CBR TV: Nick Spencer on "Secret Avengers," Hickman & "Morning Glories" on TV

Thu, October 3rd, 2013 at 12:58pm PDT

Comic Books
Jonah Weiland, Executive Producer/Publisher

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"Morning Glories" and "Secret Avengers" writer Nick Spencer journeyed to the CBR Yacht to speak with Jonah Weiland at Comic-Con International 2013 about his many projects at both Image Comics and Marvel. He discussed why he chose to start working in comics via creator-owned channels and why he only recently returned to work for hire, the lessons he's learned working with writer Jonathan Hickman on "Avengers" and why "Secret Avengers" doesn't feel like any other Avengers book being published right now. They close with a discussion of what Spencer has learned from the many ups and downs in his burgeoning career and the possibility of "Morning Glories" being adapted as a television series.

On why he decided to establish himself as a writer with creator-owned work: I wanted to pretty firmly try to establish myself on the creator-owned side before I did any work for hire of any kind, really. To me, that's really where you're best suited to introduce yourself to the readers and really where your voice can come through so that people know what a book with your name on it is like. Creator-owned work is the best possible showcase for that because you have so much freedom and because it's your singular vision. After a little while in creator-owned work you start getting the phone calls and e-mails and I've been a huge fan of Marvel Comics for the entirety of my life. It's a great call to get and I'm having a blast there.

On his approach to making "Secret Avengers" stand on its own amidst Marvel's other Avengers titles: It is, in essence, a S.H.I.E.L.D. book. I saw the opening there -- we haven't had one of those in quite a while. On top of that, there's really never been a better time to try to launch that kind of story. I mean, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s never been more prominent, so with a title like "Secret Avengers" I wanted to get to the core idea of the book which is that it's a black ops team and it works in the spy world. That's been a part of it from the beginning, but I really wanted to focus on that to say what distinguishes this book from all the other Avengers books. What makes it unique? I think we've succeeded in that regard. When you open an issue of "Secret Avengers" it feels different than your average super hero team adventure -- we have a lot more political intrigue, a lot more covert ops missions. I'm very careful to keep the kind of broader action to a minimum. Things should be happening in the shadows in that book.

On the possibility of a "Morning Glories" TV show: I would love to see it happen. I think that it's well-suited for it, in my opinion, I think that it's a story you could tell on television or elsewhere pretty successfully. It's got some challenges -- it's a very densely plotted story, anybody that reads the comic knows it requires a heightened degree of attention. We do "Morning Glory Days," obviously, at CBR, that's just one of the ways we kind of help folks as they go through it. I'm very excited about the opportunity there and I can't say anything yet but… we're happy.

TAGS:  cbr tv, sdcc2013, nick spencer, image comics, morning glories, marvel comics, avengers, jonathan hickman, secret avengers, supergirl, bedlam

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