In the world of Heroes Reborn, Hyperion is a big deal. He’s a super heroic man, but when he was a wee superheroeic boy, he had adventures with the Imperial Guard. Writer Ryan Cady talked to us about this one-shot. ANd hey, you get to see our EiC whiff a question so hard right from the start like a fool.
Zachary Jenkins: Ryan, you have Hyperion and the Imperial Guard #1 coming out next Wednesday, May 12th. This is your first Marvel work. Is that correct?
Ryan Cady: That is not correct. Sorry.
ZJ: I’m wrong then.
RC: No, it’s okay. I did…
Both, Simultaneously: Brute Force!
RC: This is my fourth Marvel thing. Hayden Sherman and I did a Punisher Wastelands Old Man Logan era short. I did a Venom, one shot for Acts of Evil. It was assistant editor month, so they were like, you know, we’ll have some, some antiheroes fight some anti-villians and I did the Venom/Lady Hellbender one and then Brute Force with David Baldeón in Weapon Plus: World War IV.
ZJ: You’re coming into this tie-in to a big event, doing a story about Hyperion who was created as a Superman analog.
RC: No comment, but yeah. [laugh].
ZJ: Roy Thomas commented for you! I think we’re good on that.
And the Imperial Guard who famously were Dave Cockrum riffing on the Legion of Superheroes over at DC.
RC: There’s clearly some through lines there
ZJ: What’s it like riffing on a riff of a riff?
RC: Honestly, it’s beyond freeing to enter. Working with [editor] Wil Moss on this thing has been so much like, “Okay, so if this is, this is, this is this, but in an alternate timeline where this, this and this, what would that be like?” And just like long incoherent, rambling chains of the kind of fandom, silly conversations you don’t get to have as much in modern comics. So it’s been, it’s been fun honestly.
ZJ: Well, I’ll tell you that issue is interesting because it positions itself as issue 121 of this series that doesn’t exist…
RC: At least not in our universe.
ZJ: Yes. Yes. So you have to write the finale to a book that doesn’t exist, setting up the background of a character who promises to be a large part of this Heroes Reborn while introducing these versions of all these characters. How do you serve so many different masters in 22 pages?
RC: Honestly? There’s that weird sort of like upper limit where it’s so much going on, that you hit the breaking point and it’s freeing you and you’re just sort of like getting to do it. I really just tried my best when Wil, and I talked about it. I was like, “Hey, I really want to go for it.” And just be like, treat this as sincerely as if there really were 120 issues out there, and I was being dragged back to write this coda that the fans demanded or something we really got into the meta text of it.
I play a lot of D&D so I can get into that mindset of like too many plates spinning pretty handily. We really just wanted to embrace the alternate timeline side of the event and just really dig in, like, what would Marvel comics line look like if it was being made for this timeline, not the timeline we know? Well, in this timeline, Hyperion is the best, nobody cares about the Avengers. So this Hyperion and the Imperial Guard would probably run for 120 issues. And, you know, what would the last issue be like in 1992, when we’re looking to inject some grit into this,ufun, silver age series that people have loved.
ZJ: Yeah let’s talk about the fact that this comic takes place in 1992 publishing time.
RC: It does at least if I’ve done my job, right. Yeah.
ZJ: Cause that was, that was a surprise as I was reading this, I was unaware that that was happening until it was. ’92 Is such a watershed year for comics. It’s right in the middle of the big boom of everything that’s going on. The Image revolutions about to pop off. It’s a very interesting time for the medium. Why was that when you wanted to put this? Was it just sheer logistics of how the event had to work or was it a time that you thought could be very resonant to the story you’re telling?
RC: The more Wil and I kicked around the idea of embracing the meta., we talked about having it set actually in the past. We were thinking about when some of the analogs were being published and we were thinking about some of the themes we’re trying to explore in this one shot. And you know, for me, I worked at Top Cow a little bit and I’ve done a lot of publishing through them and I think Cyberforce comes out in December 92, I think. Don’t quote me on that though. [Ed. note: I did quote him on that.]
It is a watershed year and it felt right. I definitely just wanted to pick something that felt like analogous to our own timeline. When would it be like the most likely that this like, kind of grim and gruesome (if I’ve done my job, right) like Claremont at his meanest, issue come out.
ZJ: I wouldn’t call this comic a grim and gritty book, but it takes these characters that, you know, if you’re legally not allowed to say what they may be analogous to I’d say a series that may have had a time gap in gone five years later to some other time, it was a bit of a maturing point for that franchise. Was that something when they had to pull in here? This is still a lighthearted book, but these people are in real peril, they are dealing with real tough emotions, very similar to some of the stuff that was going on in certain runs of books that are nameless.
RC: Yes, I like those certain runs we definitely wanted to explore how could generate that same sort of jumping off point that happened in those certain runs that shall remain nameless. Obviously when people see Hyperion in the main book and the events on the timeline, this guy, this character is very different from like a sort of young, super heroic boy who is optimistically touring the stars with a legion of super-powered other teenagers.
ZJ: Heroes if you will…
RC: Some might say heroes. I don’t want to just write a silver age story. Cause that would be fun but I really wanted to pluck at setting up a little bit of reasons why, and make this alternate timeline feel like it could actually feel flushed out and tapped into. We wanted to put them through something kind of grueling and sort of maybe set up Hyperion. Why is a character who starts out very corn fed and optimistic and good, why does he become sort of a bit more like the lone sentinel?
ZJ: The Hyperion that we know.
Now, can we talk about the backup?
RC: Oh, well, I can talk about that backup all day. I could talk about that backup for the next 10 hours.
ZJ: What I don’t think people know about book is that it’s an extended backup that is a preview of what would be issue 122 of this run that doesn’t exist.
RC: Yeah. Or what would be the replacement series.
ZJ: It was the nineties you didn’t do new number ones every day.
RC: Sure. That’s true. That’s a big, it’s a big thing this is, this is starting it.
ZJ: So you write a Starjammers backup with art by Stephen Byrne.
RC: Oh God. He’s so good. He’s so good! Aren’t his design’s amazing? I’m blessed. I can’t even handle it.
ZJ: It’s an interesting team because it’s the Starjammers, but also Rocket and Groot from the Guardians Of The Galaxy. How did that happen?
RC: I could tell you exactly how it happened. There’s an embarrassingly long email chain between me and Wil. It’s like, “So in this universe, if the Summer’s family was here…” And just like going back through all the timeline of like, what would the Shi’ar Empire be like? Stuff nobody cares about or needs to know, but you know, we’re really into. I liked the main Starammers cast as much as anybody, but if we’ve got an alternate timeline, why not explore an idealized version of what they might look like? I wanted to keep Hepzibah and Corsair and because we wanted to make it more of a family drama, we have Cyclops and Havok on this. Well, not Cyclops, just Scott. We were just kicking around ideas of characters that are Marvel, cosmic that could be in there. Rocket will show up in one of the other Heroes Reborn issues, well, since this was published in June, 1992 of the other timeline, can I just have 1992 era Rocket and Groot show up together?
ZJ: It was a fun surprise for me who wasn’t sure what to expect. This is a Summers family drama book also!
RC: I would make a deal with the devil to reverse our timeline to that timeline just so I can write this unlikely Summer’s family, Starjammers, drama, alas.
Zachary Jenkins runs ComicsXF and is a co-host on the podcast “Battle of the Atom.” Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside of all this.
