Marvel Comics is preparing to relaunch its publishing line in an effort to bring everything back to basics, emphasizing its most classic heroes and the history of the Marvel Universe. To kick off this Marvel Legacy initiative, writer Jason Aaron and artist Esad Ribic will be teaming up for a 50-page comic titled Marvel Legacy #1 that features the introduction of the Avengers from 1,000,000 BC and begins a story that will affect the entire Marvel line going forward.
Recently, the roster of this prehistoric Avengers team was revealed, including Odin, the Sorcerer Supreme, Iron Fist, Ghost Rider, Black Panther, Starbrand, and Phoenix. We hopped on the phone with Aaron to learn more about how they came up with this team, Ghost Rider’s jaw-dropping new (old?) ride, and just what causes these Avengers to assemble. We also ask if last year’s DC Universe: Rebirth #1 had any impact on him as he was writing Marvel Legacy #1.
Before we get to the interview, check out these uncolored, unlettered pages by Ribic from Marvel Legacy #1 that show the Avengers 1,000,000 BC meeting for the first time. There’s even a peek at Loki (of course he has something to do with this) and the new Black Ice Berserkers who he appears to be working with, probably as part of some sinister plot.
IGN Comics: Where did the idea for the Avengers 1,000,000 BC come from, and how do they fit into Marvel Legacy?
Jason Aaron: This one-shot is called Marvel Legacy, right? It's sort of the introductory point to the whole Marvel Legacy initiative. So, just when I started thinking about that, and what that meant, and what Marvel's legacy meant, and wanting to sum all that up in one story. I wanted to do something that had roots that reached back really far, that went back to the very beginning of what we know as the Marvel universe. That's kind of where these characters came from. I wanted a group assembled from Marvel's oldest legacy heroes. They're the opening of the Marvel Legacy one-shot. They really set up some stuff that we'll be exploring in this and in other stuff going forward.
IGN: Was the roster selection a matter of going through the Avengers and seeing who had a long-lasting legacy that could go back that far? Someone like Captain America doesn’t really work for that, but characters like Black Panther and Doctor Strange harness ancient power.
Aaron: It was a lineup that came together pretty easily. The Odin connection was pretty obvious given everything I've done with that character in the pages of Thor and with the hammer. I liked the idea of the first page of Legacy being Thor's hammer lying in the dirt somewhere, trying to be picked up by some caveman. So that's where things start. It's a very different version of Odin than what we've seen in The Mighty Thor, but that's one of the fun things about writing characters who are immortal, who have been around for so long, is that you can get some very different versions of those characters. I've written very different versions of Thor just over the course of my run. So this is an Odin in a very different place than we've seen before.
Ghost Rider is a character that I have a history with, I wrote Ghost Rider for quite a while when I first started at Marvel. So, it was fun to get back to that mythology, and Ghost Rider on a mammoth was something we hadn't seen before. I did Ghost Rider on a shark, and pretty much everything else you can imagine. I love the idea of a caveman Ghost Rider.
And then stuff like the Phoenix and the Starbrand and the Iron Fist, these are characters with legacies we could see stretching back that far, back all the way to the very dawn of humanity.
IGN: Fans have been losing their minds over how much they love Ghost Rider riding a flaming mammoth. I have to ask, was it always a mammoth or did you go through other prehistoric creatures to see which would be the best fit? Like did you consider a dinosaur?
Aaron: No, I think I went right for the mammoth. I'm not sure. I mean, you know, certainly there's the chance we could see him riding a dinosaur at some point, I would not be opposed to that.
IGN: Actually, now that I think about it, dinosaurs weren’t around back then. But that actually inadvertently ties into to my next question. With the internet being the internet, I saw a lot of people saying how humans weren't around in 1,000,000 BC, meaning this team couldn’t exist. So what do you say to those people?
Aaron: Well, I'd say yeah, sure, yeah, I get that part. You know, we are looking at a lineup that includes the All-Father of Asgard and someone from a mystical kung fu city and the wielder of an ancient cosmic star brand, and all these sorts of things. So, I would just say that this is a prehistory of the Marvel universe, which is very, obviously very different than what we know. But, even beyond that, again, this story will reveal a lot about that time period that we don't know. There's a lot to play with there, and this is going to explore all that, the beginning of the Marvel universe, in a very huge, profound way.
IGN: As we all know, the original Avengers team assembled because they needed to team up to stop a threat that none of them could beat alone. What can you say about who or what brings them together? What's strong enough to threaten a group like these characters who are already so powerful?
Aaron: Right, yeah, there can't be that many forces that would be powerful enough, especially in the early days of humankind when we don't have a lot of supervillains running around yet. So you'll just have to see.
We set up the sort of origin of these characters and why they came together and what they face, and that's a threat that we'll see carry over to the present day, and something that will represent a big problem for the Marvel universe going forward, and something that, as the story unfolds, we'll learn a lot about the origin of the Marvel universe, some secrets about that that we've never heard before.
IGN: Artist Mike Deodato drew the promo image that was used to reveal the Avengers 1,000,000 BC, but it was Esad Ribic who came up with the designs. What can you tell me about the process of coming up with the designs for these Avengers with Esad?
Aaron: I don't need to give Esad too much. He's so good, and a guy who I've worked with, I guess multiple times in the past at this point, but most notably on Thor. We did a couple years' worth of Thor together. And so a lot of this stuff fits in the same wheelhouse as our Thor stuff, which was sort of a mash-up of different genres. It was sci-fi, it was weird fantasy, it was horror. This is all that kind of through the lens of an old caveman comic. I love those old caveman books that we used to get back in the day. You know, from Devil Dinosaur to DC's Anthro, and all that kind of stuff. This is me bringing a little bit of that back, in a very crazy, epic, weird kind of way.
IGN: After Marvel Legacy #1, will we be seeing the Avengers 1,000,000 BC again?
Aaron: Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. As for where you'll see them, I can't tell you that part.
This is not a one-off appearance for these guys, this really sets up a story that will play out down the road a little bit. So this is the beginning of the next big story that I wanna tell. So, you'll see them popping up in the next book that I do. I'll say that.
IGN: When Marvel first revealed the details of this Marvel Legacy one-shot, it sounded a lot like the DC Universe: Rebirth one-shot from last year, written by Geoff Johns. They’re both a single issue that act as the keystone for a huge relaunch. So when you started to work on this, did DC’s book inspire you at all?
Aaron: Well, I wouldn't say it inspired me. I mean certainly I'm a big fan of Geoff's stuff, always have been. I really liked that book as the starting point of Rebirth. But, you know, this one's a little bit different in that, I think it's more of a primer of kind of everything that's going on in Marvel and that we get check-ins and teases of a lot of different characters, a lot of different stories. So really, if you haven't been reading anything in the Marvel universe, you don't know anything that's been going on with Spider-Man or Cap or whatever, this book gives you a taste of that. While at the same time, setting up a couple larger stories that will play out in a big way going forward in the Marvel universe. So, the prehistoric Avengers are one part of that. And then there's another story that's another huge part of that. So, some big teases, big surprises, big returns, that sort of thing.
This is about celebrating kind of the past, present, future of the Marvel universe all in one. We go back to the distant past, we explore where a lot of our different characters are in the present day, including some of the present day versions of those prehistoric Avengers. So the current Ghost Rider and the current Starbrand are part of things. And then again, we set some stuff up for the future, some big stories that a lot of us will be dealing with going forward.
IGN: So you don't have some surprise Alan Moore character you're gonna whip out on the last page or anything?
Aaron: No, there's no Marvelman popping up.
IGN: You’ve already touched on it a bit, but with you ending your runs on a few of the Marvel comics you’re currently writing, what does the future hold for you at Marvel?
Aaron: I'm still working on Thor, I just came off of Doctor Strange, and I just wrapped up the end of my Star Wars run. So, that all happened, my schedule shuffled around like that, so that I could do this next big thing. And that next big thing begins with these prehistoric Avengers. That's the beginning of the next big story I'll be working on.
Joshua is IGN’s Comics Editor. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN.
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