Marv Wolfman on NTT # 23 - 25A Miniview with Marv Wolfman
Whenever possible for the rest of my series on The New Teen Titans, I'm going to ask writer and co-creator Marv Wolfman questions that coincide with the issues I'm talking about in the series. This month, I shared my memories of issues #23 through #25 and the first Annual, which took our heroes on a space adventure to rescue Starfire from her villainous sister, Blackfire! Sequential Tart: What I couldn't believe was after everything the NTT went through with Brother Blood, they get called on the carpet by the DA and have to "explain" themselves. I never saw heroes have to do that before .... Why did you have that happen on screen, instead of just seeing the heroes in the tower talking about what happened? Marv Wolfman: First rule of writing: Show, don't tell. Also it was a sideways way of introducing Adrian Chase.
ST: I loved the introduction of DA Chase. He really was something! Who or what inspired your creation of the future anti-hero? MW: There are cops who follow the law. There are superheroes who supposedly do but really are unsanctioned for the most part. I wanted someone who believed in the first but found himself gravitating toward the second. ST: Speaking of introductions ... Blackfire ... wow she was something. She reminded me of the vilest Disney evil queen / stepmother, mixed with Mommy Dearest. (I had to watch Mommie Dearest on HBO on the sly, on my own television while my parents were watching something else in another room, because I was so young when it came out.) Who or what inspired Starfire's psychotic sister? MW: Nothing. I wanted a villain who had a personal reason to hate Kory. Now imagine in the real world if you were next in line to be King of some country and your younger, more adorable sibling got it instead, just because nobody liked you. There's nothing more insidious than someone that close to you turning against you. ST: Of course there is sibling rivalry in everything, but I was really blown away by the pure hate that Blackfire had for Starfire. I mean, even J.R. Ewing seemed to care in some small way for Bobby. This was just evil. It reminded me a little of the song Lonely Boy where the kid just couldn't resign himself to the birth of his younger sibling. Who or what influenced this "twisted sisterly" relationship? MW: Because she was damaged goods as far as Kory's people believed; she couldn't fly or harness solar energy, she lost her rightful place to the girl everyone loved. Moreso after her father sold her into slavery to save his people. ST: I keep wondering if you had siblings and how well you got along ...? You never wanted to sell any of them into slavery, right? MW: My sister was much older than me and was married and out of the house by the time I was 6 so I had a sibling but didn't know her until I was an adult. Never thought about selling anyone into slavery. ST: I just keep thinking now, as an adult, about how mature and groundbreaking your stories were at the time. Did you realize at the time the way you were changing the comics landscape with all of these stories, diving full force into subject matter that other comics glossed over? MW: George and I were doing the comic we wanted to do which meant it grab older readers and keep them at the same time the stories interested the younger readers. I knew we were doing good stuff because we did it for us and I liked the book. How it affected anyone else, I don't know. ST: I loved seeing Aqualad in the cameo. However, you didn't use him much at all in this series. I know the whole water issue, but was there any other reason you excluded him from the NTT? MW: No reason other than you had to force Aqualad into a story and then find water, etc. We used him when he was needed. ST: When this story came out I had watched Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back multiple times, had all the action figures, and loved the idea of a whole galaxy of characters. I loved seeing this space epic unfolding in the pages of New Teen Titans. I know you had introduced the Omega Men in the pages of Green Lantern, but this was my first exposure to that group. How did you come up with the ideas for the different alien species represented in that group? MW: I tried to think about the logically. In real Earth life there are various grades of leaders, warriors, medics, etc. So each race would represent one of those. As for Omega Men, I just tried to make the powers interesting and varied. The real thing about comics is not the powers but how to separate them emotionally. That's what all stories are really about. ST: This entire story had this epic feel to it, unlike much of what I read at the time. Now, a story like this would be stretched out over a dozen issues, but you truly packed so much into these four issues! What was it like boldly going in the DCU to corners of the galaxy of your own creation? MW: I love being off by our own so George and I could make each story what we wanted to rather than fit into what others were doing.
ST: This story really tugged at my heart strings. I turned ten a short time before the first part of this came out and I had never really (outside of Cain and Abel) seen a story like this. What were some of the biggest obstacles you faced bringing this story to life? MW: Hate to say it, but there were no obstacles. The hardest part was coming up with all the alien races and a logical pecking order to them. Then thinking in SF terms rather than just super-hero terms. ST: I couldn't imagine a family giving up a child to save a world. When you were first coming up with the New Teen Titans and their backstory, I know you initially thought this series was going to last six issues and then be done. Was the entirety of Kory's backstory done then, including the fact that it was her sister who sold her into slavery, or was that something that you came up with after the series took off and became a hit? MW: We saw her escaping from slavery in the first issue which meant the idea of telling that story and where those people were now had been built into the story. The plot specifics weren't. But the ideas were set up. ST: I found nothing likeable about Blackfire at all. I mean ... she truly was a character I despised. Was it kind of freeing going to this extreme opposite of your heroes, and writing such a diabolical character? MW: People from Kory's world lived by their emotions, so if Blackfire was going to be our villainess and hate her sister she truly had to hate her. Those guys don't do anything half baked. ST: When you were coming up with X'Hal and Auron, how did you want to make them stand out from the New Gods or other deity types in the DC Universe? MW: Never thought about the New Gods. I was just doing what I liked as Jack did what he liked. But, as always, Jack did it so people still love those characters and ideas and the Omega Men though it did well never tapped into the fan base nearly as well. ST: I know you wrote so many different types of stories up to that point in time, but what did you enjoy the most about merging so many Sci-Fi elements with the superheroics? MW: I think blending genres always makes for more interesting stories. Super-hero SF or super-hero horror, etc. make you go the extra distance. ST: I know so many fans of the series who cite this story arc as one of their favorites of all time or second favorite after The Judas Contract. Why do you think this story struck such a chord with so many comic readers?
MW: I have to say I gave up trying to figure out why some stories are so well received and others, that maybe I liked better, are not. To this day I don't know why the fans love Terra. She was introduced as a villain and she did her absolute worst to stay that way. Maybe it's because we always knew she was going to stay the bad girl and die. I knew we did a great story with her but I still don't get why she's so well liked as opposed to being hated for what she did. So even though I really liked our big SF space adventure because it let us do things we hadn't done before, you'd have to ask fans why they liked it or hated it. ST: I was surprised when the Titans returned, that Robin didn't check up on Superman in these pages afterwards to see how he resolved his half a Superman issue, especially since the Man of Steel meant so much to the Teen Wonder. You just always seemed to follow up on issues introduced in these pages. Was this something you wanted to do or was it just something you didn't think about adding to the mix? MW: The fact that I don't even remember a Superman connection to the story probably explains it. In short, I dunno. ST: The New Teen Titans went all over the globe and, now, universe. When you were working on these issues, at that point in time when it was the bestselling comic book DC had to offer, was there anything you wanted to do but weren't able to tackle, because an editor vetoed it? If so, what? MW: Even when other names were on the credits George and I were the defacto editors. We never showed any plots to the office; I gave them or talked them out with George directly. The first time the office saw it was when I handed in the script. So no editor ever stopped us from doing what we believed in. Editor's Note: You can read more of Remember the New Teen Titans at these links: Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five
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