Cleared for Take-Off: Michael Avon Oeming and Scott Kolins on Marvel Comics’ Omega Flight
By Keith Dallas
Marvel just announced at this weekend’s Toronto’s Comic Book Expo an on-going monthly title spinning out of Civil War that will debut in early 2007: Omega Flight, to be written by Michael Avon Oeming and drawn by Scott Kolins, the same team that produced Thor: Blood Oath in 2005. Earlier this week I interviewed the creators about their new project.
Michael Avon Oeming’s career just gets busier and busier. Already working on Dynamite’s Red Sonja, Image’s Cross Bronx and Marvel’s Powers, among MANY other projects, Oeming has now been announced as the writer for Marvel’s on-going Omega Flight series which will debut in early 2007. In this interview Oeming describes the new series, relates the advantages of being in the Atlantic Ocean with Brian Michael Bendis and a boogie board, and… well… sort of proposes to Scott Kolins, his Omega Flight artist.Keith Dallas: How did you land this assignment? Had you pitched the series to [Marvel editor] Mike Marts, or did Mike Marts approach you to tackle Marvel’s quintessential band of Canadian super-heroes?
Michael Avon Oeming: Well, writing at Marvel is tough. There are tons of writers but only so many books and characters, and they all seem to be tied up in some current thing or continuity that makes it difficult to get things off the ground. To be honest, most of my pitches are intended to keep my name fresh in the heads of editors. Sure, I have great relationships with them, Marvel likes my work and appreciates me, but things move so fast at Marvel, you really have to have your name in the editors’ heads THAT DAY. So I had lots of pitches in, and I had contacted Mike Marts saying, “Bendis is killing off Flight, can I pitch a new one?” He liked the idea, but frankly, the last series left a bad taste in readers’ mouths (even though I thought it was fun), and there is a lot of baggage with Flight. So for awhile, it was no go. When New Avengers #16 came out and they all ended up dead, everyone went apeshit. Hawkeye all over again!
Then Mark Millar came up with a great idea to spin a new Alpha Flight out of Civil War. I’m not sure who brought my name up, but as soon it was there, it was a done deal. Most importantly, Millar was very excited about me writing it, and we had lots of emails about it. Finally, I’m riding on someone else’s coat tails other than Bendis.
KD: About time! Ha Ha! Can you elaborate on how Omega Flight “spins out” of Civil War?
MAO: Sure. It deals with a lot of the after effects of Civil War. It is NOT about heroes fleeing the war by going to Canada (as has been rumored).
I figured after Civil War a lot of people within the Marvel Universe are freaked out by all the superhero craziness, so a lot of Americans leave the States for the perceived safety of Canada, creating a new “Mexican border” of Americans flooding into Canada, where there is much less superhero explosions.
Also, for reasons that will be explained as the series goes on, the specific heroes that join Flight were pre-destined to do so. There’s a lot of that kind of stuff in the new Flight.
And let me say “It’s not your father’s Alpha Flight.” I mean this in a respectful way, respectful to fans of the original Flight and to the origins of the series. The first year of Alpha Flight contained some of the best comics Marvel ever produced, so instead of trying to rehash that, or fix mistakes of recent past, we thought it would be best to dump all the baggage, good and bad and move on to the future.
However, if fans of the old series stick around long enough, they will be rewarded with the rich history of Alpha Flight through some character returns, history and flashbacks.
The roots of the new series reaches back to the old in the sense that most of the characters were involved in the supernatural, and that much of the old series survives into the next. You’re more likely to see Omega Flight fighting Cthulu or extra dimensional threats than Mole Men.
It’s also going to be a running commentary on whatever goes on in Marvel’s “America.”
KD: So, for the record, the Alpha Flight team that we saw die in New Avengers #16 are indeed dead?
MAO: That’s the way I read it. I remember being on vacation with Bendis, and there we are swimming in the ocean, dodging waves and Brian says to me, “You should pitch an Alpha Flight book, I just killed them all in Avengers!” and then he hopped on his boogie board and had his shorts knocked off. True story.
Well, I pitched something, and Marvel said no go. Like I already said, Marvel felt there was too much baggage with Flight. But then the slow roar built up, and Millar had this idea to spin it out of Civil War.
See, when your favorite character dies, sometimes that’s the best thing that can happen to them!
KD: Wow! That’s one for the books: Bendis on a boogie board encouraging you to submit an Alpha Flight pitch. (Did you really have to tell me that he lost his shorts? I’m having a tough time getting that visual out of my head.)
So who can readers expect to be part of the regular cast of Omega Flight?
MAO: Well, I can’t give that away yet. I will say that only one team member who has previously been in Flight will be on the team, but we will be seeing the return of at least one of the members killed in the New Avengers. But with flashbacks and such, we’ll also get a glimpse of the team in its glory from time to time.
Also, someone of important American Iconology will be on the team, as well as someone who has connections to the original team.
KD: Uh huh. Let me at least try to get you to expand on your teases: which character has been your favorite to write so far?
MAO: I can’t say that either...
Ah, what the hell. I’ll say it. [CENSORED BY MARVEL COMICS] is my favorite character. That’s a bit obvious, but he is. [CENSORED BY MARVEL COMICS] is fun too because he’s a bit of a cold bastard, and that’s always fun.
But that’s all I can reveal.
KD: Alright, well at least you’ve disclosed two of the characters. I’ll see if Scott Kolins will accommodate me with the rest. Ha Ha!
Where was I?
Okay, most of your recent writing assignments have involved mythology and/or “sword and sorcery” (Ares, Thor: Blood Oath, Red Sonja) while Omega Flight, I’ll assume, is “straight-forward super-heroics.” Is the fact that you get to write a different genre the principal attraction of Omega Flight for you?
MAO: I just love writing contractions and modern vernacular. You can’t do that much in books like Thor and Red Sonja. I don’t get to use words like “ain’t” and “funky” often in mythology, but I can now…, although I don’t see “funky” showing up in Omega Flight.
KD: Who knows? Maybe “funky” is common usage in one of the Canadian provinces.
How do you adjust your writing from one genre to the next? Does writing “super-heroes” require you to use a different set of “writing muscles” than writing mythology? And do you find writing one genre is more challenging to write than the other?
MAO: Omega Flight is tough because it’s a team book. Setting it up isn’t easy, the whole how and why of it, especially with so much continuity to work with. The main thing with a superhero book is I need a fight, or some action to happen each issue, and not just a little bit. I learned that what fans want most in reading a book is action with meaning. By formatting the book around that, it makes it a bit easier. Mythology writing is a bit more existential, and for me it’s more about meaning than action, especially in Red Sonja.
KD: Since its launch as an on-going title in 1983, there have been three volumes of Alpha Flight with many writers at its helm, most notably John Byrne, Bill Mantlo, Fabian Nicieza, Steve Seagle and Scott Lobdell (who wrote the most recent volume). Do you have a particular favorite Alpha Flight era or run of issues?
KD: One aspect I really admired about Byrne’s run on Alpha Flight was the showcasing of Canadian landmarks and locales: the Edmonton Mall, Quebec, Calgary, et al. Do you feel obligated to “present” Canada to the reader? In other words, do you find it necessary that Canada be, in a sense, one of the supporting “characters” of Omega Flight?
MAO: Totally. While I’m sure there will be plenty of instances I screw up, I want to generally get the geography right. Quebec will be played in a big way. The thing about Canada that fascinates me is that geographically it’s as modern as the states are (in some ways, more so, check out their public transportation!), but that’s all right next to extreme wilderness.
Plus “Kids in the Hall” hail from there, so I must pay much respect.
KD: If I may reference John Byrne one last time… I feel obligated to point out that Alpha Flight hasn’t been a consistently popular comic book for Marvel since John Byrne left it in 1985. It wouldn’t be fair to ask you to explain why previous incarnations of Alpha Flight didn’t sell well, but let me ask instead if you feel that one of the obstacles impeding the popularity of the title is that a comic book reader audience that lives predominantly in THE UNITED STATES might not be particularly attracted to a CANADIAN super-hero team. Is that an inherent flaw in your opinion?
MAO: Dude, I have no idea what makes a book sell or not. I do know that the idea of a Canadian super hero team isn’t enough to sustain a readership. No one reads Alpha Flight just because of that, and if they do, it’s not enough to continue reading it beyond a few issues if the stories aren’t compelling.
I do think that books like AF or Excalibur have an up hill battle. Americans are too self interested to care that much about other countries. It’s actually more of a turn off than an attraction because we are so insulated and self interested. After all, we go around telling everyone we are the “greatest country in the world.” I don’t think that kind of psyche lends itself to interest in international affairs.
I don’t like it, but in general, that’s the way it is.
There you go. That’s something for people to talk about. Ha ha!
KD: Let’s see if I can get you into more trouble: is the change of title from Alpha Flight to Omega Flight an attempt to distance this series from the previous Alpha Flight volumes?
MAO: Yes, but it is driven by character. Plus, I feel with all the baggage and the past performance of previous volumes, that this is a way to give Alpha Flight one last chance: “Omega” as in “the end,” as in final chance for Flight.
It’s also a great way to steal the name back from the old AF villains by the same name.
KD: I would agree that Alpha Flight has been given its fair share of chances to succeed as a title.
Are you in any way addressing any of the unresolved plot threads from the third volume of Alpha Flight, or are you approaching the series with the “slate wiped (relatively) clean”?
MAO: I’m not going to ignore it totally because I know there are still fans from that run. I won’t address most of it though, but I’m not going to pretend like it never happened. Not even Captain Mapleleaf (*shudder*).
KD: For Omega Flight you reunite with your Thor: Blood Oath artist, Scott Kolins. Did you have any say in getting Kolins onto this project?
MAO: Only if begging counts. Ha ha! It was him and another artist who is just as good, but Scott and I have a working relationship. I know how to write for Scott, and he knows how to draw for me. We should get married.KD: Ha ha! So suffice to say, there is a “comfort level” between you and Kolins.
MAO: Totally. I can cut back on my directions/descriptions for Scott, and just write my intentions, what the scene is about, what the character is thinking and he can do the rest.
Scott is also a hard core Alpha Flight fan and that helps TONS. I love his style, he’s a great storyteller. We get along great, and he can meet a deadline. I respect that.
KD: I know you can’t reveal any specific plot points of the opening issues, but can you tell me how far along you’ve plotted Omega Flight? And how many issues can we expect the first story arc to be?
MAO: The first story arc is at least five issues. I may expand it to six, then I’ll do a self contained issue to help people get on board who may have missed out from issue #1. The second arc is another 5-6 issues and will heavily involve the past/classic characters and lots of Metaphysical stuff.
In the three years since he signed his first exclusive contract, Scott Kolins has drawn an impressive array of Marvel Universe super-heroes: the original Avengers in Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Spider-Man, Wolverine, The Fantastic Four, Dr. Strange, Moon Knight, Luke Cage, and Daredevil in Marvel Team-Up, Thor in Blood Oath, Nova and Silver Surfer in Annihilation: Prologue, Gravity and Deathlok (among others) in Beyond!, and Iron Man, She-Hulk and Excalibur in their eponymous titles. With Omega Flight Kolins gets the opportunity to draw Marvel’s “North of the Border” heroes, leaving even fewer Marvel characters left undrawn by Kolins’ hand.
Here Kolins expounds on his long-time admiration for Alpha Flight and its characters (and my next attempt to get the creative team of Omega Flight to reveal the title’s full cast proves unsuccessful).
Keith Dallas: In a recent interview posted on Comicbloc.com , you provided a very thorough explanation on why you prefer to be working on a monthly on-going title rather than producing mini-series after mini-series. Since you left Marvel Team-Up, have you been offered other monthly titles to draw?
Scott Kolins: No, Omega Flight is the first monthly gig offered to me since Marvel Team-Up. I did have one monthly book offered just before Marvel Team-Up, but I turned it down because it didn’t seem like a good fit. Actually, Marts was the editor of that book I turned down.
KD: It seems your wait has paid off as you have described Omega Flight as one of your “dream assignments.” Why so?
SK: Not that I haven’t really loved most of the books and characters I’ve worked on so far (and I would kill to work monthly on Shazam or Doctor Strange or a bunch of others), but Alpha Flight was one of my favorite books of all time for its strengths and weakness. Alpha had its problems, even from the outset, but that’s part of my interest too. Y’see Alpha Flight came around in a time for me (‘83?), when I could see myself working in comics. I had been scribbling for years already and had books on drawing and friends to help me learn. So by the time I was reading AF, I looked at comics differently than before. I paid attention to storytelling, anatomy, cropping – when to pull back to show establishing shots and when to push in and just show a hand pushing a button, that sort of thing. Anyway, so I greatly admired Alpha Flight’s strengths (there were some amazing issues during Byrne’s run – some of his best ever), and then I was attracted to the weaknesses because I thought I could do better (especially towards the end of Byrne’s run). I was a very ballsy kid, but I also think of it this way: Spider-Man, FF, Superman, Batman (on and on) have been published for longer than I’ve been alive – so many writers and artists – it’s hard to add something to that mythos, but Alpha Flight is still fairly new. There is a lot yet to be said about these characters. In fact, I had an Alpha Flight proposal in at Marvel myself (and I’ve written a few over the years). It was very old school/year one stuff – very different from Omega.
KD: Michael Avon Oeming only would reveal two of Omega Flight’s regular characters. How about divulging the identity of every other cast member?
SK: Honestly, I’m not sure yet. I haven’t started, and although I’ve gotten some outlines and chatted with Mike about the book, so much of the book is new that I don’t have an obvious favorite, although I’m guessing it’s going to be the one character that was in the original books. But there’s a new one I’m really excited about too. I dunno. Ask me again in three or four months.
KD: (And that’s what I get for not pressing Oeming more.)
Let me ask this then: you have a penchant for “tweaking” and re-designing character uniforms (from Flash Rogues like Trickster and Weather Wizard to, most recently, characters appearing in Beyond! like Medusa). Do you plan on continuing your “tradition” with Omega Flight?
SK: Yes, there are new designs for some of the characters. Cool ones too, I showed Jim McCann and Joe Quesada at San Diego Con. Got the thumbs up.
KD: Does re-designing characters’ costumes help you get closer to the characters? In other words, do you find yourself needing to attach yourself to the characters you’re drawing, and one way to do that is to make it “your” character by re-designing his/her costume? Or is it a matter of you realizing that the character’s existing costume just doesn’t make sense to you so you “fix” it?
SK: Sometimes it starts as a “fix” and yes, redesigning or updating costumes does help me figure out the character as I think a character’s look should help tell their story. Are they a messy street hero with ripped jeans or are they clean cut with a modern flair. Are they hip to current fashion or are they just doing something on their own. I guess this process also helps me make the character “mine” in a sense, get comfortable with who they are. Their look also becomes important in that they have to look good as a group as well. If everyone had a cape, it would be a crazy.
KD: I’ll ask you a question I asked Oeming: which version of Alpha Flight was your favorite? The John Byrne original? The most recent Scott Lobdell volume?
SK: I’ve read some of the Mantlo issues (maybe half), only a few Seagle issues, but I did read the last run with Lobdell, all 12 issues. Byrne’s run is my favorite by far. By far.
KD: Any particular moment/issue from Byrne’s run that is your favorite?
SK: Ooh, that’s tough. I could talk for days about those issues. I really love all the origin back-ups throughout the first year. I don’t remember seeing anything like that before. The Master was great, and Marrina turning traitor was a big gut punch – she looked so sweet! The idea of Beta and Gamma Flight was really cool and then using those characters to form the evil Omega Flight was brilliant. Sasquatch being linked to the Great Beasts is awesome and makes much more sense, and then Snowbird attacking Sasquatch because he’s a Great Beast was amazing, but I guess the greatest Alpha Flight moment – even though it made me mad at the time – was issue #12 with Guardian’s death. Those last pages counting down his last seconds were unbelievable. The book had me sweating! My heart still beats faster thinking about it. I poured over that issue countless times. So I guess it was a love/hate thing – but you couldn’t deny the power of those pages. KD: Like you, I read issue #12 when it was first published in 1984. The end of that issue was probably the first time as a comic book reader that I turned to the last page and said, “Oh. My. God.” Byrne definitely made some daring storytelling decisions during his run.
I said to Oeming that Byrne also made a concerted effort to showcase Canada. A comic book taking place in Canada requires establishing shots of Canadian locales and landscapes, yes? Have you been researching Canadian geography and locales? Cityscapes, for example?
SK: I’m about to start ordering books and collect everything I can about Canada. I’m very nervous about it. I know I’ll make mistakes, but this is one area where I’ll feel really bad about getting those details wrong. I’m from Wisconsin, so I’m nearly a relative. It’s silly because my comics aren’t that realistic or authentic. I may get crazy with detail or backgrounds, but it’s not generally over referenced.
KD: Oeming said that you and he work so well together that you two should get married. Are you prepared for that kind of commitment?
SK: Well, he’s married and so am I, so I don’t know where he wants to live. Utah? Not that I’m against living on a compound, but – ahem, I’d better shut up now. Getting back to Omega and comics, yes, I’m thrilled to be potentially on a book for longer than a year. I try not to get too amped up for the long run at Marvel ‘cause things change here very quickly, but I can always hope.
KD: And the thought that you’re back with your Thor: Blood Oath collaborator?
SK: Love it. Mike’s great, he writes really fun stuff, and he’s extremely open to my ideas. I was almost depressed when Blood Oath ended. I would’ve done that book for years. There’s some weird Karmic connection between me and Mike, cause Thor is one of my other all-time favorites, and now again I’m working with him on one of my dream projects. Omega is very different from Thor, but our personalities and interests in good comics are the same. Let the good times roll.
KD: If I can get you to expand on the notion that Oeming’s open to your ideas… When I recently interviewed Oeming about his work on Red Sonja, he said that he can provide some pretty detailed scripts with regards to panel descriptions and layout, but he’ll allow the artist to “do his own thing” and violate the script directions. He said he just wants the artist to understand his visual intention with every page. Having said that, do you find yourself mostly adhering to or mostly “violating” Oeming’s scripted layouts and panel descriptions? Do you two have very similar or somewhat different aesthetic senses about how to layout the panels and the like?
SK: Maybe 80-20 split. I mostly agree with his layouts and pacing. There are times when I might push something bigger or give it an extra panel for emphasis or maybe combine two other panels so I can make another bigger, but as you could see in Thor: Blood Oath, Mike writes wonderfully visual stuff.
KD: You said earlier that you haven’t started Omega Flight yet. Does that mean that Oeming hasn’t sent you any Omega Flight script pages yet and/or that you’re still right now working on Beyond!?
SK: I have seen some outlines and a rough draft of Omega #1, but I’m still finishing Beyond!. Working on #6 now.
With the interviews completed earlier this week, I requested Marvel send me some promotional artwork, but I was informed there was no artwork available for my use. With that, it seemed all my attempts to have the entire Omega Flight cast revealed were for naught.
Yesterday, however, Marvel sent me the following:
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