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Marvel's Agent M Talks Digital Comics, Movies, and More


Interview: Agent M


Comics fans, does the name Ryan Penagos ring a bell? No? Then what about his alias, Agent M? Ah, there you go. The Executive Director of Marvel Digital Media acts as the company's number one cheerleader as he talks about comics on the This Week in Marvel podcast and deftly handles its social media and other public relations efforts. When you get a chance to talk to a person who's a vital cog in one of the biggest pop-culture machines on the planet, you have to quiz him about everything that's going on in Marvel comics, digital comics, and comics-based movies. So that's what we did.

Not sure what digital comics are all about? Check our Everything You Need to Know About Digital Comics guide to get started. Then come back and read our question-and-answer session with Ryan "Agent M" Penagos, in which we discuss all things Marvel.

PCMag: What are some of the new, hot books coming from Marvel?
RP: Right now, one of our hottest books is Ms. Marvel. It's one of our highest-selling digital books ever. We're seeing lots of new readers and younger readers.

PCMag: What is it about Ms. Marvel that's attracting fresh readers?
RP: She's such a wonderful new character. Kamala Khan is a Pakistani-American girl from New Jersey who has great Marvel teen stories of triumph and tragedy, like Peter Parker. She goes to school, has friends, and gets bullied. In the midst of all that comes the Marvel Moment where she gains superpowers. And being a young lady, a minority character, definitely helps a lot of different readers associate with her. Perhaps more than the blonde-haired, blue-eyed Steve Rogers.

PCMag: You mentioned that Ms. Marvel is one of the best-selling digital books in your catalog. Is it also published in print form?
RP: Yes. We are print and digital. Some books do great in either one format or another. We expected it to do well, but it exceeded expectations. I'm almost all digital now. I get every Marvel book released each week.

PCMag: Wait...are you saying that you read every comic that Marvel publishes?
RP: It's part of my job is to be fully up on the books for the This Week in Marvel podcast. I often give away the digital codes to fans on Twitter. I give away the print issues to interns and other people.

PCMag: I think you have every comic fan's dream job.
RP: I know! You won't hear me complain!

PCMag: I imagine that lots of new Marvel readers were introduced to your characters through the live-action movies.
RP: We're very fortunate that we have so many places to get Marvel in front of people with the films such as Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and the Fox [X-Men: Days of Future Past] and Sony [The Amazing Spider-Man 2] movies. The demand grows and grows. If you step back, and that's what we have to do, and look at the characters through the eyes of general audiences, a lot of people probably didn't know who Iron Man was until his first movie. They may have had some knowledge of Hulk thanks to the Bill Bixby show. [Those characters] weren't Spider-Man. We've taken a number of characters who didn't have A-level recognition and made them mainstream.

PCMag: Which non-mainstream Marvel Studios character had the most concern surrounding it before achieving movie success?
RP: Thor was a tough nut to crack because he's essentially a space god. That's what makes Marvel so great; our universe is your universe. There was some trepidation, at least from my end, but it was my job to get people excited about Thor. Fortunately, the movies were successful.

PCMag: Loki was definitely one of the breakout characters, particularly after The Avengers. He even stars in a new comic series [Loki, Agent of Asgard]. Was the idea for a solo Loki book already in the works? Or was it inspired by his cinematic success?
RP: The popularity of the film version has been instrumental, but we've been doing lots of great things with Loki for years. We did Ragnarok and all the Asgardians were gone. We slowly brought them back. He's been pivotal in the Marvel lore for some time. We've had Tom [Hiddleston] by the office where they produce the Loki comics. They were still in the production phase and he was fascinated.

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