MattBrady
07-18-2006, 06:45 AM
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/JSA/Class/jsaclassifiedcv18.jpg" align="right"><i>by Vaneta Rogers</i>
What better nemesis for a chemically-enhanced hero than a chemically-enhanced villain?
That's the question Tony Bedard is exploring in a <b>JSA Classified</b> story arc starting in September titled "The Venom Connection." Featuring art by Scott McDaniel, the two-part story will pit Hourman, who uses the chemical compound Miraclo to equip his abilities, against Bane, the DC villain who uses the chemical Venom for his powers.
Although Bane is best known as the villain who broke Batman's back, Bedard says that since Hourman and Bane both utilize chemicals to temporarily endow themselves with powers, he thinks Bane ought to be Hourman's "natural enemy." We sat down with Bedard to talk more about this connection between the characters, why he chose this story to tell, and how this all fits into the Hourman mythos.
<b>Newsarama</b>: Chemically-enhanced Hourman vs. chemically-enhanced Bane. Was this an idea you pitched to DC?
<b>Tony Bedard</b>: I approached [series editor, Mike]Carlin with several possible stories, and this was the first one that really caught his interest.
<b>NRAMA</b>: Why this story? How did you come up with it?
<b>TB</b>: I actually used to edit the <b>Hourman</b> series for DC and became pretty familiar with each incarnation of this venerable character, so it was one of the first heroes that came to mind when I was pitching JSA-related stories.
<B>NRAMA</B>: That series by Tom Peyer and Rags Morales followed all three of the incarnations of Hourman but focused mainly on the android Hourman from the future. You wanted to focus on the powers used by Rex and Rick in particular and the link they have to chemicals?
<B>TB</B>: Right. There's something really whacked-out and subversive about a pill-popping superhero -- some of those early, original Hourman stories have a real "what were they thinking?" quality to them, and an energy that jumps off the page. Of course, the whole addiction angle has been extensively covered over the years with the fall and rise of Hourman II, Rick Tyler, who is currently enjoying a renaissance on the JSA lineup. Plus, I've loved Bane ever since Chuck Dixon introduced him, so it just seemed a natural to get these two men who struggled with their own addictions and set them against each other.
<B>NRAMA</B>: It sounds like the fact that Hourman and Bane have both been addicts just might come up in this story.
<B>TB</B>: Yeah, the shared experience of overcoming an all-consuming addiction gives Hourman and Bane some common ground, whereas they are otherwise completely different. Hourman is essentially a gentle soul and a very decent guy who has, at times, found himself doing awful, awful things. Bane's the opposite -- a violent, merciless man who has, at times, found himself doing oddly decent and noble things. They're like Yin and Yang; complementary opposites that fit together in ways that both men find disturbing.
<B>NRAMA</B>: But Hourman's got the costume with the hood. That's the real advantage.
<B>TB</B>: Yeah, I like hoods, too -- and puffy sleeves…go figure.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Hey now, nothing wrong with puffy sleeves and hoods.
<B>TB</B>: Funny, but Hourman was created back in the early 1940s by Bernard Baily, whose other great creation, The Spectre, also wore a hood. Hmmm...
<B>NRAMA</B>: Hmm. Perhaps the hood is the key to a truly cool costume. Most people think Hourman's is pretty wacky though, with the executioner look to it.
<B>TB</B>: Aside from that wacky costume, with the hourglass pendant and the stripes on the wrists, etc, the nature of Hourman's powers are cool. He has a sixty minute time limit in which to perform his heroic deeds. That adds an automatic element of suspense, a literal ticking clock, in any of his adventures. Also, when he's hyped up by Miraclo, the drug that grants him super-strength, speed and resilience, Hourman seems like he's just about to jump out of his own skin! He's teetering on the edge of control, which makes him a pretty edgy character.
<B>NRAMA</B>: When you put it like that, it does seem natural to have him face an out-of-control character like Bane. Has Bane always been a favorite of yours too?
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/JSA/Class/JSAClassified17.jpg" align="left"><B>TB</B>: I loved Bane from the start because he's the living personification of the old saying that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. He got handed the worst possible lot in life, sent to prison as a child to serve out his father's sentence. Instead of letting that beat him, he became the scariest dude in that hellhole. There's a Batman-like intensity to how driven he is. I think some people dismiss him as the guy dressed like a Mexican wrestler, but there's a real dignity, cunning and purity about him. Like all the best villains, he's the hero of his own story.
<B>NRAMA</B>: And after <b>Infinite Crisis</b>, he's back on the Venom again…
<B>TB</B>: Yeah, Bane's been through quite an odyssey these past few years, first using the drug Venom to make himself strong enough to defeat Batman, then weaning himself off that chemical crutch, and even becoming an erstwhile ally of the Dark Knight. But he's also always
had very murky motives and was never a true good guy. Now he's showing up on Hourman's doorstep with that Venom junk plugged back into his brainstem, and the story behind how he got hooked again is the whole impetus for this <b>Classified</b> tale.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Will we see some other Hourman-related characters show up?
<B>TB</B>: We'll catch a glimpse of some other JSA members, and also see Wendi Tyler – the wife of Hourman I, mother of the current Hourman, but the story remains tightly focused on Rick Tyler, his father, Rex, and Bane. We'll learn a big secret that ties these three together and which shocks the two Hourmen to the core. Again, rather than sweeping wide in our scope, we're digging deep into these three characters and pushing them to their limits.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Sounds pretty intense, and raises the question of what could tie them together.
<B>TB</B>: The big questions here are what could make a man like Bane seek help from Hourman, and what could make Hourman agree? <b>JSA Classified</b> is a book devoted to grand revelations about these classic characters, and "The Venom Connection" will definitely deliver shocks, twists and danger.
<B>NRAMA</B>: OK, we mentioned <b>Infinite Crisis</b>, and everyone remembers Hourman in the final chapter there -- especially his striped fist on the Perez cover. This story is supposed to take place immediately following <b>Infinite Crisis</b>, so it doesn't tell us about the One Year Later version of him?
<B>TB</B>: This story is pretty self-contained, so it doesn't really tie into any "big events," (which will probably please some people out there!). Actually, while I'm enjoying all the Big Picture stuff at DC these days, I'm grateful to just focus on Hourman and Bane with laserlike intensity and really run these two guys through their paces.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Sounds like we're not going to find out what happened to Rick during the missing year.
<B>TB</B>: Hourman already had enough Lost Weekends, let's not get into his Missing Year. [laughs]
<B>NRAMA</B>: Good point! You've got Scott McDaniel on art. How has it been working with him on this story?
<B>TB</B>: I cannot say enough good things about Scott McDaniel! Carlin totally hooked me up on this one! Actually, Scott did the Hourman covers back when I edited that series, so we sort of knew each other from that experience, and one thing I learned is that he can make anything he draws just explode with energy. So when Hourman kicks in that shot of miraclo, McDaniel draws him positively dripping with pent-up power. Scott also has a wonderful cartoony quality that lets him really play up stuff like Bane's sheer, scary bulk. The visual contrast between Bane and Hourman is startling.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Now that you're enjoying working on this two-issue <b>JSA Classified</b> run, will we see more stories from you for that title or is that it for now?
<B>TB</B>: Yeah, that's it for now. <b>JSA Classified</b> changes creative teams with
each story arc. But I have plenty more ideas, so I'll see if I can convince <b>Classified</b> editor Mike Carlin to give me another turn at bat.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Hmmm... it's tempting to make a "turn at bat" joke related to performance enhancing chemicals, but we'd probably better move on. You've mostly been doing work for Marvel lately until we saw your story for DC's <b>Brave New World</b> one-shot in June and now the <b>JSA Classified</b> arc in September. Are you enjoying getting the chance to dabble in both universes?
<B>TB</B>: Yeah, I'm having a blast with both major publishers right now. This is an extraordinary time in the industry, with so much top-quality stuff coming out. I'm lucky to get to play along with some of the best "toys" from both of the Big Boys.
<B>NRAMA</B>: What else do you have coming up?
<B>TB</B>: I'm working on a <b>Batman Confidential</b> arc for Mike Carlin as well,
along with the rest of <b>Retro Rocket</b> (http://www.newsarama.com/ImageComics/RetroRocket/Bedard_RR.htm). I still have another six issues of <b>Exiles</b> for Marvel, along with a run on <b>Marvel Adventures Avengers</b>, which has been a real blast. I'm looking forward to sharing that one with my young son.
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/ImageComics/RetroRocket/rr2_covA_t.jpg" align="right"><B>NRAMA</B>: <b>Retro Rocket</b> is your Image project, correct?
<B>TB</B>: Right - it's a 4-issue miniseries, and the third issue should hit the stands August 9th. If you haven't checked it out, drop what you're doing right now and pick up the first two issues today! I'm doing Retro with an amazing artist named Jason Orfalas for whom this tale is a real labor of love. I think he's going to be a huge star, and I think you'll agree. Just check out the preview pages from issue #3.
<B>NRAMA</B>: You do realize that, because the current run of <b>JSA</b> is ending this summer and won't be relaunched until December's <b>Justice Society of America #1</b> by Geoff Johns and artist Dale Eaglesham, your <b>JSA Classified</b> story is going to be the only JSA story being published for a couple months.
<B>TB</B>: I actually had not realized that, but it would be an honor to carry the torch for these great characters who are still so vital sixty-odd years after they first showed up! In any case, I've seen Scott McDaniel's pages, so I know that and JSA fans who check us out will <i>not</i> be disappointed!
<B>NRAMA</B>: And on that note, any final reason people should check it out?
<B>TB</B>: Well, you've got Scott McDaniel doing some of his very best work, and two characters who are twisted mirror images of each other, meeting up at last to expose an uncomfortable secret that will shake both their worlds to the core. That ought to be enough to satisfy whoever picks up this story!
What better nemesis for a chemically-enhanced hero than a chemically-enhanced villain?
That's the question Tony Bedard is exploring in a <b>JSA Classified</b> story arc starting in September titled "The Venom Connection." Featuring art by Scott McDaniel, the two-part story will pit Hourman, who uses the chemical compound Miraclo to equip his abilities, against Bane, the DC villain who uses the chemical Venom for his powers.
Although Bane is best known as the villain who broke Batman's back, Bedard says that since Hourman and Bane both utilize chemicals to temporarily endow themselves with powers, he thinks Bane ought to be Hourman's "natural enemy." We sat down with Bedard to talk more about this connection between the characters, why he chose this story to tell, and how this all fits into the Hourman mythos.
<b>Newsarama</b>: Chemically-enhanced Hourman vs. chemically-enhanced Bane. Was this an idea you pitched to DC?
<b>Tony Bedard</b>: I approached [series editor, Mike]Carlin with several possible stories, and this was the first one that really caught his interest.
<b>NRAMA</b>: Why this story? How did you come up with it?
<b>TB</b>: I actually used to edit the <b>Hourman</b> series for DC and became pretty familiar with each incarnation of this venerable character, so it was one of the first heroes that came to mind when I was pitching JSA-related stories.
<B>NRAMA</B>: That series by Tom Peyer and Rags Morales followed all three of the incarnations of Hourman but focused mainly on the android Hourman from the future. You wanted to focus on the powers used by Rex and Rick in particular and the link they have to chemicals?
<B>TB</B>: Right. There's something really whacked-out and subversive about a pill-popping superhero -- some of those early, original Hourman stories have a real "what were they thinking?" quality to them, and an energy that jumps off the page. Of course, the whole addiction angle has been extensively covered over the years with the fall and rise of Hourman II, Rick Tyler, who is currently enjoying a renaissance on the JSA lineup. Plus, I've loved Bane ever since Chuck Dixon introduced him, so it just seemed a natural to get these two men who struggled with their own addictions and set them against each other.
<B>NRAMA</B>: It sounds like the fact that Hourman and Bane have both been addicts just might come up in this story.
<B>TB</B>: Yeah, the shared experience of overcoming an all-consuming addiction gives Hourman and Bane some common ground, whereas they are otherwise completely different. Hourman is essentially a gentle soul and a very decent guy who has, at times, found himself doing awful, awful things. Bane's the opposite -- a violent, merciless man who has, at times, found himself doing oddly decent and noble things. They're like Yin and Yang; complementary opposites that fit together in ways that both men find disturbing.
<B>NRAMA</B>: But Hourman's got the costume with the hood. That's the real advantage.
<B>TB</B>: Yeah, I like hoods, too -- and puffy sleeves…go figure.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Hey now, nothing wrong with puffy sleeves and hoods.
<B>TB</B>: Funny, but Hourman was created back in the early 1940s by Bernard Baily, whose other great creation, The Spectre, also wore a hood. Hmmm...
<B>NRAMA</B>: Hmm. Perhaps the hood is the key to a truly cool costume. Most people think Hourman's is pretty wacky though, with the executioner look to it.
<B>TB</B>: Aside from that wacky costume, with the hourglass pendant and the stripes on the wrists, etc, the nature of Hourman's powers are cool. He has a sixty minute time limit in which to perform his heroic deeds. That adds an automatic element of suspense, a literal ticking clock, in any of his adventures. Also, when he's hyped up by Miraclo, the drug that grants him super-strength, speed and resilience, Hourman seems like he's just about to jump out of his own skin! He's teetering on the edge of control, which makes him a pretty edgy character.
<B>NRAMA</B>: When you put it like that, it does seem natural to have him face an out-of-control character like Bane. Has Bane always been a favorite of yours too?
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/JSA/Class/JSAClassified17.jpg" align="left"><B>TB</B>: I loved Bane from the start because he's the living personification of the old saying that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. He got handed the worst possible lot in life, sent to prison as a child to serve out his father's sentence. Instead of letting that beat him, he became the scariest dude in that hellhole. There's a Batman-like intensity to how driven he is. I think some people dismiss him as the guy dressed like a Mexican wrestler, but there's a real dignity, cunning and purity about him. Like all the best villains, he's the hero of his own story.
<B>NRAMA</B>: And after <b>Infinite Crisis</b>, he's back on the Venom again…
<B>TB</B>: Yeah, Bane's been through quite an odyssey these past few years, first using the drug Venom to make himself strong enough to defeat Batman, then weaning himself off that chemical crutch, and even becoming an erstwhile ally of the Dark Knight. But he's also always
had very murky motives and was never a true good guy. Now he's showing up on Hourman's doorstep with that Venom junk plugged back into his brainstem, and the story behind how he got hooked again is the whole impetus for this <b>Classified</b> tale.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Will we see some other Hourman-related characters show up?
<B>TB</B>: We'll catch a glimpse of some other JSA members, and also see Wendi Tyler – the wife of Hourman I, mother of the current Hourman, but the story remains tightly focused on Rick Tyler, his father, Rex, and Bane. We'll learn a big secret that ties these three together and which shocks the two Hourmen to the core. Again, rather than sweeping wide in our scope, we're digging deep into these three characters and pushing them to their limits.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Sounds pretty intense, and raises the question of what could tie them together.
<B>TB</B>: The big questions here are what could make a man like Bane seek help from Hourman, and what could make Hourman agree? <b>JSA Classified</b> is a book devoted to grand revelations about these classic characters, and "The Venom Connection" will definitely deliver shocks, twists and danger.
<B>NRAMA</B>: OK, we mentioned <b>Infinite Crisis</b>, and everyone remembers Hourman in the final chapter there -- especially his striped fist on the Perez cover. This story is supposed to take place immediately following <b>Infinite Crisis</b>, so it doesn't tell us about the One Year Later version of him?
<B>TB</B>: This story is pretty self-contained, so it doesn't really tie into any "big events," (which will probably please some people out there!). Actually, while I'm enjoying all the Big Picture stuff at DC these days, I'm grateful to just focus on Hourman and Bane with laserlike intensity and really run these two guys through their paces.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Sounds like we're not going to find out what happened to Rick during the missing year.
<B>TB</B>: Hourman already had enough Lost Weekends, let's not get into his Missing Year. [laughs]
<B>NRAMA</B>: Good point! You've got Scott McDaniel on art. How has it been working with him on this story?
<B>TB</B>: I cannot say enough good things about Scott McDaniel! Carlin totally hooked me up on this one! Actually, Scott did the Hourman covers back when I edited that series, so we sort of knew each other from that experience, and one thing I learned is that he can make anything he draws just explode with energy. So when Hourman kicks in that shot of miraclo, McDaniel draws him positively dripping with pent-up power. Scott also has a wonderful cartoony quality that lets him really play up stuff like Bane's sheer, scary bulk. The visual contrast between Bane and Hourman is startling.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Now that you're enjoying working on this two-issue <b>JSA Classified</b> run, will we see more stories from you for that title or is that it for now?
<B>TB</B>: Yeah, that's it for now. <b>JSA Classified</b> changes creative teams with
each story arc. But I have plenty more ideas, so I'll see if I can convince <b>Classified</b> editor Mike Carlin to give me another turn at bat.
<B>NRAMA</B>: Hmmm... it's tempting to make a "turn at bat" joke related to performance enhancing chemicals, but we'd probably better move on. You've mostly been doing work for Marvel lately until we saw your story for DC's <b>Brave New World</b> one-shot in June and now the <b>JSA Classified</b> arc in September. Are you enjoying getting the chance to dabble in both universes?
<B>TB</B>: Yeah, I'm having a blast with both major publishers right now. This is an extraordinary time in the industry, with so much top-quality stuff coming out. I'm lucky to get to play along with some of the best "toys" from both of the Big Boys.
<B>NRAMA</B>: What else do you have coming up?
<B>TB</B>: I'm working on a <b>Batman Confidential</b> arc for Mike Carlin as well,
along with the rest of <b>Retro Rocket</b> (http://www.newsarama.com/ImageComics/RetroRocket/Bedard_RR.htm). I still have another six issues of <b>Exiles</b> for Marvel, along with a run on <b>Marvel Adventures Avengers</b>, which has been a real blast. I'm looking forward to sharing that one with my young son.
<img src="http://www.newsarama.com/ImageComics/RetroRocket/rr2_covA_t.jpg" align="right"><B>NRAMA</B>: <b>Retro Rocket</b> is your Image project, correct?
<B>TB</B>: Right - it's a 4-issue miniseries, and the third issue should hit the stands August 9th. If you haven't checked it out, drop what you're doing right now and pick up the first two issues today! I'm doing Retro with an amazing artist named Jason Orfalas for whom this tale is a real labor of love. I think he's going to be a huge star, and I think you'll agree. Just check out the preview pages from issue #3.
<B>NRAMA</B>: You do realize that, because the current run of <b>JSA</b> is ending this summer and won't be relaunched until December's <b>Justice Society of America #1</b> by Geoff Johns and artist Dale Eaglesham, your <b>JSA Classified</b> story is going to be the only JSA story being published for a couple months.
<B>TB</B>: I actually had not realized that, but it would be an honor to carry the torch for these great characters who are still so vital sixty-odd years after they first showed up! In any case, I've seen Scott McDaniel's pages, so I know that and JSA fans who check us out will <i>not</i> be disappointed!
<B>NRAMA</B>: And on that note, any final reason people should check it out?
<B>TB</B>: Well, you've got Scott McDaniel doing some of his very best work, and two characters who are twisted mirror images of each other, meeting up at last to expose an uncomfortable secret that will shake both their worlds to the core. That ought to be enough to satisfy whoever picks up this story!