Christopher L. Bennett

I READ ON YOUR WEBSITE THAT YOU WERE NOT MUCH OF A COMICS READER AS A CHILD. HOW DID YOU COME TO SUPERHEROES?

Actually I've always been fond of superheroes, but mainly from their television incarnations. I grew up watching reruns of the Adam West Batman and the George Reeves Superman, plus the various Saturday morning versions of Batman, Shazam, the Superfriends, and so on; and later the '70s live-action incarnations of the Hulk, Spider-Man, and Wonder Woman.

But it wasn't until high school that a friend got me interested in the actual comics, and my initial interest was mainly in those comics that adapted Star Trek and other TV shows. I did take somewhat of an interest in Batman comics when The Dark Knight Returns came along, but I wasn't into the Marvel titles. It was the '90s animated versions of Spidey and the X-Men that really got me interested in the Marvel universe.

YOU MENTIONED SPIDER-MAN AS YOUR FAVORITE MARVEL CHARACTER; YOU'RE CERTAINLY NOT ALONE IN THAT REGARD. WHAT IS ABOUT SPIDEY THAT HAS MADE HIM SUCH A POPULAR, ENDURING CHARACTER?

If I knew that, I'd be rich. All I can do is offer an opinion. Chuck Jones used to say that Bugs Bunny is who we wish we could be -- clever, quick-witted, on top of every situation, always ready with the perfect wisecrack; but Daffy Duck is who we fear we are -- an insecure, hapless screwup. Spider-Man is both of those at once; we can admire his feats of heroism, his physical and mental dexterity, and his irrepressible wit in the face of despair, but we can identify with his self-doubt, his mistakes, and his perennial rotten luck. Stan Lee revolutionized comics by allowing larger-than-life superhumans to have life-size human failings and problems, and by showing that making it through everyday life and relationships can be as much a feat of courage and strength as saving
the world.

But one thing that makes Spidey really special is his motivation. He first used his power the way any of us would probably use it, to get rich, and it led to a tragedy he must spend the rest of his life trying to make up for. I don't think any other superhero has such a poignant origin story. I don't think anything has ever defined the meaning of heroism as well as the line, "With great power there must also come great responsibility."

Plus, Spidey's webslinging and acrobatics just look so darn cool.

CARE TO WEIGH IN ON THE BRAND NEW DAY / ONE MORE DAY CONTROVERSY THAT HAS ENGULFED THE SPIDER-MAN UNIVERSE OF LATE?

There's little I can say about it that hasn't been said elsewhere repeatedly. I'll just point out that in one online thread I read about the controversy, a poster cited a passage from Drowned in Thunder (I think it was the one on the last two pages of chapter one) as a perfect argument for why Peter and MJ's marriage should not have been dissolved. So I think my work kind of speaks for itself on that point. And on the point of Aunt May's value to Peter as a mentor and confidante, another relationship that's been unmade now. That was just such a great role for her character -- and such a fun one to write -- that I can't see any value in eliminating it.

But I think it's just the latest instance of how the practice of doing one Big Event after another gets in the way of the storytelling. Spidey has gone through so many changes lately that have been almost immediately negated: not one but two very similar metamorphoses, his Avengers membership, the revelation of his identity, etc. None of these changes has been allowed any real exploration of its consequences; it's just one big gimmick after another. Me, I prefer letting a story develop naturally.

As for the new status quo, I'm not reading the comic regularly anymore, since Straczynski and Jenkins are no longer writing it and I no longer need to keep up with it for research. But the way things have been going lately, who's to say this status quo will last any longer than the previous few?

DROWNED IN THUNDER TOUCHES ON THE ETHICS OF INTERNET JOURNALISM IN THE BLOG CREATED BY J. JONAH JAMESON. IS THIS A TOPIC OF PARTICULAR INTEREST TO YOU?

I do have a pretty low opinion of the modern state of American journalism in general, but that's more something I grumble about than a personal cause. I don't even follow the news much, and when I do it's primarily print journalism. What was of the most interest to me in Drowned in Thunder was the character of J. Jonah Jameson. I've long been intrigued by his complexities and wanted to explore what made him tick. Jonah is half yellow journalist and half dedicated servant of the truth, so you can't tell a definitive JJJ story without exploring questions of journalistic ethics. I only brought newsblogging into it because it would add something fresh and distinctive to the story.

THERE ARE MANY WRITERS, BOTH ASPRING AND ACCOMPLISHED, OF SUPERHERO FICTION READING THIS INTERVIEW. IF I DON'T ASK THIS QUESTION, THEY'LL LIKELY KILL ME: HOW DID YOU GET THE MARVEL GIG?

Well, it was actually a gig for Pocket Books. The editorial division of Pocket that handles tie-in literature was commissioned by Marvel to do a series of books, and Marco Palmieri, my editor for
most of my Star Trek fiction, invited me to pitch a Marvel novel. So it was basically a matter of having the right connections.

I had my choice of series among those included in the license, and Spidey is my favorite Marvel character. But as a science-fiction author, I was more comfortable writing about alien worlds than New York street crime, so I pitched a story with Spidey going to another planet. Marco felt it was an unusual but viable idea, but Marvel felt it was a little too far afield. Meanwhile, Marco had offered me the chance to do an X-Men novel first, so that it could come out in time to tie into the third X-Men movie. So the Spidey book was put on hold for a while, and eventually I proposed a more Earthbound outline which was built around similar themes and still had a fair amount of science-fictional content, and that was Drowned in Thunder.

GIVEN YOUR WORK IN THE STAR TREK UNIVERSE, YOU'RE NO STRANGER TO LICENSED PROPERTIES. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE PROS AND CONS OF WORKING WITH LICENSED MATERIAL VERSUS ORIGINAL FICTION?

It's harder to get in the door with tie-ins, since there are fewer openings; an original story can be submitted to every publisher in town, but a tie-in proposal can only go to the license holder. But if you do get a break, the follow-through is easier for tie-ins. It's easier to build on an existing framework, to expand on established characters and situations, than to create a whole world from scratch. It can be easier to come up with ideas when you have an editor suggesting a topic, and easier to sell an idea to an editor who requested one from you specifically than to one who's sifting through a slush pile. Also you've got more of a built-in audience going in.

But of course the drawback is that it's more limiting. In most tie-in properties, Marvel included, you can't advance the characters or alter the status quo. That made it tough to plot my Marvel novels, since I didn't just want them to be inconsequential adventures. I figured if I couldn't let the characters grow, at least I could explore them in some depth by putting them in situations that challenged and ultimately reaffirmed their core beliefs. But in the final analysis, it still can't have any lasting impact.

With my Star Trek fiction, I've gotten much more freedom, since my novels have either been set in periods that let me fill in unexplored changes in the characters' lives or have taken place after
the series proper or in alternate timelines where all bets are off. I doubt there's a tie-in line right now that allows more creative freedom than Star Trek. But it still has its limits, having to work within ground rules defined by other people and deal with the inconsistencies in the canon. Playing in someone else's sandbox can be fun, but it's not nearly as satisfying as building your own universe. Especially for someone like me, to whom scientific credibility is important.

ANY MORE SUPERHERO FICTION IN YOUR FUTURE?

Pocket's line of Marvel superhero novels is coming to an end, so I won't be doing any more of those. I'd be open to other opportunities, but none have presented themselves yet.

ANY ORIGINAL SUPERHERO STORIES IN THE WORKS?

As a matter of fact, the original novel that I've been shopping to agents lately is a hard-SF take on the superhero concept. I've long been intrigued by the possibility that advances in genetics, bionics, and robotics could give us real superpowers in the future, and I wanted to explore if there were any circumstances in which superheroes, or something close to them, could credibly come into being. If I'm successful in selling it, I'm hoping it will be the first in a series.

Also, that friend who got me interested in comics had plans to found an independent comics company of his own, and I became a part of those plans. It never went beyond talk, and I lost touch with him after a while, but once I got into it, I came up with a bunch of character and series concepts of my own. I'm not actively developing any of them at this time, but if I'm able to branch out from prose into comics and get to create my own series, I have a number of ideas to choose from.