
can have it for your platform, for the crowdfunding platform, and then you
know, you usually get the rest of the money through the through the campaign,
but you still got to put that money up front. So if you
want something like a portfolio piece like we did with them three, getting on
an anthology is actually a good thing because you're going to get that portfolio piece.
You're going to be able to send editors your five eight page story,
thirteen page story, whatever it is, and that's your portfolio piece, and
it didn't cost you anything or cost you very little. The other thing is
that you are also going to need to learn how to tell a story concisely,
and being given only five to eight pages to tell a story is a
challenge, but it is absolutely doable, and it's a good just a good
exercise. It's just a good writing exercise in general. So let's get into
the mind of Laura Kenny an X twenty three Chandler, give give us a
brief little rundown of who she is and what her powers are for our audience
if they don't already know, Yeah, absolutely get I'll give you my knowledge
of Laura. She, from my understanding, first appeared in X Men Evolution,
and due to popularity, then suddenly appeared in NYX, which is a
X Men or Marvel kind of offshoot series that I happened to read as it
was being published, And so I have the first appearance of Laura Kenny.
That's very very sought after for X me for comic book collectors. Now she
is kind of introduced as Wolverine's daughter, not through a biological mother from what
I understand, but more of a grown daughter. She has the abilities of
Wolverine of logan healing factor, durability. She has bone claws which are also
laced with adamantium, and instead of three claws that come out of the top
of her fist, she has two and one that comes out of her foot,
so there is three on each hemisphere of her body. So she basically
is what people don't like to be called as female Wolverine. She now is
just Wolverine, which I love because concurrent day comics. There's two of her
because she's so beloved, and there's Talent, which is the older version of
Laura who has gone through the Vault and children of the Vault, and now
there is a much, much, much older but because of her healing factor,
you know, she still resembles somewhat of a maybe middle aged woman rather
than a young girl. She's got a gray stripe, a gray streak.
Yeah, that kind of show distinguishes her between the other Laura. There's just
so much to say about the character of her. I for this podcast,
we're gonna call her X twenty three because of the title of the book,
but we I think comic community collectively has kind of moved away from the name
just because she has moved away from the name as a character. But I
think for the purpose of this we can call her X twenty three because it
is going to be very important in the storytelling of Deadly Genesis. But now
everyone loves Laura. She is a fantastic character. She's been used so much
in so many different issues in different iterations, and I love especially the Leah
Williams Exterminators ron that just happened, where she is kind of the straight man
character, so to speak to the insane Boom Boom and Jubilee and everybody in
Dazzler and that storyline. That's my kind of quick and dirty recap. There's
so much to say about Laura, but we'll go We'll start there. All
the Wolverine with Tom Taylor and David Lopez is another great place to to read
about Laura. Yes, let's put that on the list for X Reads.
So now I kind of want to dive deep into the mind of Laura and
ask the writer scary places. Oh yes, we're going to do some really
deep, hard hating questions. You know that it's going to just really dive
into the psychology of this character. So we'll go through a little rapid fire
Q and A about Laura just to see your thoughts. So, Chandler,
why don't you start us off with the first question? Okay, are you
ready for this? What is Laura's favorite style of pizza? She can't be
a vegetarian because that's just like not her game, although she might have jumped
on like the gluten free craze only because it was probably forced on her by
either Jubilee or one of the what's the word more jubilant X people. But
I would say that if Laura was ordering her own pizza, it would be
whatever. A number twenty five with chicken is on pizza in the earlier versions
of X twenty three, I want to say by Mariko Tamaki, and I'm
totally butchering their last name, and I apologize for that. Laura always orders
it's a number twenty five with chicken, or is it number twenty No,
it's number twenty five, I believe, not number twenty three, because that
would be too weird with chicken. And that's something that she also orders in
All New Wolverine when she meets Gabby, and that's like a recurring thing.
And I tried to put it into the book, but it was too serious
of a moment. The editor told me to pull it out because it was
too serious of the moment. That would be her her order on pizza.
Perfect. What is Laura's idea of a perfect date night? Acts throwing?
Yes, epic, that's a perfect all right. If Laura could have any
pet, real or mythical, what would it be? No, it would
be Wolf Range Jonathan is hangs with her. What is Laura's go to karaoke
song, Well me under by Dream Theater. What TV show would Laura binge?
If you would binge the Office, But she wouldn't think that it was
a comedy. Okay. If Laura were to start a social media account,
what would her first post be about? Well, I mean there's two I
mean I could go the funny router or I could go to this serious route.
The serious route would probably be. It would probably be like, there's
this person on Instagram that's called like self Defense Girl that teaches people self defense
moves and stuff. So it might be something like that where it's like,
you know, keep yourself safe, ladies, you know, you know,
keep yourself safe, you know people who might be smaller than other people and
stuff, this is how you keep yourself safe. Or it might be a
review of the best places to get the number twenty five with chicken, because
you can get in anywhere apparently. Last question is what would Laura buy you
for Christmas? Well, Laura wouldn't buy me anything for Christmas because I personally
don't get I don't get Christmas gifts. I am a sanctimonious person and I
always say, if you I have enough, I have more than enough.
So if you want to get me a Christmas gift, donate to a charity
and animal shelter or something like that. So I think that Laura would donate
to like a Wolverine wildlife retreat. Perfect, awesome. I love getting these
insights because you've been in her headspace, you know, to write this character.
So I feel like you're the best kind of person to reflect on that.
Oh probably not, but I mean I would say Yost is probably the
best person reflect on it. But you know, way more skin in the
game than I do. But she's just she's just really just a fun character
and just really cool to explore. Just she's just so angry all the time,
and I can really relate to that. All Right, everybody, let's
dive into the recap of this series X twenty three Deadly ReGenesis, published March
eighth of twenty twenty three, written by our Erica Schultz and art by Edgar
Salazar. So there's a note that this is all taking place in the days
when the X Men are on you Topia, outside of San Francisco, So
this is not a moment in Krakoa or anything like that. We are back
in time. So the first issue we start in Minneapolis, which is where
I turned the page and I was like, what this is amazing. I
see the stone Arch bridge of course right there, and we see Laura.
We get a nice intros blast page of her in all of her iterations,
all of her amazing outfits and lukes as she is walking down the bridge,
kind of recap. She was an assassin one of the x Men, an
assassin for the x Men, and she's wondering what she will be. Now
we get to see all of her different outfits, which I love. I
actually have that page. Oh cool, cool, awesome. I love that.
Yeah, So we kind of are getting a bit of a recap on
Laura. You know, for those of me might not know her, you
can kind of get to know her through this series. Absolutely don't need to
come in with tons of knowledge on her, because Erica has thankfully given us
a lot of context but also gives us cool easter eggs that if you do
know, you can kind of catch little little bits. Then you're like,
oh, I remember that. So she is walking through Minneapolis, recollecting about
her life, and there is a firetruck that signals that there is trouble.
And before that, of course, she smells smoke, so we know that
there is a fire, and her hero mode kicks in and we get our
big title page, The past haunts us all. Edgar Salazar was phenomenal to
work with, so was Carlos Lopez, the colorist. And with any and
all comic book, you know, hear anything hero stuff, you really have
to have at least one or two splash pages in there to just bring the
dynamic art out. And I was really we were going back and forth about
like should the splash page be Laura leaping from the ground to the like lamppost
to the fire truck and stuff, or should the splash be this like horrifying
fire that happens. And we decided that we were going to go with the
We were going to go with the fire because we want to show that this
is not like some like little candle that got knocked over. This is serious
stuff. I think that's was a good choice. I noticed it. I
clocked it when I was reading it is because normally those splash pages are reserved
for characters. But what I appreciated about it is that if Laura was editing,
she'd not want to see herself. She would rather show the people that
are in trouble, and you know that she that she's going to go help
out, and she'd be like, no, I don't want the splash page
will be I want to show the danger. So I clocked that right away.
I was like, Oh, this is cool. And what I I
really notice as being a Twin Cities person is that the woman that she is
going into this building to rescue because they cannot get her out, she's in
a wheelchair. She is a Somali woman. And in the Twin Cities we
do have the second largest Somali population outside of Smali itself. So I loved
that attention to detail. Yes I did. I did on purpose put that
in because I knew that there is a large Somali population uh in the area
in my Google research of the area, so I wanted to put that in.
Also, when Laura was at the facility, originally she was trained in
multiple languages, she was trained in multiple fighting styles. So I wanted to
show that she could recognize that this person was Somali and that she could speak
their language because she spoke all these different languages because that was part of the
training. Well, I you know, it's an easter egg for a Twin
Cities person to see, and I really appreciate it because then you know,
in the next page she's leaping out of the building, you know, carrying
the woman to safety. And then we get our first flashback to Kitten and
kind of the NYX comic book series Days, And like I said, I
originally read that series, so I was really surprised. I didn't think we'd
ever see Kitdden ever again in comics, and you brought her back so uh
like five seconds. Well, you know, she makes a couple appearances throughout
the series, But yes, I appreciate it. I feel like Kitdden Nixon,
I think what's her last name is is a character that was introduced and
then never seen again, but she is part of Laura's history, and I
feel like we see Laura all the time, so why don't we get a
little glimpse of Kitten. So I appreciate that you included her. She was
also probably one of the first friends that Laura actually had, so I thought
that that was important because the story itself is we are delving into Laura's past,
but also what makes her who she's going to become, and you know,
having a relationship like that I think is part of the foundation of who
she who she becomes. Did you have to go back and read NYX or
did you just pull that that character out for yourself. I pulled it out
for myself. I never would I ever want to go back and read n
Yx. No shade to the creators. I can't stand how every single female
character has to be you know that it's the shorthand that you know, she
has to have some horrible backstory and it has to involve assault, and it's
just it's just very frustrating because it's shorthand for I'm broken, And it's frustrating
because what that does is that negates any healing that assault survivors have gone through,
because it's saying, well, no matter what, you're always going to
be broken, You're always going to be tainted. And it also makes it
out to be like this is the origin story of every tragic hero and it's
it's not. Another character that I wrote for Marvel was a character named Palo's
Eve and Janine Godby, who that's her real name or not her real name?
Excuse me. Her real name is Elizabeth Elizabeth Tyne. But Janine Godby
was assaulted by your father and she killed him in self defense and everything,
so that whole you know, we have to assault somebody in order to give
them a reason to be aggressive, to be broken, to be hurt,
to be whatever. So I did not go to Nick's. I actually skipped
it one hundred percent, even when it was coming out, even though it
was a huge fan of evolution, I completely skipped it once I heard about
the whole Zebra Daddy thing, and you know that it was just a little
beyond the pale for me. Well, absolutely fair and and and astute assessment
of that. I I I do agree that it is it is shorthand to
use that because it's used too frequently. There's way more opportunities and experiences that
people can go through to become violent or broken. As you say, you
know, it's like there's and you don't have to always go back to sexual
assault. Yeah, it's it's the there's a website TV tropes. It's basically
the the trope that that they use. It's you know, hey, we've
got to have a female character who's who's broken and hurt. Let's let's put
a sexual assault in her past. And I'm just like, you know,
okay, this is a little much. Guys. I think for creators that
it's a it's a call to action and challenge to get away from that because
yeah, I was just watching a TV show and they use that at trope
and I was like, oh really. So anyways, well back to Deadly
ReGenesis. There's lots of action going on. There's this burning building, there's
somebody, there's a fireman still stuck in there, so she of course pulls
up the heroics, runs in, she saves the person. We're getting all
sorts of great flashbacks. I don't recall her wearing the Fang uniform and savage
land, but now I need to find those issues. It kind of reminded
me of Vixen from DC. Yes, oh yeah, I love the Fang
outfit on whether it's on Docin or Wolverine or Fang himself. So now I
need to find the Laura Fang moment and added to my collection. I want
to comment on this amazing, beautiful yet horrific at the same time splash page
of Laura hurrying a fireman on her back out the door, just bloodied gore
everywhere coming out of her. She is sizzling from the heat being burned.
Her skin is literally sloughing off of her. How did you write this page?
Like, what does this page sound like when you write it? I
can, I'll tell you what it sounded like. You know, it's funny.
Well, it's not funny, but I mean, my older sister had
a bad burn when we were kids, and she on her leg and she
always talks about how they had to and this is the seventies, so they
probably didn't know what they were doing, but she always talks about how they
had to like scrape the skin off of her. And I was thinking about
that when I was writing this scene, and I was just like, yeah,
there's just gonna be skin just like hanging off of her. Page thirteen
splash page of Laura carrying the firefighter from the burning building out the front door.
She's framed by the fire trucks and ambulances. Her clothes are partially burned
off, and her skin is sloughing off her body. She has exposed muscle,
tissue, and bone. There are firefighters staring her in awe, he
needs medical assistance. M that's that was the That's how it was written.
Wow, it definitely reads yeah, it reads gross. Yeah, I mean
you think about this character. I mean, all the things that she's gone
through just in general, do you have, like, if you want to
be technical about it, have almost a horror element to it? So why
not throw that in, even just for one panel or one splash, you
know? Yes? Oh, and she gets beat up in this whole mini
series a lot because well we'll get to what happens to her healing factor later,
but we cut to a little bit later. She is at the ambulance
she's recovering. We get a flashback to Kimora, who was exciting to see
you're a terrible human being, terrible person, evil, evil person, horrible
person, out for herself, great villain, underutilized and it was fantastic to
have her in this series. And we get a news reporter going up to
Laura trying to get her on the news. She does not want to be
on the news. But of course that is our catalyst or impetus, that
that she has been facially recognized. The exciting incident. Yes, Ai has
got her face and it knows, so it alerts Kimora and her lackeys that
she is out and about in the Twin Cities, and they send their new
person that they're building after her. Who is this new person, Well,
it is a non binary character named Haymaker Jordan. And that was a really
cool choice because Jordan comes across as hyper masculine, you know, prize fighter
person, but goes by they them. So, Erica, what tell us
about this choice? I wanted to have a trans masculine, non binary character
because I know that there are so very few, uh in comics in general,
and there's only one or there's only I think one or two transgender characters
in the Marvel universe, and I don't even know if there are if both
of them are in the six one six. So I wanted to make sure
that people saw this character as not just the bad guy, but someone who
has a reason to hate Laura. Also, I wanted Jordan to have an
arc, you know. I didn't just want Jordan to be, you know,
part of the faceless army. You know, we have enough faceless armies
in all of these books, whether it's you know, in pretty much most
stories, whether it's like the faceless army of robots or zombies or vampires or
you know, liter wolves fill in the blank. So we have enough faceless
army people that I wanted to make sure that we had a character who we
could develop, and a character who wasn't just going to be a sidetracked character,
a character who we are going to see grow emotionally and deal with their
own issues in terms of whether it's addiction, grief, all of these things.
It was a conscious effort to have this character. And Jan Bezodoral was
the artist who's a transgender artist, and she was the one who designed Haymaker's
outfit. And there was actually a variant cover that we had that had Jan's
designs for the character, which was really cool. I have a copy of
that cover. I have like one copy of like all the covers, and
there's a Jillon. It was a really cool idea to get a trans artist
to draw to draw the character. And when you see Jordan shirtless, you
can see the top surgery scars on them. Because I wanted to say,
like, these people, these are people who exist in the real world,
and if we're gonna believe comics as if we're gonna have the suspension of disbelief
that these characters can be real, then populate the world with real people.
And Jordan is a real is someone who is a real person, you know
and reflective of the world around us. I have to confess I did not
notice the top surgery scars until you pointed it out. I just was in
this world and belief that it was a non binary just you know person,
which I think is also a testament to the writing, is that you know,
obviously trans mask is identified through those scars, but you know, their
identity of being just you know, masculine in their way, you know,
is a testament to the kind of how you wrote this character. I really
hope we get to see more of them. Well, we shall see.
We shall see. That's all I'll say is we shall see. Oh.
Well, we get a little bit of a backstory on Jordan aka Haymaker,
and we know that they do not like Laura, that they hold Laura responsible
for the death of forgive Me the brother. Yes, their brother drew their
brother. And of course we learned that this is all done by a hit
made by Kingpin, but he holds Laura responsible regardless because she was the killing
machine. And later on we get all sorts of you know, discoveries,
slash, you know, growth of that character and making new decisions on their
feelings. I just want to talk about character design really quickly and give a
shout out to Jordan's X on the side of the neck, which is very
attractive to me. I think that that was a good choice by the artist.
There's also when in the second issue when you see Drew, Jordan's brother,
you see a similar on the forearm, a similar mark on the forearm.
Yeah, and is this a birthmark or is this like a burn mark.
It's kind of like them claiming themselves of and there who they are and
their connection to each other. So it's I won't go so far as to
say it's self injurious because I don't want people to think that I'm putting that
on that type of character, but it is a conscious decision that they that
Jordan and Drew made as a way of connecting. Next, we learn that
Logan has a safehouse in North Loop, which I was like, I need
to find his house. North Loop. Everybody is just a neighborhood of Minneapolis
that Erica probably discovered in her googling. I will tell you, I will
tell you a secret. So Kimora's number one or number two rather is a
guy named Burnham, which is named after Eric Burnham, the writer artist he's
currently writing TMNT and he's also written Craven and Scarlet Spider. And Eric is
from Minnesota and he knows the Twin Cities very very well. So I did
lean on him for a couple of things, and like, you know,
what are the trendy neighborhoods kind of thing, So I named the character Burnham
after him, although despite getting Eric's permission in writing, they said that they
didn't want to make the character look like him because they were worried about a
liability. So, well, all those lawyers, lawyers, Well, I
will say Logan has good taste, because that's a great neighborhood to have a
place. So I was not the first neighborhood I would expect Logan, But
at the same time, no one would expect it because you know, it's
not on brand, and therefore it is a very safe place to be there.
You go, Well, Laura had some fast food last night, it
appears, and she didn't finish it. Maybe it wasn't the best restaurant,
or you know, they didn't have a good number twenty five with chicken,
Yeah, exactly. Clearly didn't even finish her fries. But we cut to
Kumora and Haymaker sending him off to the sorry sending them off to the location
of where Laura is, and we get this canister of red smoke that we
hate for the next five issues because it negates super powers, especially the healing
factor of Laura. Yes, now Laurah gets her butt handed to her,
Yes a lot. Yes, I need to know this compound, this chemical
compound. Now, was this something that you were just able to write as
negating anti mutant smoke or or is it actually, like you know, there's
all sorts of things that take away powers in Marvel comics, so I'm just
curious if this is one of those, or this is a new tool.
We went back and forth editorial and I and to the point where I was
saying, you know, they kept saying, Laura's heartier than you think she
is, you know, hit her with this, hit her with that,
hit her with the next thing, and I'm like, I'm not entirely comfortable
watching her get the you know, stuffing beating out of her. And then
when we got uh, when we got the colors back, the editor literally
and said whoa. I said, yeah, this is torture porn, Like
I brought it up three months ago. Now you see it. Now you
see it. Okay, thank you, And they're like, oh, and
there's one particular panel in issue to where Haymaker just clocks Laura dead in the
face and it is just brutal. And the editor was like, let's put
just put a big sound effect. I was like, I don't know if
a big sound effect is really going to stop it. Like, this is
what you wanted. Be careful what you wish for Erica. She'll give it
to you and then you will then you will be worried when you see the
entire page is red in terms of this compound. This is something we just
went back and forth on and the editor came up with, you know,
this idea of like, let's have something that negates the healing factor because you
know, when you have a character that is way too powerful, you know,
how are you going to challenge them? Mm hmm. So that was
so that was something and it ends up backfiring on Kamora in the last issues.
So she gets her come up and she does she does well. I
challenge editorial to find out what this chemical compound is because obviously it does more
than take away just healing factors and I always think finding those cruxes that kryptonite
to superpowers is essential because otherwise they just become way too powerful and then it
just becomes less exciting. So the more opportunities there are, you know,
we've seen the callers on Genosha that just take away powers. We now have
blight swill in the Krakowen Era, which is an other worldly chemical thing that
they create and then inject into people or put on the tips of spears and
destroy Jean Gray with. But yeah, but anyways, so I just I'm
very curious to see if this compound will come back into play, because I
think it's an exciting tool that villains in X Universe can use. Though forgive
me Kimora. Is she a mutant or is she just a superhuman? Kimora
is enhanced. This was another thing that we kept going back and forth with
editorial, because when you look up what Kimora can do, it's like,
well, she's extra durable and nigh in vulnerable, and she's this, and
she's that she has immunity to adamantium, which I don't understand how that works.
So we had had something and we kept going back and forth about it.
I want to say it was an issue three maybe where Camora. Oh,
Camora can also phase. Yes, she can phase her hands through things.
I don't think she can phase her whole body like Kitty, but she
can phase her hands through things. So we had this hole back and forth
where Kimora fazes her hand through through Laura's rib cage to see how her ribs
are healing. And originally Kamara had a line like something to the tune of
like, well, you're not like Logan because Kamora only has the in this
particular continuity. She only has the adamancium in her hands and feet. She
doesn't have it on her entire skeleton like Logan. When she was revived and
like hatched from the egg in Krakoa, they thought she had it on her
entire skeleton. So that's why the young Laura has is like Wolverine more that
way. But we had we had a line in there something like you know,
you're less like Logan than you think. And Kamora is then able to
face her hand through Laura's chest to check on the healing of the ribs.
No matter how we wrote it, it was just very very clunky. I
sort of like left it in the hands of editorial in the sense of,
look this is I think we need to explain this simply because Kimora's powers are
so nebulous, and it's one of those things where it's like, oh,
when did she get that power? Kind of like how how Electra I don't
know if people know this. Electra can actually use It's not telepathy per se,
but she can actually like if she connects with someone's mind, she can
find them anywhere within a certain radius. And that's something that like nobody ever
talks about for Electra. But you know, that's like a power that'll come
up with the sex machina, you know what I mean, As one of
my former students used to say, do sex machina. You know, I
wanted to make sure that we at least sort of explained Camora's weird enhancements.
But she's been experimented on and you know, undergone different procedures and has probably
taken Mowton growth hormone and god knows what else. So yeah, Kimora's got
a whole battery of enhancements that I don't think everybody, I don't think anybody's
ever really shown all of them in one book. And if they have,
it's kind of a woman because, like you were saying, you know,
when somebody is that powerful, it's kind of like what do you do with
them? You know, how do you beat them? Right, Well,
you've got to you've got a powder or whatever gas canister that you've created.
That to the point of my question is that I guess it's not affecting mutant
jeans. It's affecting superpowers. Yeah, any enhancements kind of yeah, it
could. It could affect you know, Captain America, Like when when does
he ever get a red smoke bomb to the face and can't Well, I
mean he's been he Captain America has been taken out by mad bombs, He's
been taken out by by reverse Vitar rays. That in Captain America Super Soldier,
he had the reverse Vitar raise and he went back down to Skinny Steve
and it was just like the splash page of like this tiny person in this
like huge outfit and it almost like it looked like a kid like wearing his
dad's clothes. Yes, I'm recalling that now. Yeah, well either way,
again, editorial challenge you to bring out this chemical compound and let's let's
let's use it on some superheroes. The smoke is cleared and she has her
fist in the air and she's angry and she's yelling out who are you and
what do you want for me? And from off page we hear it's real
simple X twenty three and we turn the page and Erica, can you describe
to me what we see? We see Haymaker looking pretty badass, saying I
want to kill you. Yes, like I want your head on a spike
and I will have it. The face off is on. Yep. Yes,
that's a great clash. Yeah, great to be continued. So yes,
rather than go through the rest because I got too I got too wordy
in this first issue because there was a lot to go through. So I'm
like, oh right, look it's a thirty issue. You did it.
It's Justice, So everybody go out and finish this series because I don't want
to spoil anything. But it's uh, it's really it's only five issues,
so it's not that much of a commitment, and it's a really great story
of Laura. And I really, like I said, Eric, I really
feel like you captured her. Well, you're a good voice for her,
so thank you. I helpe you get to do more. Thank you.
I appreciate that. Yeah, I mean, she's she is a character that
has grown a lot, so to sort of take her back was a bit
because, you know, if especially if you read only Wolverine, Dave Lopez,
and Tom Taylor, Laura has even you know, a different speech pattern.
You know, she's she uses contractions, she's more relaxed, and you
know, and then that's when we meet Gabby and Zelda and Bologna and you
sort of start seeing Laura's family side. For lack of a better term,
but I think that going back to this very stoic Laura was interesting, especially
since you know, we know what she's going to become, but it's a
matter of let's not forget where she came from. I really appreciate you taking
the time to do this with us, because having creators on the show is
one of the biggest highlights of doing this podcast. You know, Chris and
I we do this and it's mostly a silly recap of you know, stories
from the eighties and stuff and whatnot, and we usually pick the more obscure
things, but sometimes it's really fun to dive into the serious ones and talk
to a creator and get into the head of the creation process of comics and
the preparation for it. Yeah, and I appreciate you being interested in process.
I think a lot of times people just go to the shop and see
it on the on the shelf and don't really understand what it takes to get
it there. And I think that that's I think people need to sort of
understand that. I mean, it's it's really easy to just go online be
like this sucked, whether it's like a movie or a comic or a novel
or whatever, but not truly understanding the struggle that it took and the amount
of people that were involved. And you mentioned, you know, you were
in the entertainment industry. The idea of you know, all of these things
coming together to coalesce and you know, at the right time to create something.
I think people need to need to understand that. And you know,
anything that gets that gets made and gets put out there in and of itself
is a little miracle. I completely agree, because when you work inside,
you see how it is not as easy as you can think of. Oh
yeah, and all of the people that make decisions along the way that it's
not just rested on one person rarely ever, so even a director of a
film, even a writer of a comic, they answer to other people,
other notes, other directions, and you know, uh it is a village
to get something off the ground. Absolutely, absolutely, So what's next for
Erica? So Marvel Zombies, Red White and Blood just came out. I'm
so excited about that. I have it in my reading pile. It just
came out this past Wednesday, and I got to check another character off my
bucket list, Beta Ray Bell. And uh so that story is, it's
a ten page story about Bill and his and what happens with him. And
we've got Gang Moore just started as well in asm and that so the Daredevil
that I wrote, I'm sorry. The Marvel Zombies was drawn by Nelson Daniel.
I just wanted to, you know, get his name out there.
And Daredevil Gangmore is a Foreshu mini series. It is drawn by Sergio Devilla,
inked by Sean Parsons and colored by CC de la Cruz. I believe
the letter is Corey Pettit. I'm not entirely sure. Forgive me if I
messed that up. But that comes out on the thirteenth of December and that's
a for issue mini. We've got some other stuff that I can't talk about
yet coming out from Marvel. And then the other project is this spring is
Spawn. I'm going to be writing a new Spawn series called rat City,
and Jay Lopez is the artist on that. We haven't found we haven't assigned
a colorist yet, but that's been a pretty crazy ride because I'm the first
woman to ever write Spawn. Wowe, no pressure, no pressure, no.
So yeah, so that's that's gonna be cool. And we're really excited
about Rat City. And it takes place way in the future, so it's
like twenty one to eleven, and it's a very different take the way Todd
and Thomas have been talking about it is. It's a Spawn book that doesn't
feel like a Spawn book but still feels like a Spawn book. So I've
been reading a lot of Spawn and then trying to find ways to show how
I can write like the og Spawn but also put my own little twist on
it. And Jay puts his own little twist on the art, which is
just really very very good. We already have two issues drawn, and I
handed in the script for issue number five today. Yeah. I mean it's
it's gonna go a good amount of issues. It's not going to be like
six issues and gone like We're going thirty plus issues with this. Congratulations,
that's exciting. Thank you, thank you. Yeah. And I'm supporting my
spawn T shirt, so yes, yes, So tell us where can we
follow your adventures online? I am on all social media's except Instagram as Erica
Schultz forty two. That's s C h U L t Z four two.
I am on Twitter, Blue Sky, Masta do on all of the things
on Instagram, I am Erica Schultz Writes w R I T E S.
And my website is Erica Shultzwrights dot com. And I've got a bunch of
books there that I can that you can purchase, I can sign and send
them out. And uh yeah, Are you going to be appearing at any
comic conventions in the near future? In the I think it's early March.
I believe it's the seventh, the ninth, or the seventh to tenth.
There's Lexington Comic Con in Lexington, Kentucky, and I will be there.
I will be a guest there with Leana Kangis, who's a phenomenal creator themselves,
and a couple of other people are going to be there, but I
know Leon will be there because because I've requested to have my table next to
them. And then as of right now, the only the only convention that
I know I'll be at is New York in October next October. I don't
know about San Diego yet. Maybe maybe not, we'll see. I'm kind
of playing it by year. Well. We hope to encounter you at a
con in the near future, whether it's in New York or on the West
Coast somewhere, but that would be fun. We'll have to come by your
table and say hi. Maybe maybe I'll do the one of the conventions in
Minnesota, Yes, Twin Cities con that's Comic Book one, So let them
know. I will thank you so much for coming in and geeking out with
us and giving us the inside scoop on X twenty three. Deadly ReGenesis listeners,
be sure to go check this out. Pick it up at your local
combook store, get it on Marvel Unlimited. I personally am also going to
be grabbing that Xena Warrior Princess issue and the Charmed books because I love that
and I love your writing. So I'm excited to see your take on their
universes. Also, everybody, I am excited about Marvel Zombies and I just
learned about this from you, Erica, just in this moment, So I'm
actually probably going to go to the com book store right now and pick that
up because that is really cool. There's also a great story in there by
Gail Simone as well, So yes, love Gail. We really appreciate you
taking the time to be on our show. And everybody, go follow Erica
on social media, go buy her comic books, and go see Heerra to
con if you are happy to be in one of the areas that she appears.
X Reads is recorded in the United States. Our theme music is written
by Austin Wintree. Please make sure to follow our podcast to be updated on
when new episodes appear every first and third Wednesdays of the month. Follow us
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