With the penultimate chapter of “Wrath of the Eternal Warrior” hitting the shelves on Wednesday, we were pretty eager to sit down with Fred Van Lente and discuss the shocking twist at the end of the issue, and what it means for the future of the series and the relationships between some of the key characters.Of course, had we gone out and talked about all that on Wednesday before most people had a chance to get to the comic book stores, Van Lente had said something about bamboo shoots under the fingernails, which sounded unpleasant. So we held off until the weekend, where we can simply say that this is a SPOILER-FILLED conversation. Read at your own risk.In fact, don’t. Remove risk from the equation by buying a copy of the comic and reading along with us like we’re a director’s commentary track.You’ve clearly got a handle on a lot of the historical weirdness and big ideas for this series. Do things come along while writing where you end up learning more than you knew was there about a given topic?A little of both. For anyone who’s interested in the history of zero as it relates to mathematics — and it’s a truly fascinating story — I’d highly recommend Charles Seife’s ZERO: HISTORY OF A DANGEROUS IDEA. I added it to my “Archer & Armstrong Reference” shelf on Goodreads. (grin)
I’m just noticing it now, but both Obie and Geomancer appear to be wearing jackets that have the old school Valiant logo on them. Is there any meaning to that, or just for fun?
Obie really has lived a pretty sheltered life, if he thinks that Armstrong is going to be a solid guide in his existential crisis, no?
The Null is a really creepy kind of group, aren’t they? It’s easier to deal with somebody like the One Percent, who want something, rather than the Null, whose almost religious fervor means they’re not scared of wiping themselves out with their crazy plan.
Just hypothetically–is Kay just really, really good at this or would she have developed a little slower into her role if there weren’t a massive, seismic event going on that made her communication with the Earth a bit easier to “hear”?
I like the Rubaiyat reference. I remember reading an issue of Booster Gold where his sister inadvertently became the inspiration for the Mona Lisa and thinking it didn’t quite fit…but it works with a book like this. Are there tonal differences you consider when writing a line like that or am I overthinking it?
So…is Mary-Maria still a true believer, or does she (as I would guess) have her own agenda and she’s just using these guys for their money?
This speech by the “virus” feels like a twisted take on the Tom Joad monologue. Is that on purpose?
This feels like a cliffhanger that’s really going to hurt the relationship between Archer, Armstrong and Kay in the long term. Will we be seeing her again soon (provided the universe survives #9)?
I see that the next arc features art by Pere Perez. It’s beautiful stuff, what I saw of it, but I thought that Clayton might be coming back after an arc off. Do you think it’s safe to say that these days, the writer is the “indispensible” part of the creative team as far as a publisher is concerned?
I love the 8-Bit Variant for #10. How involved have you been in the whole Harbinger Wars thing?
Do you worry at all when changing genres kind of abruptly that you’ll lose somebody along the way, or do you figure that the nature of comics is that people are following the characters and your job is just keep them there with a good story?
