PANICCIA ON DEATH'S HEAD 3.0 & AMFAN THINGS TO COME

[MattBrady]

by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean

It's one hundred years in the future and the now-benevolent organization known as AIM has been fighting a non-violent conflict with the fascist government it wishes to change. But there's a splinter group that's ready to return to its violent roots with Death’s Head 3.0. Problem is, the killer robot isn't sure what side it wants to be on.

The fans have spoken in Marvel’s second online poll and Death’s Head gets the Marvel Makeover treatment in a new 5-part story arc written by original Death’s Head creator, Simon Furman, in December’s Amazing Fantasy #16. Furman is joined by interior artist James Raiz and cover illustrator Lucia Parillo.

Senior Marvel editor Mark Paniccia stopped by to not only talk about the future of the Marvel Universe but also offered a peek at upcoming AMFAN back-up tales and stories.

Newsarama: Death's Head 3.0 came about as a result of the second Marvel.com poll where the character took 49% of the votes, right? In the first online poll, characters like The Cat, The Scorpion, Werewolf by Night and Kraven the Hunter were selected. For the second poll, visitors to the site were given a choice of either Aquarian, Death's Head, Texas Twister or Woodgod. What went into the decision to choose which characters to put up for a vote?

Mark Paniccia: What we do is open the revamp list to the editorial department first. With as many characters as Marvel has you wouldn't think it would be a problem finding one not in use, but ask just about anyone who's pitched to either of the big two recently and you'll see that someone, somewhere has got plans for the most obscure of the obscure. So we did our best to whittle it down to four characters that were not in anyone's sights for a series, mini-series or guest starring role anytime soon. Then we left it up to the fans to pick and challenge us to come up with something new.

NRAMA: What does writer Simon Furman have in store for Death's Head 3.0?

MP: I don't want to give too much away but there's some really cool stuff that Simon's got cooking. As for what to expect: action, intrigue, thrills, chills and, did I say... ACTION!!!

NRAMA: How did Simon come into the creative picture? We know he's the original Death's Head creator but how did he get involved with Death's Head 3.0?

MP: I was actually looking to get a hold of him to ask him a few questions about the character when I magically received an e-mail from him. I took that as a sign that he should be the one to bring Death’s Head back and I'm glad he accepted the challenge. While he worked on a concept, cover artist Lucio Parillo started designing the character and over the weekend we got that great first cover. Artist James Raiz has absolutely gone to town with the character. Talk about detail, I have to pick up my jaw every time I see a new page come in.

NRAMA: The veteran Transformers writer is also writing the new Transformers series for IDW Publishing. And Death's Head first appeared in the pages of Marvel's Transformers series. What is the possibility of a Transformers/Death's Head crossover this time around?

MP: Wow. That's a great idea. I wonder...

NRAMA: The original cyborg bounty hunter was assimilated by Minion and the latter became Death's Head II. There was a big push for Death's Head and other Marvel UK characters and titles (other than Death's Head, there were Dark Angel, Hell's Angel, Knights of Pendragon, Killpower, Cyberspace 3000, etc) back then, especially during the Mys-Tech Wars crossover event where characters like the X-Men, Avengers, Fantastic Four and even Venom appeared. Is Death's Head 3.0 part of a larger plan to bring back and revive the Marvel UK properties?

MP: Not in the immediate future, but I've heard rumblings.



NRAMA: January's AMFAN #17 also features an 8-page backup story of Morbius by horror specialist Steve Niles. Is it just a one off thing, a series of backup tales like Vampire by Night (AMFAN #10-12) and Captain Universe (AMFAN #13-14), or will it lead to a mini-series after that?

MP: During Death Head's five-part stay in AMFAN, there will be five different 8-page back-up stories included.

Morbius is the second back-up and it's drawn by Rafa Garres.

The first is Paladin and it's written by Chris Kipiniak and illustrated by Carmine Di Giandomenico (What If: Captain America).

The third installment is an untold tale of New Universe's Merc by Tony Lee and Leonard Kirk (queuing up the Untold Tales of the New Universe event in March).

After that, we'll have an untold tale of New Universe's Spitfire.

NRAMA: Looking at your plan for AMFAN in the new year, what’s coming up have for the series? Will we see more of the new and improved characters that're appearing in AMFAN #15?

MP: We're doing an online poll to see which of the AMFAN #15 characters will get their own mini-series. As for what's next in AMFAN, we're probably going to do another fan's choice soon.

NRAMA: Arana, the character that first spotlighted in the new Amazing Fantasy series, is appearing in December's Marvel Team-Up #15 together with Darkhawk, Terror Inc. Dagger, Gravity, Sleepwalker, Speedball and X-23. With these, and the new and revamped ones in AMFAN…is there a new teen team in the offing?

MP: We'll see.

Related articles:

MARK PANICCIA ON AMAZING FANTASY #15

WHAT IF 2005

JAY FAERBER ON CAPTAIN UNIVERSE’S RETURN TO THE MARVEL UNIVERSE

KARL KESEL ON AMAZING FANTASY'S VEGAS

PARKER & PANICCIA TALK VAMPIRE BY NIGHT

VAN LENTE, KIRK, JEAN: THE NEW SCORPION'S NEW TEAM

PUTTING THE FAN INTO AMAZING FANTASY @ MARVEL

[Comic_Doctor]

I'm a huge fan of both of the earlier Death's Heads, and I'm looking forward to this one. I'm sure it will be totally different than the other two, but I hope it's good.

The back-up stories of the New Universe characters sounds like it could be good as well.

Really looking forward to these issues.

[Kolimar]

Originally posted by MattBrady
cover illustrator Lucia Parillo.

The illustrator is a man (Lucia is a female name ) called Lucio Parrillo (double "r").

[eh_ver]

I'm really looking forward to this! Amazing Fantasy has just hit all the right bases since the Scorpion arc was announced and I don't see it going anywhere. I'm a little bummed to see that the Morbius story is only going to be in one issue, but those other characters are pretty cool! I'm really impressed with this editor's teaming of character and creators. Issue 15 sounds ridiculously great and teaming Simon Furman for the third Death's Head and Steve Niles for the Morbius short is just fantastic! I'm actually really into an editor other than Tom Brevoort on a book moreso than the continuing writers and artists!

[ghostly1]

Well, it looks like the New Universe event isn't going to be what I hoped for... I'm betting Untold Tales of the New Universe is just a fifth week event, probably one book for each of the titles that survived to the end (Justice, Star Brand, Psi-Force, and DP7), and Amazing Fantasy backups for some of the others, keeping them alive for trademark purposes, each telling one 'untold story'.

But hey, at least I'll get to see some of my favorites again, even if only once. I'll have to wait another 10 years for the chance again.

[Robert_Coyner]

I think this looks like it could be fun, but I will say I think I like the Death's Head V.2 redesign myself. BTW - wasn't that one by Liam Sharpe? Or was he just the original illustrator of that series?

[SanityOrMadness]

Is it just me, or did this not contain anything new about DH3? Come on, would it have killed them to post a single interior page or even some samples by the interior artist?

Originally posted by eh_ver
I'm really looking forward to this! Amazing Fantasy has just hit all the right bases since the Scorpion arc was announced and I don't see it going anywhere. I'm a little bummed to see that the Morbius story is only going to be in one issue, but those other characters are pretty cool! I'm really impressed with this editor's teaming of character and creators. Issue 15 sounds ridiculously great and teaming Simon Furman for the third Death's Head and Steve Niles for the Morbius short is just fantastic! I'm actually really into an editor other than Tom Brevoort on a book moreso than the continuing writers and artists!

Yeah. I really want a Scorpion ongoing by the same team as AF7-12.

[Ace]

This is a book full of a lot of stories people are hesitant to try, or write off before trying, but that have been really quite good. I don't see that changing anytime soon either. I wish guys like Furman and Karl Kesel had ongoings.

[Kolimar]

Originally posted by MattBrady
Morbius is the second back-up and it's drawn by Rafa Garres.

It's been a while since I last saw Rafael's pencils but he's great with monsters.

[Kolimar]

Originally posted by MattBrady
The third installment is an untold tale of New Universe's Merc by Tony Lee and Leonard Kirk (queuing up the Untold Tales of the New Universe event in March).

I'm hoping for some of the original creators at least. I think I'd better crush my hopes myself. Argh. Done.

[ghostly1]

Originally posted by Kolimar
I'm hoping for some of the original creators at least. I think I'd better crush my hopes myself. Argh. Done.

I doubt we're going to manage to get Gruenwald and Ryan for DP7.

[OcCaM]

Originally posted by ghostly1
I doubt we're going to manage to get Gruenwald and Ryan for DP7.

Well I guess we all know why we can't have the former. Any reasons Mr. Ryan can't do the penciling?

[Jed Saxon]

Originally posted by Kolimar
The illustrator is a man (Lucia is a female name ) called Lucio Parrillo (double "r").

And he's a hell of an artist:

[OcCaM]

And it's too bad I have zero interest in what they've done with the main stories with AF so far. (Although I am getting AF #15 next week.) It's too bad because I really want that Morbius story by Niles. Not paying a couple bucks for an 8 pager though. Ditto on Paladin although it's very tempting. (He's one of my favorite obscure characters since I was first introduced to him via Marvel Premiere. Don't laugh! Would love to see a Paladin trade. One trade should cover all his appearances. )

[KryptonSite]

I still think those Marvel.com polls were fixed. At no time did I see the percentages ever change; but also, the Death's Head promo art was ready awfully fast after the winner was unveiled. Same with Scorpion.

[ghostly1]

Originally posted by OcCaM
Well I guess we all know why we can't have the former. Any reasons Mr. Ryan can't do the penciling?

None I'm aware of that he _can't_, no, I just have a feeling he won't be doing it. Maybe I'll be wrong though.

Although I'd kind of be interested in seeing how another artist would make them look, so it doesn't really matter to me either way, as long as it's a good artist.

I also wouldn't mind seeing Nicieza writing something for Psi-Force again... even though he didn't create it, I thought the book was best while it was in his hands.

[Death's Head]

Hopefully, with Furman on board this will be better than the dire Death's Head 2 (which suffered from the early 90s guns-muscles-tits thing, utterly lacking the black slapstick of the original character). I still can't get into the redesign though - too reminiscent of Death's Head 2. I would have liked to see teeth and eyebrows.

[SanityOrMadness]

Originally posted by ghostly1
I also wouldn't mind seeing Nicieza writing something for Psi-Force again... even though he didn't create it, I thought the book was best while it was in his hands.

Bad news for you: http://www.comicboards.com/tbolts/vi...l=051117012137

[ghostly1]

Originally posted by SanityOrMadness
Bad news for you: http://www.comicboards.com/tbolts/vi...l=051117012137

That's a shame.

[Scavenger]

Originally posted by ghostly1
That's a shame.

Still, though..Scoop Chaser from Fabian's Psi-Force has shown up in his other work...Troublemaker's from Acclaim...

Just like Justice keeps popping up in Peter David's work...Spider-Man 2099, the Psi-Man series...

[ghostly1]

Originally posted by Scavenger
Still, though..Scoop Chaser from Fabian's Psi-Force has shown up in his other work...Troublemaker's from Acclaim...

Just like Justice keeps popping up in Peter David's work...Spider-Man 2099, the Psi-Man series...

Yeah, I know, that's one of the reasons he would have been good... he clearly still holds some love for the characters (but then again, Psi-Force was his first comic work, I think). He was even going to include a guest appearance by Psi-Force in his Gambit series but it got cancelled before he got to it.

[pah25]

This'll be great - also Marvel should release some tpb collections & also they can run a reprint title with Panini in the UK anyway. Unless Panini do some of the UK pocket books & Marvel US have them up in their section.

Panini currently do books containg 6 issue at £3.99 each $8 all in colour - ie Uncanny Xmen #94-103

[awa64]

NRAMA: The veteran Transformers writer is also writing the new Transformers series for IDW Publishing. And Death's Head first appeared in the pages of Marvel's Transformers series. What is the possibility of a Transformers/Death's Head crossover this time around?

MP: Wow. That's a great idea. I wonder...

/me grins ear to ear

[Bakema NL]

Originally posted by Ace
This is a book full of a lot of stories people are hesitant to try, or write off before trying, but that have been really quite good. I don't see that changing anytime soon either. I wish guys like Furman and Karl Kesel had ongoings.

Yeah, you're right. I skipped on Arana too, but I wanted to read the Scorpion arc and I haven't looked back......even got the first six issues with Arana....haven't read them yet. This new stuff coming up looks interesting too.

[Trachman]

I'm 22 I was 3 or 4 when New Universe came out. So , I was to young to be reading at the time. This interveiw really has gotten my attention. I did really enjoy transformer when I little so, I give Simon Furman a chance to let me relive that time period.