Christopher Hastings: Not really. The entirety of her character really stems out of that "normal girl from real world knows she's in a comic book" idea, and everything grew out of that. That idea came from trying to figure out a way to create an original character, but match what an audience's expectations would be from that costume, from that name. To me, that meant fighting with weapons instead of super powers, and breaking the fourth wall in a similar way to Deadpool, but for different reasons.
Critical Writ: Is there anything that you can say about how your ideas for the first Gwenpool story arc changed from the initial brainstorming to the completed project?
Christopher Hastings: Oh sure. It was initially going to be a lot darker, with her being forced to work for and train under Bullseye. But Bullseye was not available, so my editors suggested MODOK instead. It really shows how much rewriting on the fly, and working as a team with your collaborators and editors can affect a book. I think what it turned into was a lot of fun, and I'm not sure I would care for my original version of the story anymore.
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| One of my favorite panels from Irene Strychalski. |
Critical Writ: Irene Strychalski and Gurihiru have been doing a fantastic job on the art. Were you always aware that their respective styles of art would work well with the series or was it a surprise? Now that the comic has six month's worth of issues, has your collaborative process changed in any particular way?
Christopher Hastings: I first worked with Gurihiru for the Gwenpool short in the
Gwenpool Holiday Special, and that completely blew me away. And then once we got the series together, from that initial short, I had a pretty good idea what the book was going to be like. And I had seen samples from Irene, and I could see she would do an amazing job picking up those two issues off the tone that Gurihiru had already laid down, while of course making those two issues totally her own. She does some great character acting that I would have never thought of that really elevates scenes.
Working with Gurihiru for this long, I like to think I've adjusted my writing style to suit them better. They pretty much do everything amazingly, so I would honestly have no idea if I'm doing something they hate in the script, or doing a bad job that they are secretly spinning into gold. But I do see little comedic moments that they latch onto, or work in themselves, and I love them, and try to find more opportunities for them to get them in. Our upcoming issue has a fantasy sequence where they let loose in another style and it's pretty fabulous.
(Editor's note: At the time of this interview, Gwenpool #8
had not yet been released.) Sometimes I'll lay out the basics of the scene and say that specifics on how it's executed are up to them. I completely trust them, and getting the artwork in is a highlight of every month. I could go on and on how much I love their work and why, but I imagine it could get kind of dull to read, instead of just looking at some of it.
Critical Writ: In the past few years, Marvel has been making a significant effort to showcase diverse legacy characters. So far, Gwenpool has interacted with Thor and teamed up with Miles Morales, two characters that jump-started the change. Is it possible that future issues could showcase some appearances from LGBT characters?
Christopher Hastings: I see no reason why not! I will say Thor and Miles showed up in Gwenpool simply because I really like their books myself. There was no push for that from the company. So if I have a good reason to stick say Iceman or Angela in there, I totally will. Actually as I'm writing this now, I'm already thinking of some fun stuff for Iceman, so that could be sooner than later!
Critical Writ: What was your approach going into the Longshot Saves The Marvel Universe
miniseries? If possible, would you ever want to write for the character again?
Christopher Hastings: Longshot was pretty much just "have the craziest things possible happen due to over powered luck" and figure out ways to show that it was Longshot's luck doing it, and weird coincidences and connections, instead of it just being random. I think that unfortunately, a lot of readers missed those little connections.
Like, in the very beginning of the book, Longshot doesn't have money for tacos at a taco stand. He uses his luck, and suddenly there's an explosion that rains down money. That explosion is caused by burglars which he stops by activating his luck, causing their guns to jam. A few pages prior, there was a scene where a newspaper in the background mentioned the recall of a certain brand of faulty guns, which is what the criminals were using. Saving the people from those criminals caused Longshot to encounter the cosmic cube that messes up the universe, splitting the Inbetweener into Chaos and Order. Order is on a spree to stop magic, and is fought by a small group of remaining magic users, including Deadpool with a magic wand he found, a seemingly random addition to the party. Order manages to take control of this small group, including Deadpool. Everyone is hunting for where this cosmic cube is hiding, and Deadpool races Longshot for it when they find it's back at the house that had the explosion in the very beginning (due to other circumstances.) Longshot is not much of a threat to the fighting abilities of even a brain controlled Deadpool, and it looks bad until... they get to the house, where that taco truck is, and the lure of tacos breaks Deadpool out of his spell. Because it's Deadpool, and his beloved Mexican food. This leads to Longshot being able to get the cosmic cube and etc etc happy ending.
So reading it, it may seem that stuff was random, but it wasn't! That taco truck, Deadpool, Longshot, they were all connected, because of Longshot's luck, and it came back around in the very end. The book is full of stuff like that, and it was my main focus for the miniseries.
I would certainly enjoy writing Longshot again. I think I've matured as a writer since then, and I certainly learned a few things writing the book. I tried to cram way much into it, and as a result, many people found it confusing. I've learned a bit more about when you need to be more gentle with your reader, and where you can trust them to make the leaps themselves.
Critical Writ: Finally, can you tease anything about your upcoming plans for The Unbelievable Gwenpool
?
Christopher Hastings: This current arc gets into a little bit about how perspective might be all that separates a hero from a villain, if everybody has just cause and motivations. After that arc, we've got a few shorter stories that explore some different genres for the very genre savvy Gwen to riff on (horror, fantasy). And then after that... we finally reveal Gwen's origin, and things go utterly bananas, and I am just excited that my editors approved my pitch for how things go bananas.
And Deadpool's finally showing up. ;)
Critical Writ: I remember the December solicitations stating that Deadpool would appear in the second holiday special, Merry Mix It Up
. I'm not sure of how much you're allowed to say about it, but does it function as a standalone story or a small bit of foreshadowing for the eventual appearance? On another note, how involved was the process of writing such an interconnected story for the first holiday special?
Christoper Hastings: I can tell you his appearance is part of the shorter stories that take part through the book, and is not related to his upcoming appearance in the main
Gwenpool series.
I really like the interconnected story aspect of the previous holiday special! For someone who's origin has yet to be revealed, it's kind of funny that I've had to introduce Gwenpool to new audiences three times over the course of a year. Her appearance in that special was one of them. So we had 10 pages to show people what her deal was who didn't read the
Howard the Duck backup stories she debuted in, and make it Christmas-y, and also get her to that party somehow. Thankfully Howard the Duck is a mutual friend of Gwen and She-Hulk's, so that was a good way to get her to the party. Also after I turned the script in, we discovered I accidentally made it 12 pages, and I had to condense it even further.
The new
Gwenpool holiday special also has that interconnected story aspect to it! It's really cool to see what the other teams did on the book.
