Marvel: Peter David gets his (multiple) man

[Local Hero]

Posted 16/05/04
Source Newsarama

This weekend's Motor City Con provided one answer for those wondering what Peter David’s future holds. According to the writer, one of his upcoming Marvel projects will star Jamie Madrox, aka, the Multiple Man.

In regard to David’s comments that the character was a mutant whith whom he’d had some familiarity, Madrox was a member of X-Factor while David was writing the book, circa 1991-1993.

For those not familiar with the character, the name is the power. Madrox can create duplicates of himself when struck, turning him into a functioning one-man army. Having first appeared in Giant-Sized Fantastic Four #4, the character remained in the periphery of the X-Universe for years, and was a research assistant for Dr. Moria McTaggart, Professor X’s colleague in Scotland.

The character moved to the X-Factor team when David took over the series, and David’s characterization of Madrox was fairly straightforward (well, as straightforward as a multiple man can be) during his tenure on X-Factor. However, after David’s departure from the series, things weren’t so pretty…or straightforward. The Legacy Virus, death of the “prime” Madrox and survival of a duplicate, the X-Corps, covert ops with Forge, and action on Genosha followed…and saying that the character could do with some streamlining is an understatement.

According to David, speaking at a panel at noon on Saturday, the project will be a five-issue miniseries called Madrox, which will also include Strong Guy (Again, from David’s X-Factor tenure), and Rahne Sinclair (Wolfsbane from X-Force, New Mutants (old and new) as supporting characters.

David described the feel of the series as being along the lines of a crime noir detective story in the ghettos of Mutant Town.

If the five issue mini does well, David plans to lobby for an ongoing Madrox series. The artist on the series will be Pablo Raimondi.

[The Mighty Thor]

This sounds cool. First off, I love Peter David. He is an exceptional writer. I have read his Star Trek novels, his Hulk comics, his X-Factor comics and his Captain Marvel comic, which up until recently, was very good!

And secondly, I've always liked Multiple Man. He is a character filled with potential. I hope Mr. David can do some great stuff in this book, because Jamie and Mr. David both need a good boost right about now.

[Local Hero]

Yup I'm looking forward to this too. PAD's work on Hulk was excellent. I missed his X-Factor (was when I was out of the loop comic wise) but Jamie has always seemed like a really interesting but underused character to me. I think the first time I saw him was way back in Uncanny when he was Moira McTaggert's lab assistant during the whole Proteus affair and one of his dupes was taken over. I thought that was such an interesting concept. I really wish he had taken the X-men's offer of joining them at that point, things might have been so different.

I think there are plenty of stories left in this guy, and hopefully PAD is the guy to write them.

[Local Hero]

Posted 18/05/2004
Source Newsarama

The announcement caught more than a few off guard. Peter David’s new Marvel project would be: MadroX (yes, the x is supposed to be like that), starring an all-but overlooked mutant in Marvel’s mutie pantheon. Newsarama caught up with the writer for some whys and wherefores of the new project.

Newsarama: What got this particular ball rolling at Marvel? Was the character and concept something you brought to them in a pitch, or did they come to you and ask what you would be interested in writing?
Peter David: The ball actually got rolling when editor Andy Schmidt and I were discussing what I would do once Captain Marvel was wrapped up. Andy, who was a big fan of how I'd written Multiple Man and Strong Guy in X-Factor, was eagerly advocating doing a series that focused on one or the other - or both - of them. We batted around notions before I came up with the whole noir angle of Jamie as a private detective for a variety of reasons that dovetailed with his particular abilities. Plus it gave us the excuse to have Guido in there; what would Spenser be without Hawk? I developed a pitch for the series, including some rather nifty tweaks having to do with his abilities, and Marvel went for it almost immediately. And - since according to Andy, they were green lighting almost nothing at the time, that was quite a vote of confidence.

NRAMA: When you look at Madrox, what story potential do you see?
PD: He's practically the "Hamlet" of Marvel. All of us have to make choices in our life. Every so often we reach a crossroads and we say, "Okay, this direction instead of that direction." Not Jamie. He's someone who's capable of living as many lives as he wants, experiencing whatever he wants, going in whatever direction he wants. As a result, because he can do practically everything, it makes it hard for him to do anything. Or, at the very least, to place any value of one thing over the other because he never has to make that qualitative decision. He never has to figure out what's more important to him. As a result, he's becoming increasingly disconnected from life. He's all alone in a crowd, especially since he's his own crowd. So he becomes a detective as an endeavor to remain in touch with the world, with trying to help people and--perhaps most important--to experience their lives.

NRAMA: That said, where are you picking him up at, story-wise? He…uh, had a rough patch a while back…
PD: I'm offering the reader encapsulations of some aspects of Jamie's life...enough so newcomers will know what his basic deal is, his origin, how his powers work, etc. But I'm not about to start dragging in the Legacy Virus and hang the series on the hook of five tons of previous continuity. I'm not going to violate the continuity; I just don't want readers to drown in several decades’ worth of character exposition. I make a passing mention of his previous gig, but mostly I'm focusing on the new set-up.

As for his "edge," we have an in-story reason for that. See, Jamie has been sending out dupes for months now to learn about all manner of things in the world. Then the dupes return, merge with him, and he acquires all that they've experienced. The problem is that the merge tends to make Jamie a little squirrelly until his brain can process it all. That trauma alone is enough to keep him on edge. And it's going to start having unexpected consequences as he creates further duplicates. Although, don't worry...he's not going to go insane. That'd be kind of a predictable way to go.

NRAMA: So let’s go into the larger picture around him. Jaime is now an investigator in Mutant Town. What kind of cases does he take?
PD: He'll take whatever gets thrown his way. And the nice thing about having a lead with multiple capabilities is that it makes multiple storylines possible. In this particular series, two things clamor for Jamie's attention. The first is an assassination attempt on one of his dupes, which sends the original Jamie to Chicago - which ties with New York as a great noir city, to track down who was behind it...and, naturally, gets him involved with a beautiful but dangerous woman. Meanwhile, back in Mutant Town, a dupe that Jamie left behind to mind the store gets involved with a case where a mutant woman is convinced her mutant husband is cheating on her, even though she's with him 24/7.

NRAMA: With all of that going on, how are Strong Guy and Rahne involved?
PD: Rahne is there because I wanted the classic sardonic female assistant working in his office. Val Cooper was unavailable, but I was told I could use Rahne provided I was acutely aware that she was still in play over in New Mutants - or whatever they're calling the next book. So I took the approach that she's helping out Jamie part time in her spare time to get the office set up. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to use her again. I've always had an affection for the character, going back to the fact that--back in my staff days at Marvel--I was the one who came up with the name "Wolfsbane" for her. As for Guido, as I said, he's Hawk to Jamie's Spenser. The worldly wise street guy and muscle. Besides, how can you pass up using characters that Wizard Magazine openly trashed? I figure, Wizard talked up Captain Marvel and it didn't translate to big sales. So if I use characters Wizard despises, maybe I'll have the number one title.

NRAMA: So with the set up, Jaime is on his own, not as one of Xavier’s operatives? Just a guy trying to make a life?
PD: Exactly right. As I noted, he wants to help people, as much to keep his own head together as anything else. Jamie's first instinct at all times is to be alone, and he's actively fighting this instinct because he understands it's destructive...the same way that an alcoholic has to fight his instinct to drink. It's pretty ironic, actually. Americans place a great premium on the notion of standing alone. Jamie understands the folly of this. That one must reach out to others because too much insulation is ultimately counterproductive. As John Donne wrote, in part: "No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main...(A)ny man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." Jamie knows he must be involved in mankind if he is to be a productive individual.

NRAMA: Speaking of death with Jaime, his early life has some pretty lousy moments in that regard…
PD: Jamie Madrox was isolated as a youth by his parents, kept in a suit that controlled his duping power. But his parents died when he was young, and Jamie was alone for months before he was discovered. It was a traumatic experience, and one that he's been fighting to overcome ever since.

NRAMA: And you’re setting this up as an ongoing concept/project if there’s a solid enough response?
PD: We'd originally conceived it as an ongoing, but given the toxic nature of today's market to just about any new endeavor, Andy and I opted to lobby for a limited series instead. It's a win/win situation. If the series takes off and people want to see more, we're in a strong position to advocate that. If it does only moderately and Marvel isn't interested in maintaining it, then it's five issues by design rather than, "Oh well, the numbers aren't there." Plus I have little doubt that once people get a load of Pablo's art, they'll be stumbling over each other to attach him to some new, super-high-profile project and we'll be back to looking for a new artist.

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[Local Hero]

Posted 08/08/2004
Source Newsarama

Marvel has provided Newsarama with the first 8 pages of MadroX #1, due in stores on September 15th. Marvel’s solicitation for the first issue of the five issue miniseries reads:

COVER BY: DAVID LLOYD
WRITER: PETER DAVID
PENCILS BY: PABLO RAIMONDI

Jamie Madrox, stabbed, staggering off a bus. Jamie Madrox, setting up a detective agency in the heart of Mutant Town. Jamie Madrox, a peaceful Shaolin priest. Which is the real Jamie Madrox? In this noir-esque thriller of a limited series, it's possible that even Madrox doesn't know anymore. Peter David, acclaimed for his run on X-Factor, reunites several of that title's most popular and whimsical characters--Jamie Madrox, Wolfsbane, and the aptly named Strong Guy -- and sends them on an adventure of light and darkness. Featuring the incredibly moody pencils of Pablo Raimondi.

Speaking to Newsarama in May, David said of the series’ lead: “He's practically the "Hamlet" of Marvel. All of us have to make choices in our life. Every so often we reach a crossroads and we say, "Okay, this direction instead of that direction." Not Jamie. He's someone who's capable of living as many lives as he wants, experiencing whatever he wants, going in whatever direction he wants. As a result, because he can do practically everything, it makes it hard for him to do anything. Or, at the very least, to place any value of one thing over the other because he never has to make that qualitative decision. He never has to figure out what's more important to him. As a result, he's becoming increasingly disconnected from life. He's all alone in a crowd, especially since he's his own crowd. So he becomes a detective as an endeavor to remain in touch with the world, with trying to help people and--perhaps most important--to experience their lives.”

Click here for the preview.

[SLVRSR4]

This book is everything that I like about Marvel. Great Characters, great concepts, and a Great creative team to back it all up. I have only read the first 2 issues, but I am eagerly awaiting more.