Matt Fraction has worked on many titles in his time ranging from Immortal Iron Fist to Invincible Iron Man and the brilliant Casanova. (If you haven’t read it yet, go read it. Now.) Fraction has recently added three more titles to his resume as he has taken over the writing duties for Fantastic Four, FF and the critically acclaimed Hawkeye solo series that has comic fans believing that B-Lister comics can still be the best comics out there. So what can we expect from these titles in the next few months? You’re about to find out.
FRACTION: All new stuff, things we’ve not seen the FF deal with before — seems only appropriate. The legacy of the book is creation, I think; I wanted to emulate that. And, too, after Jonny did such a masterclass in FFology over the whole span of his Fantastic Four/FF run, I wanted to honor and respect it, on one hand, and avoid it, on the other. I didn’t mean to cut them off from the rest of things — in fact there’s an AGE OF ULTRON thing coming up, so it’s not necessarily hermetically sealed — but… well, I wanted them on a road trip. I wanted them on the road…
CB: With this Marvel NOW! being a twist to most books Marvel puts out, do you have a twist that no one is going to see coming? Judging by the first few pages I would say you have something up your sleeve.
FRACTION: Sure. By the end of both the second issues of FANTASTIC FOUR and FF we’ll have suitably twisted everything around a bit.
CB: Did you have any idea how successful Hawkeye would be? I went to grab issue four and it was sold out. That NEVER happens to the books I read. That has to make you proud on so many levels. How exactly did Marvel go about asking you to take on the Clint Barton title?
FRACTION: No, none. And it’s bad news when a book that sells HAWKEYE’S healthy-ish-but-still-modest numbers — it means it’s not being ordered to demand and people will stop looking. So hopefully your store is upping orders. Hopefully people who are into it are subscribing at their store, or pre-ordering, or communicating with their shop. It’s the only way books like this survive.
Wait but that wasn’t your question. How did they go about asking me. They asked me. I thought about it, I said yes. My pitch was basically issues 4 & 5 — more Bond than Barton. Then I realized I didn’t have it like I thought I had it and bowed out. Then I figured it out. So I begged my way back in. Convoluted, just like everything else in HAWKEYE…!
CB: Any plans for cameos for Clint’s other love interests? Or the possibility of any heroes coming to aid Clint and Kate in the situations they get caught up in?
FRACTION: 7 and 8. 7 is called “My Bad Penny” and 8 is called “Girls.” it’s the one everyone’s been waiting for — but you get a tease of what happens at the start of 7…
Keep checking back on updates on Fantastic Four, FF and Hawkeye.
Awesome interview! Fantastic Four and Hawkeye are two titles I'm defnitely pulling for!
Cool interview. I haven't read either books yet, but I've heard he is kicking ass with his story-telling.
Yeah Matt is an awesome guy who is always willing to talk shop. Gotta love it.